inspiration


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Friday, September 10, 2010 1 Comment by Chronic Triathlete

As I mentioned before, I get two or three emails a week from active people with Lyme. Most are from Lyme-suspicious or newly diagnosed people. Others are from folks who are recovering, but need some advice on how to get started. And still others are from us lucky few who are athletes struggling to continue with our training through treatment.

I enjoy the fact that so many of you have found this blog helpful, but it’s also a little embarrassing at times for me to continually post my training and racing success stories. So many reading this blog are struggling and I sometimes feel that I’m sticking it in your face that I’m active, running and, to some extent, thriving all while feeling moderately awful.

Then I get a message when the one below (posted with author’s approval)…

Hi,
I want to tell you that I have been reading your site for the last year since I got Lyme Bart/anaplasmosis in July 2009. I especially enjoy the running topics because that is a big part of my life also. I too am dealing with the same pain with unexplained improvement or at least the same running times as I had before I got Lyme.

It is so hard to explain to my friends about feeling so sick but still racing so well, but I see the same thing coming from you. I am soon to be 52 and I had a mile time this year of 5:56 where before Lyme it was 6:08. I think we know what pain is and therefore got stronger. I can’t seem to do the distance, 1/2 marathon anymore, but I ran and won a 10k last week in 45:36 and my 5k time this year was a 21:16.

I ran Falmouth a decade ago so it is neat to see you doing the same race I did too.

Reading your blog has helped me through many tired painful weeks and it gave me hope for a recovery. Thank you so much for the effort you put into helping others and for sharing your running and life stories with us. Keep up the training and I will try to keep it up on my end.

Best wishes.
KL

I wanted to share this to show that there are others out there, like myself, who are continuing to try, try, try (and do well!) even while fighting this frustrating disease. If you’re having a tough day, keep this in mind. You’re not alone in your struggle.

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Friday Link Love for 01.29.10

Friday, January 29, 2010 2 Comments by Chronic Triathlete

Days are getting noticeably longer!

Finally! Hints that Spring, though still months away here in NYC, is coming! I’ve been running in the late afternoon and have noticed that it’s not as pitch black as it was back in December. Each day we get two more minutes of daylight.

I can’t wait for warmer weather. I’m so over winter and running in tights, a base layer, a t-shirt, windbreaker, hat and gloves. I long for tank tops and race shorts!

Here’s what I’ve got this week

Guardian: Start running and watch your brain grow, say scientists – Props to my man EyeBob for sending this link to me. It’s a brief but well written article about how a group of Neuroscientists at Cambridge University have shown that running stimulates the brain to grow fresh grey matter (in mice) and that it has a big impact on mental ability.

I’ve read research in the past saying that running (or aerobic exercise in general) is good for the brain and that it may help prevent or at least hold off mental issues like dementia and Alzheimer. I’ve also talked from time to time with my friend Christopher Bergland about his theories on neuroplasticity and running mental health. It’s nice, however, to see science advancing this theory and examining the mechanisms behind it.

British Medical Journal: Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic – I use Feedly.com to help me organize and filter through all of the RSS feeds that I follow. I recommend it because it smartly suggests interesting articles based on what you choose to read. This link was a recommendation, but from what I can’t recall. The story was so gripping that I got completely side tracked from what I was doing when I read it. It’s one of those stories that’s good to recall on those days where you feel like shit and start getting all “woe is me” about your health and life.

On those occasions, think about being Dr. Leonid Rogozov. Trapped in the Antarctic, he had to perform an appendectomy on himself while an assistant held up a mirror. His strong will and determination to live are more than admirable.

A.V. Club (the Onion): KFC’s Double Down Sandwich – This link is to a hilariously written “taste test” of the new KFC Double Down sandwich by the  A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin. Truly worth the five-minutes it takes to read.

I’ve been getting more and more involved in what I’m eating. The more I look into the truth behind what I (we) eat, the more I’m HORRIFIED. It’s really no wonder that so many Americans are obese especially when you see something like this. KFC’s Double Down is a bunless grease-bomb. An artery-clogging marriage of bacon, two kinds of cheeses and “the Colonel’s sauce” (WTF?!) between two pieces of fried chicken.

A quick Google showed me that I’m not the only one who’s appalled at the new KFC menu item. Here’s humorous video review:

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Ironman.com: Penzone’s Challenge

Saturday, November 28, 2009 4 Comments by Chronic Triathlete
Kim Penzone. CFS sufferer and Ironman finisher.

Kim Penzone. CFS sufferer and Ironman finisher.

Sorry I’ve been out of touch lately. As you may have noticed, I’ve been updating the design of my blog and adding some new features. Web design and photography are what I do for a living so I use this blog as a little bit of a playground for learning and testing new things.

Recently, I’ve been putting the time I normally put towards writing towards coding and other other blog-building activities that probably aren’t all that interesting to you.

Anyway… I just came across this article on Ironman.com about a woman, Kim Penzone, who’s suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) seemingly her entire life.

It’s a brief one-pager that’s actually more of a press release from her fund raising organization than an in-depth article. None the less, I found her story compelling and one that hits close to home.

The key to her success apparently centers around diet and unflinching determination to not let her condition rule her life.

“It turns out that poor eating habits and an unhealthy lifestyle were the biggest contributors to my fatigue, causing damage to my adrenalin glands and compromising my immune system,” Kim explains. “After lowering the acidity in my diet, I noticed a huge improvement.”

