The Great Cheese Debate

Oh my!  Busy times here in Dunedin!

Last week I enrolled in an endurance cycling study.  The research will look at the effect of salt supplementation on cycling performance.  To be eligible I needed one endurance cycling event under my belt in the past six months.  

So far, I had my VO2max tested and body fat measured by a skinfold test using calipers.  This was not sexy in any way, shape, or form.  To begin with, Sam, the student researcher, had to make little blue 'x's on my belly, bicep, shoulder blade, quad, and calf.  Then, he had to pinch all these x's with the calipers.  Not cute to have your belly fat pinched by a good looking young guy.

Next, a mask connected to a machine that analyzed my oxygen consumption went over my face for the 15 minute cycling test.  This was not an issue when I was warming up, but about 10 minutes into the test (after the tension had been cranked up) I turned into a drooling mess (all the water that I expired pooled in the bottom of the mask - gross).  On top of that the room was small and had poor ventilation.  So, I got a little on the sweaty side pretty quick.  And, on top of that, the mask caught the sound of my heavy breathing so that I sounded like Darth Vader.

This week I'm going out with the same student researcher to check out the 40 km course we'll do a time trial on for the study.  Unfortunately, coming from a country where we ride on the right side of the road presents some challenges when cycling in a country where they ride on the left side of the road.  I still can't quickly figure out which direction traffic will be coming from!

Eventually, I'll complete two more 80 km rides that will test my sweat rate. Yum.  Compensation for my effort will be $40 gift cards to the grocery store - just enough to buy a banana and a pack of gum (kidding, of course, but have I mentioned how expensive things are here?!).

My own research is, uh, sort of coming along.

We've had a few meetings about the questionnaire that we'll distribute to middle age women in New Zealand.  Usually, we get caught up in semantics.  We're a group of educated folks talking about food in a scientific sense.  We sometimes forget how normal people talk about food!  For example, would a regular person call something a low fat cheese OR a lower fat cheese?  

It gets a little foggy because the average person probably decides if the cheese she's eating is low/lower fat based on what the front of the package says (what the marketing tells the consumer she is eating), not what the nutrition facts label says (what she is specifically eating, in terms of grams of fat, carbohydrate, protein, etc. ).  So, if we want to know people are choosing "healthier" options, do we ask questions that relate to what the packaging says or what the food label says?

Have I lost you yet?  Yes?  Okay, let's leave this research stuff for now and look at pretty pictures instead.  

Check out the post below to read about my tramping trip to Paradise/the Routeburn Track/Mt. Xenicus.

Dear Mt. Xenicus, You Kicked My...

On Friday around 6pm, the Tramping Club headed towards Paradise (past Queenstown).  We were in "bed" (in a sleeping bag under a tarp) around 1am, up at 5am for breakfast (muesli, milk, and tea) and on the trail listening to owls and finding glow worms in the dark around 6am.  The sunrise picture above was taken from Routeburn Flats about 1 1/2 hours into the hike.

Our group included Jaz (leader), Tiff, Joey, Pete, Sean and myself.  We knew we were in for 12-14 hours of hiking.  I was not aware that I should have appreciated the nice flat trail up to this point.

Last view of Routeburn Flats for a little bit...

So, you can tell the stream looks a little farther away at this point.  There was a LOT of effort that went into getting to the point where this picture was taken.  We crossed through the stream and then started bushwhacking to the top of this mountain.  I wore gaitors to protect my shins from the prickly plants that covered the rocks and boulders we crossed over.  

In hindsight, it was really cool to scale a mountain and see up close and first hand how the landscape changes.  In the moment, I was scared as hell that I was going to slip down to the base and a) get hurt and b) have to start over trying to get to the top.  Luckily, there was a lot of a grassy plant called tussocks that I could grab ahold of and use to pull myself up... I probably spent a good hour and a half on my hands and knees (and belly) getting up to the top.  Supposedly, this would cut a solid hour off of our hike.

I took a quick break to "chocolate up" (refuel with yumminess) and noticed my poor leggings!  I got holes in the knees from army crawling up the mountain.

I'm pretty good at pretending to be happy, huh?  It's hard to tell, but there is considerable distance to go to get to the bump of rock just below that little bit of blue sky you see in this picture.

I was victorious getting to the top of the first mountain. YAY!

You can see the perfect line where the snow ends on the mountains in the distance.

Getting happier!  This is about as far up as I was willing to go.  The rest of the group went on to the Mt. Xenicus summit.  It was too icy for me to dare attempt it.

Time for the group to chocolate up one last time before the 2 hour trip to the summit of Mt. Xenicus.

Dad's backpack in New Zealand... Dennis Boucher was with us that day!  Yeah, and, for anyone who has read my recap of Ironman Lake Placid, I saw a butterfly!  Coincidence? I think not.  Not quite a monarch, but it was orange and black (probably a moth of some sort, but I'll pretend it really was a butterfly).

Here's the last of my ascent towards Mt. Xenicus.  I'm out of breath, my nose was running because it was windy and cold, and it had been about 7 hours since we had breakfast (I was a little hungry and dehydrated at this point).

So, what's a girl to do when she hangs back while the rest of the group moves on to risk life and limb just to say they reached the top?  Perhaps a little test of the self-timer feature on the camera is in order!

Perhaps a little exploration of my own to see what views I can find for myself...

Lake Wilson on the right.........

When the group returned from the summit, it was time to get out of the cold and wind so that we could relax for lunch.

At last, it was time to head back to the Routeburn Track, but first... a view of Lake Harris...

.... and a closer view of Lake Harris...

All we had left to do was turn around... and follow the water...

Follow the water down to the valley...

I see FLAT land ahead!!

 

(We climbed that mountain on the left!)

Flat land makes me very happy.

The rest of the hike would be super easy if our bodies weren't beat from the previous 10 hours of hard work!

One last bridge....

Back at camp...

On Sunday, we did an easy 40 minute walk to Sylvan Lake.

The only thing left to do was hit the road.  We stopped in Queenstown to get AMAZING food from Fergburger.  But, not before one last look at Lake Wakatipu.