What Was Your Work Out Today?

Leg day:
- Barbell Squats
- Romanian Deadlifts
- Leg presses
- Leg curls
- Calves

Currently running PPL. Rest day tomorrow (thank you Jesus)

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

Gym today:
First, treadmill 10 min. at 5.0 mph; 20 min at either 3.5 mph or 3.0 mph pace with a 6% incline and 1 min. at 12%. Don't know how you keep that up, @nossmf!
Second, calisthenics / free weights circuit x 2 for 20 min. of battle ropes, shoulder press; candlesticks; squats with 10 lb kettlebells. Lots of lunges pre- and post-running.

In other news, I got my colonoscopy set up for Dec. 19th, which is one year exactly from my last one, where they discovered 2A colon cancer. I had surgery 2 days after that, recovery, then 6 mo. of oral chemo pills. It has been three months since then, and I've been back in the gym for maybe half of that time.

@AnnPT77: The receptionist I spoke with on the phone today casually mentioned that they had just been talking about me and keeping open an emergency surgery slot after my upcoming colonoscopy "just in case." So that's terrifying. According to the medical literature, my chances of recurrence in the next 3 years are roughly 10-20%, maybe 2-4% less than that given the oral chemo regimen I opted to do. So why do I feel like it's a 1/2 chance? At least my thirty minutes on the treadmill today helped me regain perspective on this whole thing.

I'm going to turn those worries off now and enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving week. Peace and joy and good food to all of you!

@DiscusTank5, I hear what you're saying, and deeply empathize. Please try to keep yourself on the side of hope and happiness to the extent you can.

I will not say that improves prognosis, though some folks may say that staying positive improves survival odds. (I think they are unintentionally being cruel when they do so.) The research I've seen doesn't necessarily support that.

We're going to have emotions about these kinds of things. They won't all be sunshine and roses. That's OK.

I think that some people who can't understand/accept that maybe haven't been through anything similar, and perhaps even implicitly hope they'll wall themselves off from ever having to go through it, because gosh, they're just so darned positive. 🙄 If that could be correct, I'd be cheering them on to be positive in their own lives. I think it's not true, instead is just wishful thinking.

What I do think is that staying as undiscouraged and life-affirming as practical does improve the quality of our days, and that's a worthwhile thing in itself. I can't tell you how many things I did, during chemotherapy especially, to try to stay as often in a non-catastrophizing, non-depressed mood as I possibly could. (I didn't succeed every minute, of course. Pursuit is more important than perfection, IMO.)

At diagnosis, I was told I had around a 60% chance of 5 year survival. (Different cancer type, of course.) On the one hand, that's better than even odds, which is good. And risks of metastatic recurrence (in my cancer type) decline with time, though never go to zero. Now, I'm 24 years after diagnosis. But it's still scary sometimes.

With time, it does get a little smaller in the rear-view mirror IME. But worries still pop up.

I admit, I don't know a lot about your cancer type. I do know that for some types, healthy weight, a nutritious diet, and exercise activity can each improve survival odds at the individual level. You're giving those good attention in your own life, and that's a good thing. We can only do the things we can do.

For sure, I AM cheering for YOU. I hope everything will go great with your upcoming colonoscopy. Keep us posted, if you feel up to it, OK? Sending health rays in your direction!

I went climbing on Wednesday. It was terrible, gravity was far too high.

I lifted weights on Thursday (fingerboarding, pull ups, bench and deadlift.)

I went caving today. We wandered down a valley with a vague aim of finding new passage. We think we've found around 10 metres of new passage; if we can move a boulder we are within spitting distance of caverns measureless to man.

You need to go through a boulder choke which is pure choss. It feels like it could collapse at any point. So if it does go anywhere, we'll need to shore things up a bit.

There were major floods in Wales last week. The water levels were still high. I've been trying to upload a photo, but the caving hut wifi is not up to the task. I will try again when I am home.

