Day #2 Heart study
This morning I headed over to uOttawa for the second part of the heart rate study, the VO2 test on a treadmill. After doing a warmup on the treadmill and then some stretching, it was time for the fun to begin. There are a couple of ways to conduct the test, one ways is to incrementally speed up the treadmill until you can no longer run as fast as the treadmill is spinning and the second, is to keep the treadmill spinning at a constant rate and gradually increase the grade angle. For this test they opted for later and it simulates hill climbing. The test started off well as the angle of the treadmill was adjusted every minute but then something bad happened. I started to sweat and nose clip started to slide off. When the clip was on we were starting to get a VO2 value in the low 50s with the expectation that my final VO2 would be in the mid 60s which is similar what I had done a couple of years ago. The researcher decide because the results were coming out so inconsistent to pull the test. I was having a good time and as I was getting into the “groove”/”zone” and my legs still felt fresh.
The plan is to re-do the research early next week and with the hope that they can locate a non-defective nose clip.
Another experiment
In a couple of days, I’ll do another physiology experiment at the University of Ottawa. This one involves one of my passion running. There will be three parts to the experiment. The first part involves being wired up with sensors on my chest which will monitor my heart activity 24 hours before the experiment. The next morning, I will jump on a treadmill and do a VO2 test which involves incrementally run faster and faster until you just about fall or fly off the treadmill. The final stage is to monitor my heart activity for 24 hours after the VO2 test. I think the idea behind the test is to see how my body responds to the stress of running as fast and hard as it can in a controlled environment. This will be the third time that I have done a VO2 test and they are always fun but at the same time quite challenging. I blog after the experiment with my the findings.
Research Study
Earlier this week, I participated in a research study comparing the blood glucose levels of non-diabetic athletes with diabetic athletes during an exercise trial. I’m not diabetic so I was part of the control group. There were two part to the study. The first part involved cycling in a 35C/95F calorimeter to determine what wattage/resistance they should apply to the pedals during the main trial. The second part involved be wired up with a multitude of sensors.
- Four sweat capsules attached to my arms and legs to measure my sweat rate
- A heart rate monitor to measure my heart rate
- A laser sensor on my wrist to measure the maximal blood flow and oxygen level through my skin
- An oxygen mask connected to a long hose connected to a metabolic cart measuring my oxygen, carbon dioxide, breathing rate
- Three internal thermometer measure my body core temperature — ear (tympanic), throat (esophageal) and anonymous place
- A blood glucose monitor. I had to take three blood samples during the trial
Once I was all wired up I headed into the calorimeter (35C/95F) and remained stationary for 30 minutes. The purpose of this segment was to let my body adapt to the warm conditions and to get some baseline measurements. The main part of the experiment involved cycling for 60 minutes at a fixed cadence and with fixed resistance. The final segment was sitting for an hour chilling. Apparently, all the data collected was of value as the researcher was eagerly analyzing it as I left. The idea was to compare all of the data from my session with a diabetic athlete having similar characteristics who also did the same trial to see how s/he responded to the stress of the exercise.
Bras to Masks
I’m at home for a long weekend which gives me a chance to catch up on reading. This morning I was reading one of my father’s technical magazines. It talked about a recent patent for a a href=”http://improbable.com/2008/10/13/plucked-from-obscurity-anti-terrorism-mask/”bra/a that could be quickly converted in a face mask in the event of civil emergency.
Exhaust Burger: Let your tailpipe cook for you
I was listening to an engineering podcast tonight which caused to laugh for quite some time. An a href=”http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/24/exhaust-burger-let-your-tailpipe-cook-for-you/”Iranian engineer/a has invented a device that attaches to your car exhaust pipe and uses the excess heat to cook a hamburger. It is a novel concept.
