Guest Blogger

I was recently contacted by David Haas of the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance.  David had stumbled across this blog and had asked if he could use it to help spread the word about how exercise is not only important for everyday folks, but also for those who face the challenge of defeating cancer.  Since I think my writing level is probably on par with about a 7th grader, I figured getting in infusion of targeted, well written information would benefit everybody.  He sent me the following piece, which I found very interesting and very important if it can be applied to you or someone you know.  Thank you David for the “reach out”, hopefully this will help some people who need it.

I am heading out to the track, then hitting the night skies for a couple of days.  Hopefully I can get back here to post my latest events sooner rather than later.  Until then, enjoy David’s piece……

Staying Fit While Dealing with Cancer

Physical fitness is important for everyone, regardless of their level of wellness. It’s even more vital, however, for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. Staying active can greatly improve a patient’s quality of life, reducing fatigue, increasing energy levels, and helping to fight depression. While it can be hard to maintain your old exercise regimen after a cancer diagnosis, even a little bit of activity helps.

What Counts as Physical Fitness?

According to the National Cancer Institute’s guide to physical activity and cancer, physical activity counts as any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure. Engaging in this kind of activity on a regular basis helps us maintain healthy joints, bones and muscles. It also encourages greater psychological well-being, decreases the risk of heart diseases and helps control weight. Regular physical activity decreases the risk of dying early in both people with and without a cancer diagnosis.

Physical Fitness and Survivorship

Staying physically fit decreases the risk of developing a wide variety of cancer, including breast cancer, endometrial cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. It can also help you increase your chances of surviving an existing cancer diagnosis. One study showed that women who get three to give hours of moderate walking exercise or its equivalent per week are more likely to survive breast cancer than women who remained sedentary. This is especially true of women whose tumors are hormone-responsive.

In another study, people with a higher level of physical activity after a colon cancer diagnosis were more likely to survive their initial bout with the disease. They were also much less likely to have a recurrence. No matter what kind of cancer diagnosis you have, fitness can help you stay positive and feel more energetic.

Fitness During Treatment

Even if you’re used to maintaining a physical fitness program, you’ll probably have to adjust it during your treatment. Many types of cancer can affect your ability to perform the same exercises you once found easy. For instance, fitness for mesothelioma often requires less strenuous activity that doesn’t stress the respiratory system.

People undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment may find that they tire easily. Those who have recently had surgery may have to arrange their exercise program around limited mobility. Make sure you talk to your doctor about staying fit during your treatment. He or she can tell you what types of exercise you should avoid and may have some suggestions for a beneficial fitness program.

Staying Fit in Remission

Physical fitness keeps you healthier after treatment as well as during. People who stay fit after their cancer goes into remission are less likely to see the disease come back and are better at fighting it if it does. They also have a reduced chance of getting other diseases, such as diabetes, which is often associated with weight gain during treatment. Increasing physical activity helps maintain healthy hormone levels, including insulin production.

Many cancer survivors benefit from taking up yoga during and after their treatment. This type of exercise can be adjusted for people who tire easily and have very low mobility, but it can also become very strenuous when you’re ready to advance. Yoga has been shown to improve mobility and help with both physical and mental relaxation. Some classes made specifically for cancer survivors include special restorative poses that promote a healthier immune system.

If you’re going through cancer treatment or have just received a diagnosis, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and let physical activity fall by the wayside. Staying fit, however, could be the key to having easier treatment, faster recovery and a reduced chance of remission later in life.

