In Washington, even exercise gets political. This morning, the WSJ reported that a small group of Congressmen, primarily Republicans, have embraced the adrenaline-infused exercise regimen that is P90X. They jump, stretch and flex to the tune of Tony Horton, a man who clearly checked the right box on career day. The 90-day results-intensive program celebrates […]
Category: Cycling Stuff
Cycling-related topics of the DrJohnM blog.
Doctor’s Lounge: Thursdays It’s the time of the year when dietary temptations lurk around every corner of the hospital. And since completely abstaining is not always possible, the best antidote for this holiday deluge of inflammation is obvious: exercise. No doubt, within the boundaries of common sense, all exercise is good. But is there a best […]
Our Ohio valley cyclocross season isn’t over yet, but there are two outs in the ninth. This weekend, the site of the final act is Indianapolis IN. The short, cold and cloudy days of December mesh with the fatigue of year-long competition to deplete one of any remaining remnants of caring. Like 4 AM felt […]
The desire is there. A longing to stand on those rickety rain-soaked hay bales after a hard fought race. To win, to twist someone’s legs off, or perhaps, just to here someone refer to you as a “good rider” fuels the fires of self-validation. And these visceral desires are not only the domain of professional […]
Everyone likes winning. Bike racers like it. So do doctors. When doctors win, lives get better. That’s the ends. The means, the journey, the race itself, vary from the simple to the complex, from the boring to the eventful, from the free to the obscenely expensive. For instance, lives are enhanced when a complex catheter-based […]
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Inspiration
I give you this video, re-“embedded” with permission from Greg Keller, owner of the Mud and Cowbells website. For cyclocross crazies the season is progressing. The days are shorter, the air colder, and the skies less blue. Our legs, and for some, our minds have grown weary with the year’s racing fatigue. For the non-cyclists, […]
We all know that successful bike racers are mentally strong. But what is unknown, and hotly debated, is the role of mental toughness in an athlete’s success. (Granted, we know it isn’t their predilection to drooling.) So, is it 5% mental, 20% mental or even 50%? In sports psychology, there are the traditionalists who say […]
Bike racer’s blogs are legendary for their self-indulgent, mind-numbing race reports. Professional cyclocross racer, Georgia Gould, characterized this disease best when I asked her whether she had a blog, Facebook fan-page or twitter-feed: “No, I am not into that stuff…Would anyone really care about the details of my racing? To me, it would seem very […]
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More Tests…
In the predawn darkness on a cool October morning, I sit and wonder, Will there be a call to the front row,Will the pedal click in on the first go, Will the legs respond, the cerebellum too, Peace, not chaos, perhaps, It doesn’t matter, Really? Telll that to the rumblings of the mind, the stare, […]
An interesting question came from another sub-specialist–via the comments section of my recent post on the practical difficulties of screening young athletes with routine ECGs. “I’m asked week-in and week-out about screening exams and tests for adult athletes. What do YOU recommend for the seemingly healthy 25-45 year old male non-elite athlete who asks about […]
There are scant few occasions when one can use definitive, non-hedging words like always, never and zero-chance. In assessing Ms Gina Kolata’s recent NY Times piece on how champion-athletes are champions because they are able to push past pain more than most, I can confidently invoke such certainty. Certainty that this notion is utter nonsense. […]