I’ve donated whole blood many a times since high school and in college I even did the plasma thing for some extra cash. Recently, I hadn’t really donated. I’d gotten out of the habit as life got busy and in the way. But now I’m trying to get back into the swing of the things. A couple months back, I donated at a local downtown Raleigh and then went in today and did it again today and it’s a good feeling.

Basically every two months, it’s safe to donate whole blood. Granted, everyone can’t do it. But those that can, should. Did you know that a single blood donation can save three lives? The more I thought about that, the more I realized how important it is.

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I drink a ton of water. I have for awhile. But now with me deep into the road cycling scene, it’s become even more important. It’s amazing how much you sweat in the saddle – no matter the temperature.

But as I found out yesterday after my crit, sometimes too much water can be a detriment. My fainting spell wasn’t from dehydration, as I was still sweating. While it could have been from lack of calories, we suspect too much water yesterday flushed essential salts from my body.

Fast forward to today – bike commuted to and from work and then mowed the lawn and some miscellaneous yard work. So another sweaty day. Well here it is 11:15pm and I’m still not fully hydrated.

It’s tough to keep the right balance. In terms of cycling, I’m still going to err on the side of too much water, but make sure I’m mixing in extra calories and some other liquids on race and hardcore training days.

So I haven’t been very strict as of late watching what I eat, but after lady night’s training ride, I was the lightest I’ve been since college.

While obviously watching what you eat helps, for me – sheer volume of exercise and calorie burning has been my solution.

The past two years, I’ve been spending more and more time in the bike saddle and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I’ve been regularly riding three times a week halfway to work with a total round trip of about 15 miles. That’s netting me 50 minutes of elevating my heart rate, over 1000 calories burned, plus the hilly route is helping me train a bit for my crits and road races.

All of this is in addition to the benefits of less gas burned in the 4Runner, more time outside and some great stress relief.

All in all, I’m finding bike commuting is benefiting me in health, training and a bit in the wallet. I highly recommend anyone that can integrate bike commuting, even once in awhile to do it.

Interesting read on what a Pro team eats. It makes sense that reduction of grains and red meat would be a good thing. We need to be eating more rice in our diets as well.

Garmin Chipolte: Our Special “Anti-Inflammatory” Diet

So Amanda gave us all a bit of a scare today. Unbeknown to me, in the middle of the night last night, Amanda was struggling with a bout of vertigo and general dizziness, and it was in full effect this morning. She described it like being drunk – room spinning, objects being visually out of shape or doubled, tripled or quadrupled!

We don’t have a family doctor right now, but were hoping to get into one near the house, but the only one in the practice who was accepting new patients, doesn’t have an opening until July! They referred us to an urgent care. Amanda slept for 45 minutes and felt better when she awoke, but quickly spun down back into queasiness.

We ended up at an urgent care facility where we did a lot of waiting, and ultimately left without having any real answers. They said her vertigo didn’t fall into the normal symptoms of standard vertigo and they wanted us to go to the emergency room. Amanda opted out of that – instead getting some lunch and then getting over the counter sinus medication and Dramamine. She slept the rest of the day away and ultimately is feeling better tonight – even making it through “The Bucket List” tonight. Hopefully a full night’s rest will bring her back to normal, but we still don’t have any real answers of what caused it.

We’re hoping it’s come and gone and stays gone.

As coincidence would have it, the Orlando Sentinal had an article of Vertigo today:

What Goes Around…

WebMD had information overload on vertigo, but still no real answers.

After noting my crash and subsequent road rash from Sunday, a guy on Twitter that told me to try out 3M’s Tegaderm. While it can be bought all over the web, local drug stores didn’t carry the product. Amanda found it at a local place called Triangle after care and the crap is expensive!

A single sheet ran 8 bucks! Pretty damn pricey stuff, but it works, and I’ve only used a half to three quarters of a sheet for my arm/elbow road rash. As you can see on the before and after pics to the right, it’s work its wonders.

Now you may be saying, doesn’t seem like anything extraordinary. That’s just normal healing.

Well, the rest of my road rash down the right side was not bandaged the whole time, and the crap on my knee is no where near as close to being completely healed as my Tegaderm-covered area.

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Hmm, might have to try this out. If it’s true, seems like a really easy way to help make the most of of workouts.

Cycling Training Tips: Over-the-Counter Strength

Nice tips, including several real easy tips to follow/implement.

Trick Yourself Thin