This is what a one month supply of my asthma medications looks like nowadays. Pretty scary eh!

Solana Beach, California;

The advanced clinic was awesome as I knew it would be. Dave always puts on a hell of a class and is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet. I don’t think Ive never been in the company of so many World Class racewalkers at one time. 3 time Olympian, Philip Dunn, was there along with a host of other National and International champions. Also attending the clinic was an up and coming young collegiate racewalker by the name of Jose Moncado . His coach is Chris Rael. Man o Man, can this kid walk fast! More like flying actually…

And speaking of Chris Rael, I finally got to meet him. Chris is the creator of Racewalk Planet TV. Ive been watching his racewalking videos for years (this is one of my favorites, though his son is actually the one who filmed it.). An accomplished racewalker and coach in his own right, Chris produces all kinds of racewalking media, including racewalking videos and podcasts. He wanted to interview me for one of his upcoming podcasts, but I had to skip out early on Sunday and missed the opportunity. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to hook up with him again.

Did I mention that I suck at racewalking? I don’t know what happened. I looked horrible on the video analysis. I was slow, clunky and actually looked worst than I did 2 years ago at the last clinic. I didn’t have that nice smooth roll- through that the good racewalkers usually have. My form was really off. I had what they call “soft knees”, meaning that my landing leg bending prematurely through my stride. Ok for runners, but a violation for racewalkers. Despite my lackluster performance though, I’m very grateful I got to take part in the clinic. I’m humbled and learned a lot. As Dave pointed out , that’s why you attend clinics ….to get better! And really, how many people get the opportunity to have their racewalking skills analyzed and critiqued by Olympians and National Champions? Another thing Dave told me , which makes a lot of sense, is that training to “regular walk” too many marathons (which Ive obviously been doing the past 2 years), can actually make you a slower racewalker . When you train to walk a marathon you spend a lot of time doing fat- burning, long slower training walks to build your endurance(what they call LSD’s). You gain endurance , but you loose the fast twitch muscle response that you need to be a good racewalker over the shorter distances. He recommended doing more speed drills, making my feet more “active” in all phases of my stride, and stretching out my calves out so that I land on my heel better.

Anyways, now that I know what I’m doing wrong, I can work on making it better. Still, the biggest problem I face in trying to become proficient in a sport like this, is that I simply don’t have the lung capacity . You can practice on your technique till the cows come home, but if you don’t have good lungs , you really can’t put the whole thing together and you certainly can’t compete in races. For me though, it’s never been about competition. It’s about doing and learning as much as you can for something you have a passion for. If you’re going to walk for fitness, why not learn about the mechanics and science behind it. Why not hang out with people who love the sport as much as you do. I know I’ll never be great at racewalking, but I get out there anyway, because it makes me feel good about myself.

This is it! The countdown to the most amazing clinic you’ve ever attended has begun. In case you haven’t already heard, we will have quite a talent pool, including Sydney Olympic 50k silver medalist Aigars Fadejevs from Latvia, US Olympians Philip Dunn and Tim Seaman; Australian Commonwealth Games and World Cup team member Simone Wolowiec; Swedish IAAF World Cup and World Championships team member Andreas Gustafsson; and Canadian World Cup and World Championships team member Rachel Lavallée and US National Team member Liz Kemp Salvato. A pretty impressive group.

Received this confirmation email regarding this weekends racewalking clinic. Well, that pretty much sealed the deal for me. This is like the Hall of Fame or the Super Bowl of Racewalking clinics. All the heavies are going to be there coaching mere mortals like ME!
A thousand miles of driving or not, bad breathing or not…. I’m not missing out on this one. I’m psyched now!

Just in time for Halloween! Some newly discovered horror show pictures.

Last week while I was clearing out my cell phone, I stumbled upon these eerie photos that my partner Douglas must have taken when I was in the hospital this past June. If you recall, I was intubated for an asthma exacerbation, but had a reaction to the drug propofol, known as propofol infusion syndrome . As a result, they had to stop giving me the drug, which made it difficult to keep me sedated while I was still on the ventilator.

These are some photos of me waking up on the ventilator during that event. You probably can’t tell from the photos, but I had the worst feeling of suffocation imaginable, but at the same time I was so doped up… I couldn’t react to it. It was awful!
When I first saw these pictures, it was kinda like deja vu. Now, they just plain gross me out, so I thought Id share them with my ghoulish asthmatic friends.

Newly discovered Horror pictures

Nothing really interesting going on since I got out of the hospital. Though Ive taken a couple of short slow walks, overall Ive been trying to let my lungs heal as much as possible before jumping back into a physical fitness regimen full time. Been spending a lot of this post hospital recovery time doing non physical activities, including some asthma advocacy and research stuff. Keeping mentally busy, helps me cope with my breathlessness and the not so pleasant symptoms of prednisone withdrawal. The downtime has also allowed me to play catch up on some personal stuff.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday will hopefully, be a little more exciting and a little more normal for me. I’m supposed be going down to Solana beach ( near San Diego) for Dave’s advanced racewalking clinic. Ive been really run down lately from the steroid taper and its an awful long drive (450 mile each way), but I’m hoping that I’ll feel well enough by then to go.

If I do go, it will be mainly to hang out with other racewalkers and to meet some of the super stars of the sport. Three time Olympian, Philip Dun and two time Olympian Tim Seaman just to name a few, will be there coaching. Of course Dave Mc Govern , who’s a legend himself, will be running the whole show. My lungs are way too messed up to participate in much of the actual training, but sometimes just watching the elite walkers walk, and/or having my own racewalking form critiqued by them, provides me an adequate level of learning. Most of all though, I go to these weekend clinics because I have a passion for the sport and for the crazy people who engage in it.

In the coming weeks I have a ton of the usual medical appointments, but also a referral to a brand new service called “Symptom Management”. This new clinic is an off-chute of the Palliative care program over at UCSF. I’m going primarily, to see if there are any new therapies or strategies out there that can help me with my worsening dyspnea. To my knowledge, I’ll be the first asthmatic to receive treatment at this new clinic. I’ll be blogging more about the topic of palliative care in a future post.

Sunday was the Nike Womens Marathon. The last few miles of the marathon course passes by my old neighborhood at Ocean Beach in the outer Sunset. I know several people who are doing this years race. I hope they all had a great time!