It's getting closer to July and that means that the Pedaling For Parkinson's team will be riding across Iowa again in RAGBRAI. I thought I had ridden my last RAGBRAI, but here I am training again. Today I rode 51.05 miles (I'm sure the .05 is important) in a little over four hours. Since it was essentially a trail along a river, the ride was much flatter than it will be in Iowa. None-the-less, 51 miles at age 70 with PD took a lot of effort. I felt fine while riding, even near the end when it is all up hill. But afterwards it didn't take long for my muscles to tighten and I was too tired to even nap. This should make it interesting in Iowa.

Riding is obviously an outward, physical manifestation of how I cope with PD and many people say they are inspired by my efforts, which affirmations pump up my dopamine production. Perhaps the most important thing I do, however, is participate in clinical trials. This week I travel to Portland for the second of my three visits for researchers to take samples from my various body parts to analyze them for progression of alpha synuclein. This week is a spinal tap among other events. Some day this disease will be beaten and I'm convinced that research holds the best chance of finding answers. Then so many of my friends would not be faced with the choice of DBS or No DBS. Go well.

Tomorrow in Portland I donate body samples from my colon (won't that be fun to go cycling after that!) and my mandibular glands. Then on to Iowa for RAGBRAI. I bought a new bike, only the second new one I've bought in my life. For me this purchase is a tangible affirmation that I expect to be able to keep cycling long enough to justify it. So it's a psychological as well as a physical purchase.

I recently received news that my video submission to the WPC2016VideoCompetition was selected as one of the 12 finalists out of 75 submissions from all over the world. I nearly fell off my chair. There are many fine videos in the group so be sure to check them out. The voting happens July 11-22. Top 12 Videos - World Parkinson Congress

I'll make an effort to post on FB and possibly here as well during this trip.

Nan,
Many more healthy, enjoyable years of cycling to come, all the best and congrats on the video.

Eric

Nan,

Wishing you the best for cycling.

I bought new tires for the bicycle. Feeling good and looking to go back cycling, but having a hard time seating my rear tire. Thumb,thumb, thumb... not fun, but son knows the trick to seat it correctly.

I did manage a new first.... two mile walk with zero falls. I had gotten so scared of falling I gave up walking. Between loosing weight and Rock Steady Boxing I am doing great when "on". So hitting that one spot and a 40 minute walk is viable. My trusty Golden Retriever by my side the whole time. If I fall, joggers will stop to see if the dog is OK.

Good thing everyone cares about dogs! Sounds like you're doing well, Tom. I appreciate the good wishes.

For mineral advice see Nutrition for Sports and check out the chapter on sweat mineral losses. I use dietary supplements for calcium and magnesium; and I eat a banana each day for potassium. I ran out of bananas for a few days and paid for it yesterday with cramps that forced me to stop cycling early. Then I bought another bunch.

[QUOTE=Conductor71;618903]

Some in the "medical establishment" are doing well on research on exercise and PD. You can keep up with much of it by searching Pub Med at NIH: "parkinsons exercise site:ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed" will use Google to only get you articles from PubMed. Experiment with search terms and you may find more interesting articles floating to the top.

For my own anecdotal story see my article written a while ago for a website at A Personal Reflection on Living With Parkinson's Disease | Jewish Sacred Aging or my presentation to the FDA last September at http://www.parkies.org/FDA/FDApattersonSummary1.2.pdf as part of a patient focused panel discussion.

Bill Patterson

TexasTom,

Are you still doing those 45 minute cycling sessions with your Exercycle 3 times per week (30s/30s duty cycle)? Do you still experience 4 hours without tremor after each session? (post #325 by TexasTom on 06-26-2015)

I just realized, not being used to the mechanics of this forum, that the question was directed to someone else and not me. Sorry about that, but if it were this would be my answer:

That is not exactly what I do. I do 40 minutes almost every day, generally at 90-110 rpm. Tremor was not even an issue until 2012 when a slight one began. It has progressed slightly but seems to be less if I exercise the affected arm.

My hope is to get some good detailed data about my exercise and see where it may lead.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Your cycling routine sounds a bit similar to mine. My average rpm these days is in the mid 90s. I can manage 110 rpm only briefly, and so can my exercise bike I suspect. It starts to make strange noises when it gets to around 110 rpm!

Like you I'm interested in collecting data to see if I can use it to make improvements to my routine. It's still early days yet for this, and I've not yet got a stable enough routine to collect any long term data from.

I have a particular interest in the application of interval training techniques to high-cadence cycling (see post #353 on page 36). I was just wondering how TexasTom is getting along with his 30s/30s duty cycle, which he wrote about last year.

Jeff