Struggle after Skiing #5: Seasonal Pattern or Mistake?

 I'm getting there. I'm straighter and turning quicker. And I was able to ski both Castle and Lower Dynamite nonstop from top to bottom.  A huge improvement compared to the last time I had to stop and rest 6 times to complete Castle run. The snow being softer, not crusty like the last time, probably helped. But standing straighter certainly made the runs less tiring. Now I just need to add some more style.

The Sierra weather turned clement on Thursday, so I went up on Friday 2/9. I skied about as much as the last time, for the total of 5 hours, and I was less fatigued afterwards.

I figure it'll be the repeat of the last time: watch football on Sunday, crap out Monday, and then I'd be back on my feet. No such luck. I continue to have bad days. Maybe it was the bike repair work. I finally got around to put sealant in the new tire. Then I installed the bike mirror the next day. They were both minor works, but still an exertion. Then yesterday, I walked 6 blocks in the afternoon and did 2x8 pushups in the evening. I'm paying the price today.

I usually get weaker after #4 or #5 in January. It could be just the continuation of that pattern. Or it could be that I did too much after skiing. Can't tell which. One thing for sure, one week of probation is still valid. I'll have to lay off any exertion for a week the next time. If I struggle again, then it would be the seasonal pattern. If not, then it is the exertion in the days after skiing.

Bike Ride to Guy West Bridge

 I slammed the bike onto the curb a week ago and trashed the new tire that I installed only a month ago. I got the replacement, but I wasn't able to install it because I was in the probationary period after the skiing last Thursday.  I finally installed it on Tuesday and then took it out for the test-drive yesterday. I wanted to make it to Folsom for 40 miles, but the weather didn't cooperate. I decided to make it to Guy West Bridge and back.

I was planning to bike back on the south bank. I knew there was construction going on under Hwy-99, but I was able to sneak through it the last time. This time, however, they had fence around it. I had to backtrack to the bridge and bike back on the north side. That added extra 6 miles. To make the matter worse, it started to rain at noon, earlier than the forecast. I rode through cold rain for over an hour, nonstop at the speed of 12 mph. In all, it turned into 26-mile ride.

Dirt splashed all over my back, all the way up to my helmet. I'll have to install a fender if I'm to bike-pack this summer. I didn't feel the cold while riding, but my feet were numb when I got home and got off the bike. I got out of dirty clothes, grabs a quick lunch and crawled into the bed. I slept like a baby for 3 hours. Then I got up feeling like a million bucks. It's amazing how well a mild hypothermia works as sleeping aid. 

Today, I'm recovering from the ride. I'm fatigued, but it not much worse than regular post-exercise fatigue. I'll probably be under the weather for a week -- it was a strenuous exercise.  When that is over, it'll be the time to hit the slope again. The weather is supposed to turn sunny next Thursday after dumping a foot or two of new snow. 

Implication of Nicotine Not Working

For the first two days I was high, energetic and clear-headed. Then the effect faded in subsequent days as my body got used to nicotine. But I'm not using nicotine patch to get high; I'm using it to get me through the weather after heavy exercises. So, the question is: has it been effective in tempering my exercise-hypersensitivity while I'm under the weather? I haven't accumulated enough data for the analysis, but, frankly, I don't seem to need one. A glance at my activity log tells me that nicotine patch didn't make difference on my exertion-hypersensitivity when I'm under the weather. 

So, what does that mean to my dopamine theory? The theory is that dopamine tempers down the inflammation-hypersensitivity and, therefore, prevents PEM. Therefore, it necessarily predicts that nicotine will prevent, or, at least, alleviate the PEM. Was the theory disproven?

One could suspect that nicotine does not sufficiently raise the dopamine level. But it does. I know that because my cheeks get flushed and warm when I'm on nicotine patch, whether or not I'm under the weather. And I'm more energetic when I'm not under the weather. It's just that nicotine does not have the desired effect when I'm under the weather. It works when I'm healthy, but it does not when I'm under the weather, in other words. That makes nicotine patch useless for my purpose.

