A Passion for Running

Those of you who’ve followed this blog since the beginning know that I’ve been dealing with health issues for quite some time. I held those at bay for a few years but they eventually took a toll on running.

I was having horrible heartburn (like, REALLY horrible) and a persistent mucus in my throat – both of which were made worse by running.

Worse, the pinched nerve in my shoulder was causing more and more trouble. Its sphere of influence spread throughout my back, neck and shoulders – all of that also caused difficulty with running.

I was in a lot of pain and discomfort and finally stop running.

It’s been a long haul since then and I’m still being tested for some things. The latest hypochondriac thought is that I have fibromyalgia. I have all the symptoms including, TMJ (bad TMJ), burning skin on my face and stomach, terrible aches, pins and needles in my hands, headaches …the list goes on.

However, I have made progress. The first bit came in November 2008 during some neck stretching when I heard and felt a tremendous ‘CRACK’ in my neck, and realized – minutes later – that the pinched nerve had been released.

While that was a tremendous relief, I was not done because the muscles around that spot had years worth of tension/knots that were very difficult to get rid of. It seemed that no matter how much massage, active release and stretching I did, the tension would always come back. It was very frustrating – and depressing.

About six weeks ago, I upped my intake of vitamins and minerals. I’m talking a HUGE increase of calcium, magnesium, and Vitamins A,B,C,D & E. I also started taking hyaluronic acid  - something that many people report success with for severe aches and pains.

Well, the world has changed a great deal in the past few weeks. The remnants of my pinched nerve have finally vanished – I have been able to stretch my neck and shoulder out and the aches and pains have virtually disappeared.

I suspect that there was a vicious circle going on in my body. First, I believe the pinched nerve was affecting my digestive system – making it difficult for my body to get sufficient nutrients and that, in turn, was causing even greater difficulty (tension, knots etc) in my muscles and ligaments. If I do have fibromyalgia, I suspect the lack of nutrients was making it much worse than it previously was.

Anyway, I feel better than I have in a LONG time.

I am still suffering from fatigue, but even that is getting better. As I await the results of my latest blood tests, I expect the doctor to tell me I’m also iron deficient (I’ve been low before). It makes sense that if I’ve been low in other minerals, that I’d be deficient in iron too and that would certainly account for the fatigue I’ve been experiencing.

The Plan

I’m finally feeling healthy again so the focus is on continuing that trend. As soon as the pain in my shoulder, back and neck dissipated, I got into the gym and started working on strengthening those areas. That’s my priority for now – to build up some muscle (I’ve lost a lot of that this past year).

Because of the loss of muscle, I’ve gained a great deal of fat. I can still hide most of it under loose-fitting shirts, but it is quite an ugly sight to behold when the shirt comes off.

So, I will build some muscle and, along with it, a better engine for burning fat and, once I’m feeling strong I’m going to get back to running.

I’ll close with one of my favorite quotes from Rocky Balboa:

You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward.

I’m hitting back. I’m moving forward.

Well, we are settling into our new reality, and it’s surprising how quickly our definition of “normal” seems to be changing.

The biggest challenge – managing our fear – seems to be in hand. What’s behind that is having a few days experience doing the monitoring, injections, and meal planning. It was overwhelming only a few days ago, but now it’s becoming much easier. The key is being extremely well organized.

Lori took the kids for their first big outing on Thursday – a trip to the water park. Not being present (I was at work), I was more nervous than she was, and drove her pretty much crazy with my coaching (read: paranoid nagging) around how to prepare for the outing. Sidenote: Mark has always been the most easy-going guy on the planet, but not any more – he has become something of a control freak this past 10 days.

We also went to a movie last night (Journey to the Center of the Earth), and had to monitor (a finger-prick blood test) right in the theater.

And we went out for supper (Boston Pizza – Christopher’s favorite) this evening. We had to test and give Christopher’s insulin injection right at our table – we refuse to do these things hidden from public view because we don’t ever want Chris to feel it should be hidden.

All these things really add up to confidence. We’re getting better at it. Of course, it would be nice if Christopher were used to the injections (he still cries a bit), but that will come with time – my guess is it will take another week or two.

Thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot to us.

Where have I been? Why have I not been posting? Those are two fully loaded questions.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was trying to solve some health problems. I thought I’d figured things out but, it turns out, I didn’t have all the answers – even though I’m closer now.

Frankly, alternating between , “I’m back!” and “I’m not back” became frustrating, tiresome and overly dramatic. Add the fact that the health problems I was having were physically tiring meant that I had little energy for blogging (or much else for that matter).

But, as I would soon find out, my health problems would be the least of what I would have to face. That’s because last Thursday, July 17th, I learned that my six year old son Christopher, has Type 1 Diabetes. Folks, this is as serious as it gets. Christopher was extremely ill and had lost a frightening amount of weight. To clear up any confusion, type 1 diabetes is not lifestyle related – it is the outcome of the body rejecting the cells that create insulin and help the body absorb fuel (sugar).

Christopher is doing well now, but he has a lifetime of insulin injections, and meticulous diet management ahead of him. We’re relieved, but we also have a lot of angst over the road ahead. I’m tired and eagerly anticipating my second wind. I know some people – like Nancy – will relate to my angst.

