Archive for December, 2006

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays! 

I guess that I should start with a little about me.  I am in fact Jim, and I have been running off and on for years.  These days it is much, much slower than in the past, but since Webster says that a run is, “to go faster than a walk; specifically : to go steadily by springing steps so that both feet leave the ground for an instant in each step”, I do indeed run.

I have run a lot of 5Ks, but very few races that were longer than that.  Why do I run?  I really enjoy waging and winning the never ending fight between mind and body, I enjoy the way running relaxes and relieves the tension that builds up during the week, but the thing that I enjoy most is when it is over.  Yes, after the run.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy running.  When you get done running, you have accomplished something.  You have set a goal and achieved it.  For the rest of the day, it is like you are carrying a little personal chip in your pocket that can be mentally cashed in to offset any idiotic person or thing that happens your way during the day…or perhaps just to rationalize that brownie!

Now, to why I signed up for Favorite Run.  I have always thought that running a marathon was ridiculous.  Anyways, I mostly said it because I did not ever think that I would ever run one.  Well, guess what I am going to do on January 1st, 2007.  Yes, probably that too, but I am going to sign up for the Chicago Marathon.  I have had it in the back of my mind for a few years now, but this year I had some inspiration.

I will tell you about that another day.  I will also tell you more about me, the people I am training with, and keep you updated on the setbacks and victories in my long journey toward completing my first marathon.

Met with the lead oncologists yesterday. I have locally advanced rectal cancer. That’s a good thing, it being localized and not having indication of spreading. Treatment planned is: daily radiation supplemented by chemo (will have to wear a surgically implanted appliance and get it refilled every week). The stuff they’re going to use (fluorouracil) looks pretty potent: kills red, white blood cells, as well as platelets. Sheesh. Will certainly have to transform my eating habits to complement/supplement areas that are going to be laid to waste by this chemical.

Anyone heard of this stuff? Comments?

This news kinda took the wind out of my sails [again] yesterday. I hadn’t planned on being like a St Bernard in the Alps carrying brandy. Actually that would be a better alternative than carrying toxins with me. So, I went to the gym this AM and put in 50 minutes of upper body strength and 10 minutes walking on the treadmill (0.5mi). A huge improvement over not being able to walk even around the block a couple weeks ago.

That’s it. If you have any knowledge or desire to comment, please don’t hesitate. This part of life is completely newz to me. Thanks.

rich

A fellow participant on the Yahoo Group, posed the following question to the list:

The question I’d like to ask the other runners is, has anybody ever hit a point where you’re REALLY satisfied with your running?

Happy, sure. We are all happy with a good time. But satisfied? I’ve never run such a race yet myself. Ever. I guess that’s why I don’t set PR’s all that often although I am at a age which most my peers PR all the time. I am happy and satisfied out there just running and hanging out with friends. I can be very competitive and obsessive with time and numbers, but I choose not to, because that would take the fun out of my running. I know myself well enough to know that when the day I don’t find running fun anymore, I would stop completely. And I don’t want that to happen.

I don’t even keep a logbook anymore. Time and distance just are not important to me. What’s important to me is “Yes, I run today. No, I did not run today.”

Am I satisfied? I ask myself that question on a regular basis. It’s all part of the journey to become a mindful runner. And what is a mindful runner, you might ask?

To paraphrase Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal detective Sherlock Holmes, most people “see but do not observe, hear but do not listen.”

A “mindful” person is aware of everything around them, their affects on both the internal and external world and consciously making choices, aware of the consequences of those choices. It is the process of acknowledging the influences that affect our choices. Instead of reacting spontaneously and unconsciously to the stimuli around us, we become mindful of our place in the world.

Am I satisfied? Well, both yes and no. Let me clarify.

When am I not satisfied with my running?

I’m the most dissatisfied when I’m injured and can’t run. Nothing is worse than knowing that all that hard work you put in to create the best and fastest you, is slowly leaking away. It’s knowing that your goals and personal bests are that much further away that hurts the most. It’s knowing that when you are able to start running again, that you’ll have to start that much further back from when you were first injured.

Sometimes, it’s not the lack of the physical act of running that’s the issue, but the social aspect that I miss. It’s at times like these that the separation from the extended running family is felt most. I miss the release that only running and talking with fellow runners can give me.

Sometimes, it is when I feel out of joint with my running self. It’s days like these that it is all a struggle, from trying to find time to get out the door to the time I stop.

I don’t run on days like these, I don’t even jog, I plod. Each stride seems to be a fight against the couch potato trapped inside me. I hate days like these. I don’t feel like an athlete, I don’t even feel like I’m pretending to be an athlete. I feel like the farthest thing from it. Usually a good nights sleep and a couple of days rest can cure this, so I know it’s a temporary affliction.

Then there are other times when I’m not running at the top of my game. When I can’t meet the standards of performance I set for myself on race day. We all make excuses and justifications. However, for me, it’s only for a short while immediately after the finish line. Within hours, I’ve reconciled my performance and have moved on.

