Developing patterns...

Saturday, November 28, 2015
A good pattern is developing on the days off.  Again…can’t sleep past seven, so I got up and climbed on the trainer for a one-hour ride.  It is a very good way to start the day since it gets exercise done and leaves room for a possible double with a hike or Survival Workout later.  So far I’ve managed a hike or two, but I really want to get the muscle tone back…or keep it…with regular Survival Workouts.  Holidays are notoriously busy and I have fallen off the wagon during them in the past, but this year the opposite seems to be happening.  Like I said…good pattern.

Joanne was in town from DC, so I picked her up from the airport and deposited her at my sister’s place for a meeting.  I hadn’t seen her in over five months and she immediately commented on my weight loss.    I suppose when you see yourself every day, you don’t notice these things.  I’ll definitely have to do more muscle toning, too.  Don’t want to become a pencil-necked geek. She struggles with a number of food allergies and irritable bowel syndrome, so we discussed things she has to do to live this way.  Probiotics came up and their importance duly noted for my discussion with Bob, which was now scheduled for ‘Breakfast at Kleifelds’ the following morning.  Get ready, Bob.  I’m full of questions, amongst other things.

Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 135 bpm.
Calories Burned: 850.

Ugh...don't want the leftovers...

Friday, November 27, 2015
The forecast said a high of sixty and sunny, which translates into ‘ride your bike outside’.  And I was thinking that was an excellent idea, but I also knew me.  I had things to accomplish, like driving out to the farm to push up the manure pile and a little grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry – that kind of crap – before going to Cecilia’s for her after-Thanksgiving party.  Likely I’d get going on all that stuff, find a couple of other things to do, and suddenly not have the time for a ride.  Wisely, I boarded the trainer and put in an hour in the family room watching more TV.

My eating woes continued.  Normally I’d be putting a serious dent in the left-overs, but they didn’t sound good to me.  I ate some cereal and a banana and went about the business of the day.  Later that night, I did have a bowl of chili and a bowl of clam chowder, both of which tasted good at the time, but left me feeling like I’ve been feeling for four weeks – bloated and uncomfortable.  Admittedly, I feel that way with or without the food in my stomach.  My friend Bob Iafelice, the most thorough and well-educated Nutritionist I have ever known and a man who always walks the talk, was trying to schedule a meet-up.  I wanted to run my problems past him knowing he’d have some excellent ideas for help. 

I managed a walk in the park with Dakota, as well, so the calories being burned continue to exceed the ones being eaten.  This pattern will have to change or there will be nothing left of me. 

Happy sixtieth, Holly.  It ain't so bad. 

Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 135 bpm.
Calories Burned: 850.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 26, 2015
Thanksgiving!  My favorite meal of the year – second to none.  I love the dark meat and eat it continually to the point of bursting as my father-in-law carves and places it on the platter.

“You’re eating it faster than I’m cutting it,” he says.

“That’s easy.  Cut faster,” I reply.

This year was a little different.  I did eat as he carved, but was full quickly and didn’t really feel like eating more.  For dinner, I had some turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots.  No gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, noodles or any other good stuff.  I skipped the pies, too.  As my cousin Donnie would say, ‘the perfect eating machine has been ruined.’  Well…at least I’ll continue to lose some weight.

I did climb aboard the trainer at 8 a.m. and get in a solid hour ride while continuing to watch ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.  As a movie lover, how have I lived to age sixty and never seen this epic film?  Well…I’m correcting that now.  It is almost four hours long and I’m only half way through after two sessions on the bike.  I like those kind of movies.

I was also productive outside on an almost perfect late fall day.  I put the ladder up against Mimi’s gutters and cleared out all those nasty leaves.  Not too strenuous, but at least I burned a couple more calories. 
Bike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 135 bpm.
Calories Burned: 850.

Preparing for the winter months...

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Fifty-five degrees and sunny in late November?  This was too much to ask for and I would like to have ridden for two hours, but I had a side job with outside painting that just had to be done.  I called the homeowner as I left work expecting them to pick up and say ‘c’mon over.’  Instead, no one answered.

I drove home thinking about that ride.  I could use a great workout the day before 5,000 calories of Thanksgiving over-eating, even if I was unsure about the state of my ability to indulge.  Then my cell phone indicated I had a voice mail, which I checked to find that, in fact, I could do the painting.  Damn.

