Yet another day in the desert of Tucson has passed filled with deception and lies, but I’ll get to that shortly.

It began this morning when, luckily, we were able to transport some mountain bikes by van over to Saguaro National Park, a site we biked to a couple days before.  Dr. Sweeney led us on a few of Saguaro’s “beginner” mountain biking trails.  Within the first five minutes, five brand new mountain bikers were going downhill at 90° over boulders, barrel cacti, and other people’s bikes.  That may be a bit exaggerated, but not by much.  We swiftly returned, got onto an easier course, and had a great time learning the ropes of our new favorite activity.

There were many falls (myself included), but perhaps the best (and by that I mean funniest) was Cameron’s bloody encounter with the always-feared “Jumping Cholla.”

Our skills were overestimated, and we were taken on courses a little over our heads, but I think we had the last laugh when our fearless leader was a bit too ambitious himself. Oops!

Our first mountain biking episode ended, and we went back to the house for a quick turnover so that a few of us could drive up to Mount Lemmon for the sunset.  Making it up with some time to spare we made a couple of snowballs, definitely made it in time to eat some cookies from “The Mt. Lemmon Cookie Cabin,” and stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks.  We’ve all been impressed with the scenery in AZ.  It’s truly unlike anything we have ever seen before, and pictures don’t do it justice, but here’s an attempt at capturing the sunset from Windy Point Vista:

As the day came to an end, we, of course, stopped at the grocery store to pick up the essentials – brownie mix.  Little did we know that Tara had prepared a betrayal that would rival Brutus’ assassination of Caesar by making bean brownies. Yes, bean.  Black beans puréed and put into brownie mix.  We were even told that there would be a normal batch.  No such batch was prepared.  I’ll never admit that the brownies were great, but I did eat quite a few – we all did.  All in all, today was a blast.  Can’t wait to see what is in store for the next one.

-Anthony

Wow.  Where to begin…

Following a brutal day including the Wingate test, a one and a half mile run, and a 10 mile bike ride, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves the next morning. It can’t get harder than that, right? We even got to sleep in before our 10:00 departure for the mountains. Sounds like the making of a good day right? That’s what we thought too, so we hit the trail with heads held high, excited about the views this hike could bring us.

The first few miles of the Ventana Canyon Hiking Trail were awesome. We were introduced to carins (pictured below), the ascending rock placements that point you in the direction the trail continues (turns out they aren’t just something people make to put on Instagram).

We passed some of the pools and covered our first stream crossings of the trip. As we kept climbing, the view overlooking Tucson kept getting better. Each time we stopped it was even more incredible then the last time.

We stopped for lunch, which is possibly our favorite time of the day, again still feeling pretty good. I mean, after all, the trail marking listed the distance as only 9.5 miles out and back. Nothing we couldn’t handle right?

After lunch, we really started to climb. It hurt, no doubt about that, but we knew it would be worth it. Then…it kept going. The switchbacks piled up like the steps on our Fitbits, and the burn was real.
Half of the group ran out of water on the way up (lesson learned), and they pushed through it. We looked for any excuse to call our stopping points the top, but the mountain would not quit. Higher and higher we went, more and more we felt the effects of the previous day’s work. It was surreal, to say the least, but for whatever reason (possibly insanity), we kept going.

Finally, we made it to the top…or so we thought. While a majority of us were ready to call it done, Dr. Sweeney was so kind to point out we still had about 50 feet left to ascend. So, while some of us posed for pictures, he and Dave continued and reached the top. If not for their convincing texts, we would have missed out on a 360 degree view we would never forget.

The pictures don’t do it justice, but we were stoked. Only one problem…it was 3:30 PM when we reached the top. For those of you at home doing the math, we hit the trail at 11:00 AM and took 30 minutes for lunch. That means 4 hours and 30 minutes up. Sunset was coming at 5:33 PM…notice the problem? Hiking in the dark became inevitable but the van wasn’t coming to pick us up at the top anytime soon. So down we went, and possibly for the first time ever, Dr. Sweeney and Professor Fay were happy to see students with their phones out to use the flashlights. It was a little scary but we made it to the van without a problem and I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a group. Turns out that “9.5 mile” hike was actually about 13 miles and we (somehow) crushed every mile.

