My account of Hypertrophic Cardiomyapathy (HCM)

This is going to be a long one. Probably more for myself

About 2 months ago I went to my primary doc because I was busting my hump working out, but feeling like a pansy still. I was short of breath and getting my butt kicked all the time by everyone. I thought I had exercise induced asthma. So my primary gives me an inhaler to try and sends me for follow up tests.

The inhaler did nothing for me. Still getting my butt kicked.

The follow up tests were a cardiopulmonary and a stress test / echo. The cardio, I kicked ass with. I was like at 120%. They told me to leave. The stess test I kicked ass with. For those of you who haven't had one, here's how it works. First you take off your top. Don't get excited. Then they shave your chest. Then they use sand paper on your chest. Then they use alcohol on the spots and attach electrodes. They start you on the treadmill at about 1.6 mph at 10% incline. It goes up intensity every 3 minutes. They try to have you hit your max heart rate which is 220- your age. I was only able to get mine upto 176 until I had to hop off. After 20+ minutes the treadmill was at 6.2 mph I think at 22% incline. My upper body was too weak to hold on. It was brutal.

Then you jump off and they jam a stick in your ribs for your echo of your heart. Then they showed this to the cardiologist. He didn't like what he saw and probably didn't want me back on the treadmill so they give me this inhalant drug called amyl nitrite. Really nasty stuff. They crack it and you inhale it deeply. It makes your heart start beating fast and you get light headed and feel all warm. Not a good feeling. All the while still jamming my ribs for the echo. They ended up giving me 3 of the amyl nitrites as I was in good shape and my heart rate kept coming back down fast.

Anyway the doc said I have mild HCM and wanted me to goto a follow up with a specialist for this. So I got signed up to see one of the best in the country right in my backyard at the Clinic. Unfortunately I couldn't get my test scheduled earlier then 3 weeks away and the doc didn't want me to do any exercise in the meantime. Meaning all my hard work down the tubes.

I started to research HCM. I started to give up hope that I'll ever be able to run or bike again. For most people that is no big deal. For other nuts like myself, that is a huge deal. I've been pretty hardcore running / biking / swimming for the last 4-5 years. I've done marathons, a half IM, smaller triathlons, and even a 50k. I had hoped to bike a century but haven't yet completed one. Damn wrist. Mostly I have made a boatload of new friends through these sports. Some really cool people. So needless to say, I was and am a little depressed from all of this.

So come to my test day at the clinic. I'm scheduled for a boat load of tests. They don't want me to have any caffeine products 24 hours prior. And fast 4 hours prior to my 12:45 test. No problem. Right. So I make my way down to the Cleveland Clinic's new heart center. Holy cow. This place is enourmous. It kind of reminded me of an airport where you have to get to your terminal. Each test is at a different terminal. Close terminals, but terminals none the less. And they spared no expense. The place is great. Awesome to have it in my backyard. Still can't imagine how they get away with tax exempt.

So my first test is an echo. More proding. No problem. 8 am with no coffee. I get in there. Nice guy. Muscular. Starts putting that wand on my rib. I'm biting my tongue as I can feel the bruise starting to take place. Yowser. Then he calls in the nures. "Go get me an amyl nitrite". Yucko. 8 am and amyly nitrites already. Here comes the heart rate and warm feeling and more jamming of my ribs. OK. I'm done

Next test was an EKG. Easy peasy. Then a chest xray. no problemo. Then I met with the doc. He says "I don't think you have HCM". What the heck does that mean I'm thinking. He orders my stress test to be on a bike so they can do the echo while i'm biking. So I hop on the bike and they plug my nose and make me breathe through some device in my mouth to monitor me. I'm like a lab rat. I start biking but can't talk. And you know I like to talk. I felt fine as the bike started getting harder. My heartrate was barely breaking 100. Then the watts on the bike got to 275 I think and it was really hard to pedal without standing up. I tried to stand but they just shut it down and said they got the info. I was a little pissed as I barely got to work up a sweat. The guy doing the echo was consistent with the guy in the morning hitting the exact same spot on the one rib. Ouchies.

I get dressed, put on some deoderant and head to the cafeteria. Yea food. Fish burrito. Yum

Then the fun of an MRI. I've had one before but only on my ankle. When you have to go in one. Holy cow. I had a crazy panic attack when they first stuck me in there. The lady had me look behind me to see the outside. I slowed my breathing and was fine for the rest of the 30 minutes. They had to keep telling me "Take a deep breathe. Release it and stop breathing". "OK you can breathe now". At one point either I missed the last sentence or that's their little joke to see how long they can get someone to hold their breath. Haha.