~ Kim Penzone

I’ve personally found that cleaning up my diet is making a big difference in how I feel. I’ve not tried lowering the acidity like Kim, but (after blood tests showed that I was allergic) I’ve cut out gluten and eggs. I’ve also taken out refined sugars and started eating well-rounded meals with more vegetables. My energy is up and feel healthier all around.

Kim’s commitment to not letting her CFS get in the way of what she wants to do is also something that I can appreciate. I put a lot of time and effort towards training this past summer and, for the most part, it paid off. I was able to stay active without suffering a set-back and compete at a satisfactory all-be-it, lower level than before I got hit with Lyme.

Her commitment should be an inspiration to anyone suffering with “CFS”, Lyme or any other chronic, debilitating disease.

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Viewer Mail

Friday, July 24, 2009 3 Comments by Chronic Triathlete
From the home office in Poughkeepsie

From the home office in Poughkeepsie

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile. I’ve been really busy with work. Also, when I’m not working I’m watching the Tour de France — much to my 4.5 year old daughter’s annoyance, “Daddy! Cycling again?!” It’s eating up all my blog writing time.

It’s been an interesting and somewhat boring Tour this year. The stage planning is awkward and it’s forced all the action into the last few days.

I’m two days behind in watching so DON’T email me with comments or predictions! Lance Armstrong already spoiled stage 16 for me by posting the result on his Facebook page.

Okay… enough Tour stuff. What I really wanted to write about is this…

Today I got a very nice email from a reader…

wanted to tell you i ran the SLC 1/2 marathon..finished in 1:48…i don’t run much anymore just do gym classes for an hour a day…so i thought that was okay..
then i took a turn for the worse.

i have never been treated for coninf or even tested for that matter..so i wonder if that is why i can’t get totally better.

i love reading your blog…people say the same thing to me: how do you exercise? even my doc is confused.

it is DETERMINATION…i often thing of lance and all he broke through..those people with just the fibro symptoms of pain and fatigue..who refused to exercise just make me angry. when i have that plus the neuro stuff and still try so hard everyday to beat this through exercise.

anyway, you are a HERO…KEEP UP THE PLAN!

sincerely,
[name withheld by CT]

This email couldn’t have come at a better time. Thanks! While I am NOT a hero by any definition it is nice to know that people appreciate this blog and the effort I put into it. It’s been a particuarly tough week for me. I’ve been powering through dealing with aging/sick Grandfather, a frantic drive to Philly to see my parents because of him, a pile of freelance work, my wife’s even bigger pile of freelance work and shuttling my daughter to and from day camp. It’s been epic.

I am truly thanking Buddah for it being Friday… and for all of you who write and give me encouragement.

Have a great weekend.

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Recovery Update – July 2008

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 1 Comment by Chronic Triathlete

I’ve decided I’m officially fed up with this Lyme bullshit.

What an utter and complete drag.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me get to everything else. As I sit here and think about it I’m realizing that there’s actually so much that I think I’m going to have to break it up over several posts. Let me start with getting some emo stuff off my chest. I’ll follow it up later with treatment specifics and their results as well as my horrible new diet.

So, as I get closer and closer to the one-year point of my illness (September 24th) I find myself often spiraling lower and lower emotionally even while I slowly (ever so very slowly) seem to be getting better. The Groundhog Day effect of waking up to this life gets evermore challenging. Recently, the better days have been coming more frequently, but the bad ones (like today) seem to hit harder.

But like the song goes, “always look on the bright side of life”, right? To do this, I keep mental (and sometimes physical) lists of things that make me feel good and positive about life. This practice isn’t some self-help or Power of Positive Thinking technique that I saw on Dr. Phil (I’ve never actually seen the Dr. Phil show). It’s just something that I’ve sort of done all my life to get through rough patches… of which this is the roughest.

For example, here’s a recent inspiration:

While doing a long run up in Cape Cod last Saturday I watched as a leaf falls from a tree branch overhanging the road ahead of me. Without breaking stride and without any wild grasping I catch the leaf in my hand as I run. A smooth, effortless, graceful action.

Now I know that this in it self isn’t all that remarkable, however, I enjoy looking at these things through a broader lens — a lens of interconnections and associations; couplings between seemingly unrelated things and events. A sort of Zen-ness of everything being everything. Through this lens I see that, perhaps, all of the events in my life have come together to put me in this exact spot at this exact time to catch this leaf. I imagine that Lyme disease has screwed up my life in such a way, affecting the time and space of my existence, to put this leaf in my hand.

But so what, right? What actual value does catching a leaf really have? None, but that’s what I enjoy about it. There is no inherent value in catching the leaf and it changes nothing in the fabric of existence, but the fact that I was there to catch it means volumes to me. It represents some magical connection between… well, everything… and it’s within this thought that I find a little beauty.

These moments are why running and athletics are so incredibly important to me. I experience little bits of beauty every day when I’m out and about, but it’s during running or biking that I feel them most. Because of this, I feel that staying physically active is truly the greatest weapons in my arsenal of treatments against Lyme. While so many people are stuffing headphones in their ears to listen to their special Nike+ workout playlist or tune in the TV at the gym to kill the “boredom”, I use running/biking to unplug from life and plug in to living. Had I not been tuning in I may have miss my leaf entirely. The beauty of the experience drowned out by some techno beat.

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