It was an up and down week for Formula One fans in Austin. Red Bull brought their F1 car to Austin this past week amidst confusion and perhaps a missed opportunity or two.

As of Monday (August 15), they had planned a demonstration run for Saturday, August 20, though they had not formally confirmed nor denied the weekend event. This was exciting news for the people of Austin, as it would be the first time that an F1 car would be fired up in anger here. I for one was looking forward to it. Red Bull typically does a great job when it comes to F1 promotional events – just take a look at the video (below) from the event in Belfast.

From there, it all went a little weird with a rather strange series of events. I was left wondering – did a great opportunity to promote F1 in Austin get squandered?

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They have become the bane of our endurance training existence. Those incessant beep, beep, beeps as they pass me on the trail drive me crazy.

The heart rate monitor.

If you have been sedentary, are unfamiliar with exercise, or have no understanding of physical exertion, then the use of a heart rate monitor might prove helpful. Let’s allow you to have a 3 month window to use it to help establish a relationship between exertion and self-awareness during activity.

Then sell it on Craigslist. And get on with training.

You mean it’s not the gold standard to my endurance training success?

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Twenty one is a good number. If you play Blackjack, it is a winner. So with that in mind, let’s just assume that today’s episode of the Ruminations is a sure-fire winner. At least that’s my story, and I am sticking with it.

I had thought that today’s episode would be a video release party of sorts. Well, once again I was sadly mistaken. So here's the deal: the official start to the video blogging begins on September 1. Period. Quote me on it.  

In the meantime, there are probably no fewer than 21 reasons to ignore the Iowa straw poll. There might be even more – who knows? When the theme of the Ruminations is something along the lines of “truth is stranger than fiction”, well, it became readily apparent in Ames. Michele Bachmann? Ah yes, it is time for more Rhubarb.

1. With Ames distinctly in your rear view mirror, how can we not mention the biggest candidate who didn’t grace the straw of Ames? Texas Governor Rick Perry is now in the running for the Republican Presidential nomination.

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Our current health care system has become one big reimbursement game. Make no mistake about it - If the health care game was a little sexier, I am sure it would appear on Nintendo or Xbox and become a best seller.

As it stands, the current health care system is filled with poor and misguided incentives. The more “stuff” you do, the more procedures you perform, the more you are reimbursed. Your income isn’t based on outcome or patient satisfaction – nor is it even remotely related to it. In all reality, you don’t have to be accountable to the patient whatsoever. There is also a fine line between “fair reimbursement” and any of a number of serious words like “fraud” and “over-utilization”.

Accountability is critical – to the success of the system, and to the patient. Therein lies one of the biggest problems in the health care reimbursement game.

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