I’d like to apologize to a lot of people. First, to all the people who help out at CRN. I’ve abandoned you, and I’m truly sorry. Second, I’d like to apologize to those comments I have not responded to. I hope you will understand. Third, I’d like to apologize for all the unanswered emails. My inbox is now at over 1200 unread emails (completerunning is quite demanding). If you’re in there, I’m working on getting to you.

I’d especially like to apologize to my coach and friend Andrew, from Downeast Running. Andrew, I feel I have let you down. I have not responded to two of your emails. I hope you can now understand why, and that I have thought of you often.

I’d like to thank two bloggers for holding things together. Jeanne and Nora, I love you guys. I don’t know what I’d have done without you. Thank you. There are other bloggers I should also mention and thank, but I’ve got little time to write this post. Please know that I appreciate your support. Thank you for hanging in there with me.

I’m not a spammer! Your WONDERFUL, AWESOME Akismet plugin has saved me from thousands of spam comments and untold hours of grief. But now Akismet seems to think I am one of the bad guys and I cannot seem to change its mind.

I’ve tried the other option – I’ve had people mark me as “not spam” but I’m still getting thrown into the spam pit on WordPress.com blogs and even blogs on my own domain!

Please help me Matt!

Thank you.

All five of you regular readers have probably been wondering that. Don’t worry, A Passion for Running isn’t goin’ anywhere.

For some time I’ve wanted to do more than I’ve been doing here. I’ve wanted to try my hand at being more informative and more opinionated (if that’s possible!) but in a more structured way. CRN is going to provide that opportunity in spades.

The focus at CRN will not ruin this blog. In fact, I’m really excited about A Passion for Running because there will be a clear separation between the things I’ve been seeking, and some things I’ve wanted to do/do more of here. And what are those things? hmmm …

1. Getting back to a clear focus on my running.
2. Less peddling of … stuff. If you read this blog, you know what the ’stuff’ has been. That’s not to say I no longer believe in the stuff, it’s just that there will be better places to peddle it.
3. A place to talk about non-running stuff. I’m going to talk more freely about the things in life besides running that interest me. Don’t ask me why I haven’t felt fully at ease doing that here (I don’t know the answer), but now I will.

I’m excited!
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Go to CRN on Monday, August 27th to see my 1st ‘heavy’ article which will be called, Do You Need to be Taught How to Run?

I have to admit, I’ve never thought of us so strongly in these terms.

Have you ever sat down in front of your monitor with writer’s block?

The desire to write is there but nothing’s coming out. I’m thinking this is a result of being on vacation, and then getting sick.

My own problem aside, I have a very exciting writing tool to share with you. It’s a unique program called WriteRoom:

WriteRoom is a stripped down word processor with one unusual, wonderfully freeing difference. WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. WriteRoom is just about you and your text. Walk into WriteRoom and your busy computer life fades away. The distractions of e-mail, the web, and your thousand desktop icons are gone. Only you and your text remain. This is a place where work gets done and procrastination has no place.

WriteRoom turns your entire monitor into one big black screen with a green cursor. I can’t do this justice but when you open it up, it’s…compelling.

Oh, WriteRoom is for Macs but the author also created a version called DarkRoom for you Windows/PC folks.

Give it a try!

I learned something the other day. I learned that my blog wasn’t sending as many visitors to your blog as it could be. Specifically, I learned that my blog had what is called no follow integrated in it’s comments.

Without getting too technical, no follow is a bit of coding created, in part, to deter comment spam. The bad news is that it’s had extremely limited success with that. The badder news is that it prevents search engines (google, yahoo etc) from following the link you leave in my comments, to your blog.

And why is that important? Well, because if you are hoping for new readers, you won’t get them via a search engine that would have found you crawling around in my blog. And, not to brag, but I’ve got search engines crawling around here constantly so you’ve been missing out.

I’d like to change that so I’ve installed a plugin that gets rid of the no follow thing.

My hope is that you will get more visitors because of this change.

Does all this make sense? Please leave me a comment if it doesn’t and I’ll do my best to explain.

I’m not running till later today so I thought I’d plug another passion of mine…

I LOVE Apple Computers. Yes, I am a true-blue Apple GEEK. Why? There are numerous reasons but three of the best are that they are virtually worry free virus/security-wise, they are super easy to use and because they are so reliable.

And now, there really is no reason for not switching. Why? Because now when you buy an intel powered Mac (e.g. an iMac), you have THREE computers in one – you have Unix under the hood (for you uber-geeks), you have the BEST operating system in the world (Apple’s OS X) and now you can even boot right into Windows XP – and that takes care of most people’s worries around switching – that they won’t be able to run their favorite Windows program.

Check out the details for this latest feature here.

Ok, I will start this by saying my two kids seem to be gender extremes. Obviously, not all kids are the same.

In one corner we have my little girl Cassandra – a real girly-girl. Loves Barbies, wearing dresses and is very sensitive. In the other corner, we have monkey-boy Christopher. Climbs on everything, would spend every hour of every day play-fighting if he could and can’t get enough Spiderman and Batman.

Overheard the other night while kids were brushing teeth getting ready for bed:

Cassandra: “Christopher, I love you.”

Christopher: “Huh?”

Cassandra: “Christopher, I love you. Do you love me?”

Christopher: “…uha.”

My wife says she understands me (and men generally) now. I love my kids.