Then I met with the doc again. Again he said that I didn't have HCM, but I still have issues. So, he wants to try me on some drugs to lower my heart rate. But in the meantime he said I can workout. I'm like cool, what can I get my hr upto or what should I try to maintain? He says 110. I'm like, then I can't workout. At 110 no way can I run even slow or bike really really really slow.

So unfortunately I think I'll never be able to run or bike again. I did swim this morning for almost 30 minutes and kept stopping to check my heart rate. I was able to maintain a sub 110 heart rate and still workout. Amazing. I'm looking into buying a small sailboat.

I'm lost

2 doc. appts. in 1 week. never a good sign. Doc 2 was for my wrist. He was really happy with my wrist and said I'm good to go. Doc 2 was a cardiologist and wasn't so happy.

I have a follow up with a specialist unfortunately not for 2 months. In the meantime he said I pretty much can't do anything. For most people that is fine. For people who's life revolves around working out, this sucks big balls. I'm looking at the future. A future where I might need some new hobbies. Golf? unfortunately you can't play that year round in this part of the country. doubles tennis? probably too intense for me. woodworking?

Anyway whatever my new hobby might be will suck as I've made a bunch of new friends from running and biking over the last 5-6 years. I just don't see me making friends at a local wood working conference and going out for a beer with jed.

Anyone wanna buy a nice road and mountain bike? lots of equipment to go with them.

My week so far

Week 2 of my wife and kids being gone.

Sunday I had a small race. Wasn't happy with my performace so I ran later that night

Monday - Can't remember if I just ran once or twice that day.Then went to my wife's camp where I had about 2-3 minutes to shovel my food down in a place that was as loud as a rock concert. 500 screaming people in a small area. Wooho. Not fun. Then I had to work on her excel issues. Her printer wasn't working. Had to connect her to some other networked printers. Then home

Tuesday - Took my dog for a run in the am. Was talked into a lunchtime run. Then biking with the group at night. We had to cut it short as their were plenty of people getting flat tires. Out for dinner and drinks after. I was beat.

Wed. - Blew off morning running with my friend. Instead we ran at about 1 pm when the heat was the hottest. Excellent. We headed over to the track where the sun just beats on you and rises from the track. We only did 3 x 800's, but we were both spent with a warm up and cool down. Then in the pm I was meeting some people at West Branch for some mountain biking. The temps were still really high. I started off with a fall in the parking lot. No biggy. Then as we got on the trails I was falling left and right. My stupid chain kept popping off. And everytime we stopped I couldn't catch my breath. By the end of my journey I was soaking wet from perspiration and didn't have anything left. I had 1 final fall hitting my head on a log. Good thing for helmets. But that fall told me I should have stopped a while ago. So I headed up to the fire road and took that back. Oh yea. I forgot right in the beginning I grabbed hold of a tree that my friend said the moss is all poison ivy. So I'm waiting to see what happens with that.

Thurs. - I'm supposed to meet someone for mountain biking tonight, but am going to bail. I need to recoup. Also supposed to meet a group for hill work. I might do that depending how I feel.

A couple of pics

Pics from my tri. today in Munroe Falls. I didn't feel strong. Here are some pics. Thanks derek and heather

Me getting outta the water. Notice the form. (Me knowing they are taking my pic and pretending to run while covering my fat)

Coming outta the bike corral

Me trying to be ghetto. All while singing showtunes. Do these spandex make my ass look big?

This guy was the 200+ category. I caught upto him. you can't see but he has a poneytail. I could have beat him if I wanted but I wanted the pic with him.

A crazy week 1

Week 1 of wife and kids are away was very tiring. I can't remember the order but it went something like this

Sunday - dropped off and hung out at camp. Came home, relaxed. It was cool
Monday - I think I just ran at lunch
Tuesday - Think I went up to the camp
Wed - Went with wife and kids to tribe game. Drove them to camp. Got home late
Thurs. - Bike in the am. Run at lunch. Bike in the pm. Got in trouble cuz wife was at home.
Friday - Ran at lunch
Sat - swim bike and run then off to see with and kids.
Sun - race - swim bike and run.