Savannah called while I was finishing the job wanting to meet in the Metroparks to walk the dogs.  We met there at 4:30, which meant maybe an hour of daylight.  My heel was sore, but I walked briskly thinking I may or may not hop on the trainer later that evening.  I never count a walk without at least a pack a workout, but it is good activity and beats the hell out of sitting in front of the TV, eating and vegetating. 

Once home and again without an appetite, I blended another smoothie for my evening meal.  My weight was still ten pounds down from three weeks ago and I had the belt on the last notch.  This is good, I suppose, though I wasn’t crazy about the way I’d arrived here.  At least I was again getting my activity in gear and hitting workouts on a much more regular basis instead of counting on the job to provide all the conditioning in my routine.  It had worked pretty well, but was no long-term plan of value.  Spring is a long time off and the winter months have always been the toughest for me to maintain focus and training.  I certainly didn’t want to go into the holidays and winter already out of shape.  Bad stomach?  Yes – but I’ll take the benefits.

Hike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  90 bpm.

Calories burned during workout: 350.

Smoking Mad Men...

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I got up Tuesday morning feeling like I’d been feeling for the previous three weeks – bloated and slightly nauseous with no interest in food.  I had some sample indigestion medication, an over-the-counter product the doctor had provided and was to take for the next fourteen days.  I had nothing to lose and so swallowed a pill with my banana.  I blended a fruit and vegetable smoothie and drank half on the way to work saving the balance for lunch.

I did more digging and hole patching on the parking lot and service roads throughout the day.  I was hoping the physical activity would make me feel better and to some extent, it seemed to be working.  I came home after work and climbed aboard the trainer, spending 60 minutes riding hard and taking in another episode of ‘Mad Men’.  If you have not seen this series, it is set on Madison Avenue in the advertising industry in 1960.  I almost gag watching all the actors sucking on cigarettes and drinking constantly.  Why didn’t they all die early?  This would be my parents’ generation.  I did watch both parents chain-smoke and thought it completely normal as I grew.  In 1965 however, the Surgeon General came out with strong statements about smoking, the warning appeared on the pack and my dad, to that point a smoker who lit his next cigarette with the stub of the previous one, quit cold turkey.  My mom continued to smoke the same brand in the house and in front of him, but he never waivered.  Though only nine at the time, I realized already the iron will and strength of the man.  He would demonstrate the will and stubbornness many times and in many different fashions as I grew into and through manhood.

I made a batch of French toast for dinner, smothered it in butter and maple syrup and sat down to eat thinking one of my favorite meals would be what it would take to get me eating again.  I ate half and deposited the remainder in the trash.  So much for that theory.

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  135 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  850.

"I really don't now what's wrong..."

Monday, November 23, 2015
I made it through the night without accident, though I was continuing to clear my bowels as the day progressed at work.  Though my stomach was empty, I was still feeling bloated and uncomfortable, yet hungry.  I’d checked my weight in the morning and found that I’d lost 10 pounds over the past three weeks, though some of that had to be attributed to the routine of the previous two days.  Still, I was happy about that much.

I was thinking I’d do a workout before going for the procedure, but stayed at work too long and got home in time only for a shower and to hop in the car with my sister for the ride to the Digestive Center.  Once there, I was quickly escorted into the back for prep by my RN, Kathy.  After attaching a blood pressure cuff and something to check my heart, she stood back and observed the readout.

“Do you know you have an irregular heart rate?” she asked, showing some concern.

“I’ve had it my entire life and it’s totally functional,” I said.

Doubtfully, she continued to observe and said, “but it’s bouncing around between 30 and 40 beats per minute.”
“I train pretty hard and my normal resting – when it’s beating all the time – is high forties,” I replied.

The information about training seemed to pacify her somewhat and she began to question what I did.  I explained in ways that made me sound like the second coming of Lance Armstrong without the ‘roids.  I could tell she was in shape and asked her about her own. 

“I run.  A lot.  And I did my first two triathlons this past year,” she admitted. 

She was a competitive 53-year old who, like me, went too far at times and suffered the kind of injuries we suffer.  She was dealing with an injury to her metatarsal bone in her foot as I was with my plantar. 

“Cycling is the great forgiver.  It seems to be something I can do without getting injured,” I said, knowing that a true runner, like her, needed to get back to running at all costs. 

The anesthesiologist came in and told me he’d be knocking me out soon.  “I woke up the last time and saw that camera going through my colon on the screen,” I said.  I was having two procedures done this time and he assured me I would not be waking up.  He was right.