@AnnPT77 my injury was pretty mild in the scale of these things. I suspect I may have broken the ankle, but I'm scared of doctors so didn't see one. So now it is broadly fixed, I will never know.

Off topic but similar anecdote: I mildly broke my arm when I was 17, and walked 2 miles from school to home with the broken arm. I fancied a cup of tea before going to the hospital, so I tried to avoid my parents spotting until post tea. (I failed, and didn't get the tea.)

@DiscusTank5 best of luck! As Anne said, keep us updated if you feel up to it.

Yesterday's "workout" was an hour spent descending to the basement, figuring out how to jigsaw the boxes and bins of Christmas decorations out of the utility/storage room where they were mixed in with all the boxes and bins for other holidays, then lugging the Christmas items upstairs to the main room, rinse and repeat. Definitely breathing hard, and enjoyed the sensation of using gym-built muscles in real life to accomplish a goal. Holiday season diet-relaxation aside, I think I earned those peanut butter cookies I got to indulge in after everything was retrieved! lol

(Of course, today comes the part of putting everything onto walls etc...)

nossmf wrote: »

Yesterday's "workout" was an hour spent descending to the basement, figuring out how to jigsaw the boxes and bins of Christmas decorations out of the utility/storage room where they were mixed in with all the boxes and bins for other holidays, then lugging the Christmas items upstairs to the main room, rinse and repeat. Definitely breathing hard, and enjoyed the sensation of using gym-built muscles in real life to accomplish a goal. Holiday season diet-relaxation aside, I think I earned those peanut butter cookies I got to indulge in after everything was retrieved! lol

(Of course, today comes the part of putting everything onto walls etc...)

Gotta love those holiday decorating workouts! Yesterday I only meant to hang up a few Christmas wreaths, but in the process ended up dusting, sweeping, and mopping the front porch. I'm tempted to log those minutes in as exercise . . . .

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

@AnnPT77: The receptionist I spoke with on the phone today casually mentioned that they had just been talking about me and keeping open an emergency surgery slot after my upcoming colonoscopy "just in case." So that's terrifying.

We're going to have emotions about these kinds of things. They won't all be sunshine and roses. That's OK. [ . . . ]
staying as undiscouraged and life-affirming as practical does improve the quality of our days, and that's a worthwhile thing in itself. I can't tell you how many things I did, during chemotherapy especially, to try to stay as often in a non-catastrophizing, non-depressed mood as I possibly could. [ . . .]
For sure, I AM cheering for YOU. I hope everything will go great with your upcoming colonoscopy. Keep us posted, if you feel up to it, OK? Sending health rays in your direction!

That's so, so helpful. Even before cancer I tended to catastrophize (you all should have seen me during the pandemic, esp. with my job in higher ed. and schools closing left and right, some of them permanently. My university made good strategic decisions and we survived fine but I worried a lot at the time.)

I have a subscription to Outside Magazine, and in the most recent issue they report on a study of the 15 traditional predictors of death (blood pressure, age, cholesterol, cancer diagnosis, diabetes diagnosis, etc.) The most recent findings suggest that the BEST predictor is how much someone moves, followed by age. I found that to be so encouraging, especially since it is something within my control (movement, not age) unlike a family history of certain cancers.

I'll update my test results to this message board. I've got a CT scan on the 5th and a colonoscopy on the 19th. Prayers and / or health rays much appreciated.

@DiscusTank5, people sometimes talk about food being medicine (which I admit makes me 🙄 a little), but movement certainly is important in a similar way. Eating more nutritiously, moving more in positive, useful ways . . . better quality of life, IME. Ditto for being at a healthy weight.

I never would've imagined, in advance, how much better life would be from doing better with those things. Too theoretical then, maybe?

