Gina Schnathorst (Host): Welcome to the Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics' ISH Dish Podcast, practical health advice from Iowa Specialty Experts. We want to connect the members of our communities with the latest healthcare information that's understandable, relatable and useful to your daily life. Today in the studio, we have the one, the only, Steve Simonin, President and CEO of Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics. How are you?

Steve Simonin: It's my first podcast.

Host: It's so exciting, and it's a Monday.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. It's beautiful out there. You know, as I was coming into your annex here, I got jumped by a blackbird out front.

Host: Nice.

Steve Simonin: So, my anxiety is high.

Gina Schnathorst (Host): Spring is

here. All right. Well, the topic for our podcast show today is essentially going to be about RAGBRAI

because

you are all in when it comes to RAGBRAI. But to back up just a step, I want to ask you, overall, how did you get into biking?

Steve Simonin: Yeah. I like all kids in Iowa had a bike growing up and things. And I did a day or two of RAGBRAI here or there. But in a 2014 advertisement, I was the first patient for the Iowa weight loss bariatric surgery. It was July 21st, 2014. And after that, I did a day of RAGBRAI that summer, and then a couple employees said, "Hey, we used to have teams where we came from. Iowa Specialty Hospitals should have a team."

Host: Makes sense.

Steve Simonin: Yeah, I'm like, "Okay." So, we started off small that year and had kind of a ragtag group and it's grown ever since. And this summer, we're up to like 42 to 45 week-long riders, which is double from last year, because it's the 50th this year. So, it's going to be like a massive party.

Host: Not that it isn't anyway.

Steve Simonin: No, we're in bed by like 8:45 and up going at 6:00. So, we're really not the partying crew. However, it will be a lot of fun. And we have about 15 to 20 day riders as well. So, it's just going to be a big crew.

Host: So, you started with RAGBRAI officially when?

Steve Simonin: I've always done a day or two. I probably did three or four days prior to the week-long. And then, people will always ask me, they say, "Do you go for the whole week?" Well, yeah.

Host: Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

Steve Simonin: Yeah, absolutely. I'm like, "Of course, yeah. I'm not going to leave before dessert." Yeah. So, what is RAGBRAI? So, it's seven days. This year is 500 miles, which is the longest, it's like the seventh longest. And there are a lot of hills on both sides of Iowa, not where we're at, but...

Host: did they do that on purpose, because it's the 50th?

Make it longer or make it 500 to kind of coincide?

Steve Simonin: I don't know. They talked about mimicking the first route 50 years ago, and it went from Sioux City to Davenport and included Des Moines. So, I think they included that and they just went a little bit special. They claim that on Wednesday from Ames to Des Moines, which is also one of our employee wellness rides, they're going to go for a hundred thousand people. I'm like, "That's just crazy,"

Host: Hundred thousand from Ames to Des Moines. Wow.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. On county roads with people who don't know how to ride right and probably I'm going to be screaming "Get your helmet on" to a lot of people.

Host: I was just going to say, so that segues me into the talk about helmets.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. I'm kind of a-- I apologize to those people named Karen-- a Karen on the road when people are coming on the wrong side or they're riding abreast.

Host: What is the etiquette on the bike if you are passing?

Steve Simonin: Well, if you're passing on your left, you know, other people have different words, but it's just to let people know, some people will have a bell, some people will whistle, just to let people know that you're coming up. And like I rode Saturday and Sunday, just yesterday and the day before, and there's a lot of walkers and a lot of people have headphones in. So if you're going to be on that track with a hundred thousand people, don't have things in your ears, because you're going to have to be very aware. Safety first.

Host: I feel like there's probably an etiquette handbook somewhere, maybe it's informally written or just you'd know it after so many

years,

but I would not want to be that person that did it incorrectly.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Well, it's like in your car, you ride, right? You're on the right side of the road and you kind of hug the curb and you expect people to come from behind and you're just aware.

Host: Right.

Steve Simonin: Life's a lot about being aware.

Host: And the helmets are optional for RAGBRAI or highly recommended? Is there a rule for that?

Steve Simonin: They're not going to kick you out, but you'll get a lot of grief from other riders. You won't see that many people without helmets on. And I've had a lot of people talk to me about their monday where they flew off and their helmet saved their lives.

Host: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have too. I have one, and I wear it if I ride around my little town,

you know, like out, because I have to go on the highway a little bit to make a real good loop. And you don't even know they're there, they're so light.