Ninety minutes later I was waking in recovery and the doc came over to tell me no ulcer and no h-pylori bacteria, though he had a sample of something from my gut that he had to have biopsied. 

“I did take a polyp out of your colon though, and we’ll have that analyzed, too.  In the meantime, I don’t know why you’re having the stomach problems,” he concluded.

Great!  Still don’t feel like eating and no answers.  I went home and had some pea soup and bread.  It filled and bloated me and the effects of the anesthesia all acted to knock me out without getting on the trainer first.  Well, maybe tomorrow I’d feel better as he had given me an over-the-counter medication for indigestion.

Let's poop!!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Oh joyous day!  Finally!  It was the day I was to drink things without color – no solid anything – and then take four dulcolax tablets at 2 p.m. followed by 64 ounces of Gatorade with a full bottle of Miralax dissolved in.  I went to Walgreens to pick up the concoction, but was dismayed to find the only way I could purchase the dulcolax was in a package of 10.  I stopped a clerk to help me find a smaller package.

“I only need four of these to shit my brains out and it comes with ten.  Do you have smaller packages?”
“Um…sorry sir…that’s the smallest,” he replied.

“Well, here’s my number.  If some other person comes by needing a colonoscopy, have them call me and I’ll sell them the remaining tablets,” I said.

He took my number reluctantly.  Hey…why waste the things?  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to want to use them again anytime soon.

I’d decided to get some things done before beginning the regimen and since we had about 2 inches of wet snow on the drive, figured I’d start by shoveling.  It was heavy and I broke a good sweat.  I moved inside and climbed aboard the trainer for a ride.  I was supposed to be drinking a glass of clear fluids every hour throughout the day and I was about to sweat two or three of them right back out.  I had my water bottle though, and figured I’d try to stay even.  Sixty minutes later and soaked in sweat, I’m pretty sure I’d failed.

I popped the four pills at two and then relaxed and listened to my stomach beginning to grumble.  Actually, it’s been grumbling pretty much non-stop for three weeks.  I checked my weight and found I was down around 10 pounds during that time, which is fine by me.  By four o’clock I still hadn’t needed to rush to the bathroom and so began stage two – drinking 8 ounces of Miralax-laced Gatorade every 10-15 minutes until it was gone.  Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but I assure you for a guy that won’t drink that much fluid in a week, downing it in under two hours is a challenge.  I gulped down my first glass and let out a loud belch.

Savannah was hosting family dinner because of my condition, but I’d thought I’d stop over and say ‘hello’ at least.  Dinner was at 5, but around 4:45 p.m., it began to happen.

I spent the rest of the night about twenty feet from the bathroom and lost count on my trips there when I passed the digits on my hands.  My stomach was still grumbling when I went to bed, hoping I’d wake up if the need to, you know.  

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  850.

Leaves, a Survival Workout, and a disturbing movie...

Saturday, November 21, 2015

I looked out my bedroom window and saw something white on the ground below.  Damn – snow!

Driving to Mimi’s I knew my workload had just tripled.  What leaves were left in her yard would now be completely wet and of course, heavy.  I had to get them done though and resigned myself to making it part of a tough workout day.

I raked the remaining leaves into about 10 small piles and grabbed my 20’ by 12’ tarp.  I’d been concerned when it was still in the package that it would not be big enough to move leaves, but it was more than adequate.  By the time I’d put half the leaves on it and began the long haul with the tarp to the woods out back, I knew I’d overloaded. 

With probably 100 pounds of leaves and sticks, I puffed and huffed my way up the sloping front yard, past the house and finally through the woods to the leaf pile I’d built over the last couple of weeks.  I’d had to stop and catch my breath a little beyond half way, which told me something about the size of the load.  I returned empty and reloaded the remaining leaves and the piles of downed branches and as I began to pull that load, realized I may have added the proverbial ‘straw’.  Three stops and ten minutes later with my heart pounding around 160 beats per minute, I pulled the pile to the top of Leaf Mountain and emptied the tarp.  Done for the season and without suffering from a heart attack.  It was a very good workout.