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I Am Way Too Old For This…

Now I know why I never see Kevin Bacon or Kim Kardashian at any masters track events – having “hit the town” two more nights this past week, in addition to the two nights out down in North Carolina last week, I am struggling to keep my head above water.  I think I have spent more time “out” in the last 10 days than I have in the last 10 months combined.  Getting together with some pals I haven’t seen in a long time required that it be done, however, and I have to admit that it’s been pretty fun (if you don’t consider the “morning afters”).  As for one’s ability to “have their cake and eat it too”, I think that you’d have to choose one (clubbing) or the other (running).  Hitting the pubs every now and then is probably good for your mental well-being, but attempting to regularly relive your 20’s is definitely hazardous to a 43-year old’s running career.  Probably your life as well…

Backing up a couple of days, I did end up heading over to the track last Wednesday for some old-school intervals (land).  I have been receiving a bunch of interesting looking workouts from Greater Philadelphia teammate Delvin Dinkins recently, and think that I will definitely be trying them sometime soon, but on this day I decided to run an old workout just to see where I stood conditioning-wise.  6×600 was probably the set that I did most in 2010 and 2011, so I went with that to compare what I used to run and how I felt doing them now.

Standard 6-lap warmup, weather pleasant with a standard home-stretch wind.  Since, as my kids used to say “I am the boss of me”, I chose to start so that the 600m included two tailwinds and one headwind – it’s good to be the boss.  Didn’t feel great getting loose, but lethargy has never been an excuse.  Changed into my flats and got going.

I targeted 1:45’s – 70 sec quarter pace, 200m walk in between (2:30 rest).  I didn’t think that would be too much to ask, and to be honest I would have been disappointed if that was all I could do.  Struggled with the pace on the first one, as is tradition, came through right at 1:45.  Didn’t feel super-easy, but the first one never does.  Next 4 were all pretty smooth – usually came through the 400m mark right around 67-68 then cruised them in.  1:42.5, 1:43.2, 143.0, 1:42.2 – not bad, felt pretty good throughout.  Last one I was less controlled on, figured “what the hell” – 66/31/1:37.8.  I wasn’t trying to impress anyone with these intervals – wanted to a.) get back out there, and b.) see where I stood.  Mission accomplished – I think that if I had been better prepared (rested, fueled) and approached them a little differently I could have run a set comparable to what I was doing last year (1:41-ish).  At least I know I am in the ballpark, and that if I quit living the life of a Central Pennsylvania rock star and get my shtuff together maybe I still have a chance.  6 lap cool down with a bunch of stretching to wrap things up.

8 easy miles on Thursday (“day after” #1) around the local loop.  I haven’t run any “slow” miles in a long time.  I remember how hard it was to get used to a 7:30 pace last year, but that once I learned how to do it I ran a bunch of recovery miles at that new pace.  Even with my Garmin I had a hard time on Thursday.  Without referencing the watch I naturally just ran 6:45-6:50 pace, even trying to just recover.  I wasn’t going to fight it, it felt very easy so I just went with it.

Into the pool on Friday (day after #2).  Couldn’t even get up there until almost 6:30pm due to some extreme Heineken-induced cranial pressure buildup.  Workout was a tossup – fartlek, tempo, intervals – went with a bunch of intervals with short rest that was kind of like a combination of all three.  20 x 1 min, 30 seconds active rest.  20 min warmup, 15 minute cool down – 65 minutes total.  Got the heart rate up and kept it there for a good half hour, with the massage afterwards felt much better getting out than I did getting in.  Will call it the HydroWorx hangover-killer workout from now on….

I finally went back to work Friday night, to Memphis then right back home for a weekend layover.  Spent all day out at kid sports and home opening the pool, so I decided that with the lack of sleep and busy day I’d treat myself to a day off.  Got out Sunday morning before mass for 11 easy miles to start off the week on a good note.

Don’t really have any races firmed up, but I’m looking at a couple.  There are both 5k and mile races in Ridgewood NJ that are very competitive and offer $$ – we went up there for their masters mile last year (lost to the “enthusiastic” Moroccan gentleman), really enjoyed the day.  Long drive though, could be a show-stopper.  Two weeks later there is a distance festival outside Philly that also offers very competitive fields.  This one is on the track, so I am targeting that meet to hopefully get in a good mile/1500m for the first time all season.  From there who knows what the summer will hold – outdoor nationals are in the Chicago area in early August, and I plan on spending the late summer/early fall on the roads.  I still feel like I am in a base-building phase, even though it is mid-May.  Once the weather gets hot I hope to become a track-rat and fine tune things to hopefully give these last couple meets a good “go”.  For now I am putting my sequined nightclub shirt in deep, deep storage – its time for a long “recovery” run…..