I guess seeing it, it's not really that bad compared to others I work out with.

Today I had a sprint triathlon. First tri in prob. a year. I felt like crap climbing the hills and running. I was really pissed at myself and am thinking after my headache goes away to do hill repeats somewhere.

Today I finally got some sleeves for when I bike and my arms are cold. I couldn't find a size to fit my huge pipes. so I went with the kids small. :)


I will post more phots. In the meantime here's a picture of my winnings. I won them from: http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/
A sweet cap, box o power bars. And his nail that fell off in tape. Yes, he's pretty gross. Here's a pic of my son in the hat

What time is it?

My wife and I are opposites in many ways. She can read a book and remember all of it. She has things she learned in undergrad that she still remembers. Me. well um uh. Anyway on of her father's favorite stories is she had a cup of tea in her hand (they are british) and her dad asked her what time it is. Well, she had a lap full of hot tea and he got his answer. So this morning I was in the cafeteria at work chatting with someone with a cup of coffee in one hand and food in my right. Some old lady comes up to me and asks for the time. I look around for a clock, didn't see one, so guess what I did? I put my food and coffee down and then looked. The old lady laughed and said she didn't care what time it was, she just wanted to see if I'd fall for it. Lady, I might not be able to remember crap from undergrad, but I'll never fall for that.

My ribs and back are killing. I took some xrays earlier. I'll have results shortly.

Mountain Biking with rib injuries

Last year I bought a new (used - ebay special) mountain bike. Unfortunately never got to ride it on the trails with my wrist injury. So this year I was all siked up. I even went to Rays, an indoor mountain bike place a couple times over the winter. On Monday I upgraded and bought clip in pedals and shoes. These are supposed to make you a better rider. I realized I might take a couple bumps. But I'm tough.

So yesterday I had a couple people that I was going to meet at West Branch State Park. It's cool cuz it's only 15 minutes from my work. Well my 1 buddy bailed as his son fell off a 30 foot cliff and had to get a titanium plate put in his skull. Really. No joke. And the others bailed as it looked like thunderstorms. F them all, I'm still going. Right as I'm about to go my wife calls and says "Thunderstorm warning for your area. Don't go. Me: I'm ok. Her: Be careful. Don't hurt yourself". Yea yea. Heard it before.



Right away a steep incline and I was in the wrong gear and couldn't unclip in time. Boom. A small crash. Not even blood. I'm good and keep going. I start to hear a funny noise. I stop to check to make sure no flat or something else. I stop, spin my rear tire and it's not spinning. I look closer and the freakin' tire is off. I'm guessing someone loosened my tire. Maybe one of the jokers I work with. Bastards. They will never admit to it. So I tighten it and keep going.

I start to hear thunder and am getting a little nervous. I can't see the sky as the trees are too thick. So I pedal harder to hit the end. Crap, am I going in circle? I am. I forgot all the trails. I make my way back towards the beginning and decide not to press my luck to just head home.

Well, I think I have either a bruised or broken rib. And mountain biking I guess is not the best recovery for that.

Well, I'm not stopping running or biking or doing the things I enjoy. So, stop asking. I've just had some bad luck. It will change. I'm sure.

My latest injury

I have 5 minutes to blog since the kids are to come upstairs before then.

So anyway, I'm (darn it. The kids are here) officially changing the name of my blog if I haven't already. It comes partially from my daughter. When we were in Disney I saw a friend there. Very random. A fellow runner with her family. Anyway my daughter loves to talk. She hasn't gotten it from me. That's for sure. So my friend asked how my injuries are / were. My daughter replied that "We are the broken bone family".

This was our photo from last summer when we both had broken bones.

For those that read my blog I tend to get hurt a lot. I went to see a doc yesterday to see what I can change. I was going over my recent injuries that I could remember.
@2 years ago Achilles issues
2/08 tore ligament while running at night and caught my ankle in a sewer grate. Planned on surgery after the summer as it still hurt.
7/08 fell on my bike fracturing my wrist
11/08 - started swimming when my cast was off. got out of the pool and broke a rib.
4/09 - stress fracture

Well those are just some of the major issues. Today I woke up to go for a bike ride. I like to fill my tires pre ride. My rear tire has this issue that if you don't hold the pump on the tire it pops off. So, I'm holding with my left hand and pushing down the pump with my right and my chest. I think I either bruised badly or cracked a rib.

