The Irisin Scare

Jan's B-Log was intended to mean Bicycling-Log, but since I am a biotechnologist, I think it is OK to change subjects from time to time, so this post has a Bio-Log-y theme. But as you will see, it is bicycling related, or more generally, exercise related.

A couple of weeks ago, a paper in the journal Nature has described a discovery of a new peptide hormone, called Irisin: Boström, P.; Wu, J.; Jedrychowski, M. P.; Korde, A.; Ye, L.; Lo, J. C.; Rasbach, K. A.; Boström, E. A. et al. (2012). "A PGC1-α-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis". Nature.
You can read more about Irisin here, here, and here, but the long and complicated biology story is that this hormone is induced by exercise, triggers browning of fat tissue, and elevated blood levels of this peptide promote energy expenditure even in absence of movement or food intake. The authors suggest that this molecule could be prepared as a theraputic for metabolic disease and improvement of glucose homeostasis (states typically leading to type 2 diabetes).

This breakthrough publication reminded me of one day in 1996 when my boss and I drove to Vienna to hear a lecture by Jeffrey Friedman, who discovered the hormone leptin in 1994 at the Rockefeller University. Leptin was thought to be THE cure for obesity, mainly based on the fact that mice lacking a gene for this hormone, so called Ob-/Ob- mice eat voraciously and quickly become morbidly obese.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fatmouse.jpg

After the Vienna trip and talk, I spent two years preparing antibodies against the leptin peptide. As it turned out, mice are not little men and the leptin story proved much more complicated than thought at that time, thus no miracle obesity pill resulted.
There is also a business part to this story: the biotech / pharma giant Amgen paid $20 million to Rockefeller U. for drug rights on leptin. And there is a company called Ember Therapeutics who got $34 million of venture capital to turn Irisin into a drug.
I am not against turning scientific discoveries into medicines, that's what pays my salary and allows me to ride nice bikes. But I do not believe it is possible to take large amounts of energy (food) in and then get rid of it by taking a pill, without our body burning or lighting up or something like that. And I also think that the cure for type two diabetes already exists: every doctor will tell you that diet and exercise will lead to improvement in at least 90% of diabetics. But it is the HARD way and nobody wants to go that route. Wait a sec, nobody, really? On my weekend bike rides and runs, as well as during commuting to work by bike, I see plenty of people who would not exchange their way of staying healthy and having fun for any pill. I am also sure all of us would prefer the side effects of running or biking (blisters, sore muscles and bruished shins) over the yet unknown side effects of Irisin.
And just imagine how many new trails could be built with $54 million....

Point-to-point on the Peninsula

Most bike rides and runs people do are probably loops, which makes perfect sense. Point-to-point routes are difficult, usually require two cars or a drop-off or a pickup. When I used to do XC MTB races in Connecticut, I did not enjoy riding course laps too much. That is also why I really like stage races or events, where the route is different each day.
Living in the Bay Area allows us to vary our running or biking routes a lot, both my wife and I really like the fact that we can leave our house on bikes or on foot and come back many hours later. But if you look on the map of trails and preserves along the Peninsula, it is clear that long point to point routes are possible. So to change things a bit on this ridiculously warm and sunny January weekend, we tested how far our wheels or legs would take us.
My first test: mountain biking from a far point home. Starting point: Steven's Canyon county park, intersection of Steven's Canyon and Pierce roads. Target destination: Old Post on Tripp Rd in Woodside. I did not plan the route exactly trail by trail, hoping I would choose what felt best along the way. After a warmup on Steven's Canyon road, I continued on the trail uphill, took Grizzly Flat trail to Skyline, where I found the Ridge Trail closed. A hundred yards or so along Skyline to the north allowed me to join the Ridge trail north with no closures. This is the route I have ridden so many times, Ridge Trail, Chestnut trail, swing through the Christmas tree farm to Horseshoe Lake. There I found the White Oaks trail closed, which was a real bummer. My original rough plan was to connect to Alpine trail and Peter's Creek, thus avoiding the grueling climb up towards Russian Ridge. Left with no choice, I made it over the ridge to Alpine Pond but Ancient Oaks trail was a reward for this climb. Continuing along the Ridge Trail all the way up north to Rapley Ranch road spits you on the Skyline Highway at the Fogarty Winery, with no legal trails until Skeggs.
I cursed the San Mateo Parks and recreation while I pedaled on Rt 35 towards Bear Gulch Rd (west). San Mateo county is notoriously known for their anti-biking policies, similarly to towns of Woodside and Portola Valley, which would be a topic on its own for another blog post.
Finally, probably the best singletrack of Skeggs, Blue Blossom Trail! I almost forgot I had to dig myself up from the ravine, but was rudely reminded of that on Gordon Mill trail. At this point, it was clear to me that riding more trails through Skeggs and connecting to Purisima Creek was too ambitious, as the temperature was dropping and I was cold, hungry and pretty spent. Back to the asphalt on 35 and downhill on Kings Mt Rd to the meeting point, where I arrived frozen to the bone (and this was a 66F "winter" day).



