My map mash-ups and bike log

I have actually been spending time on my blog, but mostly it's been refining and creating new bike map mash-ups. Check them out. The links are on the right of this page. You get the most out of them by using the "Satellite" view and zooming in. So far they are all in areas that have the highest resolution on Google Maps, so if you zoom in all the way you can see cars, small building roofs and tower shadows. The Huffman Prairie Flying Field map has enough in it to be a virtual tour of the National Historic site. Enjoy!

More sport drink and salt (sodium intake) info.

Here is some more info I've found on sport drinks. There is a lot of good information on Gatorade's Endurance Formula web site and the regular Gatorade site. This is the E.F. .pdf fact sheet:

www.gatorade.com/pdf/2006EF_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Some pertinent info from the .pdf:

Gatorade Endurance Formula contains a specialized five-electrolyte blend, including nearly twice the sodium (200 mg) of Gatorade Thirst Quencher, as well as chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium, to more fully replace what endurance athletes lose in sweat when fluid and electrolyte losses become significant.

Like Gatorade Thirst Quencher, Gatorade Endurance Formula contains a scientifically balanced 6% carbohydrate blend (14 grams/8 oz) that helps speed fluid absorption in the body and fuel working muscles.

Gatorade also has a Fluid Loss Calculator which you may find interesting, although it only goes to 90 min. duration. I did a 76 mile bike ride yesterday in 91 degree temps, and was on the bike for 5:20!

http://www.gatorade.com/hydration/fluid_loss_calculator/

And from another product, Accelerade, a nice product comparison list that includes Gatorade E.F.:

http://www.accelerade.com/products/product-comparison.html

I've never tried Accelerade, but from some posts I found online, some people hate the taste and the protein settles out. Caveat Emptor.

Even though it may seem like I'm pushing the Gatorade E.F., I'm really not. It's just what I use. I think that regular Gatorade is just sugar water, and I never used sport drinks until I started bike riding and was cramping a lot at night after the ride. For normal activities, you do not need these drinks, or all those carbs or salts. For normal American lifestyles (i.e., obese couch potatoes), you are probably getting way to much sodium and carbs.

Men's Health Magazine had an article on high blood pressure: Beat High Blood Pressure. The entire article is worth reading (as is the magazine as a whole), but here's the lowdown on salt:

Salt
The white stuff causes your body to retain water, which increases blood volume and, consequently, blood pressure. The results are deadly: The more sodium you eat, the shorter your life, according to researchers at the University of Helsinki. They reviewed more than a dozen studies and found that people who reduced their sodium intake by 30 percent lived an average of 7 years longer than those whose sodium intake remained high. (The national average is over 4,000 milligrams (mg) a day--1,600 mg more than is recommended.)

Do This: Mix up a DIY salt substitute. Australian scientists determined that diluting regular salt with potassium salt and Epsom salt lowers arterial blood pressure by six points. Cooking with the concoction reduces overall sodium intake and boosts blood levels of potassium, a nutrient that naturally regulates blood pressure. Pour 65 percent table salt, 25 percent Morton Salt Substitute (potassium chloride), and 10 percent Epsom salt into a small bowl, mix well, and funnel into a saltshaker. You won't taste the difference.

Not That: Skip the saltshaker altogether. You need some sodium in your diet to survive. (One recent study revealed that too little of the mineral can actually increase your risk of death by 37 percent.) Instead, focus on eliminating supersources of salt, such as processed foods. One frozen dinner can contain as much as 2,000 mg sodium, a cup of cottage cheese packs 918 mg, and a single slice of deli ham packs 240 mg.

That "salt substitute recipe" explains why "low sodium" foods and drinks usually have so much more potassium than the regular kind. They exchange potassium chloride for sodium chloride.

So, ~ 2,400mg is the recommended amount of salt this article from Tufts University sez "new" (2004) limits of 2300mg for salt, and 4700mg for potassium

Here's what used to be (I haven't eaten like that for years) an average lunch/dinner at McDonald's for me:

salt numbers:

• ketchup packet = 110mg (I'd use at least 3 packets, if not 4)
• salt packet = 270mg
• large fries = 330mg
• quarter pounder w/cheese = 1190mg
• medium coke = 15 mg (diet is 30mg)
• = 2150mg of salt in one meal!
  