Steve Simonin: Do you remember Pastor Chuck from the Methodist Church? It was like 25 years ago. And Chuck, I was riding in town, I didn't have a helmet on and he stopped me and said, "How are you the example for the kids in town?" I'm like, I felt so guilty.

Host: That does it.

Steve Simonin: Yeah, that did it. Ever since then, I've been wearing my helmet.

Host: Good for you. All right. So, let's talk about-- because I am curious as well, I've never done RAGBRAI.

I

haven't even done a day of it. Biking isn't my

forte.

I'd rather run or elliptical or something like that for fitness. But, as I'm curious, what does a typical day look like? Just bike me through it.

Steve Simonin: A typical biking day or RAGBRAI day.

Host: A typical day with RAGBRAI.

Steve Simonin: Okay. So, our team is a little different. We like to start early. Since, let's say, there's 30 of us, we take a U-Haul. We want the bikes on the U-Haul by 7:00, 7:30 in the morning. A lot of us will leave if it's really hot out. There's a lot of my team that will leave before dark or before light in the dark, and I'm not one of those. When dawn breaks around 6:00 a.m., that's when a lot of us will ride out. And it's nice and the sun's rising and we get our coffee.

Host: It sounds peaceful.

Steve Simonin: It's very peaceful. Yeah. It's an older crowd that goes really early. I think the partying crowd goes later. I know because I haven't been there.

Host: Okay. We'll leave it at that.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. And then, there'll be different stops, small towns. Small towns are great. There's always like little kids like selling brownies and Gatorade on the side of the road.

Host: So do

you really lose weight on RAGBRAI? There's got to be a push.

Steve Simonin: No. And then, there's the beer stops and the Mr. Pork Chop and the ice cream. And some people eat cake.

Host: All the pie.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Some people gain weight. But I think that's mostly water weight. And it's a healthy thing. If you're going to ride 500 miles, you might gain a little water weight. But in the next couple weeks, you're going to feel okay.

Host: But really who cares?

Steve Simonin: Who cares?

Host:

Yeah, exactly. So then what?

Steve Simonin: It depends. I think the lowest mileage day this year is 54 miles. And there's over a hundred miles on a day and it's averaging 70 to 80 miles. And I figure with stops and stuff, about 10 miles an hour. So if it's a 70-80, plan on eight hours, you know, 2:00 into the town. And once you get to the town and once you get to the campsite, we're just going to sit around and look at each other because we're so tired

Host: Right. Go find a tree and take a nap.

Steve Simonin: Yeah, exactly.

Host: Is there some way-- like for me, biking has always been difficult because it hurts my

tailbone. What do you do or what do they recommend to get your tailbone even or your back and your

tush all in shape to do

all this?

Steve Simonin: No, and that's a great question.

Host: That's a long time on the seat.

Steve Simonin: It is a long time on a seat. And truly, I talk to people and I said, "If you're going to go, get your saddle in the seat. Just sit in spin bikes or whatever during the winter, get used to sitting on a bike. Because it is going to be tough. And a lot of people use bike shorts that have a little bit of cushion in there. But for the most part, it's going to hurt. You're going to have to get used to it.

Host: Yeah. And I know you and I have talked about this before because you have a Peloton and I have an iFIT, which is the level down, but it has the screen and the interactive rides. I think it's awesome. But every time I get off that thing, I'm like, "Ah, I don't know if I can do this." It's hard to push through.

Steve Simonin: You need to spend more time on it.

Host: Exactly, yeah. But there's my conundrum of working through the pain and...

Steve Simonin: Yeah. But I mean, you and I have talked before about riding and ellipticals, you know, everything comes with pain and you just have to get your body used to it.

Host: Yeah, I remember my very first day on an elliptical. Five minutes, it was at the gym in Clarion. And I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Steve Simonin: I remember my friend, Deb, was up there and she was on the treadmill. She goes, "You know, I don't sweat." I'm like, "You're not doing it right."

Host: You're not doing it right.

Steve Simonin: And I said, "Okay, let's do this. Let's get you on the elliptical and let's put the resistance up a little bit. And she was just like squirting sweat. And she was like, "Oh." And I said, "Welcome to exercise, honey."

Host: Exactly. Now, you know. Okay. So, ISH, Iowa Specialty Hospital, we

have a team. Has

that team grown exponentially or is it pretty much the same?

