Stay Present

Like many other bloggers, I sometimes struggle with how much is too much to share on the blog. For the most part, I want to stick to triathlon training, racing, and the more frivolous incidentals that come with the lifestyle. Every now and then, I delve into more serious topics like cancer; because the blog was born from a website I created in memory of my mother, who passed away from breast cancer. Today was a pretty big day for me, and after a lot of thought leading up to today, I've decided to share.

Without going into too much detail, I live with a chronic liver disease, had it since birth. Every 3 months, I get blood work done to check the health of my liver, and every 6 months, I get an ultrasound to rule out liver cancer. As you can imagine, tests every 3 months is a cause for some anxiety. But through the years, I've developed some coping skills. Back in September, my blood work came back with some "uh-oh" results, and my doctor reported that he would like to start me on treatment. Treatment would most likely last the rest of my life, and may alter my lifestyle. I resisted and asked for more concrete proof than just blood work alone. We decided to do a liver biopsy to take a direct look at the liver, and see if indeed there is damage as insinuated by the blood work. The biopsy would not be scheduled until December 3, and I would not get my results until today, January 8. A four-month period is a long time to wait for what could be bad news. The days following the September appointment, I found myself quite anxious, and I dreaded the future. Then one morning, while riding my bike to work, I remember having this euphoric feeling. It felt good to be riding my bike, and I felt alive. I remember thinking, I don't know what my future health will be, but I feel good today, and from here on out, I will stay in the present. Since that day, when I find myself dreading the future, I take some deep breaths, and I focus on staying present.

I was going to put off all plans for triathlon until today, when I got my results back. But after my decision to stay present several months ago, I decided that I would not put my life on hold, but instead, apply for the Big Sexy Racing Team as I had intended. I would proceed with my regular life until forced to do otherwise. I'm glad to report that at this time, I'm not forced to do otherwise. The results of my liver biopsy came back favorable, and no treatment is required. I will continue to do my 3-month and 6-month blood work and ultrasound respectively, all the while staying present and enjoying each day.

Another Reality

For most of us, our reality is living a fit lifestyle. We are for the most part healthy, and our bodies allow us to swim, bike, run, and pursue our triathlon goals. We are not sick, and we rarely go to hospitals other than for a routine check up or for a sports related injury. Our lives are good. I got to experience another reality today, and the experience left me feeling grateful.

Without going into too much detail (which I may decide to blog about one day), I underwent a liver biopsy today. This is not a new procedure for me, in fact, it is my third liver biopsy in 10 years. The entire procedure required that I be in the hospital ambulatory care unit for 8 hours, and most of that time spent waiting on a gurney and being pensive. The following are some of my thoughts:

Wow, I feel really out of place, everybody looks so old and sick.

I love it when the nurses ask me if it's normal for my heart rate to be so low.

Thank goodness for modern medicine, I can't imagine doing this procedure without lidocaine and being sedated. I'm so glad I live in the 21st century and not during the 1800's.

I got lucky with the nurses today, they all are so bubbly and upbeat, makes everything so much better. I think it would be awesome to be a nurse and be able to help others. Unfortunately, I'm a hypochondriac and I cannot be around sick people.

For some people, and children sadly, hospitals, being poked, drawing blood, catheters and the ICU are their realities.

I can't imagine going to a hospital every week or having to stay here for an extended period of time. I've never even stayed in a hospital overnight. The place not only looks depressing, it feels and smells depressing.

OMG, is my surgeon really telling his nurse about his neighbor belonging to a dispensary and smoking a bowl with her this past weekend? Does he know I'm not out yet and I can hear his conversation. Good thing for him that I went to Humboldt State, am a total liberal and I was a borderline hippy.

I feel a bit of a kinship with Teresa right now.

I'm looking forward to going back to my normal reality of swimming, biking, and running, and pursuing my goals (and making paleo donuts).

Spooked

I haven't run since the bloody piss incident more than two weeks ago, and to be honest, I'm a bit spooked to start back up. In the days and weeks following the incident, I've experienced some anomalies around pissing. I've been pissing...A LOT, like 10-12 times during the day, and 5-8 times per night. I finally went to the doctor where I was probed and checked, including urine analysis, and everything seems to be in working order...except for the excessive pissing. I was told to give it another two weeks to see if it goes away and if not, we go to another round of probing and testing.