So fun to be me. :)

Another day, another injury

Most of you that know me, know that I'm injury prone. I do it for the attention. And it's a good excuse to rest up the injured limbs. Uh huh. So my latest is a stress fracture. I will blame this one on using new shoes that were a different style then I was used to. Here's my current pic:


So cool to have the socks and 'sandals'. I look like some hardcore tree hugger. Well I was supposed to run my friend in the last half of the cleveland marathon. I think I will have to bail, again. He got stuck last year when we were supposed to do the ms 150 bike and I busted my wrist before this ride. Sorry again. This year I'll go watch at least.

For being a pacer we were offered free Crocs. Key word, free. Those of you that know me, know I like that word. I am, um thrifty. :) So they have a new style called repair. I picked a pair of flip flops in hot pink. nah. blue. They are super comfy. Made for runners or people on their feet. It's like walking on pillows. Anyway my wife has been wearing mine when she just has to grab something quickly outside. So for mothers day I bought a pair for her from the kids:

Not the most flattering pic of my wife, but look at the crocs. I thought she'd love them. But sigh, of course not. She didn't like that style. She took them back and got the flip flops. Then I see another pair, and some other stuff she bought from the mall. I guess I should be happy she is hardly ever a shopper and hates buying for herself.

Oh well, I need some biking gear, that'll give me some good points when she sees that bill. :)

KY Derby race report

The weather forecast was calling for 66 at race start and a high of 86 with wind gusts upto 25 mph.

If you see this before your race stop and don't run it. Trust me. Don't do it. It was almost a mini chicago. I was counting the people dropping to the ground. I almost bailed a couple of times. Well, here's my official report:

Started out with a fairly small group. Under a dozen people including halfers. Lots of first timers. Mile 1 about 10 seconds fast. Mile 2 & 3 excellent. The pin is mine. Then come the hills. My runners were already struggling. By the time we got out of the park we were 30-45 seconds behind. I'd make it up 10 seconds per mile until we were exact. And we did. I was encouraging my halfers and fulls to eat and drink by mile 5 as the heat was already starting to work them. One girl doing her first was nursing a side stich. I gave her some lifesavers each time and that seemed to help. She was having a tough time. But encouraged her to keep on. Mile 12 she stopped for water and the next thing I know she was on her back. There were plenty of people around her helping but I told my group to keep going and the closest police or race person I'd send them back for her and about 10 yards up I got a cop to get her. I felt really bad as she was fighting since mile 3. We wished the halfers good luck and plowed on. I felt great. I did encourage an elderly lady at about mile 13 to stop and head back with the half group.

By mile 14-15ish more hills. Another passed out runner being attended to by medics. I started to lose more marathoners and catch some of the 4:30 pace groupers. The water stops were far and few between. The water was barely cold and the heat was beating everyone down. I no longer encouraged to drink I told them mandatory. By about mile 18 I lost my last person and saw people from the 4 hour pace group that I was passing. By this point I was contemplating a DNF as I was already cramping and felt like puking. But I thought I'd keep going and help others struggling. So at about mile 19 I broke my stick and started to run up to individuals and run with for a while as long as they didn't have an ipod on and especially if they were by themselves. I ran / walked one guy that I met at the pacer booth till about mile 25, then another guy till the end. He was very glad that I helped him through.

I figured it would be best to be extra eyes and encouragement on the course rather then to finish on pace by myself.


This has to be without a doubt the toughest race to date. Tougher then any time I tried to PR. Tougher then my half IM.

Finished about 10 minutes over my pace time. But I really felt I helped others finish that were struggling. And I made sure to tell them to not give up on marathons and try again.

After the race I quickly showered and checked out of the hotel. My stomach didn't feel well enough to hold anything down. I drove to my sisters while blasting the artic ac in my car. Took 2 ibuprofen and layed down. slept like crap. Migraine started. We went on some errands and got food for dinner. I puked on my aunts front lawn then felt better after a nice popsicle.

I'm losing it

Well my marathon I'm pacing in Louisville is next week. I'm pacing the 4:45 which should be a very comfortable pace for me. Typically before a marathon you taper for 2-3 weeks. Yesterday I ran 6 hard in the am. 5 easy in the afternoon and then did a tough bootcamp after work. A 3 shower day. Oh yea, 1 more muscle that my wife and I exercised. :) How's that for a taper 1 week out. This weekend is supposed to be really nice for us. So Sat. I'll get my last long run of @ 10 miles and I really want to bike sometime if even for an hour. Maybe sunday am.