I left Mimi’s and drove to Donnas’ place in Painesville to determine the scope of work for replacing a door on the back of her garage.  I was supposed to meet my new movie-going friend, Sarah, to see ‘The Intern’ starring Robert DiNiro, so I knew time was limited if I wanted to get in a workout.  I opted to drive straight from the job site to the park and do the workout in whatever gear I could find in the Jeep.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from myself for the workout.  I hadn’t done a good Survival Workout in several weeks and that would surely mean some loss in the reps I could handle.  As always, I began with push-ups, but only managed 73.  I was way down.  I followed with crunches, pull-ups (10), dips and biceps curls with a heavy rock.  I headed down the trail aware that I was at least 20% off on everything.

It remained that way and got worse.  Where I would normally hit my second set of push-ups at around 60, I struggled to reach 40.  My third set was only 25 and as I returned to the Jeep with 17 sets of various exercises in, I knew just how much I’d lost.  It didn’t bother me, though, but in fact, motivated.  I knew I’d be sore the next day, but so what?  I’ve missed my workouts and writing about them and this was an excellent kick in the ass. 

I arrived late to the movies, but Sarah had grabbed tickets to ‘Spotlight’, which was really our first choice.  It is the story of the Boston Globe’s breaking of the Catholic Church’s efforts to conceal the extent of the heinous actions of priests who had molested children in their parishes.  Sadly, it involved 70 priests in the Boston diocese and happened with the knowledge of Cardinal Law and the hierarchy of the entire church.   A very disturbing movie, it was extremely well done and completely thought provoking.  Sarah has an excellent mind and enjoys discussing content, as do I, so she is a perfect movie companion.  We went out afterwards to talk and for me to have my last solid, fatty food before beginning my clear liquids and laxative routine the following day.   

Survival Workout:  60 minutes

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.

Calories burned:  600

Working harder on the bike...

Friday, November 20, 2015

Looking at the extended forecast, it appeared that snow and frozen ground was on the way.  I used to like such weather, but working in it on the farm has changed that somewhat.  The bitter cold of the previous winter had made my existence for the entire month of February a living hell.  It helped tremendously in propelling my thinking more towards retirement, how soon and what it might look like.  For now, it meant getting as many outdoor things done as I could before the ground became to frozen to work in.

I drove in more road markers for plowing and tried moving some dirt to fill holes in the service roads.  By day’s end, I’d had another reasonably physical day, but not nearly enough to call it a work out.  I headed for home thinking I’d get Dakota while Copper was visiting the neighbors and head up to the park for the first Survival Workout in a very long time.  As soon as I arrived and began to change however, my neighbor returned with Copper and the park workout was put on hold.  Instead, I went up to Red Box and grabbed the movie ‘The Water Diviner’ with Russell Crow, and headed back home for a ride and a movie.  At the 50-minute mark, I decided to check my training heart rate and was surprised to find it was speeding along at 135 beats per minute!  Normally I ride at around 120, so I can only surmise that I’ve gotten so out of shape that the simple ride was making me work harder, or I was riding harder than normal.  I made it to the one-hour mark on the trainer before deciding I’d had enough fun and dismounted.  The movie was good, but I decided I needed to have some dinner and get to bed since I had a big day coming for work at Mimi’s.  My stomach continued to bother me and so dinner amounted to some homemade chicken soup Kathy had given me.  I can’t remember ever looking forward to getting scoped before, but I’m surely anxious now.

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  135 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  850.

Farm workout day...

Thursday, November 19, 2015
It was a workout day at the farm.  With snow on the way, I decided I needed to do some work on the drive and parking lot, cold patching cracks and holes.  For me, that means using a heavy spud bar to dig out and square off holes in the black top, then filling with cold patch and using a heavy tamper to flatten the fill.  In all, it gives the arms and shoulders a decent workout.  As I was pounding away, I noticed a huge trailer loaded with hay driving towards the farm.  I had a delivery due tomorrow, so it wasn’t for me.  Then it pulled in our drive.

“You guys are a day early and my arms are tired.  Take that stuff back,” I said when they pulled up next to me.

“Yeah...well...Justin can help us,” Eli shot back.

“He retired.  I’m on my own,” I said.

Justin is 33 and he didn’t retire, but he did take another job so I was on my own.  I headed for the loft and moved around 30 bales to make way for the new stuff before acknowledging the elevator they were trying to send bales up to me.  It went quickly with the light, intellectual banter you can get only from two guys who cut, store and deliver hay for a living.  Good, old farm boys who think I’m a real city slicker.  I am, of course.

