hello, is anybody out there?

Hi folks,

Just a tiny update on a few past blogs before we enter a new season of different sports!

HELMETS:
So I have to say that I have been entertaining myself over the last couple months during my longer runs by counting the number of cyclists I see wearing and not wearing helmets. If you are a distance runner, you'll understand. Sometimes you don't want to listen to music or to a training partner or to all the noise that's going on in your own head about the stresses of your everyday life--sometimes you just need a little mind activity to distract you. So, that's what I've been doing. So let's call this a little anecdotal evidence since my study numbers are a little low, but let me tell you, they were pretty consistent. 

During three 70-75 minute runs in the Bronx on Monday/Tuesday/Friday evenings, I noted that 16 of 48, 11 of 32, and 7 of 24 riders were wearing their helmets. All together that's 32.7%. That's actually better than I thought we'd be, BX! But it's still not good enough! This was on a bike path where you hopefully have less chance of being hit by a car, but you can still crash. We need those helmets! 

In White Plains during my longer runs, the numbers were a little better, but again it was on the bike path and not on Bicycle Sunday when I was so bothered by how few helmets I saw that I decided to write that first helmet blog. I repeatedly also saw little kids wearing helmets while the adults who were with them were not. Don't you want to live a long and healthy life and see your kids go on to be President or the next King James or whatever their dreams may be? Where a helmet!

Interestingly, there was just a study in L.A. that showed that even with a helmet law, only 11% of kids were wearing helmets while riding their bicycles. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/10/26/too-few-kids-follow-bike-helmet-laws-study-finds That's really unacceptable folks! Let's get to work on this. Remember, you like your brain, it does amazing things for you. Let's protect the future brains of America!

INPATIENT WORKOUT CHALLENGE:
In my last blog, I set a goal to get a tiny bit of exercise, even if only 15-30 minutes a day, each day while on the inpatient service. I'm happy to say that that blog motivated one of my co-residents to take the stairs each morning coming into work! So, a huge shout-out to Marianne for walking up 6 flights every day even when sometimes that day was going to be a 28-hour shift!!! :) As for me, I had some nice quick evening runs in the Bronx, including one naked moonlit run. No, I did not run without clothes in the Bronx at night--I'm not a total moron. But I did run without any gadgets, no Garmin, no iPod, just me and the moonlight and the evening sounds, and it was really nice. I highly recommend doing this every once in a while to find your center or your runner's Chi or whatever you want to call it. I think it's healthy. As for my challenge, I was doing a lot more of those 15-minute pre-call workouts than I would've liked, but in the end, there were 2 days in the month that I just did no exercise--2 nights when I stayed at work till 9:30 and 10:30pm but wasn't on call, so I hadn't worked out in the morning and wasn't going to go home and workout at 11pm when I had to be up again at 5am the next day. Stuff like that just seems silly when you aren't training for an event, and even I will agree that sometimes sleep is more important. So, a pretty good month overall. 

ON DECK:
*Concussions
*Seasonal Affective Disorder
*New York Marathon Update
*Women's Health Month (I'm making November Women's Health Month because it's my birthday month and just because this is my blog and I can do what I want :-P)

Until next time, folks, stay motivated and stayed fit!!!