ER ANGELS

A Christmas Thank You to my ER staff.....

MOUNTAIN VIEW ER HOLIDAY THANK YOU

Tis the season of expected Joy and Happiness

but this brings our ER the psychosocial mess

Yes, our thoughts must be askew

For we are the 24/7 crew

You heal those hurting on the inside and out

You offer compassion even when you want to shout

You reach out to our patients sick and in need

from holding their hands to helping them breathe

This is the season of personal sacrifice

Ignoring your own needs must suffice

In return, you are blessed with honor and respect

the priceless value of which we should all reflect

Whether you are a nurse, EMT or a clerk

You are my team of heavenly Angels at work

(thank you for working with this jerk)

For what you do every single day is the reason

I want to give you heart-felt thanks, this season

As a small token of my appreciation

In this time of economic depreciation

And in line with the rising of the Obamanomic day

In your name I will donate to the Provo United way

As he says; for our country’s health

we should spread the wealth.

With true gratitude, $500 I will donate

to put food on a hungry plate

May you have a very merry Christmas

and an ER New Year with less mess!

Karl Vizmeg MD

CROSS TRAINING (NOT CYCLO-CROSS)

So a great team Moab ride has gone to pot due to the weather. I was REALLY looking forward to a lot of riding this weekend in Moab with a big group from the team but the weather scattered us. Keith and Adam headed out snowshoeing, Chris, KC went down to ST George and Carson and I went up to the Uinta to the cabin. It was supposed to be KC, Chris and Tim up there as well but the weather stranded them before they left town. Yet we all ended up using planned time off to at least get some activity in.

Carson and I ended up doing about 2.5 hours of snowshoeing and and over 3 hours of powder snowmobiling. I think the snowmobiling gave us a better workout. Yes, it is hard to admit to this crowd of leg power junkies that a motorized sport can be considered a workout and that is what I thought before I tried off trail snowmobiling. But when you get onto over 3 feet of powder you end up using your whole body to balance and turn the machines with very little possibility of sitting down.

We return Saturday to a night shift for me, followed by going to "Work at Brighton Clinic" and snowboarding on Sunday with my boys. That's always a treat since I get to watch the boys have a ton of fun while I "work". Sunday we went for two runs, saw a patient, ate lunch, played in the snowbanks, went up for another couple runs, treated a broken wrist, went for another run and worked on a ski patroller with a fracture/dislocation of his shoulder. All in all an exhausting fun-packed weekend.

For some reason Sunday night I still felt I had to get some biking in so I hit the trainer to watch Hellboy II. I was toast! I couldn't get my heart rate higher than 133 when I usually average 160 for a 1.5 hour ride! Well, I hope that is cross-training at it's best else I am in trouble for Temecula in January.

What's CycloCross?

Racing on the skinnies.

Well I guess I found out what cyclocross was. I did my first cyclo cross race last Sat here in Draper. It's funny but I was really surprised how nervous I was the week before. I actually had a tough time before that setting the bike up. I didn't want to buy a new bike for a sport I had no idea if I would like so I figured I'd try setting up the ARANTIX with some skinnier and better rolling tires. Interestingly no one had skinny tires for a 26 inch wheel. There were some 29 inch tires since they are basicly 700's and I bought one for the front wheel. Then I realized I had some 26 inch 1.5 slicks from a long time ago and dug those out. I figured I was ready to go.

The race was at the Draper Equestrian center 1 mile from my house so I just rode there as a warm up. I entered 35+ B and showed up early to get an idea of what the course and race was about. I ran into Bob Saffal and Canyon Kris who gave me some pointers of what's going on.

I lined up dead last since I wasn't sure how the starts went. The first lap was nerve racking and I used it to get a feel for the course. Then I started to slowly get into the groove and started passing people. No one passed me until a pro girl came up from behind and beat me up pretty good as I tried to hang with her for a couple laps. It was Kathy Sherwin. She's one tough gal.

(WHAT'S UP WITH MAKING US RUN ON PURPOSE AND TRYING TO TRIP US WITH HORSE JUMPS?)

At first I had trouble trusting the skinnies and the slicks but got used to it fairly well by the end of the race. It was tough since it was an all out race without knowing ahead of time of how many laps. I just went around in circles until they told me to stop. It was the type of race that brings out all my weakness (mostly a lung burner and all out, all the time). It's definitely something I should do more of. Too bad it is the last one for the year.

I came in 11th out of 26, whatever that means. You can't compare time across categories or even the other racers since there is no time.

Well, next stop is Moab next weekend (19th). Hope the weather cooperates.

Total ARANTIX miles for 2008 (so far): 2075 and 240 hours.