Steve Simonin: Because we stay at host house every night and we do a lot of research and I put out emails to everybody and I said, "We got to find some place in Storm Lake. We got to find someone." We finally found someone in Tama, Toledo.

Host: Oh wow.

Steve Simonin: I didn't even know anybody who lived there. No offense to anybody in Tama, Toledo. I just don't know anybody there.

Host: They're not going to open the casino?

Steve Simonin: No. So anyway, we stay at houses all the time and they're like, "You want how many people to use my bathroom? I've only got six towels." And I'm like, "Oh, we bring towels from the hospital. We'll come and our plan is to leave it nicer than when we left. And there'll be gifts. But it makes it a lot easier for the team when they know that they're going and we camp in the yard. If it's a thunderstorm or something like that, we'll run into the garage. But for the most part, we'll stay in their yard and use their bathroom facilities.

Host: So, I know I've told you this story, but for the listeners, this rolls right into that. When I lived here in Clarion, big Victorian house, we had friends who lived in Iowa City who were going through and Clarion was a stop. "Hey, can we park our bikes and put up our tents in your yard, and we're like, "Yeah, sure. That'll be great." I mistakenly go outside and warned everybody that we were under a tornado watch. Just so you know, nothing's happening, but just so you know, they all came in house.

I woke up the next morning to get ready to go to work and we're stepping over people on my kitchen floor. It was so bad.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Well ,that's sometimes difficult if it's too hot or... So, thank you for being a nice host.

Host: Yeah. I mean it worked out and I wanted them to be

safe, but

Steve Simonin: absolutely No, we love hosts like you.

Host: It was fun and a little intrusive all at the same time.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. You know, the interesting thing is people are like, "Well, should I cook at dinner? Should I plan? Should I get out the grill?" I'm like, "No, no, no. Please don't go to any work." But if they do, we'd love that

Host: Great. You're going to eat it, right?

Steve Simonin: Absolutely. We just rode a hundred miles. We're hungry.

Host: So, do you know what the number is for the ISH team right now?

Steve Simonin: We're kind of like 42. Every time I count it up, I just get tears in my eyes because that's a lot of people.

Host: It is a lot.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. And I haven't gone through the day thing, but that's probably another 10 to 15 people, and it's just a lot, which is great.

Host: Absolutely. And then, a

couple people

to drive up a bus or what do you use?

Steve Simonin: Yeah. So, we've got our U-Haul and the biggest U-Haul we can find. And then, we have my Jeep and maybe another car or something like that. And during the day, the person who is going to do support for our team will go out and get Gatorade and water and beer and snacks. And then, like I said, we just sit around.

Host: What if you have a flat, does your support person then come and help you?

Steve Simonin: No. Well, I do have my bike carrier on there if we have to sag someone in. But the really cool thing about RAGBRAI is the Air Force team, the National Air Force team. They have this huge crew that like takes care of people and all you have to do is just like stand on the side of the road until someone comes and fix your flat.

Host: Nice.

Steve Simonin: Fantastic.

Host: Yeah. Cool.

Steve Simonin: It's happened to me several times.

Host: Sag someone in. So, there's some RAGBRAI speak?

Steve Simonin: Yeah, sagging is basically, "I'm too tired. I don't want to ride the 60 miles to come. So, I'm going to stand on the side of the road with my bike upside down and someone will come pick me up." And if you're registered, and that's important, you know, on registration, there's a lot of people when I did this for just a day or two 20 years ago, I would just go rogue and I wouldn't register. Well, if you don't register, you're not paying for the cops, you're not paying for the porta-potties, you're not paying for the sag vehicle. So, if I'm tired, then I don't have a ride. But if I'm registered, then there is that possibility that I could take the vehicle in.

Host: Okay. Cool. So, another question I have, when I bought my iFIT bike, I did have the option of clipping my feet into bike

so I don't fall. I don't foresee falling off of a stationary bike. However, it could happen. but yes,

I would never tell anyone if it happened.

So,

there's this clipping in thing where you have clips on your

shoes that clip

into the pedals. So if you fall, you can't like quickly unclip, right?

Steve Simonin: Yeah. You've got to practice clipping in and clipping out really quickly. And I tell everybody, if you're going to clip into your shoes, you will fall three times. Not two times, not four times, three times. And it's happened to me and it's usually in front of like 300 people and I'll just like fall over. But the good thing about clipping in is you get the momentum up as you do down. Same thing with cages. You pull up in and it just gives you a more efficient more effective ride. And like I've got clip in sandals, which gives like the most awesome sunburn tattoo on my feet. Yeah, it's great. And I'll show everybody.