Another possibility: Novelty Effect may not be mediated by dopamine. I did search for brain chemicals for Novelty Effect ("response to novel stimuli") and found this paper that mentions 3 chemicals: dopamine, acetylcholine and GABA. Then a search for acetylcholine and microglia lead to this paper: Acetylcholine suppresses microglial inflammatory response via α7nAChR to protect hippocampal neurons. But a7nAchR is a nicotinic receptor that nicotine binds. Which means nicotine patch, in addition to raising dopamine level, should have similar effect as acetylcholine. 

So, I'm back to square one. It's still possible that dopamine/acetylcholine work to suppress the hypersensitivity in ways that nicotine cannot induce. Maybe pharmaceutical intervention is not a substitution for the natural response to novel stimuli. Or combination of 3 chemicals somehow temper town the hypersensitivity in a way that nicotine cannot. I have no idea. All I can say for now is that novel stimuli work, and nicotine doesn't.

Ski #4 (No More Nicotine Patches)

The weather hasn't cooperated for 2 weeks. I had a small window on 1/25 - 1/26, so I went up on 1/25. The slopes were crusty. It didn't snow as much as I hoped for and it has been warm. It probably has been melting in the afternoon, only to freeze in the morning. I went to East About, a narrow and steep run and instantly regretted. The skis picked up speed quickly and I couldn't make turns quickly enough. I'll have to wait till we get a better snow to go back there.

The rest of the day wasn't bad. I spent most of time on Castle and Lower Dynamite off Grand View Express. I was having so much fun, in fact, I ended up skiing over 5 hours. I had to rest after about 1.5 hours because of the ordeal getting out of East Run. Then I spent another hour before taking the lunch break. I went to the West Bowl in the afternoon, but the black runs were closed. I came back to Grand View, spent more time and then I was ready to go home.

My skiing is progressing nicely. I did what I wanted to do this time: stay straight and fall into the fall line. Looking at the video, though, I'm still not straight enough. I'll have to correct that the next time.

I didn't use nicotine patch at all this time. The post-exercise recovery progressed fine for 3 days, and then I crashed on the 4th day. It might have been triggered by watching the NFC championship game with emotional ups and downs. SF won, but I was feeling crappy through the evening. I'll repeat the same thing the next time -- no exercise for 4 days other than 4 block walking -- and see I'll get away with not crashing. In any case, not using the nicotine didn't make it any worse, so that will be the end of nicotine patch.  I could use it recreationally every once in a while, but it no longer has any effect. I'll use up whatever I have left and that will be that.

Ski #3 and Aftermath (Nicotine Patch Doesn't Work)

After the ski #2, I crashed on the 3rd day. I did 2x8 pushups the night before and then I slapped on the nicotine patch on the top of the old one by mistake in the morning. So, the plan to stay on the patch didn't get executed. 

The mountains got another foot of snow, and I went back up on 1/12. Most of the lift were open this time. Castle run, which I remembered as Rook instead, was open too. It was great at the top, but then you have to paddle to get to the second half of the run. So I went up there only a couple of times. West Bowl Express was open too, but I didn't make it there. I got lost on the way there in the afternoon and ended up at Nob Hill instead.  I'm going back next week for #4 and I'm sure I'm make it to West Bowl Express then.

I stayed on the nicotine patch this time for 4 days. I still crashed on the second day. It wasn't bad, but it still was a crash: I ended up spending 5 hours lying down during the day.  So, I'm coming to the conclusion that nicotine patches don't help preventing crash. I'll stay off nicotine the next time.

Ski #2 and the Aftermath

18 more inches of snow from the storm over the prior week allow them to open up more lifts and slopes. Both Grand View Express and Nob Hill had sections of black runs open, and I went up those chairs and down the bumps all day long. 2 hours in the morning and then 1.5 hours in the afternoon were enough to tire me out. Maybe skipping lunch made me tire out quicker than I would have. I was going to come back to my car for my lunch, but it was a little too far. I had enough for the breakfast and wasn't hungry anyway, so I decided to skip lunch and just rest. 