I was even more spooked when I engaged in what I thought to be a casual conversation with my co-worker, who also happens to be a former Olympian for the Nigerian soccer team. At some point in our "casual" conversation, we covered the topic of the "mind over matter" attitude, and at what point is this philosophy harmful. If your mental limits surpass your physical limits, is it healthy to push your body to such limits? My co-worker lived this philosophy on his way to becoming an Olympian, but he now lives with regret. The years he spent pushing his body beyond its limits have left him with an enlarged heart, and joints that move far from an agile athlete. As I sat and listened, I realized that I covet this philosophy, and I recalled with pride the times that I successfully won the battle of mind over matter. My thoughts drifted to the past couple of years filled with pushing pass my physical limits: racing multiple ironmans, puking during races, pre-, post-, and nausea during the race, IV's, 50-mile run, and finally culminating in the pissing blood incident. But listening to a former Olympian express regret further spooked me.

All I know is that I'm now a middle-aged man whose pushed his body for 30+ years as an athlete. Though there are many middle-aged men and women who continue to kick ass and push their bodies way pass their physical limits, maybe I'm just not one of them. My results this year sure seem to indicate this may be the case, and with this recent health issue, I'm more inclined to think this may be true. When I see the results that athletes like Charisa and Ian are pulling off, it inspires me to get out there, work hard, and put out some big results too. But right now, I'm thinking maybe my time has passed, and rather than aspiring to do what they do, I should just appreciate what they can do. I haven't made any solid decisions, but come turkey day tomorrow morning, I plan to slip on my running shoes, push aside the spooked feelings, and attempt a run.

In Pursuit of Good Health?

I'm sitting here on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning...blogging. No swim, no bike, no run; I'm just trying to get healthy, I mean really healthy. I find it ironic that my pursuit to be physically active and healthy is actually the cause of my current setback. Case 1: A 19-mile run caused me to piss blood, which in turn, gave me a urinary tract infection. Case 2: I drink carrot juice because I like the taste and I know beta-carotene is good for you. But I also started taking spirulina supplements because like carrots, I think it's good for you. But combine a glass of carrot juice per day with the 200% RDA of Vitamin A from the spirulina, I got a bad case of orange palms or vitamin A toxicity. This extra time on me bum made me realize that I got so caught up on doing physical activity and trying to be healthy, that I never took time to assess if I was indeed really healthy.

I'm positive I'm not the only athlete to suffer from this type of tunnel vision when it comes to sport and life. Both Emma Carney and Greg Welch blamed such tunnel vision as the cause of their early retirement due to ventricular tachycardia. As athletes, we get so caught up in our goals, our training, and our addiction to progress that we forget to step outside of the tunnel and take a different perspective. Though she didn't explicitly state it, I got the sense that Sam McGlone eluded to this idea in this article about her recent hiatus from the sport:

I’m focusing on getting to a place of health, energy and vibrancy—not just as an athlete, but as a person. Pushing through another season wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. It would have been an early end to a career.

The bigger picture was overtraining from years and years of going full-gas all the time.

So here I am, sitting on me bum on a beautiful sunny day, where I would normally be out swimming, biking, or running, looking at the bigger picture...and eating some fruits and veggies from my morning outing to the Farmer's Market. Oh, and yes, I did complete the Strava 100-Mile Run Challenge and so far, with the fewest amount of runs. ;o)

Tips for the 40 Year-Old Triathlete

The title pretty much excludes most of you who follow this blog. Yeah, I'm talking about the Ians and the Libbys who are still in their freakin' 20's, and the rest of you who are just barely over 30. But should you want some advice for the future, keep on reading. I was on a ride with my friend Chris yesterday, and like me, he is turning 40 next year. We've also been training mates for the past 12+ years, and we've been doing this tri stuff for almost 20 years now. During the ride, I turned to Chris and asked him if he felt the effects of aging yet? He immediately responded by saying that he always feels tight, and no amount of stretching, foam roller, or yoga seems to get him loose. If you follow my blog, you should know that feeling tight all the time is my major complaint this past year. For him, it's his calves; for me, it's my hamstring (and glutes). And we both agree that only our running has been affected by aging--swimming and running are still quite sharp, and if anything, have the potential to improve.

