[cvcalhoun]

Sure! You just need to invent a time machine first!

@Bilsko 80411 wrote:

Count me in. Any way I can count the ride to get to Cap City retroactively to help improve my anemic BAFS mileage totals?

[cvcalhoun]

This is, alas, a subject on which I have had occasion to devote way too much thought. My view is that exercise undoubtedly helps with depression, but that it is truly impossible to compare the effectiveness of exercise with the effectiveness of antidepressants. If you look at their chart, you can see one reason for my skepticism. The chart indicates that exercise alone is somewhat effective, and that antidepressants alone are somewhat effective, but that the combination of exercise and antidepressants is less effective than exercise alone. It is hard to think of a reason why antidepressants would be somewhat effective alone, but would lessen the beneficial effects of exercise.

I think the issue is self-selection. If you are so depressed that you are struggling to get out of bed, and even the simplest tasks feel herculean, it is more likely that you will never start an exercise program, or that if you do, you will quit after a short time. If you are so depressed that you are in danger of losing your job, you will probably spend more hours at your job instead of spending that time exercising. So the people who are able to continue with an exercise program for six months tend to be the ones who had less severe depression to begin with and are facing less stress during that six-month period. Conversely, antidepressants have enough side effects that people with less serious depression to begin with often decide that the cure is worse than the disease. Because antidepressants do not require time or energy to take, they are attractive to those who are so stressed out by just trying to keep up with work that they can’t manage the time for exercise, therapy, or more sleep. So the ones who continue medications for six months tend to be the ones who had more severe depression to begin with, and who have more stresses to deal with.

And a trial of exercise is not like a drug trial, in which a control group can be given a placebo. It’s kind of hard to figure out what a placebo for exercise would consist of.

My own view is that anyone who is depressed should be exercising. However, the approach varies depending on the situation:

1. If you are too depressed to be able to exercise (for example, if you need to spend extra hours at work to counter the concentration issues generated by depression, and you are sleeping most of the time you are not at work due to the extra sleep requirements generated by depression), antidepressants can help you get to the point that you can exercise.
2. If you are able to exercise, and your depression is mild enough so that immediate resolution is not critical (e.g., if you are not in danger of losing your job or your marriage), you can try exercise alone or in combination with therapy to see if it is enough.
3. If immediate resolution is critical, you’re probably best off starting antidepressants and therapy and simultaneously exercising as much as you can manage.

Once the depression is under control, you can experiment with gradually reducing medication while continuing exercise. (After all, exercise has many health benefits aside from control of depression, while medications are a total pain!) However, if your tendency toward depression is enough, you may find that while exercise diminishes the amount of medication you need or makes your medication more effective, it will not be a substitute for medication. In that event, you’re best off ignoring the part of the chart that suggests that exercise alone is more effective than exercise combined with medication.

[cvcalhoun]

I am not telling my son that! Notwithstanding all our threats, he is teaching my granddaughter to wear her pajamas inside out, and their combined efforts seem to have worked way too well this winter. The last thing I need is for him to redouble his efforts!

@dkel 80402 wrote:

That doesn’t work unless you flush an ice cube down the toilet, and sleep with a spoon under your pillow. So say my two sons.

[cvcalhoun]

My son wears his pajamas inside out to encourage the snow demons to “bless” us with more snow. Lately, I have been threatening to burn his pajamas –with him in them.

[cvcalhoun]

This thread suggests that cycling can cause achilles tendonitis, and provides some suggestions. It appears more likely that shoes/pedals are the problem, rather than failing to stretch.

[cvcalhoun]

I see you are in compliance with Rule 11.

@GB 80347 wrote:

It’s my wife’s b-day, but she’s given me the green light. So I’ll be there, although probably not until 6:30.

[cvcalhoun]

Hmm, they say, “Alexandria Officials Want To Push Cyclists To Royal Street.” I’m thinking that after all the cycling I’ve done lately, I would see it as downright neighborly if some official wanted to give me a push–it might help with the sore legs.

@Oldtowner 80349 wrote:

The Alexandria Bike Wars are indeed heating up fast. I live in Old Town and have already seen many emails from neighbors who are rapidly organizing opposition to the Royal Street plan.

Here is an article they cited which is followed by the usual heavy dose of anti-cyclist vitriol.
http://wamu.org/news/14/03/18/alexandria_officials_want_to_push_cyclists_to_royal_street

[cvcalhoun]

The problem is not so much the average as the standard deviation. We often spend what is supposed to be spring veering wildly back and forth between freezing winter and sweltering summer. If one day is 30 and the next is 90, the average is 60, but that doesn’t mean that either day feels like spring.

@rcannon100 80328 wrote:

Average temperatures for Arlington, County. Contrary to myth, we do not go from freezing winter to sweltering summer. One of the things I love about this area is that we get four wonderful seasons.

[cvcalhoun]

No, I believe he’s actually comparing the fight against the bike lane proposal to the fight for slavery. And apparently believes this helps his cause. I’m back to the question of what he is smoking.

@PotomacCyclist 80329 wrote:

He’s comparing the bike lane proposal to the fight against slavery?

[cvcalhoun]

Here is where we are meeting.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5010[/ATTACH]

@Arlingtonrider 80293 wrote:

Could someone please re-post that map marked “YES” where the “NO?” is?

Otherwise everyone will get [more] confused [than we all already are].

Also, you all may want a good chaperone who can show you the best detour route. I haven’t ridden it yet, but the route Rod Smith took today might be the best and shortest one, as well as the only one that keeps you on trails right up to the detour point. I’ll try to check it out sometime next week.

It’s hard to guess right now when detouring will be needed. The relevant part of the FMR trail was open around 8 am this morning, but closed tonight when I tried to come through at 7:05 pm.

[cvcalhoun]

Thanks, Kel! Looks like CaBi thinks the name of that one is Jefferson Memorial. Of course, it’s not on Google maps, but I’ll do my best to find it.

[cvcalhoun]

They helpfully fixed that one for me, by magically causing me not to be married to my wife the moment I cross the Potomac. Umm, not that I’m bitter or anything…

@lordofthemark 80157 wrote:

Eh, guy was over the top before, and he’s lost, so he’s venting. This war is over.

OTOH, he’s gotten a lot of play in national conservative periodicals he couldn’t have gotten otherwise. Like Warhol said ….

But I love this

“They also don’t have lives, jobs, families.”

Can’t wait to tell my wife that I can now ride (and wherever I want, not commute) every day, cause I don’t need a job and don’t have a family to spend time with.

[cvcalhoun]

I’m not sure my pace even makes it up to “sociable,” but I can start out with you guys, and just get there a bit later if I can’t keep up.

Just for clarification, the “14th Street CaBi station” is the one at Jefferson Memorial? There seem to be several CaBi stations in that area, and I don’t want to be waiting around the wrong one.

[cvcalhoun]

I have bicycled 42.7 miles since BAFS ended–after bicycling 33.9 miles between sunset and midnight on the last day of BAFS. Apparently, I don’t know when to quit! I did have to buy some potassium tablets on the way home today, though, after one morning in which the night leg cramps were so bad I took 5 minutes to subdue them enough to get out of bed.

[cvcalhoun]

Okay, by popular demand, I am continuing to upload to Strava, at least for now. (Strava name=Carol C.) If nothing else, it makes it clear that I still haven’t gotten a rest from BAFS!

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