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Miles Walked/Racewalked in 2010 Total miles walked since starting this blog on 6-1-2005

New Asthma Forum

January 29th, 2010 Stephen Posted in Asthma, People, Places and Events No Comments »

I spend so much at other websites asthma forums, I thought Id start my own right here on my blog. Hope you’ll check it out and participate. You can get there from the “Forum” tab or here:

Please feel free to post questions and start new topics.

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Canadian style lunch with a cat from outer space

January 25th, 2010 Stephen Posted in Friends/Bloggers, Misc, People, Places and Events 7 Comments »

A Canadian style lunch, complements of my friend Kerri from Winnipeg. She knows I’m a candy-holic and that I like UFO stuff too ( my cat Winston is from another galaxy)


We enjoyed our lunch very much. Thanks Epic Kerri for sending us all these goodies!!

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I still have it !

January 23rd, 2010 Stephen Posted in Asthma, Asthma Symptoms, Exercise&Fitness, Fitness Walking, Marathon Training, San Francisco, Shortness of Breath, Walking, Wheeze 4 Comments »

Whatever IT is, I must still have it, because today I walked 10 miles. And I couldn’t be happier about IT!

I think this tune kinda captures the mood for the day.
I’m Alive (by ELO)

Now, I’m not going to say it was easy, cuz it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of the most difficult training walks Ive done in a long time. My lungs got tight right off that bat, and by the time I got to the 6 mile mark, I was hitting on my inhaler every 5 to 10 minutes (12 puffs in all). Did I mention that a bunch of thunderstorms erupted and it poured down freezing rain almost the entire 2 hours and 43 minutes that it took me to finish the walk? ( shame on you weather man) Yup, I was soaked to the bone and wheezing like a punctured set of bagpipes, but I pushed on, and man… did I feel alive!


The last 3 months have been really rocky. Two hospitalizations in a 12 week period and never fully recovering from either one, had me feeling pretty down and unsure if Id ever be able to any long distance walking again. Well with today’s uncertainty eliminated, Ive regained some of that confidence and am ready to tackle the other 300 miles that I’ll need to walk to be ready for Boston.

Note to myself: I will definitely need to take a couple neb treatments during Boston and also during my longer training walks, because the inhalers just don’t cut it when I’m over exerting myself.

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Gotta whole lot a walking to do

January 20th, 2010 Stephen Posted in Asthma, Boston Marathon, Marathon Training, People, Places and Events, Shortness of Breath, Walking 3 Comments »

It’s now or never –I’ve got some serious walking to do.

If all goes well, I’ll be kicking off my Boston marathon training this Saturday with a 10 mile bridge to bridge walk in San Francisco. For the next 12 weeks (lungs permitting), I will be walking my ass off, and in the process will rack up close to 300 miles. From this point on, I will need to focus a 100% of my attention on my training , so I’ll probably be blogging less frequently. I will however, post a weekly update of my progress.

I’ll be following the training template below. Because I’m already a month behind, I’ll be entering at the 3rd week of the schedule and finishing on the 16th. To cram this much this training into such a short period, will definitely be a challenge.


(click to enlarge)

As with previous training sessions, I’ll be doing most of my lsds (long slow distance) walks, in San Francisco along the waterfront and Golden Gate Bridge, and my shorter 3-5 mile tempo walks, in Crockett, California on the Al Zampa Bridge.

So you might be asking , why is all this training and preparation so important for someone who is only walking a marathon vs running one? Well, 26 miles…. is 26 miles, whether you run it, walk it, or crawl it. It’s not like you’re given a week to complete the race. If that were the case, anyone could do a marathon. I have 7 hours to cross the finish line at the Boston marathon, which equals a pace of about 16 min/mile. If you’re not quite sure how fast that this, just imagine walking at a brisk pace, non-stop, for 7 + hours. I assure you it’s not easy, even for people who prepare for it. The average body is not build to withstand the stress of trekking 42 thousand meters without a break. No matter how healthy you are, you need to train for these kinds of races.
Then there’s this little problem I have with my lungs. My lung function is less than 50% to begin with, and on top of that, I have very severe asthma. Put all these things together and you can see why training for a marathon is such a big deal for me.

Ive only been out of the hospital for 2 weeks now, and because my shortness of breath and exercise tolerance have worsened this past year, until I know how my body is going to react to some of these upcoming training walks, I can’t really say with certainty, if I’ll be up to the task of completing, what would be my 7th marathon and last marathon.

Preparing for an event like the Boston marathon also requires a huge commitment of time, money and sweat. For this reason, I’m not going to make a final decision about my participation in the race until Jan 30th. Here’s hoping for a green light.

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OMG ….is it already 2010 ?

December 31st, 2009 Stephen Posted in Friends/Bloggers, Misc, People, Places and Events 7 Comments »

Geeze, I can’t believe I made it to 2010. What a crazy year 2009 was ..huh.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

A heart felt thank you to the following people and organizations. Each are special. Please check them out.

  • Hold your breath to breath ( Kerri’s blog)
  • Asthma Mom
  • Life with these Lungs
  • Respiratory Therapy Cave
  • Live to Run-Run to Live
  • Kari’s Gift
  • Tammys Tidbits
  • Dizzy Miz Lizzy
  • Just your average Joggler
  • From Mile to Marathon
  • Survivor’s Review
  • Merv Sheppards Transplant Network
  • Life as a hospice patient
  • The Happy Hospitalist
  • Elisheva’s asthma blog
  • Roxlyns COPD Rehab Blog
  • The site that breaths
  • Gayles page
  • RT Scribe
  • Heidi’s-happenings
  • LoraRuns
  • Living with Brittle Asthma
  • R-Cane Running Blog
  • 2nd chances
  • Breathless with COPD
  • Dave Mc Govern
  • Walking Addiction
  • Walk About Magazine
  • Sally Wenzel MD
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    Seasons Greetings from the City by the Bay

    December 24th, 2009 Stephen Posted in My Cats, People, Places and Events, San Francisco, Winston 10 Comments »

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