In the end, all these afflictions and setbacks, so far, are temporary, so I don’t stay unhappy for long.

When am I satisfied?

I’m satisfied when I run with my friends. I get to share their troubles and triumphs, and they get to share mine. Shared problems become smaller, and triumphs become larger. There’s something about sharing time, miles, effort and sweat with others that create the strongest bonds. Sometimes, it’s eight hours spent in the same vehicle traveling to and from a race that can give you the most insight in you and others.

It’s hard not to be satisfied when you are running smooth and strong. There are those runs where you feel powerful, even invincible. It’s moments like these that you run and cherish. It’s moments like these that you chase after the rest of your life.

When I can meet my goals, it’s hard not to be satisfied. But when I don’t meet those goals, I can be content knowing that I gave everything I had that day.

The best runs are those that come unexpected. They are the sight of hoar frost on trees in winter, the chance encounter with deer, rabbits and hawks on the trail, the unintentional PB, the sun on your shoulders and wind at your back. Those are the days that your feet are wings and you run like the wind.

When I run by myself, I can feel one with the world round me. If I’m running on the track or on the road or on a public path, if I can run as a mindful runner, I can feel the ground pass beneath my feet, the strain as I push through each step, my left hand moving in opposition to my right foot, my breath cleansing my soul.

When I run on trails, I can run outside myself and become at peace with the woods, rocks and streams around me. It’s on these runs that I become a little closer to the universe around me. I’m part of the spin of the world and the story of time.

Am I satisfied? Well, most of the time. But then again, it’s hard not to be, isn’t it?

By Mark G. Collis

http://www.ontherun.ca/

Excuse me while I get on my soap box again.  I don’t know about you, but I can only handle so much second hand “knowledge”, wives tales, misinformation and outright fabrication.  Here are just a few that have got me going over the last couple of months.

“You’re too thin,” or, “My, but you’ve lost an awful lot of weight.”

I’ve heard this one a few times in September from people that I hadn’t seen in over a year.  It bothered me for a while, maybe I was “too thin”.  I had lost a few pounds because of the long runs in my marathon preparation schedule, but I didn’t feel thin at all. In fact I felt healthy and strong.

While attending a Beer Run, as the food and drink was rapidly disappearing it was said to me “Where else will you see so many thin people eating like this?”  And you know, they were right.

Just take a look around you.  In spite of what the media would have you believe with their anorexic child models, your average North American is overweight.

So the question still is, why would my “thinness” be a concern to them.

I have come to believe that our society is not used to seeing fit, healthy people in the flesh. Even as the media tries to drive us  toward an unattainable goal of unnatural thinness, the consumer society drives us to consume. “Normal” body shapes and sizes are not as common as TV and print would have us believe.

“Running will kill ya.  Look at that Jim Fixx, he died while running.”

People use Jim Fixx as an example of someone dying while running. On July 21, 1984, in Greensboro, Vermont, he had a heart attack while jogging. He’d only gone a short distance from his motel when he had a massive coronary. His autopsy revealed that one of his coronary arteries was 99% clogged, another was 80% obstructed and a third was 70% blocked.

What most people either don’t know or conveniently forget is that Fixx had had three other attacks in the weeks prior to his death and refused to see a doctor about the pains in his chest.

What the fools also don’t say is that is that while Jim Fixx died at the premature age of 52 of a massive heart attack, his father passed away at the age of 43. In fact his whole family had a history of extreme premature deaths due to heart problems.

The very fact that Jim Fixx ran probably helped extended his life for those extra nine years.

But then most of the doomsayers don’t think that this information is important, only that Mr. Fixx died at a relatively young age while running. They know that this example is proof positive that exercise is bad for you

“My grandpa didn’t exercise, drank like a fish and was a three pack-a-day cigarette smoker and he lived until he was 93.”

Those that don’t want to acknowledge that they are living an unhealthy life style and or don’t want to change always use this example.  It might be a valid example of genetics winning out over environmental factors, but like Jim Fixx, this is the exception to the rule. That’s because both examples are on the far sides of the bell curve.

There will always be exceptions to the averages.  It’s part of the fascination of statistics. There will always be examples of abnormal behavior. The abnormal helps define the normal, that’s the way statistics work.  The normal examples are firmly in the middle of the curve.

Then why don’t we hear about Joe Average that smoked, drank and didn’t exercise that kicks off at the age of 55?  Because, it’s not news, it’s not different, it’s not the exception.  It’s the same reason that Jim Fixx is used an example, it’s an entertaining, ironic exception rather than the rule.

However, I can just about guarantee that the athlete that drops dead in a race has had an over all better quality of life and that they probably would have died sooner if they lived a “normal” sedentary life style.