 

 

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Warrior Week

Since last writing, I have put in pretty decent time/miles every day.  I never really know how to count pool miles (as wear and tear on the body, or time spent on my feet), but any way I added them up last week I definitely came in over 50 miles, maybe even closer to 60.  Pretty high numbers for me – still definitely a different approach than in the past couple years, but then again I think my interest is changing a little bit from being strictly a track guy to maybe something longer on the open roads…

I wrote last Monday about going 12 miles out in the Stoney Creek forest.  I got in the pool on Tuesday for some high intensity intervals, with 20 minutes of warmup and cool down taking the entire workout almost 80 minutes.  On Wednesday I rousted my daughter for a dawn-patrol run (easy 2.5 miles) before school – not totally voluntary on her part, but she put in a solid effort so I have to give her credit.  I think the next time she is tasked with going out after school and getting some exercise she will think twice about going into delay mode to dodge her duties.  I got 9.5 more that evening (on my own) on the local loop.  Three days, probably over 4 hours of beating feet…

Back in the pool on Thursday.  Had every intention (as usual) of getting out to the high school track, but it never happened.  Got pressed for time with an afternoon departure on the schedule, so I jumped in the pool and hit it as hard as I could.  Three tabata sessions, followed by an interval ladder – 1:00, 2:00, 2:00, 5:00, 2:00.  Warm up and cool downs again took it well over an hour, it was good to get in something solid as I knew the next couple days might be light.

Spent Thursday evening and Friday in eastern North Carolina – specifically US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.  Anson Flake of HydroWorx fame and I went down to visit my old USNA roommate, now a LtCol in the USMC.  A lot of acronyms, but that is pretty much the way it works in the military.  HydroWorx is holding an underwater marathon this fall to benefit wounded members of the US Special Forces, so we used our connection to visit the Marine Corps Special Operations Command.  We talked to a bunch of great folks down there, and hopefully a few of the relationships that Anson made will help some of the guys down there get up to Hershey PA in September and log some underwater miles while enjoying a little well deserved R&R.  The event is shaping up to be pretty cool, more info here.  Would have been a perfect visit if Anson wouldn’t have kept calling the marines ‘soldiers’.  If they told him once they told him a hundred times – “We prefer to be called Marines…..”

Needless to say, “work hard play hard” was the visit’s secondary theme, so the 4 miles we got in on Friday were not of the best quality after the abuse we inflicted upon ourselves Thursday night.  Ugh.  The legs probably enjoyed the break, however, so no big deal.  We flew home early Saturday, and so since I still had not fully recovered I got in the pool that afternoon for 75 easy minutes.  I went to bed very early that night – I’m definitely not 29 anymore…

Got out for 8 on the streets on Sunday afternoon, then 75 minutes yesterday in the pool.  Today I should have gone back outside, but even with the pool run yesterday the legs hadn’t quite recovered.  Got back in there this afternoon for an hour, should be good to go tomorrow.  The weather has sucked the past two days, so the pool was a nice fallback plan – tomorrow the wind and rain is supposed to break so I AM GOING TO THE TRACK NO MATTER WHAT.

So, essentially in the last 9 days I’ve put in 36 miles on the roads, and almost 6 hours in the pool.  I feel pretty fit, but still don’t have much direction in terms of a specific distance, let alone a specific race.  I’d still like to give the 800 (need to break 2:00 for crying out loud) and the mile (sub 4:20 still possible?) at least one more shot each in a competitive environment, then try go see “how low can you go” in the standard road distances, which I have never really paid much attention to.  The base is there, need to work on the speed.  STARTING TOMORROW.  No backing out now that I have written it in all caps….