Host: Nice design.

Steve Simonin: Take off my socks and shoes. And I'm like, "Ooh, look at me."

Host: Got some sun today.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. I really recommend clipping in or cages or something on your shoes, just because it's so much more efficient.

Host: Sure.

Steve Simonin: And you'll learn. You'll learn.

Host: I just think it freaks me out a little bit because I'm claustrophobic. And to me, that's...

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Well, my Peloton, you said I had a Peloton, so those clips are not easy to get out of. So, some people just take their shoes off and leave their shoes clipped in all the time.

Host: That's kind of defeating the point a little bit, but whatever.

Steve Simonin: I'm like, "Whatever. Okay."

Host: So, let's talk about when is RAGBRAI.

Steve Simonin: Okay. So, RAGBRAI is always the last full week of July.

Host: Okay.

Steve Simonin: And we will gather here at the hospital on Saturday morning of RAGBRAI. We'll all jump into our short bus from assisted living, we donate that and we stuff it full of people and we'll get there, we'll beg people to drive us over to-- it's starting in Sioux City this year. We'll go over to my friend Bobby's, who is going to host us again this year. It started in Sergeant Bluff last year. And I called up Bobby and I said, "Hey Bobby, it's going to start in Sioux City." He said, "I know. You have to stay at my house." And his dad owns like a pizza place. And so, it's like fantastic. And he has a pool. I'm like, "Okay." So, everybody will stay at his house. And last year, we stayed inside because there's a storm. But we'll tent around his yard.

Host: You dip the tire in, you do the whole ceremonial...

Steve Simonin: You know, we did that once, but like, where we're staying, it's probably another seven miles over. And if someone wants to drive the vehicle over, just take my car. I'm not going to do it.

Host: Just say you did it. And then, it's how many stops?

Steve Simonin: And then, we go from Sioux City to Storm Lake, stop in all the small towns, Storm Lake to Carroll, Carroll to Ames, Ames to Des Moines, Des Moines to Tama, Toledo.

Host: Is Ames a stopover or is it just a--

Steve Simonin: No, it's a stopover.

Host: It is? Okay.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. And we're staying at my friend Dave's house and he's getting a band for us. And he is like right downtown by the sororities and the fraternities. And so, it's going to be fantastic.

Host: That's going to be fun.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. And then in Des Moines, the stop is going to be at our downtown clinic, at our new clinic place, which is fantastic. There's a couple showers in there. It's close to Waterworks Park. There's bands at night all the time. The small towns do bands, so we're trying to figure out the big band that they're going to have in Des Moines. So, we're all excited about that.

Host: That's nice.

Steve Simonin: Yeah.

Host: Our Iowa Weight Loss Clinic in Des Moines, it has a huge back balcony in the back, kind of overlooking downtown until that tree grows leaves.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Stand by at Valley Junction.

Host: Yeah.

Between there and the airport.

Steve Simonin: It's such a beautiful building.

Host: Yeah, it's nice.

Steve Simonin: We're having our open house here this weekend. fantastic.

Host: Yeah. Cool. So then, where from Des Moines?

Steve Simonin: So, Des Moines to Tama, Toledo; Tama, Toledo To Coralville. I have like three places to stay there. And then, Coralville to Davenport.

Host: Coralville. is still hosting even though they had some tornado damage, it must not have been too bad.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. I have places in Tiffin and North Liberty. So, it's all kind of all the same.

Host: Okay.

Steve Simonin: And then from there to Davenport and then the short bus will pick us up.

Host: Come back home.

Steve Simonin: We'll come back home.

Host: So, you go back to work on Monday or do you need a day?

Steve Simonin: Yeah, I'll go back on Monday.

Host: Yeah, it's not a big deal, I guess. How often do you ride every day to get in shape for this or-- I mean, biking is your thing anyway, correct?

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Biking's my thing. Like I said, I rode this weekend, and I didn't go very long. It was only like 30 miles a day. And I think that some people are like, "Oh, my gosh. I don't have time to put thousands of miles before..." You don't need to do thousands of miles. You know, it's pretty much five miles and you stop for Gatorade and a banana from a kid or 10 miles and then stop at the beer tent. So, it's more of a series of short rides with 50,000 of your favorite people.