How do you measure the benefit of being active, healthy and vital, verses being sedentary, ill and lethargic. Just think of the amounts of drugs being used to keep our elderly “healthy” that could be eliminated if only they had lived a more healthy and active life. Not to mention the people that survive a stroke, heart attack or serious accident because of his or her fitness level.  Those people are merely exceptions on that bell curve of normality.

“I believe you only have so many heartbeats in a life time and I’m not going to waste any of them jogging.”

That famous quote was made by Astronaut Neil Armstrong.  It’s probably one of the stupidest phrases that you’ll ever hear as justification for not exercising.

Let’s test this statement and use some basic math to see if it makes any sense:

• The average non-runner’s base heart rate is about 80 bpm. That is a total of 115,200 heartbeats a day.
• The average runner’s heart rate is approximately 60 bpm.  That totals 86,400 heartbeats per day.
• If you run for an average of forty minutes per day, raising your heart rate by 100 bpm, you will use an aerage of an extra 4,000 beats in each training session bringing your daily total to 90,400 beats.
• That’s 24,800 beats less per day that an average runner’s heart uses.

So, by running, you are saving an average of 24,800 heartbeats per day by being more fit.

If the limited number of heartbeats statement is true then, there are some interesting extrapolations that can be made.  Let’s take this theory one step further:

• Let’s assume that life span of the average male is about 70 years.
• Also that the running lifestyle provides benefits from the age of 30 years.

So, given these parameters:

• The number of heartbeats for an average male for 40 years is 1,681,920,000 total heartbeats.
• The total for the runners heartbeats is 1,319,840,000 over 40 years.
• That is a difference of 362,080,000 heartbeats for the runner over 40 years.

That works out to a possible life span increase of 4,005 days or about eleven years. WOW!

So much for that stupid theory.

By Mark G. Collis

www.ontherun.ca

Yesterday was picture taking day (PET/CT). Not your standard family portrait kinda thing. Couldn’t eat or drink anything prior to the 1200 showdown.

The doctor’s office calls (at 1030am) and says the insurance company won’t approve the procedure unless certain forms are submitted in writing. They call the insurance; I call the insurance and the hospital. The hospital only accepts an app’t once the insurance company approves it. I offered to pay in cash, but they say no. (Where I’d get the cash from is another different matter, eh?) Anyhow, all is settled just minutes prior to the showtime. Whew!

The hospital provides my lunchtime breakfast: 32oz of fizzy “dead” water. Ugh. It’s not terrible. It’s worse. After finishing that off without losing it, the technician brings in a lead box and unloads some James Bond looking needle from it. Yep, I’m glowing now. Then the worst part: I have to sit completely still in a dark room for one hour. Can’t cross my feet, can’t go to sleep, can’t read, gotta stay motionless for one hour to enable the juice to evenly become absorbed by my body. Note: This was a new PR for me, 1 hr. Hope they enjoyed my singing, whistling, etc.

So they put me in this high-tech pig trough looking sleigh ride thing. “Whatever you do, don’t move; and keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.” Now that’s a real vote of confidence inspiring advice.

I successfully completed that workout and went home. This afternoon we get to look at the pictures. I wonder if they’re in color? Or heavens, what if my hair was messed up?

Hey! I’m Rich. On Dec 22, 2006, I was no-kidding notified by a doctor that I have cancer. Note the “a” doctor. I do not have a general practitioner because [non-pharmaceutical] self-medication works for me whenever I’ve been below the weather for the past 10+ years. Upon receiving this info, I found I had a lot of questions, but was fairly incompetent about asking a question with enough detail that would provide a significant answer for my own determination in deciding a course of action.

This was fairly disconcerting as I am not one to enable another person to put me into a “standard operating procedure checklist” for determining how I live my life. The doctor was a general surgeon and couldn’t provide distinct information to any degree of certainty for me. Therefore, my wife & I decided to go get the pictures taken tomorrow (CAT & PET(sp?) scan in order to better understand what’s going on .

Background: I have a high stress job. Been noticing rectal bleeding for about 6 months off/on. Wrote it up to stress. On Thanksgiving, we went to the in-laws house in N. TN. they have a beautiful piece of land: trees, river in the backyard, big hills, etc. My body realigned itself during this time and I noted this to be from the lack of stress. Makes sense, right?

Returning to the work environment, I quickly noted there were times when I couldn’t control my bodily functions. Sent an email to a doctor I met at our block party and asked for a referral for a colonoscopy (after researching data on the internet).
He did. We did, and here we are.

My intent is to keep this blog activity current. If you’re interested my favoriterun info is posted under antique_iron. I started training for the Miami 07 Marathon a while ago, but it looks like I’m going to have to put it on the back burner. However, my intentions remain resolute: running, bicycling, and a healthy physical life are the end-goal. I also have spiritual convictions and commitments, but will not address these at this time.

Hopefully, these entries will provide others with pertinent information, words of encouragement, sanity checks, feedback, and interesting discussions. Holly requested I post a pic of myself, et al to make this more daily life interesting. I shall, soon. Thanks.

C ya
rich