Day two: with biking muscles sore, Marketa and I came up with this leapfrogging scheme: I would drive to Huddart Park, leave the car there and attempt to run trails to Wunderlich Park. She would take off from home and pound pavement (her preferred way to move in space) to Huddart. There, she picks the car and drives to Wunderlich, to check if I would appear there in some reasonable time or if the rescue squads would already be combing the woods. On paper, it looked like it would take us similar amounts of time.
The run from Huddart Park to Wunderlich is a part of the annual Woodside trail run organized by Pacific Coast Trail Runs, but of course, these tough guys run it there and back as part of their 35 and 50K courses. This run is basically a really nice uphill climb through redwoods on Crystal Springs trail, thean along the Skyline on Skyline Trail, through more redwoods, crossing Kings Mountain Road and following the ridge to Wunderlich. From there, it is 5 miles, all downhill. Looking at the map, estimated 13-14 miles. This is more than I have ever run since the 2010 Kauai Half, but with couple of recent runs around 10-11 miles, I thought this would be doable for me, especially with the easy downhill at the end. In that, I could not have been more wrong. I enjoyed the first uphill part, really loved the remote and solitary feel of the Skyline trail (despite couple of low energy / morale points), but suffered mightily on the downhill (I forgot legs are not wheels!!!). I have never experienced this much pain on a bike, I cursed myself for this idiotic idea for the whole 5mi section. Timing worked perfectly, Marketa had to wait for me about 10 minutes. Her 13 mile run was "as usual" good, no biggie for her. I ran the longest distance so far, 14.4 mi (according to my Nike watch and maps, the Garmin gadget lost his mojo before I did and somehow shortened the mileage, see below). It is now manually edited.
So overall, between Marketa's and mine routes, we covered about 56 human powered miles of the Peninsula hills. It would be nice to do it again without the need for driving!

A little bigger slice of Coe

I am a complete Coe (Henry Coe State Park) novice: I was there on my bike just once before (Oct 2, 2011). There are probably number of riders in the Bay Area who love the place, as documented by many quite well maintained singletrack trails. Then there are the Coe-nuts who ride 10K vertical, 100mile rides and attempt to climb an equivalent of Mt. Everest in a single ride.

On my first solo ride at Coe, I realized that I will have to start taking Coe in small, carefully measured doses and really think beyond the bike ride much more than any other location (weather, water, creek levels, poison oak etc.).
Today was a day which begged for another prescribed dose: sunny, bright, chilly, three days before the rains were supposed to come, and most of all, a friend willing to explore new trails.

Pavel and I started the ride at the park headquarters, enjoyed the nice flat Flat Frog (duh!) singletrack and braved the exposed and sketchy downhill on Middle Ridge.

The remains of controlled burns and many downed trees (but all removed by rangers or trail volunteers) made this trail look quite a bit different from what I remembered. After reaching the creek, we tried to avoid my last ride's mistake of following the creekside "trail" and decided to extend the loop to Jackass Ridge and Los Cruzeros. From there, we climbed the Lost Spring singletrack and descended the wide grin-inducing China Hole singletrack. But this three mile extension cost us dearly in leg power, because it added about 1500 vertical feet.

The final climb up from China Hole to Manzanita ridge was painful, despite the great views. Coe hurts, for sure. There is no other cure than a repeated, preferably larger dose (5, 6K vertical?). Let's hope for a nice dose response. Oh, as far as the popularity of Coe, we saw one other rider today in 4 hrs. Garmin track here.