That was on Jan 4th. In the evening, something was cramping inside my knees. I don't know what it is exactly, maybe the ligaments or tendons, but it's been happening since last year whenever I ski hard. All the knee rolls that I've been doing on the slope must be taking the toll. I remember having to pull off coming back from Heavenly last year because my knees were cramping so bad that I couldn't drive. My thighs and calves then took the turn the next morning and became sore. The soreness turned into pain the morning after. Then they were all gone after 2-hour nap in the afternoon, and I seem to have fully recovered from skiing. Recovery from a hard skiing in 2 days? Not a bad aftermath performance. 

Anyway, I think I'll be able to get my 2nd degree black belt in skiing this year. I'm still hunching a little too long after the turns on steep mogul runs, but I'm getting straighter a little quicker. I'll have my back straight and be in the rhythm all the time by the end of this season.

I got on nicotine patch starting from the day 1 after skiing this time, and the bottom hasn't fallen out after 3 days. Being on the nicotine for at least 3 days may have prevented the week-long weakness like the last time. But then, it could be just that I struggled the last time because it was the first day of the season. I struggled after the first day last year too. Still, nicotine should've prevented the weakening, and it didn't. And the success this time could've been because it was the second time, not because of nicotine. So, the hypothesis that nicotine is not effective for hard exercises still stands. I'll keep using nicotine throughout this season and see what happens. If the aftermath performance becomes progressively worse, then it'll be same as the last year, or the year before. Which will mean that nicotine didn't make a difference. If the aftermath doesn't get worse, then it's either that nicotine made the difference, or I have made further recovery that I no longer get weaker as the season progresses.

Nicotine Patch Not as Effective for Strenuous Exercise (Aftermath of Skiing #1)

Sierra at Tahoe was known as Sierra Ski Ranch when I was there the last time. Which meant that I haven't been here since the 1990s. It's a minor resort off US-50 and that's probably why I didn't frequent it. US-50 is not as convenient as I-5, so I don't come this way for skiing too often at the first place.  When I come, I'd continue to Heavenly rather than stopping here. The exile to MECFS land for 15 years certainly didn't help either. But I got a season pass for it this year instead of the Epic Pass because the price for Epic Pass went up to $800. The first Saturday of December was the season opener. I went up on Monday the 11th.

The first day of the season, and I was lacking enthusiasm for some reason. I got up late -- the alarm didn't go off -- and I almost gave up. I was still tired from biking 5 miles and then jogging 4 blocks on the 9th and the thought of skiing didn't excite me enough to get me going. It must've been the been-there-done-that syndrome. It's the 5th season since I got back on the slope and the wonderment has been slowly fading since. This year is a continuation of that. But it sure felt nice to be back on the white mountains under the bright sky once I got on the lift chair.

Only one run was open. One foot of snow the week before wasn't nearly enough to cover up the rocks and other obstacles. But they managed to open one beginner slope with the aid of snow-making machines. The lack of challenging runs was a good excuse to work on my techniques and all that squatting to get my turns in shape was enough an exercise for the first day.  I skied for 2 hours in the morning and then 2 more in the afternoon before coming back. 

As usual, the morning after was fine. I had a bit of head pressure, so I swallowed a Sudafed pill. In the evening, I was full of energy. I was in the kitchen for a full hour rattling pots and pans, whistling all the while. I was in the best condition that I could ever be in. Then the bottom predictably fell out the next day. I slapped on the nicotine patch in the morning hoping that I'd stay on my feet, but that did not happen. The 1-hour nap in the morning didn't help either: I was groggy and horizontal all day long. I bounced back a little in the evening though. I stayed on my nicotine/Sudafed for 4 more days till the 16th. I was back on my feet on the 14th, with an aid of the patch and 2-hour nap in the afternoon, and then crashed again on the 15th. 

Back in 2020, I felt that getting knocked out for a day or two was OK. Now, getting knocked out even for a day seems too much. The more I improve, the more I expect, I guess.

So, is the nicotine patch losing its efficacy? Or was the skiing too hard an exercise to paper over with the patch? Taken together with the 40-mile bike ride after which I was under the weather for a week, the answer seems to be the latter. Nicotine patch helps, but not as much as living on the road or in the wilderness. I was able to backpack 75 miles through Yosemite in 7 days, but I'm keeling over after 4 hours of skiing. Which kind of makes sense. Nicotine is a powerful dopamine generator, but not as powerful as striving in places that you've never been before. But it is still more powerful than Sudafed.