 

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12 On The Trail

After taking it easy and lazy yesterday, got back on the proverbial horse today.  Drove out to the Stoney Creek trail, and with my “new” old trusty Garmin at my side I banged out a 12 mile out-and-back.  The weather in the morning was beautiful, but by the time I got out there it had gotten cloudy and the wind had picked up.  Still shorts and a tee weather though, and word is that today is supposed to be the “worst” day of the week.  Thank goodness, because after the mild winter and tropical March, we’ve been “forced” to endure typical spring weather throughout April – unpredictable, and always a little colder than you think…

Today’s run was good.  Targeted 6:40 pace, figuring that was hard enough to get something out of it, but easy enough not to be too taxing and hopefully keep me fresh enough to do some intervals tomorrow.  I tried to avoid hawking my watch during the run though, and tried to just ran like I felt.  I must have felt pretty good, because after the usual easy warmup miles I’m guessing I banged out each of the middle 8-10 miles in 6:15-6:25 pace.  I didn’t force anything, and when the typical 10+ mile fatigue started to set in it just felt right to ease it up just a little bit.  Guessing the entire evolution came in between 1:16-1:17, it felt good to get back out there after 5 days or so of dorking around…

I talked to my XC boss out at the high school and found out that the distance gang is getting on the track on Thursday so I hope to go out and join them then.  I’m planning on getting in a set of intervals in the pool tomorrow as well to make it a 2x week.  The water will be good after todays long run, because I’m guessing I will feel at least a little stiff in the morning.  I’m looking forward to getting my dad up in there with me in the upcoming weeks as well after the installation of his bionic knee this afternoon.  All signs pointed to a successful surgery, so once he gets the ok from his therapists I plan on dragging his butt to the pool with me to keep me company then get in some aqua-work of his own.  Warm water cures all!

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Drake Details

Drake Relays 2012 is in the books, there was obviously no “three-peat” in the cards as I was out-dueled by Lance Elliott.  It was a fun event as usual though, so although neither the result or the time was what I had hoped for, I’m glad I made the trek out there for the third consecutive year and unless something changes I’ll plan on going back again in 2013…

As for the day – at least it didn’t (really) rain.  The days started pretty early.  I got up at 4:55am, to the airport parking lot by 6:00, plane in the air at 7:30.  Got to Des Moines about 4.5 hours later, to the track with almost 2.5 hours to spare.  I warmed up in the field house and a little bit outside, getting a taste of the wind that would be one of the days challenges.  The phone weather app said 20mph, gusting to 28mph, which felt about right.  The good news was that it wasn’t straight down any long stretches of the track, more into the face of the first turn and a quartering headwind down the final straightaway.  It did add a dimension of strategy to the race though, because with a bunch of evenly matched guys all you wanted to do was be the one acting as the ‘barn door’ into the lovely midwestern breeze

Drake University weather observation:  windy

Standard drill getting marshaled and led to the track – Drake officials have always been very organized and very nice.  The whole Drake Relays experience is just like Penn Relays, only without the chaos.  Everything is half-scale, calm, and very Iowan – unlike the Franklin Field’s carnival, at Drake it just seems like you can stop and smell the proverbial roses if you wanted to.  At Penn that’ll get you tazed.  Part of that chaos is what makes the Penn Relays great, so having been to both on several occasions now I can see how each one is so revered in their own sort of way.  Anyway, I digress…

Got to the track then up to the line.  “Only” 24 runners this year, as opposed to 30+ last time out.  I only knew about a half-dozen of the guys from the circuit or past races, could tell there were a handful of guys who definitely looked like they were new to the age group (youngsters – 40 or so).  You never know which one(s) of these guys have been waiting to hit the magic age to come out and show off their young fresh legs.  I was wearing hip number 5, right next to the two guys who I knew would be threats – David Nash and Lance Elliott.

