Marathon Training Officially Begins

This Saturday, my marathon training officially began! My first long run was 8 miles and it went pretty well. Not too big a surprise since I ran the Steamboat Springs Half Marathon two weeks ago. My time was 2 hours and 4 minutes!  I was pretty nervous and unsure whether I would physically be able to handle such a long race, but I finished better than I expected.

The Steamboat Half Marathon Team

The next race on my radar is the Colorado Relay.  It is a 200 mile, 10 person relay race across the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  Our team name is What About Ed?  The race promises to be a great challenge and lots of fun.  This race will also serve to prepare me for the Denver Marathon in October.

With one of the main focal points of my efforts, The Denver Marathon, only four months away, I want to make sure that my other focus, raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the spotlight.  Please be sure to donate to this wonderful organization.  You can find my address on my “About” page which you can use to send tax-deductible donations.  I can only take checks right now, but  I’ll be making some changes to my site to make it easier to donate to this awesome cause very soon; so please check back!

Kung Fu – Time and Effort

The literal definition of kung fu is “mastery through time and effort”.  Kung fu is often associated with martial arts, but it can be applied to any discipline or hobby.  Kung fu is a crucial element for success at most worthwhile endeavors, from medicine to painting, from football to singing.  In tai chi we have a saying:  “after ten years of consistent and diligent practice, you’re off to a good start.”

I’m finding that kung fu also applies to running.  After a few months of hard training, I’ve had some aches and pains in my knee and ankle, torn a ham-string and consistently fought to stay motivated.  Molding one’s body into a marathon runner’s body is not a quick process.  It requires discipline, focus and tenacity over a long period of time.  In the beginning, I thought that my 20 years of soccer would propel quickly to my goals.  Now I’m realizing that a consistent effort of many months and years is the only path to marathon success. 

Another important aspect of any successful athletic pursuit is diet.  Unfortunately, too many view the word diet as a temporary and transient pursuit of a short-term objective.  We all need to eat, so in a way we are all on a diet.  Like anything else, diet requires kung fu or mastery through time and effort.  When I make changes to fuels we use to create body energy, I don’t think “well, I’ve got to starve myself so I’ll look good in my bikini this summer”.  Instead, I like to think about the consequences of repeating my eating habits over the next ten or more years.  If my diet will lead me to a healthy place over the course of ten years, then I am on the right track.  This attitude is how we fight cancer, improve our health care system and become healthier as a nation.

Don’t forget to practice your own version of kung fu.  Thank you all for reading.

Tai Chi, Meditation and Cancer

My apologies everyone.  Life got really busy and I’ve been a bit of a slacker; I haven’t had much of a chance to post to the site or manage the blog.  Despite what life has thrown at me I’ve still been active and focused on running.  I have been doing a great deal of Tai Chi and chinese buddhist meditation called hou t’ien ch’i (breath before birth) to help stave off stress and keep the energy flowing throughout my body.  Tai Chi is also a great supplemental treatment for cancer.  It can help patients cope with the effects of chemotherapy and is a great way to exercise without excessively straining the body.  Check out this article for information on tai chi and how it could help a cancer patient:  http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=472

The Steamboat Half Marathon is coming up in June.  My training starts this week.  I’m going to try three runs this week hopefully for a combined distance of 15 miles.  Thanks for reading, it’s great to be back…Wish me luck!

Plant Based Diets Help Prevent Cancer

According to a report by the World Cancer Research Foundation, a diet composed mostly of plant-based foods helps reduce the risk of many types of cancer.  The report; Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective, compiles volumes of scientific research from organizations and individuals across the planet and distills the information into specific judgements and recommendations.  While the conclusions and recommendations are not particularly novel (we’ve known of the benefits of nutrition, healthy living and plant-based diets for some time), they are very important to anyone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle and decrease their risk of contracting many forms of preventable disease.

On another note, this coming Sunday will be exactly six months away from the Denver Marathon in October.  I’ve been working really hard to build a solid base for the marathon and to condition my body for my test to 2nd degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu (I just passed my pretest last Sunday!).  I’ll be taking the week off with respect to my running.  Come Sunday, the real training begins…wish me luck!

SAVE R BOOBIES

Through my endeavours I met a young lady named Gina Andrews.  She is a breast cancer survivor and a dedicated breast cancer advocate.  She runs an awesome website called Save R Boobies (Love the title!).  It has all kinds of information about breast cancer including news, healthy living tips, survivor stories and treatment tips.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about breast cancer.