In desperate need of food, we headed toward Rosa’s Mexican Food near the University of Arizona campus. As if the day wasn’t crazy enough, Dr. Sweeney punished us even more with a weird mixture of smooth jazz music and Demi Lovato. The night got even weirder there when the owner of the restaurant told me that the tacos I wanted to order “aren’t good today.” I held my ground in a dead panic, and the tacos turned out to be great. The guys are never going to let me live that moment down though. In one last strange turn of events, we piled back in the van to finally return to the house, and the last song that played was “Trap Star” by Young Jeezy, courtesy of Dr. Sweeney’s bizarre music library.

Words could never fully explain what a wild ride that day was, but the important thing is that we made it!

More to come, and we hope everyone back home is doing well!

-Cameron

Today was a day full of non-stop movement.  We biked, we ran, and we biked again.  The day started out back at the University of Arizona where we performed the Wingate test. This test consists of 30 seconds of biking on a machine when a weight that is 8% of the person’s body mass is dropped onto it.  The person has to keep biking for the full 30 seconds after the weight has been dropped.  Now, most of us thought, “How bad can this really be compared to yesterday’s test?  It’s only 30 seconds!”  But wow we were wrong.

Yes, it was only 30 seconds of intense exercise, but the effects are still being felt as the night goes on.  Although it was insanely intense and not enjoyable whatsoever, we all rallied for the person on the bike.  There was a ton of cheering, clapping, and yelling “GO GO GO!” Some might call it a good bonding experience.

Now, one would think that we would get some time to recover from that, but no.  Before we knew it we were back in the new van (sigh) and headed to a track to conquer our first mile and a half run.  With heavy feet and noodle legs, we trudged to the track. It definitely wasn’t easy, but we all finished.  So back into the van we went and devoured our packed lunches.

We had a nice break when we got back to the house. Some of us dozed off (me included) and others just chilled.  This was when Dr. Sweeney and Professor Fay were assembling their bikes that were shipped from Scranton.  So, after intense biking this morning and running a mile and a half this afternoon, our day was not complete.  Everyone begrudgingly put on their bike shorts to prepare for our first bike ride.  The general consensus was that they are definitely not comfortable, but they ended up saving our asses, literally.  We then set out on a bike ride that was a little over 11 miles long.

When we returned to our haven that is the Tucson house, it was easy to see just how exhausted everyone was.  Stairs were not a fun time for anyone.  Casey, Dave, and Brian braved the ice-cold pool to soothe their aching and tired legs.  Lizzy even went for a swim (props to them all).

Now Kyle and Anthony are cooking dinner for us; chicken and eggplant marsala are on the menu tonight.  I think we’re all looking forward to some delicious food and relaxation.

-Geena

Today, we went to the physiology lab at the University of Arizona to perform our baseline VO₂ max tests.

We began with a lecture by Doug Keen, a physiology professor at the university. He outlined the three main pathways of ATP production in the body, and then taught us about VO₂ max testing, which measures the efficiency of the aerobic oxygen system in particular. VO₂ max is the maximum volume of oxygen that can be consumed by the body during intense exercise. It varies with age, sex, conditioning and altitude.

The VO₂ max test involves three stages: measurement of resting VO₂ during one minute with the subject seated, measurement during walking at 3.0 mph, and measurement during increasingly strenuous exercise, up until the VO₂ level plateaus, i.e. reaches its max. In our case, we increased the grade of the treadmill on which we were running by two percent every two minutes until exhaustion.

There were four additional factors that were indicators of whether an individual has reached his or her max VO₂ level other than the measurement of VO₂ itself. They are the rating of perceived exertion (RPE), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), heart rate (HR), and blood lactate. The RPE is a scale from 1-20 that is called out by the individual based on how hard they think they’re working. A value of 20 indicates that they have reached their VO₂ max and cannot continue any longer. The RER is measured by dividing the CO₂ production by O₂ consumption, and is an indication of which substrate an individual is using to fuel exercise, as well as whether hyperventilation is occurring. The maximum RER value is 1.15.  A person’s maximum heart rate (beats per minute) can be estimated by subtracting their age from 220. Finally, a blood lactate measurement of at least 8.0 mmol/L indicates that the max VO₂ level was reached.

Today, Casey set a record for Extreme Physiology VO₂ max, at about about 67 ml/min. Kyle came in second for the class, at about 63 ml/min.