I wish I had the character to "do it because it's good for me", y'know, harnessing all that motivation and discipline that I personally don't have much of . But mostly I stay active because it's fun (once I figured out the right thing(s) to do) and makes me feel good. (I admit, I do some things that are slightly less fun, in some cases even non-fun, to stay tuned up for the fun stuff, because the fun stuff is just that good. )

At my age (69), I think it's a little too late to work on a character or personality transplant, and those generally aren't very successful anyway IMO. I can still harness the power of happy habits, and that's good enough to accomplish a surprising amount, IME.

I feel sad when I see people here who've decided that all exercise is unpleasant, or people who feel that exercise has to feel miserable in order to deliver benefits. Their future self will inherit the consequences, but one's future self is a pretty misty concept for most of us anyway.

Motivationally, my future self is one of the things I've narrowed in on personally, though, during the experiences of improving fitness and reaching a healthy weight. (Those things happened years apart for me, better fitness came first by over a decade . . . post cancer treatment, in fact.)

Current Ann occasionally feels a little testy about past Ann's life choices , though not usually for long: Unchangeable now, right? But it does bring home the fact that my current choices - even some small ones - can affect my future self's happiness and overall well-being in surprisingly big ways.

Best wishes!

As a claustrophobic, where is the "aw, *beep* no!" emoji? 😶😨😱 lol

Yeah, I'm with you guys. I definitely enjoy seeing @drmwc's photos and hearing about his adventures, which are really inspiring . . . I mean, being in a cave where probably no other humans have ever been before? Wow!

I'm not extra super duper claustrophobic, but that wouldn't be my jam, either. I'm a little risk averse in general. I find it both interesting and surprising that drmwc is meandering around in those places that I'd find quite scary, but at the same time avoiding doctors. (FWIW, I'm a big fan of mine, maybe especially the ones who've more than likely literally contributed to saving my life. For sure, the oncologists are in that category, and the recent neurology guys may be too, but I think I'm not quite out of that woods yet. For sure, they're doing their best, and I'm sure have at minimum extended my life by stapling me up and stopping my brain bleed from spreading . . . so far. )

I don't enjoy heights, either, at least not edges of heights. When my gutters need cleaning, or the roof needs sweeping, I'm hiring people (and relieved to be able to do so). My SIL was climbing around on her 2nd-storey roof well into her 70s (and lived ). But that's a big nuh-uh from me, even though I know many people do it safely.

Again, none of that is a criticism of anyone whose thought process is working for them, but is wildly different from mine. I find the diversity interesting and thought provoking.

Thought I'd posted yesterday's (Dec 2) workout after Sunday's rest day, but oops, I guess.

Same boring thing, though - to do and to read (sorry!): Stationary bike, 18,993m in just under an hour, still crazy slow compared to normal (58W (! 😬) average; shooting for HR 115bpm but not over 120; hit 114 average, 118 peak). I do feel like it's getting slightly easier subjectively to complete each time, though I'm still really easily tired overall.

Still watching visual journaling videos to pass the time, just started watching a free series called Care December, but have only watched so far, not done any of the prompts in my mixed-media journal.

Currently at 37,965m of the 200k I need by the end of Christmas Eve to complete the C2 Holiday Challenge, assuming I can do it. Health/safety is a higher priority to me than the challenge, but so far it's going OK.

Another stationary bike ride, about the same as all the other recent heart-rate-limited ones, except that for some reason HR was running a little hotter tonight, so only 52W average. 😐 🤷

Now at 47,434m of the 200km for the C2 Holiday Challenge (where bike meters count half), just under half a day ahead of my personal schedule.

As an aside, I stopped creatine while in the hospital. (They only brought me my thyroid meds, prescription meds related to the injury, acetaminophen and vitamin D. Not surprising, except I don't know what made the vitamin D special among the supplements. Doubtless they knew.)