I drove from the farm to Mimi’s to see if I could get the 200-pound leaf blower out of the Jeep and put to good use blowing around her remaining leaves.  I managed to wrestle it to the ground and after starting it up, found it rather useless.  The winds were blowing and it seemed I was just getting the leaves in the air to be blown twenty feet before they settled mockingly to the ground again.  Bastards.

I pulled out the rake and tarp and spent the next 90 minutes fighting the wind in an effort to make small, manageable leaf piles.  Once done, I had even more fun trying to keep the tarp on the ground long enough to actually get leaves on top of it.  I was determined though, and finally completed the front lawn.  Two heavy tarp drags the 100 yards uphill into the woods completed the exhausting work.  When I climbed into the Jeep for the ride home, I was pretty sure it would be to collapse on the couch.

And then I remembered Copper was in my house and would need some serious activity and attention.  I fed her and Dakota, took them out to play and then spent the rest of the evening trying to convince her that I’d just brought her in and she didn’t need to walk back and forth from the back door to my perch on the sofa asking for more attention. 

My stomach continued to feel bloated and upset and so I passed on dinner and moved directly to dessert.  I was pretty sure I’d read somewhere that Breyer’s vanilla ice cream smothered in peanut butter and topped with maple syrup was an antidote to the h-pylori bacteria.  I was determined to discover if this was true.  It turned out not to be, but I’m a thrill seeking kind of guy.

Stomach bacteria returns...

Wednesday, November 18, 2015
It began almost two weeks ago and I recognized that feeling in my stomach almost immediately.  After studying my blog for a spell, I found the pertinent story in July of 2013 when I’d written about a visit to the gastro doc and his conclusion that I was suffering from an ulcer caused by the h-pylori bacteria running rampant in my gut.

“We can medicate it out of you, but it’s been attacking the lining of your stomach for some time and made you susceptible to the digestive fluids there, which led to your ulcer.  You should have come in sooner,” he concluded.

Salt in the wound.  Tell me something I don’t know, I thought.  Well…not this time.  I called and made an appointment and saw him last Monday.

“I’m looking at your ulcer from two years ago.  Pretty nasty,” my new doc said.  The old one had retired.  “I need to send a scope down there and have a look to see if it has returned.  You are also overdue for a colonoscopy, which I see here we discussed but you declined.”

“I’ve had two clean ones and I’m starting to think every five years is overkill,” I suggested.  It was falling on deaf ears, so I offered another idea.

“Can you do both at the same time?  I mean what’s the point of going under twice and having to miss two days of work?”

“Sure.  Do it all the time,” he said.

“Well then…let’s be sure you go down the throat first since I know you’ll be using the same camera to come up from the other end,” I said.

He smiled.  Probably heard that one already.

I went to the front to schedule the appointment.  “I guess I’ll need a driver to take me home after the anesthesia,” I said.

“Only if you want the procedure,” she answered with a smile.  They love my humor.

“How about the second week of December?” she said.

“Um…only if you’ve got something I can take for the belly issues I’m having for the next three weeks,” I said.  She found something the following Monday.

So…I’m in.  My stomach has been feeling bloated and I haven’t been hungry in two weeks.  I’ve exercised a little, but I’m in a bit of a funk there, as well.  My weight continues to stay down since I’m quite active at work, but I’ve lost some muscle tone and know I need to return to the Survival Workout if I’m to gain it back.  My endurance is off, too, as I noted when climbing 1,400 steps with Kathy two weeks earlier in the Strongsville Metropark.  I’ve been on the bike several times in the past month, but with no consistency – something that used to be my hallmark. 

With all that in mind, I dragged my bike and trainer up to the family room and propped it in front of the TV and dialed in Netflix.  I figured I’m living alone and could leave it there indefinitely where it could be a constant reminder that I had something important to do.  Since its dark at like three o’clock in the afternoon, outdoor rides are for weekends only.  And if I didn’t ride it, it would make another excellent place to hang a coat or a shirt or something.

I hopped on and managed 45 minutes of hard riding while watching an episode of ‘Lost’.  My stomach didn’t much like the idea, but it felt good to break a sweat.  Copper (visiting for the week while Savannah attends a conference in Arizona and visits the Grand Canyon) and Dakota watched and wandered to the side door constantly as if to say ‘get off that thing and take us out to play instead’. 

I had a cup of soup after riding, but only because I know I should have something in my stomach to give those acids something to do besides eating holes in me.  Monday can’t come soon enough.

Bike duration: 45 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120 bpm.
Calories Burned: 630.