Shaolin Cross Training

A  little over a week after being back from Costa Rica and back I’m back into my training.  My hamstring healed surprisingly well and hasn’t hampered my training.  Unfortunately my knees have been pretty sore this week.  My workout consisted of three lunch hour runs, two 90 minute outdoor soccer games and a 3 miler with my beautiful girlfriend Lindsay.  I was also lucky enough to train a for a few hours with my man Jeremy Doyle on Sunday.  We got in some gloved sparring - empty hand as well as with staffs and swords.   He’s the only guy I trust to thrust weapons at my face.

Thanks Jeremy, Lindsay and everyone who reads…

Breast Cancer Survivor

A few weeks ago, I met Joan Braun at the CU New Venture Challenge (a campus-wide business plan competition at the University of Colorado).  Joan is the Executive Director of CU Presents (concert series put on by the University of Colorado) and a very spirited breast cancer survivor.  She is officially the first breast cancer survivor to be listed on the “Why Breast Cancer?” section of my blog. 

Listening  and talking with Joan was one of the most inspiring encounters I recently experienced.  Joan helped me to realize two things:  1) The extreme toll that breast cancer takes not only individual with the disease but also on their friends and family.  2) Surviving something like breast cancer helps one appreciate life on a whole new level.  My goal with this site and my foundation is that everybody who has been touched by breast cancer will be able to pull through and have the same outlook that Joan has!

Thanks Joan for  taking the time to share your experiences.  What I learned from you will continue to motivate me for some time to come.  As a reminder, I would love to hear other breast cancer survival stories like Joan’s.  Please e-mail your story to barefootforbreastcancer@gmail.com.  I would love to put your name on the list of personal connections found on the “Why Breast Cancer?” page.  Of course, if you would rather remain confidential please let me know and I will refrain from adding your name to the list. 

Thanks everyone for reading and supporting.  Remember to enjoy everyday we have!

Back in Action!!!

I got back from Costa Rica yesterday.  Awesome trip!  We stayed at the Bahia Paraiso Hostel in Tamarindo.  It’s a super laid back, beautiful place.  It has a great deck, hammocks, the best pizza in town and a very chill owner, Ryan.  Thanks for the hospitality Ryan!  Pictures are soon to follow.  Be sure to friend them on Facebook and find them on Trip Advisor

After my week in Tamarindo, my pulled hamstring is not bothering me at all.  Even after an hour of spirited glove sparring this morning at my kung fu school I felt no pain (well, in my hamstring anyway!).  I didn’t really get much of a chance to run in Costa Rica.  Between my strained hamstring and the 4 to 6 hours of daily surfing I’m not even sure if I got a run in.  But now I’m ready to get back into action!

One more note:  I had a swollen ankle for the last few days of my trip to Costa Rica.  I normally take a teaspoon of ground ginger in morning and one in the evening because it is supposed to be very good for inflammation and the circulatory system.  I couldn’t take my normal dose in Costa Rica, but I got back into my routine as soon as I got home.  After a dose on the evening of my return and one the next morning my ankle was absolutely fine; even after it got vigorously kicked in glove sparring. I now have confirmation:  ginger is great for inflammation and healing injured joints!  Thanks for reading everyone…

Interesting Week

On Tuesday I strained my hamstring pretty bad doing 100 yard sprints during my lunch hour.  My employer is getting used to me limping back into the office covered in sweat.  I’ll be taking it easy for a week or so, thankfully I’m headed off to Costa Rica for a week so it won’t be so hard to relax!  Yeah vacation.

A day before I injured myself I was thrown out of a Whole Foods for not having shoes!  Apparently the guy who threw me out is not a follower.  He said it was for my safety, a thought which was pretty funny to me since I ran three miles without shoes to get there! 

Thanks for reading everybody, I’ll check back in with you all when I get back from Costa Rica!

Wild Horse Stays in the Stable

This is the first day that I have had the energy to run, but just enough sense to back off a little. My knees have almost completely healed up today despite a 3 to 3.5 mile run yesterday during my lunch hour. If feel great and I really want to take off today and blaze a trail with my bare feet. However, thankfully the soreness of the last two or three weeks is still fresh enough in my mind to keep me in the stables…for today!