Usually I'm not too vain. Carly Simon does not sing about me. Anyway my balding I think has been getting to me. It started a couple years ago. I remember my grandma saying something rude to me. Go figure. "You are going bald". I really wanted to reply back something to the affect, yea well you are getting even uglier, but I bit my tongue. Usually I could care less what I look like as I'm married with 2 kids and don't need to impress anyone. I know, that's a bad attitude. Anyway a coworker thought he heard using dandruff shampoo is like a rogaine. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Here's the current shot my my balding.


I will use it for 6 months and see if any difference is made. Or should I just grow my hair longer and do the comb over? Or should I just let it go and not give a crap? I figure the dandruff shampoo is cheap and is worth a shot.

OK. I put up another blog

Lately I've been so unmotivated to do just about anything from home to work to working out. I put in the time but my mind isn't into it. I'm hoping spring will put a bounce into my step. My marathon is in about 2 weeks. After that I can bike more. I need more people running to chat with. My normal running partner and I seem to tire of each other. This last weekend we had a step back and only ran 14. But some girl ran with us. She was 6'2. I think her hips were at my mouth level. :) Anyway a new person, new things to chat about even if it's family and kid stuff, but the time I think went much faster.


I've also been trying to watch what I eat. Yesterday I had a melt down.



This is why I feel so blah. And now I feel fat.

Last night we tried playing go fish. I'm such a tard. I didn't even know the rules. We had to keep restarting even though I was winning over my 5 and 8 year old. I rule.

Oh and my poor son seems like he's going to be like me. I'm on the phone talking to a guy who's going to work on our house and he's pulling down my pants and hitting my butt. It's hard to have a professional call when someone is spanking you. Then again most of you reading I'm sure know this first hand. :)

Misc. 'funny' stories

A couple humorous stories, then to my workouts.

Last night I did another boot camp at my local gym. This class is great. I was feeling awesome for the class. I got home, changed, made my smoothie and off to class. I put on my matching boot camp shirt which I think is odd, but I digress. Our thursday night class works on upper thigh mostly. Lots of single leg step up, lunges, prisoner squats, etc. We use the bleachers and the track. It's an indoor 1/8 mile track. We typically do something on the straight aways on the track like lunges and run the corners. Well last night we took lanes 1-4 and left the outside lanes open. The walkers must not have liked this as they kept going around us then cutting us off. Mind you it was a great night outside. Well I didn't like them cutting me off. So I started cutting them off. This continued. Well earlier in the day I was eating some homemade beef jerky which I had made with some Z hot sauce. I believe it's the hottest sauce you can buy that has flavor. Well my insides were burning and I was ready to release. I kid you not, I cut off this walker while sprinting around the track and blew one right in front of her. I was laughing so hard but couldn't tell anyone for fear of ousting. So my loyal blog readers will enjoy my sick humor.

This morning I decided to get back in the pool. We swam 1600 yards I believe. During our swim this one dude comes in my friend nicknamed Tbag like from the show prison break:

He's a skinny guy with a boat load of tatoos. I'd say he looks like a crack whore. So we went about our swimming and then shower. Typical. I get in the stall shower, close the curtain, and put my suit on the hook. I'm not one for walking around naked in the locker room. Maybe when I'm about 65, retired, and my nuts hang down to my knee caps, or whichever comes first. So anyway, I'm washing up and in walks tbag. Yes into my single shower stall. I believe this to be an honest mistake. But I also believe I will now need therapy. Can that be considered sexual assault? I feel assaulted even though it only lasted 1/4 second. It felt like 5 minutes.

I will leave you with this. If you listen I will guarantee that you will be singing it the rest of the day. Have a great weekend.

Oy vey I'm getting old

Uhh. I'm getting so old. I went to a party this weekend. Had 3 beers and a couple of jello shots. I was going to put my photo but I look like such a goober that I won't put it up. One girl had to tell me how to properly do the jello shot without using my finger. Uh. so old I am. Then we left by @10 since I had a long run at 7 am on sunday.

Sunday am came. Not a good prior night to get my long run in. Lets just say, not good with my stomach. But I got in the run.