Host: What a fun thing. It's awesome.

Steve Simonin: Oh, my gosh, yeah. So the first year, I had like music on my bike. I had a little Bose speaker. And after a while, I decided that not everybody loves my music much to my chagrin.

Host: Yeah. Well, I suppose, do you guys try to keep in a group?

Steve Simonin: No.

Host:

You just go as a group and then if you're ahead of other people, it's fine.

Steve Simonin: You know, we're big enough, so you're always going to ride with someone probably from your team. But if you don't, you know.

Host: Right. I bet it's different now too with cell phones. I mean, you can text your friends, but where do you plug in at night? Is everybody going into these houses and using all their outlets for--

Steve Simonin: Portable batteries. So, I've got like three of those. And then, we have a long plug-in that we plug into the house. So we say, "We want to use your bathroom and we want to plug a long extension in," and so we do that. The thing is with cell phones in Iowa, it's overwhelmed. I mean, some of these small towns, they can't handle all the-- when I was in Colorado and I did a ride out there, I didn't have cell phone reception. So basically, I had to listen to whatever I had recorded on my phone, which was all Christmas music.

Host: Oh, geez.

Steve Simonin: It was horrible.

Host: That was a big ride, too.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. Well, it was Ride The Rockies and it was really, really tough and you go over mountains.

Host: Beautiful. You didn't see it?

Steve Simonin: I didn't see anything. I was exhausted.

Host: Because you're looking down going, "Help me!"

Steve Simonin: "What am I doing? This was horrible." It was not the answer or the right way. I remember going to the first stop the first day and it was like 8:45. I'm like, "Where's the beer?" And some 80-year-old woman said, "This is about endurance. It's not about fun. This is not RAGBRAI."

Host: Definitely not RAGBRAI.

Steve Simonin: Like, Monday morning, it's my first day. This is awful.

Host: Good for you for doing it though.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. No, it was a big badge. I'm not going to do it again.

Host: I mean, I've seen pictures of you where you've gone out riding and it's so cold that you have literally like icicles your beard and your nose.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. December and January and February aren't the best riding months. But I think it's important. And I've got a fat tire mountain bike that I'll ride in the winter. Last year, some woman looked at me and I fell over on ice and I bruised up my whole side. And I was like, "This is not worth it." But I went out the next week.

Gina Schnathorst (Host): Good for you.

Steve Simonin: Yeah. It is worth it.

Host: Perseverance. Anything else to add for the good of the conversation about RAGBRAI?

Steve Simonin: No, I'm trying to get people excited about it here at the hospital. We're going to have training rides and we can go out to the lake and back and it's about 13 to 15 miles. And I've had several people say, "Don't tell us how long it is because then it'll just blow it for us.

Host: That could be a good idea.

Steve Simonin: But we'll teach them about riding right, and helmets and clipping in and etiquette going over train tracks was a big deal and sitting upright and how to do the gears and.

Host: Yeah.

That's good. And this all fits in very well with our ISH wellness journey. Brooke Nerlien

is our wellness

coach here and she's been making huge strides toward getting everybody healthy and keeping everybody engaged and active. So, this is just another notch in that wellness belt belt, if you will.

Steve Simonin: The cool thing about riding for me is it's also my meditation. Like yesterday I was a couple hours out there and I had some nice music going on. I was listening to a podcast. probably listening to this next week.

Host: This one would be good.

Steve Simonin: So, it's nice and meditative and just careening with nature is beautiful.

Host: Good. I would highly recommend it. I'm not into it, but I would highly recommend it.

Steve Simonin: Someday, someday.

Host: Yeah. Yeah. I have a really cool new bike too.

Steve Simonin: Well then, you're Ames to Des Moines.

Host: I might

do that.

Steve Simonin: Fifty-four miles.

Host: All right. Well, thank you so much for

being on

today. This was a hugely interesting

conversation, So, I appreciate it.

Steve Simonin: Absolutely. Okay.

Host: Thank you for listening to Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics' ISH Dish Podcast. For more information on the topics we discussed today, visit us on the web at iowaspecialtyhospital.com. There, you can read a transcript of today's episode or previously aired episodes, as well as get the latest news from Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics, and explore all of the services that we offer. For the ISH Dish Podcast, I'm Gina. Thanks for tuning in.