At the gun we took off right into the wind, so no advantage for anyone because nobody was crazy enough to try to do anything other than survive the flood of bodies that broke at the gun.  I stayed out in lanes 2 and 3 through the turn to avoid any trouble, eventually made my way to the rail down the backstretch in the number 2 position behind a young looking guy who started just inside me.  I was more than willing to let him take it out, through the 200 in about 30 seconds according to the scoreboard clock.  Right about then  Nash passed me on the outside and closed the gap on the leader.  If I was willing to let the new guy go, it was even better in my mind to be sitting in third with an eye on one of the guys I was worried about.

We stayed 1-2-3 down the home straightaway, was nice to have some bodies between me and Hurricane Des Moines.  We went through the quarter at about 60 seconds, which was right where I had hoped to be.  Nash passed the leader around this point, so I stayed with him through the brutal headwind turn.  I felt ok, and tried to relax down the backstretch as I could feel the lactic acid starting to build up.  When we got to the 600 mark (maybe 1:31.00?) I started running through all the possibilities how this was going to finish – when do I “go”?  Decisions, decisions.  I stayed on his shoulder in the outside of the lane through the turn, and could hear the PA announcer belting out who was in 3rd, 4th, 6th, etc – I could hear him announcing Elliott’s position, but I had no idea if 3rd was right behind me or way behind me.  Too bad the jumbotron wasn’t fired up like last year and I could have seen Lance in my hip pocket – instead he was lurked, totally unbeknownst to me…

I moved outside and then past David Nash at the 100 meter to go mark.  I think I passed him fairly decisively, and felt like I was operating in space as I got to the midway point of the final straight.  I honestly thought that I was holding my pace, and that as long as I didn’t rig up I my finishing pace would be too much for someone else’s kick to overcome. Wrong-o.  With about 40 meters to go I had company – Lance Elliott moved into my periphery and then passed me.  30-20-10m to go, although I felt like I had “stopped the bleeding”, I couldn’t make up a single inch on his lead.  With a couple of meters to go I contemplated the desperation dive, but had a hard enough time even putting one foot in front of the other let alone launching myself like a middle-aged superhero through the air, past the race leader, and across the line.  That, plus the fact that my dad always said sliding into first base was stupid – the dive plan seemed to be the track equivalent.  I just couldn’t get past him, and even though we both leaned across the finish line almost simultaneously I could tell that he had me.  Sure enough he did, as the FAT scoreboard showed 2:01.88 to 2:01.95.

2012 Drake Relays Masters 800m Run

Not that I was rooting for him or anything, but if someone had to win other than me I was glad it was him.  I have become good friends with him over the last 15 months, and know that this meet has special meaning to him as he’d run (and won) here in high school and college, and he had a big gang of family and friends that came out to support him.  He ran a great race and deserved the win.  The masters track web site said that he “upset” me – he is “only” 41, and after running very well last year despite being injured, I think that like Mark Gomes last year he will be one of the new guys in the age group that will be heard from for a long time to come.  I don’t think that I have anything on him, so to say that I would be “favored” over him doesn’t give him the credit he deserves (and may be a little generous on my part).  If I am able to hang with him as he continues to get better and better I will consider myself lucky and in good company.  Hopefully we can get together at outdoor nationals or somewhere else down the road and get under the 2:00 mark like I know we can – we need to get David Nash under there too to keep his amazing streak of sub-2:00 years alive.  28?  29?  Unbelievable.  I am at 3 and counting….

Got home without much difficulty, have to admit it was a long day though.  45 minutes in the pool on Saturday, took Sunday off.  Had a fun evening watching the kids run in their spring kids XC series, then dinner with my parents.  My dad going out of commission tomorrow as he officially retires the most used and abused knee in the history of 1960’s football ACL surgeries – knee replacement surgery Monday afternoon so hopefully that will go well and he will regain some of those hops he used to have back in the day (waayyyy back).  I anticipate going long tomorrow, getting back on track and plotting out a plan for the next 4-8 weeks.  I don’t know where my season is going – track or roads, long or short.  Beautiful thing is that fact doesn’t bother me one bit – I’ve figured out over the last two meets (nationals and Drake) that my lack of focus is probably costing me a little bit, but I think my overall fitness is pretty decent so if I can target a couple dates and get more dedicated to the track workouts I think I can get myself fine-tuned pretty quick to hopefully drop the times and maybe move up a step on the award stand.  There’s only been one step between me and the top the last three races, but it’s the biggest one and I don’t think the guys that have been standing up there are in any hurry to invite me to take their spot….