2011 in Numbers - Happy Trails in 2012

So here we go again, just for the record, my overall cycling mileage and vertical. 

Total: 3,226.6 miles (5,192.7 Km)

Commuting to work: 1296 mi / 73,200 vertical feet

Road rides: 1239.5 miles / 104,536 ft climbing

and Mountain biking: 691.08 miles / 84,545 vert. ft.

Also, 16 race days (7 at BCBR and 9 at LKHC), finishing solidly at the very end of the pack.

Let's hope there will be at least as many in 2012.

Peninsula to Point Reyes - Part III

Sorry for the confusion: there have not yet been parts I and II of this bike ride. This was supposed to be a leg # 2 of my long planned one-way bicycle trip from mid-peninsula (Belmont) to Olema, at the foot of Point Reyes. The distance (estimated >100mi) and the fact that I am planning on riding as many trails along the way as possible, requires a long day.
St. Stephen's day (December 26) is definitely not a long daylight time of the year, but the recent dry and sunny weather here prompted me to plan and ride which was supposed to be a second half of the planned long ride, starting at the Golden Gate bridge and finishing in Olema.
Due to a late start (OK, I arrived at the GG bridge and realized there were no bike shoes nor helmet in the trunk, I swear, that has never happened before!!!), the plan was changed to start at the Muir Beach overlook on Highway 1, just north of Muir beach.

The weather looked great, despite a dense fog down on the peninsula, as well as some fog in the distance up north. The overlook is a convenient place to start a ride, or take a break (water, toilets), with a great view of the coastline.

I entered the Cost View trail and started the climb towards Pantoll. The trail was a singletrack! I did not know there were any left at Mt. Tam. The trail is steep, rocky and rutted by horse hooves, so not a nice singletrack  by any means, but OK. The views of the coast and Hwy 1 got nicer:

and my via point - Mount Tamalpais ahead:

The track widened before the Pantoll station, where I did not stop, crossed the Panoramic highway and continued onto Stagecoach fire road, which is even paved for the first part. Here, the trail is a wide, smooth surfaced double track, so one can put the hammer down and enjoy the views.

It seemed like the West Point Inn came too soon, and another push along the Old Railroad Grade rd. took me to the visitors center just below the East Peak of Mt. Tam.

From here, I descended on Eastridge road and turned right (north) onto West Ridge Blvd, a.k.a. "Seven Sisters". Just after the second sister (or sixth?, depends from where you count...), the road disappeared in a fog bank.

I reached the Bolinas Ridge trail head shortly after, entering redwoods forest here.

This was about half way through this ride, with 11 miles to go to Sir Francis Drake Blvd near Olema. This trail is known to be muddy in the winter, mainly due to the redwood trees collecting the moisture, but since we did not get a drop this December, the surface was great, cushioned by redwood needles. The trail follows the Bolinas ridge, but it is by no means flat. It is a roller-coaster ride with redwood sections alternating with steep, rocky, chaparral covered climbs, where one can look both towards the coast as well as inland.

For this part of Bolinas ridge, I was in the woods completely alone, the only sound was my tires cracking some fallen branches, this could have been the Enchanted Forest.

With about five miles to go, the trail leaves the woods and enters cattle pastures, grass covered hills, and becomes badly rutted, I assume by the cows eroding the area when it gets muddy. At this point, the temperature dropped to mid forties under overcast skies and I was getting tired by getting bounced on those sods which seemed to be placed in a perfect checker board pattern.

But I could see Tomales Bay from here and knew there would be a warm room, fire in the fireplace, hot shower, beer and some local raw oysters awaiting me couple of miles ahead. That all turned out to be the case at the Point Reyes Seashore Lodge.

So the Leg number 3 was just 26.5 miles in 2:45 hrs, but enough on this beautiful winter (!) day. Leg one is Belmont to San Francisco, leg two Golden Gate bridge to Muir beach over the Marin headlands. I hope this whole trip will come together next year.  Garmin track here.

