August 7
This morning I got up early (unusual for a Monday morning!) because I agreed to meet with a PhD student from the Australia Institute of Sport / University of Western Sydney at 8:45a.m. This
girl is doing her PhD research with the effectiveness of alternative/natural medicines at relieving inflammation for potential applications in sport. I agreed to help her out with her study testing the effectiveness of a natural herbal remedy called "devil's claw". As an incentive (and indeed the incentive that convinced me it was worth it!) after completion of the research I will receive an AIS backpack, a drink bottle, socks, and a gym towel!
At 8:45 I met her outside my dorm and she drove me to the AIS campus (about 1-2 miles away, too far for me to walk). Another kid that's participating in the survey met us there and she ran us both through some preliminary things, such as taking our weight (63.8 kg), height (175.6 cm), and then administering a "beep" or "bleep" test. The bleep test consisted of wearing a heartrate monitor (mine ended up malfunctioning, but she was able to get the necessary data anyway. :)) and running back and forth between two cones that were placed on lines 20 meters apart. The goal was to pace your running so that you got to line right as the recording beeped, turn around, and run back to the line by the time the recording beeped again. It started off really slow and got progressively faster, going up by one "level" each minute. The other kid that did the test (a soccer player with a bad ankle.. :-x) ended up stopping at about level 10. I somehow managed to hang in there until level 14.2. After that, I just couldn't keep up with the beeps. For the next six weeks I need to consume 10 mL of this liquid devil's claw supplement. Then after the six weeks are completed (
mid-September) I will be tested for leg strength and vertical jumping ability, then put through a 40-minute downhill treadmill run (5X 8 minutes), then tested every 24 hours for 5 days to see how my performance is affected. After that I get my free stuff! Some time later, after the data analysis has been completed, I also get a report of the effectiveness of devil's claw at reducing inflammation.
I had two lectures for one course this afternoon. Afterwards I went for my run around Lake G. (31:30), followed it up with a shower, then prepared myself some supper. Zucchini, green beans, and mashed potatoes were tonight's menu. With some ice cream for desert. This was soon followed by a fire alarm (someone on another floor apparently needs to learn that the fire alarm is not the preferred method for knowing when your food is done). I also did my laundry this evening so that I might have some clean laundry for the rest of the week, including my trip to Sydney! Tonight will have to be an early night as I have a four-hour field trip tomorrow morning for my Conservation Biology and Genetics class. Oh. I found out that tomorrow night is the official Australia census night. Which means the Australian Bereau of Statistics requires that every human being that is spending the night in Australia that night fill out a form providing details of said nighttime location, said person's Australian residency status, said person's permanent residency status, and said person's personal statistics. Apparently there i
s a law in Australia (from the early 1900s) stating that it is compulsory for all people to fill out tthe census form or face the possibility of being fined. It's funny, but this once-every-five years census is required to be completed by any students, tourists, and even anyone who is sleeping in a hotel on the night of August 8. I guess they really care about finding out how Australia's doing. The cenus form isn't too scary though (the picture is deceiving ;)), so it won't be too bad I guess. I want to find out after the data is compiled how many other Americans were in Australia with me on the night of August 8!
girl is doing her PhD research with the effectiveness of alternative/natural medicines at relieving inflammation for potential applications in sport. I agreed to help her out with her study testing the effectiveness of a natural herbal remedy called "devil's claw". As an incentive (and indeed the incentive that convinced me it was worth it!) after completion of the research I will receive an AIS backpack, a drink bottle, socks, and a gym towel!At 8:45 I met her outside my dorm and she drove me to the AIS campus (about 1-2 miles away, too far for me to walk). Another kid that's participating in the survey met us there and she ran us both through some preliminary things, such as taking our weight (63.8 kg), height (175.6 cm), and then administering a "beep" or "bleep" test. The bleep test consisted of wearing a heartrate monitor (mine ended up malfunctioning, but she was able to get the necessary data anyway. :)) and running back and forth between two cones that were placed on lines 20 meters apart. The goal was to pace your running so that you got to line right as the recording beeped, turn around, and run back to the line by the time the recording beeped again. It started off really slow and got progressively faster, going up by one "level" each minute. The other kid that did the test (a soccer player with a bad ankle.. :-x) ended up stopping at about level 10. I somehow managed to hang in there until level 14.2. After that, I just couldn't keep up with the beeps. For the next six weeks I need to consume 10 mL of this liquid devil's claw supplement. Then after the six weeks are completed (
mid-September) I will be tested for leg strength and vertical jumping ability, then put through a 40-minute downhill treadmill run (5X 8 minutes), then tested every 24 hours for 5 days to see how my performance is affected. After that I get my free stuff! Some time later, after the data analysis has been completed, I also get a report of the effectiveness of devil's claw at reducing inflammation.I had two lectures for one course this afternoon. Afterwards I went for my run around Lake G. (31:30), followed it up with a shower, then prepared myself some supper. Zucchini, green beans, and mashed potatoes were tonight's menu. With some ice cream for desert. This was soon followed by a fire alarm (someone on another floor apparently needs to learn that the fire alarm is not the preferred method for knowing when your food is done). I also did my laundry this evening so that I might have some clean laundry for the rest of the week, including my trip to Sydney! Tonight will have to be an early night as I have a four-hour field trip tomorrow morning for my Conservation Biology and Genetics class. Oh. I found out that tomorrow night is the official Australia census night. Which means the Australian Bereau of Statistics requires that every human being that is spending the night in Australia that night fill out a form providing details of said nighttime location, said person's Australian residency status, said person's permanent residency status, and said person's personal statistics. Apparently there i
s a law in Australia (from the early 1900s) stating that it is compulsory for all people to fill out tthe census form or face the possibility of being fined. It's funny, but this once-every-five years census is required to be completed by any students, tourists, and even anyone who is sleeping in a hotel on the night of August 8. I guess they really care about finding out how Australia's doing. The cenus form isn't too scary though (the picture is deceiving ;)), so it won't be too bad I guess. I want to find out after the data is compiled how many other Americans were in Australia with me on the night of August 8!
posted by itsbenrael at 8:45 PM
1 Comments:
Your pictures make me smile.
:)
Love you.
Rachel
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