I miss the wealth of human growth hormone (HGH) that was flowing through my body when I was a teen and in my twenties. As its name implies, HGH is responsible for increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, increasing exercise capacity and decreasing body fat. Beginning in middle age (that's me), the gland responsible for producing HGH, slows downs its production; the result is decreased muscles mass, decreased capacity to exercise, need I go on? To combat this, I have the following tips for the 40 year-old triathlete:

• Weights. You need to do it. Weights is not as fun as swimming, biking, and running. Thus, I made a deal with myself, I only do 30 minutes of weights twice per week. I have a circuit and whatever I can get in for a 30-minute time period, I do. Sometimes I only go through the circuit once, other times, twice, and on rare occasions, three times. Another tip is to do weights after a run or bike, your endorphins are kicked in and you will be more motivated.

• Sleep. Shoot for 8-9 hours. Your body's production of HGH is most active during sleep.

• Your training plan should have built-in recovery. I used to have a weekly plan and I followed the same plan every week. Thus, that meant I ran every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. I never had more than one day to recover from a previous run. Nowadays, I run every third day, thus I always have two days of recovery in between runs. And yes, this means my running schedule changes every week. If you're a teacher, it's like using a block schedule. This is working out well for me because I have built-in recovery and every week, my run days are different, and the variety is nice.

• Speedwork. Do it. Running 200s can help your ironman run; you'd be surprised by how much endurance you can actually get from doing 200s and 400s.

• And if you're poor like me because you blew your entire savings on a sabbatical to live life as a pro triathlete, you'll need to be creative to stay loose. The pic below is my solution.

• My final tip for the 40 year-old triathlete? Stay young at heart and when possible, go out and mix it up with those young whipper-snappers. And maybe rock it old-school and do one race in nothing but a speedo.

Day 105: Vitamin D

Well, I'm sitting on my bum and trying to stay off the legs in prep for the Sydney Half Marathon tomorrow. This week has been a balancing act of trying to get back in shape on the bike but not getting too sore for the race/run tomorrow. I will try to remain realistic so as not to blow up. I had great running sessions on the Goldie about 2 weeks ago but my trip to New Zealand stalled the training a bit. I have lots of miles on these legs but not very much speedwork so I'm thinking anything between a 1:20-1:22 will be nice. Either way, it will be fun to do a new race in a new city. Since I'm on me bum, thought I would finally do the posting on Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is the new vitamin E. Doctors have long known that Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium to make bones dense and strong. More recent research touts of its ability to help prevent several cancers, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, psoriasis, diabetes, depression, and respiratory infections including colds and flu. There is very compelling evidence that increasing Vitamin D levels in the body can significantly decrease the occurrence of breast cancer. On my recent trip to New Zealand, I discussed Vitamin D with my friend Maggie, who is a physician. She agrees with the benefits of Vitamin D and like most doctors, believe that most of the general population is deficient in Vitamin D. I'm a bullet point type of guy, so here is what you need to know about Vitamin D:

• Most of the body's Vitamin D production is activated by sunlight. However, people nowadays spend a majority of their time indoors; and if outdoors, they put on sunblock which blocks Vitamin D production in the skin.

• Darker skinned people and aging skin make less Vitamin D than those with lighter skin and younger skin respectively.

• Ask your doctor to check your blood levels of 25-Hydroxy (25-OH ) vitamin D (Vitamin D3). The normal range is 30.0-74.0 nanograms per mililiter (ng/mL) of blood, or 70-120 nmol/L.

• If you decide to take a Vitamin D supplement, make sure it is the biologically active (greater absorption) Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and not Vitamin D2. Some doctors are recommending that you supplement with 2000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and it can be toxic if too much is taken. To give you an idea of numbers, your body can produce between 10,000-20,000 IU per hour under optimum sunlight conditions. Also, research shows no adverse effects with Vitamin D supplementation up to 10,000 IU daily. Always take your Vitamin D with a fat-containing meal to ensure absorption.

