Update: October 18, 2015

Hello!

I have not posted for some time on this blog. After the Race Across New Mexico, I took some downtime, and really didn't do too much physical activity during the month of March. I did a couple good bike rides of 20-30 miles, just easy ones to get the legs going, and got back to doing more sit-ups, pull-ups, and other body weight exercises.

I did develop a bit of tendonitis in the distal quad tendons after a serious SEALFIT workout that included a bunch of kettle bell swings and box jumps. After years of just doing long runs and no real "power" workouts, it was a poor decision to do the SEALFIT workout. Even though I cut the number of reps down considerably, the 100 kettle bell swings and the 100 box jumps of the workout I did in mid-April really took it out of me. The tendonitis of the quad tendons wouldn't leave me alone, and thus I didn't really do any physical activity after mid-April.

I had my last good workout was on April 30. It consisted of the good ol' bodyweight pyramid of 1x pull, 2x push, and 3x ab. I didn't do any dips on this day because I was feeling sort of lethargic (although a week earlier I finished the entire pyramid workout, with dips, in 38:05). On April 30, something felt a bit weird, with the lethargy causing me to slug out the workout in 37:55, with a lot of just sitting around between sets.

Anyway, I lost about 12 pounds in May for no apparent reason, and kept having flare ups in the ol' quads. Fast forward to the first week of August…by this time my resting heart rate was in the 120s and I had to take frequent breaks during my summer job at the Marlboro Music Festival (Vermont) to catch my breath.

Basically, when I went into the urgent care on August 6, I was urged to go to the emergency room…and from there, I learned that I most likely had leukemia. I was airlifted to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH (from Brattleboro, VT), and on August 7 was diagnosed with Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

It was such a surreal experience, and everything happened so quickly that I forced to process the gravity of the situation and basically accept that there was only one course of action available: immediate treatment.

*****

Fast forward to today: I am currently finishing out my 3rd course of chemo treatment, of which there will be 4 or 6 total courses. But the best thing is:

After my initial course of treatment, the amount of leukemia cells dropped from 88% (on August 7) to LESS THAN 1% on September 15. I will have another bone biopsy in about a month to confirm the "blast" cells are still less than 1%…and, one has to have a "blast" cell count higher that 20% for the condition to be even considered leukemia! So, I have basically been in remission for over a month now, and am feeling great! I am taking care of my body and mind in only the best ways, and am dominating any of the bad cells that might be lurking around.

Today, I also jogged a bit during my morning walk! After 5 minutes of walking, I did 6 x 30 seconds of jogging (with 2 minutes of walking between sets), and then used the remaining time to have a cool-down walk. This was the BEST way to begin the day, and my Altras are still as awesome as I remember :) I basically have not ran in 5 months…and it felt INCREDIBLE to be back out there!

My plans for 2016 include:

Platte River Half Marathon, Littleton, CO (April)
Greenland Trail Races 25k, Greenland, CO (May)
Ordinary Mortals Spring Triathlon, Pueblo, CO (May)

And after that…who knows!

I really want to get in some nice epic bike rides, like multi-day trips around Colorado, or aid/crew someone with one of their endeavors, so please let me know if you need someone to help you out! :)

Until next time…

Run on! :)

Oh yeah, on that app "Timehop," I evidently did my first one-armed pull-up on this date in 2008. Hooyay!