Just restarted the creatine a couple of days ago. I was afraid to at first because I was having pretty strong shooting cramp-like leg pains from glutes to calves with certain movements, not sure whether related to the injury or too much time in bed. (Medical team has been uncertain about the cause, and mixed thoughts among them about probabilities.) I had some leg cramps around the time I first started creatine, unusual but not major, maybe unrelated to creatine. But I didn't want to risk a repeat of extra leg issues, so I put off creatine until legs were better, and I started working out again. OK so far. 🤷, again.

nossmf wrote: »

Which version of creatine, monohydrate or HCl? If you recall, I cited a personal observation that cardio was easier for me with HCl, though the scientist in me will point out it's possibly a placebo effect and the truth was I was simply increasing relative fitness instead.

It's been monohydrate so far. I might try HCl at some point, but I'm in the midst of a cannister of monohydrate, so I'll at least wait until that's running low.

Based on my reading, it seems even monohydrate has some potential benefits in the realm of endurance cardio, but another factor that matters to me is that it may have some neurological benefits. As one example, I have a friend who has early-onset dementia, and her neurologist strongly encouraged her to use creatine. (That alone wouldn't persuade me; reading has also suggested their may be benefits in that realm, and that there are quite limited downsides to using it.)

Personally, I don't sneer at placebo effects. I know that placebo effect isn't "all in one's head", but that some reasonable research has shown it can affect certain hormone levels and other physically measurable phenomena that aren't easily manipulated. If I feel better or do better because of a placebo effect, I'm happy, as long as there are no downsides.

Just stay away from WebMD, my dear. I have had to counsel my wife to stay away from there, as more than once she went to investigate something minor (sunburn, hangnail) and walked away with a self-diagnosis of some terminal disease.

nossmf wrote: »

Just stay away from WebMD, my dear. I have had to counsel my wife to stay away from there, as more than once she went to investigate something minor (sunburn, hangnail) and walked away with a self-diagnosis of some terminal disease.

Totally on board with that. I'm a bit more likely to trust info from my doctors' patient education info, outfits like Mayo Clinic or similar well-credentialed medical centers, some of the mainstream health-condition-centric sites (like American Cancer Society in my case), the US government entities posting about things on-mission to the agency (even though some think the government is bought and paid for).

I also tend to trust examine.com, which I like enough to have a paid membership. But I pretty much always look at studies in peer reviewed journals, and think about the research quality to the best of my understanding, with consensus there counting more than individual studies, of course.

WebMD, HealthLine, and some of those sites are mixed quality at best, IME.

Having worked at one, I don't trust major research universities, either, necessarily. There can be goodness there, if a person exercises caution . . . but "academic freedom" pretty much means that any idiot can put anything in their blogs, and some researchers/professors - based on my acquaintances there - can be idiots, and some will speak way outside their scope of education besides, even some who are pretty nice, well-intended people IRL.

Best I can do as an amateur and idiot myself, anyway.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I have a CT scan scheduled Friday; fingers crossed that will look good and the not severe but weirdly variable headaches will be within the expected range of healing rather than a sign of something. 🤷 Sorry - seems easy to feel a little paranoid right now, so I guess I'm venting off topic here. I've never had a head injury like this before.

Vent all you want! My scan got moved, so we'll both have CT scans this Friday, albeit on different bodily areas.

Yesterday I dropped my autistic son off at school at 5 am so he could go to State Special Olympics in bowling. He came in 3rd and I'm a proud mama. Not a lot of options for things to do at that hour in my town, so I took myself to the gym for a 40 min. stationary bike ride, then 10 min. of walking, followed by sit-ups and lunges for the final 10 min.

I'm only doing a few short walks today so I won't throw any measurements off during tomorrow's scan.

Most distance I've ever done in one shot for a workout* was 10km (6.25mi). Had dreams of doing a marathon back during my running days, but that was 30 years and 40 pounds ago, lol. Much of that weight difference is muscle (I was really lean back then) which I want to hang onto, so marathons remain on the back burner of my imagination.

* - I have gone on 20+ mile hikes during camping and hunting trips, but I consider those situations different from an intentional workout.