The night of the jello shots I had a dream. (Is that a mlk reference or an abba?) Anyway my dream was a triathlon. Like normal I get out of the swim ahead of most, but get my butt kicked on bike and run. This time I held my ground and finished in second place. I was so happy. But others didn't care. So, is it weird that I can't even win in my dreams? And is it odd that others aren't happy for me? I probably don't want to know.

Last week during work I had such bad munchies during the day. So last night I went to the grocery store to stock up for some healthy snacks. I bought some silk (milk) to go with my kashi cereal, rice cakes, pretzels, raisins and other healthy stuff. I was pissed I didn't have my camera as the large woman in front of me. She had ice cream, a full apple pie, frozen dinners and other stuff. I think she winked at me looking over what I was buying. Oh yea I also got some beer. The young kid at the register got to the beer and stopped. I knew he stopped because he was too young to check it out for me. But, he mumbled something I said "what". He mumbled again. This time I said out loud "You need to stop mumbling and speak up". God I hope my kids aren't like that.

Misc. Home life

My running is going. Slowly. My right hip has been hurting after each long run. So I'm going to try some new stretches before seeing a doc. Gotta hold off on my pt visits as summer is coming up. I have a bad history since this last summer as I'm sure most are aware. I did get out to the towpath for a run on sunday. I forgot how peaceful this place is. But my friend and I both being tired needed more of a crew to carry the conversation. I miss running down there with large groups. It definitely makes the time go faster. So, maybe I'll bug some people. 9:30 lock 29 on sunday. be there and I'll make you laugh. I promise. Slow pace. And anywhere from 12-20 miles. You choose.

Last night I asked around and was able to get 2 other guys to go for a drink for st. pattys day. I had asked my wife the night before if we had anything on the calendar. She said no. But I didn't tell or ask I guess. Ooops. So she im's me and it went something like this:
Her: Please pickup something from the grocery on your way home so I can make the recipe
Me: I won't be home until about 6:30. I'm going for a beer
Her: How about a please
Me: I love you.

So we went to 2 different bars in downtown ravenna. I had 1 beer at each. I got home
Turn back now if you don't want to hear about my sex life
my wife is on the treadmill in her 'home' treadmill attire. This consists of bra, undies, socks and shoes. She does this so she won't have to do as much laundry. But me with 2 beers in me. Well you know. One thing leads to another. I get a bloody nose so I quickly run to the bathroom and shove some kleenex up there and continue.
End of sex life
Just thought it was a little funny.

Here's my new running cap from my team under armour

I'm very happy with being part of this team. Love all the stuff

Mill Creek Half Mary report

Ouch. And I'm sure anyone that has run this before would concur that I could just use that for my race report. But then I wouldn't do justice for all the other crazyness.

So after setting my clocks ahead an hour, and barely getting my butt outta bed, a cup of coffee and peanut butter sandwich, I roll out the door. Oh yea, I did do my bathroom business as well. (impt. point) It's pouring rain and black out. My ass end of my car is sliding on the freeway. I little scary, but that's how I roll.

I get to Mill Creek and check in. I try to come up with a 'creative' name for my registration as my cousin and I like to use crazy names like 'Heywood ...' or Ina ... Anyway I wasn't fully awake so I just used my first name and Birkentock for my last name. Not sure why, it's just the little things. So I drop my crap in the car and have about 30 minutes until race start. I head for the bathroom.

Poop Talk turn back here if you have a weak stomach
1 stall and 1 urinal. Urinal is open and there are 5 of us in there. Nobody is waiting on the urinal. No toilet paper so we have to grab hand wipes. We are waiting for the toilet to flood. That would be shitty. haha. So guys are going in fairly quickly, I'm biting my lip and the humor when they fart and we are all waiting there. Then my turn. Pressure is on as I know there are still 3 waiting. Between a little nerves from the race and eating crappy (haha) the past week and just upset stomach, I was hoping for the best. Could I have a clean wipe? Nope of course not. Plus I was limited by the amount of hand wipes I grabbed. I think I was in and out in under 5 minutes. Unfortunately there was no newspaper in there to read. Most everyone observed the man rules of the bathroom. Very little talking in there and no eyecontact. I just wish there was some lysol or matches.

Then out for race start. Dammit, I have to go poop again, but with 10 minutes left and the bathroom line out the door I'd have to hold it. I had nightmares of a sharding in my new under armour shorts. But luckily no shards.

