Here's to breaking 20 for 5k (à la EddyLee)

Day 5: 1 mile walk to get kids from school.

Day 6: 1.25 miles (19:04-149) - Ubercold. Windy. And kid 1 got hungry and made a 2.5 mile run cut short. Oh well. When I got out of the car coming home my left calf hurt. May not necessarily have been such a bad thing. This is by far my best "run" yet. Sub-16 minute pace. Wohoo. Maybe tomorrow I can make up for lost time and get in 45-60 minutes.

Day 7: off. Cold and tired. Didn't feel up to it. Just decided to chill out and rest. All in all I went from 3 days (week 1) to 4 days (week 2). Not bad. No lasting injuries (other than the usual) and still feel pretty good.

Week 3: Monday, 2/13/2012 - Sunday, 2/19/2012

Day 1: 3 miles (48:09 - 150) Felt pretty good today. Sleep has been horrible, but, didn't bug me too much today. I was hoping for faster (given Saturday) but adding an extra 16 minutes and keeping the pace and same heart rate as my 2 milers last week is good. Also, I have been taking my resting heart rate lately. It used to run around 75-80 all the time. Within 2 weeks it has dropped to 57 (Sunday morning) and 61 (this morning). Hopefully my RBC is going up as well.

My hope this week:

M: 3

T: 2

W: 3

T: walk

F: 2

S: 4

S: walk

The week after that 6 days M,T,W and F,S,Su. By March I hope to be faster, fitter and maybe doing 7 days a week.

That drop in resting heart rate is great.

When you say it used to be 75-80, you mean after you were diagnosed, right?

Dang, good luck, man. Love your attitude. Keep at it.

Hey, I thought of you on my run Sunday. You helped me push through, so thank you.

I'm glad your doing this thread, and very impressed with your progess so far. I will be pulling for you.

I remember reading in some other threads about you, but I don't remember all the details. Are you currently in remission? Also, is the chemo the biggest challenge to your running, or are there other side effects making it difficult?

Best of luck.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

That drop in resting heart rate is great.

When you say it used to be 75-80, you mean after you were diagnosed, right?

It gradually went up as I got away from training (was doing 50-60 a week when diagnosed). At times it was sitting at 110 resting (usually immediately after chemo). Since I got back on my feet from my surgery last March 80-90 was pretty much my baseline. When I ran 50-55 was pretty normal.

jck wrote:

I'm glad your doing this thread, and very impressed with your progess so far. I will be pulling for you.

I remember reading in some other threads about you, but I don't remember all the details. Are you currently in remission? Also, is the chemo the biggest challenge to your running, or are there other side effects making it difficult?

Best of luck.

I got diagnosed almost two years ago to the day. I did alternative stuff for a few months after several misdiagnoses because what I have is so rare. Once I started traditional therapy I did 10 rounds of hardcore stuff (9 out of 10 according to the nurses). In March last year I did an absolutely insane surgery. They literally slice you from the bottom of your ribs to the top of your hips, pull every organ out (without removing them) inspect every surface for disease, remove any visible disease, then, after about 14 hours, run heated chemo through the stomach for 90 minutes. My surgery ran about 17 hours. Two more surgeries after that (collapsed lung and an ERCP to correct lungs filled with bile) got me out of the hospital about 45 days later. I went home, licked my wounds for a while, and, did another three rounds of "lighter" chemo. The lighter stuff kicked my butt. I ended up breaking my leg in October and have been off of chemo since then. I can't wait much longer to get back on it because statistically 4-6 months off of chemo is when tumors start popping back up. I'm trying to get a visit with an integrative center in Chicago before I get back on chemo because the oncologists are explicit: we cannot cure you...only buy you time. And, that has been my past two years. Running is my temporary escape to the better life before.

jck wrote:

Are you currently in remission? Also, is the chemo the biggest challenge to your running, or are there other side effects making it difficult?

Didn't actually answer these questions. With what I have they won't say remission until you're 10 years clear. They call it NED (No Evidence of Disease). In my world, NED is pretty good news. Only about 5-10% make it 5 years.

The surgery and chemo messed up my kidneys pretty good and they took 1/3rd of my liver out. My gall bladder and spleen are gone as well. So, as you can imagine, completely unrelated to the damage caused by repeated rounds of chemo, my body has some major struggles to deal with. Part of the reason I am going to Chicago is to find people who not only believe diet can help (not necessarily cure) cancer, but, know how to do it. Unfortunately nothing in science can really guarantee me anything. So I hold out hope for a miracle. Maybe I'll be one of that small handful of people who get out alive. Ok, I'll stop tonight.

Day 2 - 2 miles (32:02 - 154)

Nice weather. These are the early days before things get stable. Two steps forward, one step back. Today was a step back. Gorgeous outside but slow as dirt. May last mile saw some mid-4 minute quarters. Hopefully 3 tomorrow will be better.

Total for the week 5 (Wohoo!)

Five for the week, and it's only Tuesday, nice!

Just in case you missed it--a little girl suffering from a rare form of cancer was transplanted six organs at the Children’s Hospital in Boston:

http://bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20120203maine_girl_bouncing_back_after_6-organ_transplant/

Could an organ transplant be a possibility for you?

The type of cancer I have grows in the connective tissue. And, it grows everywhere. They will operate on the abdomen but once it hits the lungs they stop trying. At this point, well, as of my last scans, the only remaining disease was a lymph node in my neck. Either way, I am not a candidate for any kind of transplant unless I am several years out and have had no cancer recurrence for a very long time.

Wow, man. I'm pulling for you! No more complaining from me. Your attitude, faith, and hope will do wonders for you. If not in this life, then in the next! God Speed!

Day 3: 3 miles (48:12 - 153)

Warm. Actually nice today. Little bit of a sinus infection going on. Southerly winds did me in. Legs felt fine. Two weeks ago my ankle hurt after 3 days. Today, no pain. Positive adaptation to stress. Yay. Tomorrow should be a walking day. We'll see...

Weekly total - 8 (that used to be a morning run. Sigh.)

About eight years ago I wrecked my knees doing some yard work. I've really not been able to do anything but very easy runs since then though there's been some real improvement in the past 3-4 months. But still, I've restricted myself to only easy running while thinking that maybe I should get a little braver and push things a bit.

It's a fence I'd been on for weeks. But today I did 3 x 10 minutes with a two minute recovery at a much faster pace than I've been doing. What got me off the fence to some extent was thinking about you and how if you can be working on a comeback after all you've been through then I can challenge myself to push through a barrier as well.

Glad to hear it's doing someone some good! Really. I think enough of these sorts of things are never talked about and wanted to share it with others so maybe something positive can happen. Good deal HRE getting out there and pushing through the wall. You're motivating me too.

Day 4: 1 mile walk with eldest and youngest kiddo

Day 5: off. didn't sleep last night.

Got diagnosed with strep Wednesday (had been coming on) and whatever comes before ulcers today. So I'm on 5 different medications. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow and get in 2 miles. My wife is giving me grief. I just hate going to doctors. She's just worried the stomach pain is not h. pylori. Me too. Me too.

All I can say is running is a beautiful thing..

hbubuhiiub wrote:

All I can say is running is a beautiful thing..

No doubt. Good stuff here. Keep at it, buddy.

Yup, this shows why running is awesome and the true spirit of running. Screw the PR'S and who's faster than whom - this is what running is about.