These are my stats from a recent 60 mile bike ride to London, Ohio recently. It was "only" 69 degrees that day:

Xenia to London:

• 14.3 mph average
• 60.02 mi. distance
• 4:10:32 total time
• 23.2 top speed

I drank 2X24 oz. bottles of Endurance Formula on the ride and one back at the car (along with ~3-4X24 oz. bottles of water), and one 46 oz. jug of low sodium V8 after the ride plus some bananas.

Sodium:

• 1800mg sodium from the E.F. Gatorade
• 840mg sodium from the Low Sodium V8
• 200mg sodium from a PowerBar
• plus some from a small bag of trail mix at Shoemaker's IGA
• = over 2900mg sodium to keep from cramping. I was cramping afterwards at Kroger's so I bought the V8, and it wasn't that hot out.
  

Potassium:

• 810mg--EF Gatorade
• 4920mg--Low Sodium V8
  
• 90mg--PowerBar
• 1350mg--3 bananas (1 before the ride on a peanut butter, mayo, banana sandwich and more 2 during ride)
• = 7170mg potassium
  

Carbs:

• 126g--EF Gatorade
• 60g--Low Sodium V8
• 19g--PowerBar
  
• = 205g carbs
  

Yesterday, four weeks later and in better shape, with the 76 mile ride in the heat, I only drank one 11.5 oz. can of Low Sodium V8 (see below) afterward at Kroger's, trying to find the minimum amount of sodium to keep from cramping and that was all I needed (along with the 3X24 oz. of E.F. plus 2 regular Gatorades with salt I added to them during the ride, and all the water I drank, too).

If you're just looking for some sodium and potassium thinking that might reduce or stop cramps after sports—and you like tomato juice—V8 and Low Sodium V8 are a great way to go. They are now available (at least at Kroger's) in single 11.5 oz. cans for 89 cents. These are the nutrition facts off the cans:

Low Sodium V8
(per one 11.5 oz. can)

• Calories: 70
• Total Fat: 0g
• Cholesterol: 0g
• Sodium: 200mg
• Potassium: 1180mg
• Total Carb: 15mg (12g from sugars)
• Protein: 3g
• Vitamin A: 60%
• Vitamn C: 180%
• Calcium: 4%
• Iron: 4%

Regular V8
(per one 11.5 oz. can):

• Calories: 70
• Total Fat: 0g
• Cholesterol: 0g
• Sodium: 690mg
• Potassium: 670mg
• Total Carb: 14mg (11g from sugars)
• Protein: 3g
• Vitamin A: 60%
• Vitamn C: 170%
• Calcium: 4%
• Iron: 4%

Lou Dobbs apologizes, sorta.

If you missed it last week, Lou Dobbs apologized for becoming CNN's Bill O'Reilly. Or at least as much as someone like him can apologize. This is more than we would ever get from O'Reilly. I sent an email to Dobbs and CNN's president after FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) exposed his ridiculous claims on illegal Hispanics causing leprosy rates to skyrocket. I'm thinking that enough us did email him and CNN that he had to back-off this absurd claim.

Dobbs: An answer for my critics

I've been, over the years, because of our reporting on controversial issues and my strongly held beliefs on those issues, attacked, and usually pretty vigorously, by both the left wing and the right wing of this nation's media, both mainstream and otherwise, and of course the politicians that form the extremes of our political spectrum.

FULL STORY

‘Wild-Eyed’ Bush: ‘I Am The President!’

This is downright frightening... it adds substantially to Mark Morford's column:
Bush Declares Self 'Mega Decider'.

The president is losing it and Nixon's bunker mentality has reappeared in the White House. But, unlike Nixon, this president thinks he is being directed by God! We are in trouble, people.

From the Think Progress blog, May 31, 2007:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/bush-wild-eyed/

Report: In Meeting, ‘Wild-Eyed’ Bush Thumped Chest While Repeating ‘I Am The President!’

Georgie Anne Geyer writes today in the Dallas Morning News about President Bush’s strange behavior during a recent meeting with “[f]riends of his from Texas.”:

But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”

This is the second time in recent weeks that accounts have surfaced of Bush lashing out or “ranting” in private meetings when responding to criticism of his Iraq policy. Chris Nelson of the Nelson Report offered a similar account earlier this month:

[S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.

Like the tearful House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Bush needs to channel his bottled up emotions towards a more worthy end — winding down the war in Iraq rather than defending the status quo.