After the VO₂ max test, we immediately had our finger pricked to draw blood to measure hematocrit and hemoglobin (Hb) and blood lactate concentration. Hematocrit is the proportion of the blood volume taken up  by red blood cells. The normal range for men is between 38.8% and 50%, and the normal range for women is between 34.9% and 44.5%. To perform a hematocrit, blood was collected in a capillary tube and centrifuged. The resulting tube had three layers; from most dense (lowest) to least dense (highest) they were composed of red blood cells, white blood cells + platelets, and plasma. Hematocrit is calculated by dividing the height of the red blood column by the total sample column height. Hemoglobin concentration and blood lactate are both measured by collecting a drop of blood into a pipette and placing it into an analyzer. The normal range for hemoglobin concentration in men is 13.8 – 17.2 g/dL; and the normal range in women is 12.1 – 15.1 g/dL. A normal resting blood lactate concentration for both men and women is about 1 mmol/L. However, since we were assessing whether  VO₂ max had been reached, we were looking for values above mmol/L.

After all the VO₂ max tests were completed, Dr. Sweeney gave a lecture about hematocrit and the effect of altitude on hematocrit levels. At high altitudes, hematocrit increases and dehydration may occur if water intake is not increased, because more urine is produced. For about 90 days after living at high altitude, the hematocrit levels will be elevated compared to baseline at lower elevation levels.

Once we were all done at the lab, Geena, Lizzy, Brian, Dave, and Cameron and I explored the downtown U of Arizona area and stopped for coffee at a combination coffee shop/hookah lounge. We also bought some U of A apparel at a school store, and tried to get into one of the many stadiums at the university. We walked into part of a basketball practice, which was the highlight of Brian’s day. Meanwhile, Kyle and Casey went for a very ambitious run to find a gym. We got a new van, but it wasn’t as good as the old van. After a delicious dinner of salmon, string beans, and brown rice, we tested out our bikes for our ride the following day.

Today was our first full day of Extreme Physiology 2017, so we took the students on a hike at Chiricahua National Monument in Willcox, AZ. Covering 12,025 acres, this monument was established in 1924 so that the 27-million-year old rock pinnacles (called “standing up rocks” by the Chiricahua Apache in the 1500-1800s) would be protected. The pinnacles were formed when the Turkey Creek volcano had a massive eruption, forming the pinnacles as superheated particles of ash melted and molded together. As time passed, water, wind, and lichen have cracked and smoothed the rock into the picturesque pinnacles we see today.

Chiricahua National Monument is considered a “sky island” because it’s rock pinnacles tower over miles of flat and slightly rolling desert and, interestingly, the animals that inhabit this mountainous area cannot tolerate the heat of the desert that surrounds it, so they are confined to the higher, cooler pinnacles which collectively compose an “island” in the middle of a sea of desert sand, cacti, and mesquite trees.

From the Visitor Center, we were able to access the trailhead and begin our trek on the Lower Rhyolite Canyon trail (the term rhyolite refers to gray rock made from superheated volcanic ash particulates melting together) sporting several layers of clothing to keep us warm in the chilly air, and carrying plenty of food and water in our backpacks.

The trail passed by a creek bed, where we could see lingering damage from the 2011 fire that tore through the region. Many tree trunks were still covered in soot.
The trail quickly turned more challenging as we started to ascend. As we trudged up an incline littered with large rocks to step up and over, several of us had worked up a sweat and needed to pause briefly to take our jackets off. A little later we encountered a few switchbacks, and stopped to take our first group photo at one of them.
Continuing on, we passed yucca and prickly pear cacti and stole glances of giant rock pinnacles as we navigated over patches of ice, finally reaching the Sarah Deming trail. This trail gains 880 feet over about 1.5 miles, so we mostly focused on breathing as we gained altitude. We came to an open area where another group was having a snack, so we also took a little break here to chat with them, enjoy the views, and climb on some of the rocks.

We said our good byes then huffed and puffed our way to the junction of the Heart of Rocks loop and Balancing Rock trails as we continued to ooooh and ahhhh at the beautiful rock formations.
We traveled along part of the Balancing Rock trail to get a nice, close look at it and then we returned to the Heart of Rocks loop.
This loop took us past a variety of interesting rock formations and yielded breathtaking panoramic views of distant mountains. Near “Thor’s hammer” we had lunch, basked in the warm sun, and took another group shot.
After completing the loop, we headed back down the Sarah Deming and Lower Rhyolite Canyon trails at a blistering pace, as every step brought us closer to a delicious chili and cornbread dinner.

-Tara