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Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Don’t have time to give the play-by-play on the Drake 800m, but let’s just say I missed it by “thaaaaaat much”.  By a slim (.07 secs) margin I ended up second, add it to the stack of 2012 silvers.  It was a good race, with Lance Elliott claiming the title at the wire.  Video link and more details to follow…

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Destination Des Moines…

Took yesterday off, half by plan and half by necessity.  Sometimes it seems like I am busier at home when I am not working (and just catching up on things) than when I am on the road and on the clock.  Guess it just seems that way when I don’t have to stay up all night to make a buck.  Either way I didn’t sweat it, I figure there wasn’t anything I was going to accomplish that was going to put me over the top on Friday.

30 easy minutes in the pool this afternoon, ready as I am ever going to be.  Just has been the case all indoor season, this race prep has been 90% distance work, 10% speed.  I can still count the times I have been on the track on one hand, but I have been able to augment that a bit with high-intensity workouts in the HydroWorx pool.  I am obviously not a physiologist or Running Times contributor, so I do not know the answer to “what is the best training plan out there for a 43-year old miler”.  Am I close?  Ehhh, I doubt it.  Am I confident I can throw something together based on what I have done and not based on what I haven’t?  I think so.  I am counting on the base work I’ve done to help my cause, and on the couple of occasions I have had to put on the spikes or get on the track I’ve felt strong – what could be better?  That, plus the fact that I am counting on the field to be composed of a bunch of other balding guys like myself that have more obligations than they have time for, and that getting to the track is a luxury for them, not a priority.  With that in mind I think I will be able to hold my own…

The weather tomorrow is supposed to suck though, so all this being said this could become the track version of trench-warfare.  While the temperature forecasts have improved (from a whopping 48 degrees all the way up to 53 degs), the winds are still supposed to be in the 25mph range with a chance of showers.  Just lovely.  Having flashbacks to 2010, when the horizontal rain made Drake one of my more memorable races of that season, for all the wrong reasons.  It’ll be what it’ll be though, and the beautiful thing about track is that the weather is the same for everyone – unless you are leading the race, I suppose.  Hmmmm – will there be some “cat and mouse play” on the blue oval?  Not if Lance Elliott just leads the first 700m for the rest of us – just think of how fun it would be for him to hear the roar of his hometown crowd cheering him on as he leads the pack through the gentle, hurricane-force wind.  What do you say, old buddy!?!

First things first – getting there.  Plan is to catch the 7am flight out of Harrisburg to either to Chicago, Atlanta, or Detroit, depending on seat availability.  Then hopefully the connection to Des Moines has an empty seat, where I can then grab my rental car and zip over to the track.  There is no ‘Plan B’, so if I get bumped from a flight I’ll do a 180° and start heading home.  It’s worked out the last two years, so I have my fingers crossed I’ll have good luck this time around as well.  Hopefully the same will be true with the race.  After winning in 2010 and 2011, I would love to get one more win there.  Either way, I wouldn’t be going all the way out there if I didn’t really enjoy the atmosphere and the folks, so win or lose I’m sure I’ll enjoy myself.

Not sure this will work, but Flotrack is streaming the event live so if anyone is bored and has a boss who doesn’t care if you watch track and field during the work day, here is a link that might get you started.  If not, hopefully I can post the results tomorrow on the way home, as well as link the actual race footage.  Until then, its Bulldog time!

2012 Drake Relays – Flotrack link

Flashback – 2011 Drake Relays Masters 800m Invitational

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