********************
Are you afraid yet?

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata

I'm catching up on my emails, and I just read Morford's last weeks' column. It's well worth checking out if you want to be paranoid about what the Shrub might have up his sleeve to bypass the next election. Mark Morford's Notes & Errata is a funny, irreverent, but topical and thought provoking column on the www.SFGate.com website and in the San Francisco Chronicle. IMHO, Mr. Morford is becoming the Mark Twain of the new century. This is the email teaser:

===== Mark Morford's Notes & Errata =====

SFGate.com - Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Bush Declares Self 'Mega Decider'
New documents ensure Dubya will rule America, should calamity strike. Free balloons!
By Mark Morford

It's just one of those obscure little unreported-upon conspiracy theory-ready hunks of floating White House detritus, a couple of odd, sticky, foul-smelling documents no one really wants to touch and no one knows quite what to make of, probably means nothing, probably being misread anyway, all a bit overblown and strange and not all that important and not all that different than the way things are now.

Unless, you know, it's not. Unless the violent twinge of queasy paranoia crossed with that uncontrolled bout of colon-clenching sighing you experience is deadly accurate and your radar for all things sinister and Rovean is right on target as you read about the delightfully titled National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20, wherein it is calmly and furtively revealed that, in essence, George W. Bush owns your sorry ass.

Or, to put it another way, it looks like the Bumbling One just gave himself ever more power. Power to control and dictate the entire government, power to really spread the gospel of happy GOP incompetence, power to command the entire wobbly American universe should some sort of epic -- or not so epic, as the case may be -- calamity strike the homeland.

It goes something like this: Should any "decapitating event" occur in American that somehow incapacitates the D.C. power structure, should "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions" take place, well then, all power and decision making would devolve to the White House, which would then attempt to orchestrate our very survival and oversee all essential governmental functions with none other than the president himself as, well, Super-Mega Lord Decider. With extra crayons. ...

(click here to read the rest)

Nutritional sports drinks

Well, the Cavs won! Yee haw!

I've been wanting to post the "Nutrition Facts" for a couple of sports drinks.

First, Gatorade's Endurance Formula. It's available in a dry, powdered form in 50.2 oz tubs on many bike catalog websites. One of these tubs "makes 29 - 24 oz. servings" according to the label, so it's quite a bit cheaper than buying the premixed 24 oz. bottles at the convenience store, but good luck finding it. It no longer is available in the greater Dayton area.

These are the "facts" after you've mixed it, per 8 fl. oz.:
Total Fat: 0g
Sodium: 200mg
Potassium: 90mg
Total Carb: 14mg (all from sugars)
Protein: 0g

Now, Cytomax, made by Cytosport. Which I've only used once, recently. It was given to me at a bike shop I frequent and came highly recommended. It was edible and seemed to work. I believe it's more expensive and seemingly much more complex/high tech than Endurance Formula and I only include it here for comparison purposes since I've got the pouch in front of me. It's package lists a long list of complex carbs and electrolytes. that don't show up in the "Supplement Facts" and you can view a more comprehensive "facts" list on their website for each of their products.

These are the "facts" after you've mixed it, per 16 fl. oz.:
Total Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0g
Sodium: 140mg
Potassium: 154mg
Total Carb: 30mg (17g from sugars)
Protein: 0g

Once again, I only post these "facts" taken from the packaging, FYI. I like the Endurance Formula, but maybe the Cytomax is better. I don't know. I do know that taking in the E.F. has stopped the cramping I used to get after a long ride, regardless of how much water or bananas I was drinking and eating!

Well, enough of this, it's out for a ride. BTW, here's a Google map I constructed of one of my personal routes.

Ken's Google Map

Jacked-in: Neo, Morpheus and LeBron

For my first post, being an Ohioan, I decided to begin with basketball. Not to come off as a big fan, but the Cleveland Cavaliers are in the playoffs and LeBron James had a game Thursday night that firmly planted him in the pantheon of the great players of the game. If you missed it, maybe tonight's game (8:30 on TNT) will be similarly remarkable. Regardless, it will be worth watching. So, on to my first post:

Way to go LeBron James. In thursday night's game against the Detroit Pistons, he was jacked into the basketball matrix like Neo and Morpheus in the movie. Even Cavalier teammate Drew Gooden said it was like watching LeBron in a video game (see article below).

James carried the Cavs on his shoulders in a uber-human example of getting into a zone. Unfortunately, as this N.Y. Times article explains, it took Michael Jordan four playoff series to beat the Pistons. Cleveland and King James are only on series number two.

That, notwithstanding...

Go Cavs!