• Vitamin D rich foods include fortified milk and cereals, eggs, cod liver oil, tuna and cold water fish such as wild salmon, wild cod and sardines. However, it is difficult to regularly eat enough of these foods to build up your Vitamin D stores. The best way to produce vitamin D is sunlight exposure; the ultraviolet rays trigger Vitamin D synthesis in the skin.

• Get some sun exposure on your skin without sunscreen for 20-30 minutes in the morning or late afternoon. Do use sunscreen during the midday to protect your skin.

• Be sure to get retested to monitor your Vitamin D levels.

I want to qualify the Vitamin D info by saying that 15 years ago or so, many experts were touting Vitamin E similar to Vitamin D. Now, it is well-regarded that too much Vitamin E is harmful. My best advice is that if you decide to supplement with Vitamin D, consult your physician to make sure you are taking the right dose for you.

Day 8: Still "Working"

Day 7 started with a swim at Kona Masters at 6:00 AM. Thirty minutes after swim practice, Kaitlin, Sam and I were off for our ride, and both said no to stopping for french toast. As I straddled my bike to do the second of my back-to-back 5 hour rides atop a small saddle, I felt a bit violated. I think my bike owes me dinner and theater tickets. I had yet to have a day off, but I actually felt pretty strong on the ride toward Hawi. The above video gives the specific details. Five miles from the finish, I had the mother of all bonks. I had the shakes, felt tingly, and just wanted to stop and take a nap. I'm not worried as this bonk was nutritional and not fitness related. Thirty miles out, I was feeling hungry but I just didn't want to eat any more sugar, bars, or gels. I had sushi on my mind. So I ignored my nutritional needs and gambled that I had enough to finish. I was riding on fumes the last five miles, and lucky for me, Kaitlin pulled me home. She is ready for New Zealand. Kaitlin fed me two bananas and sacrificed one of the awesome muffins Bree made her for the plane ride. I promised Kaitlin I would not ignore my nutrional plan for IM OZ. On the way home, I satisfied the craving I had 30 miles out, all for 10 bucks! This morning was a swim out to the 1.2 mile buoy of the Hawaii ironman course. I have never swam an open water 2.4 miles other than durig an ironman race. Now I know why Bree is so strong in the open water. The video below is of Manny, Bree, and I post swim. I had planned to grab a quick bite and head out for my 9-mile run on Ali'i. I ended up taking an hour plus nap, that swim thrashed me. I woke up, still thrashed and scared to head out for my run. I quieted the mind, stuck to the workout, and went through the ritual of getting ready for a run. My pace started slow but I just told myself anything under my ironman run pace (7:20-7:30) can be considered speedwork (not so with Olympic training). In fact, I don't do any speedwork on the run, and if I do anything speedy, I always do it right off the bike. Avoiding the speedwork allows me to train with more volume, and be more consistent. After 10 minutes, I came to life and was loving the run. I ended up doing 10 miles at 6:58 pace, not fast for olympic distance training, but could be speedwork for ironman training. About 3 hours ago, I had the most painful massage ever from Gary. His hands were like vice grips, and the only thing that prevented me from jumping off that table and running was that I was naked under the sheets. He told me that he gave Craig Alexander 24 massages before Craig won Hawaii, and that Craig's muscles were like butter. 24 massages? I'm supposed to get a second massage from Gary but to be honest, I think I'm too scared to go back. I don't want to cry again. Before I sign off, I have two food tips. First, if you like tuna salad, substitute the mayonnaise with avocado, and squeeze some lime over it to diminish the fishy taste. Yummy, and thanks Bree. Second, look into Kombucha. I learned in college that a lot of diseases originate in the digestive system (liver, stomach, pancreas, intestines). Kombucha is a great liver cleanser and supports the digestive organs. I just tried the Kombucha Gingerade tonight and it was awesome. I found about Kombucha over at Lindsay Cotter's blog.