Low Key Hill Climb Series 2011

On Thursday, The Turkey Day, the 2011 nine weeks long uphill race series called "Low Key Hill Climbs" culminated with the last and longest uphill battle to reach the summit of Mt. Hamilton. The races took place every Saturday morning at various roads around the Bay Area. The races had several things in common: volunteers who did a great job in herding all the nervous roadies at the start and finish lines, the racers themselves (the usual Bay Area roadie crowd, whatever that means), beautiful local small roads, all pointing quite sharply upwards, and a rain free weather. One thing that none of the races featured, despite the name, was anything low key. Sure, there were no large number plates, no podiums, no prizes and no speeches, but these were fiercely competitive events, with the top guys and ladies achieving quite unbelievable times and ascend rates. Overall results are posted to a great detail here.

As for my "goals" for these races, I thought these may be a good opportunity to keep my legs in shape during the fall season, when days get shorter and weather may make it harder to get out and ride. Secretly, I also thought it would be nice to be able to do all nine weeks. There were also several locations I have never ridden before (Sierra Road, Palomares, Mix Canyon, and yes- Bohlman etc. Rd).

To make the nine weeks-long story short, I managed to participate in all nine events, thus earning a membership in the exclusive 100% club. It was not easy, I suffered on several climbs mightily and was reminded on weekly basis of how many super fit people live in this area. My face burned on the sun exposed section of Page Mill Road in a 75F weather, I froze my ass off on the way down Highway 9 after the climb, bonked twice on Bohlman and Mix Canyon, and got soaked wet and punctured on the way down from Mt. Hamilton. I also got to meet my friend Martin whom I raced with at the BCBR, and his family, in Vacaville.

So, by mere participation, I earned slot # 71 out of total 326 riders who scored, and finished second at the Endurance Award, which I interpret as someone who has accumulated the longest time (my overall time was 38 minutes shorter than the winner's)! Here is a summary table with some numbers:

Hill	Montebello	Sierra Rd	Page Mill	Bohlman- Kittridge- On Orbit	Palomares	Mix Canyon	Highway 9	Kings Mountain	Mt. Hamilton	Overall
feet climbing	1940	1759	2221	2010	1062	2257	2128	1540	4399	19316
distance	5.3	3.66	8.62	4.44	4.56	4.91	6.67	4.32	18.4	60.88
grade	6.95%	9.14%	4.89%	8.61%	4.42%	8.74%	6.05%	6.77%	4.53%
points	89.71	83.63	91.02	83.5	85.76	79.56	80.71	84.2	87.65	438.33
time	39:56:00	35:05:00	47:52:00	41:04:00	24:03:00	45:54:00	46:40:00	30:51:00	103:21:00	414:46:00
mph	7.96	6.26	10.81	6.49	11.38	6.42	8.58	8.4	10.68
fph	2915	3008	2784	2937	2649	2950	2736	2995	2554

Belmont Bicycle Bridge Open

The pedestrian / bicycle bridge over Highway 101 in Belmont finally opened on Saturday November 19. From what I read online, the idea was first proposed about ten years ago, construction approved and planned by city of Belmont in 2009, first scheduled to open in June 2011 and after one false broadcast on the web, opened in November.
This bridge crosses Hwy 101 just north of the Ralston Avenue overpass and connects to the Bay Trail at the Belmont Sports Complex on the eastern side, and drops you off onto Ralston at Hiller St. west of 101.

It will allow access to the Bay Trail at Oracle, as shown on the picture below, with possible (even though not very easy) access to San Carlos Caltrain and points south.

On the Belmont side, entering the bridge means veering off Ralston and making a left turn onto Hiller, then crossing Ralston at the pedestrian crossing light signal, which should work fine. On the way west, there will be couple of blocks of heavy traffic streets with no bike lanes until NDNU. As usual, the merge of the off-bridge lane onto the street crosses the right turn only lane, so one will have to watch for mindless drivers here:

Overall, the bridge is big and ugly, as many things in this country are, and if it really cost $8.8M (this figure is not from a reliable source), I think the whole Belmont and San Carlos could have bike lanes painted on every street and perhaps even some bike-only traffic signals installed, as they do it in Holland, for example. But it is great that the bridge is here, since it will open a possibility for me to ride to work on chilly winter days when the San Andreas trail is too cold, and ride home after dark instead taking the train.  

Foster City Patch has a report and a slide show here.

Here is a shaky iPhone video of my inaugural bridge crossing: