This is the elevation map for the ET midnight marathon I’m going to attempt next month in the Nevada.
The lure for me,  was the chance to walk on the fringes of the infamous “Area 51 ” (aka Dreamland) in the Nevada desert at night,  but I signed up for the event before I really got a good look at the course map.  I knew the starting and finishing elevations were around 4900 ft , but I had no idea there was a big mountain in the middle.   For some reason I pictured the desert as being flat… what was I thinking?  Well, I guess it’s not a huge mountain  , but still,  it’s the highest I will have ever attempted to climb during a race.

Thankfully,  I’m only doing the half marathon portion which starts at mile 7 and ends at mile 20 on this chart, so the most I’ll have to climb is about 700 ft over 5 miles ( a pretty easy grade).  The whole thing takes place on Hwy 395, and I mean to tell you, it really is in the middle of nowhere ! I Google earthed it,  and the course is basically a 3-segment straight lined zig zag , which has only one curve .  It’s not all bad though, because from the half way point at Coyote summit , to the town of Rachel ( the finish line),  its a  straight shot, 7 miles…. and downhill all the way!

Recently , a friend of mine who has worse lung disease than I do, and who is oxygen dependent, did the Slacker downhill marathon in Colorado which has starts at an elevation of 10, 600 ft!   Apparently he had no significant problems, but he had to crank up his oxygen to 15 lpm. That’s a lot of oxygen, especially up your nose ( He may have used a mask , Im not sure).

I’ve lived and vacationed at these types of elevations,  but Ive never walked very far while there ,  and judging from last years posted finish times , this course is a challenge even for healthy people.

Oh..and this is the first time Ive received race instructions with the following caveats;

** All runners are REQUIRED to wear reflective clothing; carry a hand held flashlight or wear a headlamp; glow-necklaces will be provided.

*** All runners MUST exercise extreme caution as this highway is open range- meaning cows and other animals may be on the roadway! You may not provoke or approach these animals. Mind your own business and they should leave you alone.

A friend of mine who’s doing the event with me, has offered to mule my portable nebulizer and a small oxygen tank for me, should I need them.  Is that sweet or what?  He has really bad knees and I have really bad lungs , so this should be an interesting night….especially if we encounter any UFO’s along the way.

Two weeks after that,  Im back to Las Vegas to see Manilow ( for the 33rd time) . Ain’t life grand!

After 2 years of talking about it, I’ve finally made a commitment to get the other half of my body into shape and signed for membership up at a local Gym. I think had it not been for the horrible air quality we’ve been experiencing in California, I would’ve found more excuses not to sign up.

The first couple days at the Gym I was a little intimidated , because I was absolutely clueless on how to use the machines or what the heck it is that you’re supposed to do to tone up and bulk up. I mean, I’m a decent marathon walker, but I don’t know anything about weight training. Well, the insecurity didn’t last long . I quickly learned my way around , and I have to admit… it’s pretty cool working out in a modern air conditioned building with other people! Lots of high tech stuff to play with, TVs everywhere, and because I go in early the morning, the machines I use are always available ( I love the new Hoist workout machines). I have a really cool personal trainer that I hit it off with right off the bat (especially after he told me he couldn’t believe I was 53 years old. ) His name is also Steve and he’s gonna help guide me in obtaining my goals of toning and strengthening my increasingly flabby upper body (Its hard to hide from the sight of your own flab when your surrounded by floor to ceiling mirrors).

Believe it or not, this is first time I’ve ever worked out on a treadmill outside of the hospital! I was totally shocked on just how slow I was walking the first time I used it. I had a hard time maintaining even a 15 min/mile pace for any length of time , (something that I do all the time outdoors), but after just a few days , I’m already getting faster and now I’m able to doing multiple 2-3 minute racewalking intervals at an 11 min pace. Not bad considering that I’m racewalking on the treadmill, not running on it. The only bad thing is that I somehow managed to get another blood blister under one of my toenails, probably from toeing off incorrectly on the treadmill. (The last black toenail I got took 5 months to shed.)

In the coming days , I’ll be crafting a new exercise schedule which will incorporate both Gym workouts and long distance walks. Now that Ive added cross training to the marathon training equation, I don’t mind calling myself a real athlete in training!

Beautiful, but extremely unhealthy skies

I took these pictures at 8 o clock Tuesday morning from my front and back decks, and I don’t know if you can see, but the sun has a weird ring around it and the sky has a thick orange haze. Everywhere you go in the bay area, it smells like smoke. It’s been like this for 5 days now!

There’s something like 1,000 wildfires burning right now in California, the majority of them in the Northern part of the state. Lucky me… I live in the SF bay area, not far from where one of the biggest fires is burning. Despite the offshore breezes, the air quality here in the bay area and central California is absolutely awful. There is so much smoke in the air , the winds aren’t helping. It’s not unusual to fires here during the summer, but in all my life Ive never seen it ( or smelt it) this bad.

So far it hasn’t had a noticeable effect on my breathing ( I even walked through it yesterday… like an idiot), but if the air doesn’t clear up soon, no doubt there will be lots of people getting sick….myself included.

Smoggy smoky skies over the entire SF bay area

Since no one seems to know why Ive been getting so sick, so frequently lately , and since there’s a tendency to blame walking as a trigger,  I decided to do a little experimenting to see if I could find a link between taking long walks, and my breathing flare-ups.

Last Saturday just 4 days after being released from prison, I went out and repeated the very same 8 mile walk that I thought might have put me behind bars in the first place. Let me first say, I wouldn’t have even attempted a repeat walk so soon after a hospitalization , but I was breathing easy the evening before, and with the steroids were making me so antsy , I decided to go for it. Though I had to walk slower than I would’ve liked (18 min/mile) , my lungs behaved nicely and the walk went relatively well. I felt so good in fact, that I actually ended up walking 9 miles instead of 8. I tried my darnedest not to racewalk, but foolishness got the best of me and I probably did about a dozen or so short sprints. During the 3 hour walk I experienced chest tightness about every other mile , and think I used my inhaler about 8 times( pretty much normal for me for that distance.) The biggest problem I had was muscle fatique and the tell tale signs of impending calf cramps, not surprising considering that I was on 40 mg of prednisone at the time and had been bed bound just a week earlier. Anyways, I finished the walk feeling strong. I came home, took an ice bath and had only minor breathing problems the rest of the day.

Sunday morning arrives, and my dyspnea level is noticeably worse than 24 hours earlier and it continues to escalate as the day wheres on. ( I know somethings not right when I get  SOB just walking around the house.) My peak flows are still pretty good , but my FEV1s start to drift down. By Sunday evening I’m miserable and to make things worse  I couldn’t blame anyone but myself for the way I felt.  After all, I brought it on myself right?

Monday morning rolls around and I’m breathing great again, so I think to myself…  OK, one day of  bad breathing doesn’t sound like a bad trade-off for one good day of walking,  so why not go for it again . That afternoon I did my 5 mile bridge walk.   Monday night I’m still breathing good, and in fact,  felt better after the walk than before. Tuesday morning, a repeat of Sunday…..I can’t believe it.  I do a walk , and 24 hours later…I can’t breath again!  This is just plain weird.  This time however the SOB spills over into Wednesday, and by that evening my dypnea level goes through the roof.    Wednesday night was so bad, I actually thought I was going to suffocate and that would be.   Not only did I feel hyper- inflated , but I could feel my airways tightening up ( bronchospasm) . I was so SOB that I even had a hard time using my nebulizer. I couldn’t take a deep enough breath to get the meds in.  Now,  I’m not an anxious person in general, but I can tell you , that the anxiety of not being able to breath was making things worse. Just the extra brainpower that you consume when you’re anxious, can make you more SOB.   Afraid of falling over the edge and having to  911ing it,  I pulled out every trick in the book to relax my lungs and my brain !   By doing  diaphragmatic breathing exercises, purse-lip breathing, anti anxiety meds, opiates and neb treatments every hour,  I made it though the night ( sitting up).   That was probably a dare devilish move on my part, but at least I’m home right now and not in the hospital.

Thursday morning , exhausted , and still dyspneic from the night before,  I did the unthinkable, ( actually two unthinkables).   First , I bumped up my steroids back to 40 mg , then I  went out for a 5 mile walk!    I figured what the heck,  I’m so SOB anyway, how much worse could it get.  I complete the walk in 2 hours  in 86 degree “Spare The Air Day” weather,  and surprisingly , I was breathing BETTER after that walk…. than    before I left!

Its now Friday morning and I’m still breathing fairly well.  My PF’s are back in the green zone and my FEV1 is 39%.   So whats up?   I do a walk when Im breathing well and I get sick 24 later.  But then I walk when Im sick and 24 hours later I’m breathing well again. I must be wired backwards or something.  Maybe bumping up of the steroids had something to do with , but it usually takes at least a day for the extra steroids to take effect.

After a week of good and bad days, the  question remains ..is my walking causing my flare-ups?  Maybe it’s something in the environment?  Maybe  its just me?   Is there some kind of physical stress that I don’t perceive when Im walking that causes a gradual worsening of my symptoms.   Was it foolish to walk when I was already way too SOB to begin with?   That last question is debatable because many so-called experts will tell you to exercise even when you’re SOB. ( in all fairness , that last statement refers primarily to COPDers and not so much to COPD/ asthmatics) .

The experiment was inconclusive.   Because of the delayed response from the time I exercised , till the time I develop symptoms,  I still cannot say with 100% certainty,  that  walking in and of itself, is making me sick.  The search for the elusive trigger continues…  but until its found, I will continue to walk my ass off.

As I was mentioning to AsthmaMom , (whose blog I really like), the first rule of etiquette for a severe asthmatic who has just survived a traumatic hospital stay,  is to thank those who helped him get through it .   For those who held your hand , for those who kept a constant eye on you, for those who tolerated your moodiness and still managed to smile. For the one’s who felt bad when they had to poke you with needles.

During my Hospital stays I have the closest contact with the Nurses and Respiratory Therapists, but I will acknowledge phlybotomists, Xray techs, even the housekeeping staff, if they are kind and courteous to me.   I usually send one of those ‘ Thank an Employee ” cards that you find near the elevators or in waiting areas of a hospital. Sometimes I’ll  contact the hospital administrator or dept head directly to make sure that the individuals involved receive the recognition they deserve .
At UCSF ,   they have what they call the ”Star Program” .
I’m not sure how it works at other places,  but here when you send in these cards, the staff receive these little fabric purple stars that they proudly display on their ID badges. Some of them have so many of these stars , that you can’t read the name on their card.

So why the need to acknowledge my caregivers?   They get paid big bucks don’t they ?  Do you have any idea of whats it’s like to work as an ICU or Critical Care Nurse or Respiratory Therapist? Have you ever been a patient in an Intensive care unit?  I hope you never have to , but if you do , you’ll know why I take the time to do this.

To all those unseen heroes who work behind the locked doors of the Intensive Care Unit or Emergency Room saving lives……Thanks for saving mine!

As I type this post up, I’m slowly recovering from what was my 91st Hospitalization. By asthma exacerbation standards, it was only a moderate attack, but it was by far one of the most stressful hospitalizations I’ve ever had. And to think I may have brought the attack on myself….I can only describe my feelings as … unsure of anything now.

Ok, so for whatever reason, I ended up in the hospital and ( ICU again) , but I’m still not totally convinced that my walking was the only culprit. In defense of the medical establishments stance on this subject , I have to agree that there is mounting evidence to support their theory that because my asthma is so severe and because I air trap , that I may be unknowingly exacerbating my own flare ups by “over-doing it”. Not just with my walking, but with ANY activity that causes physical or emotional stress . They also point out that regardless of how well I keep my internal living and breathing spaces clean and free of allergens, there are potential environmental triggers outside my home that could be making the milder exacerbations more severe. As logical as this all might sound, it’s still at best, speculation, an educated guess, one of the only explanations left , if you will. It could also be just as true, that no matter what I do, or how well I safeguard myself from all triggers, I’m going to get sick. It’s a classic catch 22. If I exercise ( or live) too much, I put myself at risk for death, if I don’t exercise , I will die an unhappy blob. Given a choice, which path do you think Id choose?

Coming in for treatment early probably thwarted off an intubation, but I’m beginning to wonder if all these preemptive hospital interventions are worth the huge emotional and physical drains they inflict on me. Never have I felt so much like a medical oddity or burden on the system. Never have I been poked , prodded or questioned by so many lung specialists in such short order. For the first time ever I got an uneasy feeling that they just wanted me be to do what a nice stoic severe asthmatic is supposed to do…not argue with them , take my steroids, and quietly fade away, (preferably at home). Never have I felt so beaten up depressed , or defeated after such a short hospital stay. As crazy as this might sound, when I used to wait until I was critically ill to come in, at least I felt justified that I was sick enough to be there in the first place and therefore the resulting torture was somehow acceptable.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not Superman and I am NOT a gluten for punishment . If I am making myself sick by pushing myself too hard during exercise, then I need to modify my training. Having said that,I am not afraid of dying doing something that I love.
Right now I’m working on an exercise plan to reduce both the mileage and intensity of my training walks, while at the same time maintaining a minimal level of endurance needed to complete the goals Ive set up for myself. Ive decided to eliminate the majority of my daily bridge walks, as this is where I’m most tempted to racewalk, (which is probably the main culprit in my walk related exacerbations.)

In the meantime, I’ve been referred to yet another team of ” asthma specialists” who work with the worst of the worst … ie me. From reading their bios, it looks like they deal primarily with behavior modification. I think they’re hoping that they can somehow brainwash me into thinking that I’m not short of breath, thereby eliminating the dyspnea-anxiety cycle. I’ve agreed to try anything except psych meds or anything that makes you “feel” that it’s OK to suffocate.

For those of you who think Ive wimped out because of this recent set back, this Saturday, just 4 days after getting out of the hospital, I will redo the 8 miler that supposedly made me sick to begin with. This time however, I will not push myself as hard. If I can pull this off without getting sick, then the plan is to continue with bi-weekly LSDs to prepare me for the upcoming summer races.

Just got paroled after spending another 5 days in the hospital. Gonna need an extended period of time to recuperate and reassess my priorities.

My License to Practice Respiratory Care in the State of California and my NBRC Registration

Yes, there’s actually more to my life than asthma attacks and marathon walks… I’m also a Respiratory Care Practitioner .

In order to legally practice Respiratory care in the State of California, you have to be licensed by the state , and in order to maintain your license , you have to renew it every two years . To renew your license you have to take continuing educations courses ( CEU’s) relevant to Respiratory Care and pay a $250 renewal fee.

What makes this a tough call for me, is that because of my asthma, I can no longer work as an RT (not many employers will hire someone who’s in the hospital every month), and because of that , I don’t really need my license anymore. $250 bucks every two years, plus the fees associated with the continued education requirements is a lot of money when you live on a shoestring. I could do a lot of other things with that money.
On the other hand, Ive been licensed continuously since the law went into effect back in 1985… nearly 23 years ago. I feel like a Respiratory pioneer of sorts. It’s hard to let go of a title which you’ve spend your entire adult life making a living on.
If I let my license elapse or retire it , and decide later that I wanted it back, I would have to start all over from scratch, which means digging up old college transcripts, getting background checks done , taking proficiency exams , etc etc. Im’ too old to go through that crap again.
So I guess in away, its less stressful just to bite the bullet, complete the required CEU’s, fork out the dough and get renewed.

They mail the forms out early, but I still have until September to make a final decision in which I will mostly likely renew, but I’m also pretty sure that this will be the last one I’ll do. By the time the next renewal deadline rolls around , and assuming I’m still alive, I’ll be 56 years old. By then I’m pretty sure I can let it go.

A lot of people ask me, ” Did you become an RT because of your asthma?” The answer is …yes and no. Let’s just say that having asthma made it alot easier for me to relate to my patients. On the other side of that, being an RT doesn’t always make it easier to be a patient.

PS….Speaking of patients, today I’m going to become one again. They’re nervous about my low PFs and my persistent symptoms during past week, so today they’re re-admitting me to the hospital. Hopefully , it will only be a short visit.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer or more humble guy. Can you imagine…. walking 50 km ( 31 miles ) in 4:05….That’s crazy fast!!!!

Philip Dunn is one of my racewalking idols, and last year I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Portland Marathon . Oddly enough, he didn’t racewalk the marathon … he did that weird thing with the ski poles ( Nordic walking. ) He came in 1st place of course, which didn’t surprise me a bit. He occasionally teaches racewalking clinics with Dave Mc Govern and also belongs to my local walking club.

This will be Philips 2nd 3rd time at the Olympics and I know it’s been a long hard road for him to get there. Unlike some Olympians , the last time I spoke with Philip , he was working a part time job to support his new family AND still managed to maintain a full time workout schedule ……That’s a phenomenal feat in itself.

Good luck Philip ..We’re all so proud of you!

Happens this Saturday along the San Francisco waterfront . It will only be an 8 miler , but its the longest walk Ive done since the Rome marathon in mid March and I can’t wait to get out there. The starting point for all my long distance training walks, is the Justin Herman Plaza , located directly across the street from the San Francisco Ferry building. I will follow the Embarcadero along the waterfront ,sometimes all the way across the Golden Gate bridge. I will walk anywhere from 4 to 10 miles in each direction for a total of 8-20 miles depending on my training schedule . Btw..If you’ve never walked the SF waterfront, the scenery is awesome. (The photo for my blog header was actually taken at mile 4 during one of my training walks).

I would like to also extend an open invitation to anyone interested in accompanying me on any of my San Francisco training walks. I depart from the mentioned starting point at 8am sharp!   If you’re interested and want to know more about my current walking schedule, email me privately. I do my ,long walks at an LSD pace of 16-18 min/mile with appx 3-4 short racewalking intervals , thrown in per mile after the first 3 miles of the walk. I do my racewalking intervals at appx an 8-9 min/mile pace. So, if you’re a not a walker, you can jog, and I can still keep up with you ( if my lungs behave).

Ive only been out of the hospital for a few weeks, and while my I’m eager to start training , my lung function has declined somewhat( my baseline FEV1 is now hovering around 34% ), but more troublesome than my lung function, is the persistent leg and lower back muscle pain Ive been experiencing for the past 6 months(a side effect of the prednisone) I’ve never had to deal with this new pain before. Everything hurts , so Im not exactly sure how my body is going to handle even a short 8 mile walk. This weekend I should get a pretty good sense of how the rest of the training season will go , or for that matter, whether there will be training season at all.

Ive already signed up to do 3 more races this year, separated by only a few weeks, and each one significantly more challenging than the previous. The first is a 5K at the San Francisco marathon in August, followed a couple weeks later by a 21k in the high desert, and finally a full marathon in Portland on Oct 5th. Actually, I have mixed feelings about walking the Portland marathon for a 3rd time, ( a 44 k is a long walk) , but even if I don’t, I’ll be spending the weekend up there to support the friends of mine who have never done it before.

My goal of course , for all these races, is to PR. Ive never done a 5k race , so I guess that would be an automatic PR . As far as a hilly 1/2 marathon at a mile high elevation , who knows what will happen with that one. And as for Portland, this would make it my 3rd time . Maybe it would be a charm. In the two previous years , I managed to knockoff almost two hours off my finish times . Wouldnt it be great if I could knock off another hour? That would put me somewhere in the 6 hour range ( the equivalent of a 3 hour marathon for a healthy runner). Yeah, that would put a smile on my face.

PS………Today I completed my 600th trip across the
Al Zampa Bridge