I really tried to start slow but it's tough in race start especially in youngstown as it's a big downhill for like the first 2 miles. My garmin was losing satellites as the rain was coming down in buckets for the first about 8 miles. But I think I was averaging about 8:30 pace for the first half. The second half based on my time must have been slower as I finished in just under 2 hours. I can make plenty of excuses but won't. It was a tough course that I wasn't prepared for. But overall a good time.

At the end E had her camera and I grabbed it and snapped a picture of a large woman who's plumber's butt was showing. Hopefully she'll post it or send to me and I will. Can a woman have plumber's butt? At least I didn't see any hair sticking out.

Today I'm a little sore. I need to get a couple longer runs as I have to prep for pacing at Derby marathon in kentucky.

Oh yea I forgot the part that the 'medals' had a ribbon that is rainbow. Um I'm not that ok with my manlyness to wear that.

Happy friday

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You might get dizzy, but thought I'd share some of my geekyness with you along with the love and respect everyone has for me. See without my new blackberry none of this would be possible. I love technology. Give me that and a pineapple and I'm good to go

My poor doggie

My 11 year old dog and buddy stopped eating and started getting sick last week. We finally took him to the vet monday am. They did a bunch of tests including an xray and saw a big mass. That was making it hard for him to breathe and eat. We get blood work results back today. But we will ultimately be faced with a tough decision. How much is he worth to us. We are realistic and know that his breed a brittany have a life span of anywhere from 10-14 years. Obviously they will need to remove the mass. We are waiting on the blood work to tell us if his other functions look good like liver, kidneys, etc. If they do, then we will probably buck up and pay the piper, otherwise the other hard decision of putting him down. Either way it will suck. In the meantime we have some special food that looks like tunafish that he's able to eat and keep down.

My first dog bugsy. This pic was after his not favorite bath. He hates them.

Disco Ball and Ugg boots

This morning I met my friend from HS and partly college and went to her fancy club. I was ousted because I didn't drive a lexus or porshe. They even had a guy washing the cars in the parking lot. Very fancy. I could get used to that. Anyway her and I and her hubby were doing a spinning class. I've done a couple of classes before and was really cocky that I'd kick her ass. yea that didn't happen. We get in there and right away he starts us in all out sprint. What ever happened to a warm up? He didn't turn on the fans until halfway through. My friend told me he is gay. No shit. So everytime he said "give it to me" singing the song I chuckled. Then he turns on the disco ball. No shit a discoball and black lights at spinning. Crazy. Plus my friend cracked me up by wearing her ugg boots to the class then changing into her clip in shoes. Oh well. She kicked my butt and so did the class. I was a sweaty mess.

Then we went for a brunch at my friends house. Nice brunch but I was starving and there wasn't enough for my butt to eat. Needed my protein shake.

Then I was supposed to go hike / run pinnacle peak but everyone bailed on me and my dad wouldn't let me go by myself. Still pissed. It's not everyday I get to hike / run mountains in shorts and tshirt.

Tonight we had a surprise 70th party for my old man. I brought his old report cards. He did as well in school as I did. Not very good. We were supposed to go out for drinks afterwords with friends. But they bailed again. Bastards. I was all ready for a good time out, but they suck. You know who you are.

Brian the builder

Here's a pic I'm so proud of. No it's not my kids, it's my snack drawer at work. In the pic you can see my almonds, rice cakes, giant oatmeal, raisins, and the bag is fruit that I have dried including apples, pears and my favorite, pineapple. Sometimes I get crazy and buy some pretzels. Oooh I'm so bad



I did my long run Sunday of 11 miles around my neighborhood with my friend. It was hilly but I felt like I could run more. We ran fairly slowly. Then yesterday I ran 3 easy with the l more on the end hard on the uphills. I'm still not sure why. And then I was talked into doing an abs class. It's the same instructor that does the boot camp so I knew it'd be tough. 1 hour of abs. Can I tell you I hate flutter kicks. What's a pisser is I used to be so good at abs. Now doing it for 2 minutes is sooo hard.

Here's a partial chat session I had today about fixing an application I wrote:

ME done. check it
Him... It's missing the last entry, for Stepdown, 02/01/2009 to 02/07/2009. Can you fix it?
Me... as a great man says, "can you fix it, yes i can"
Him... LOL


If you have or had kids this would be funny. If not you think I'm a dork or geek and I don't care.

I've fallen off the wagon. Help me up please

I fell off the wagon. I was doing so well with my diet and exercise. Then my dad came to town and we went to the grocery. Then to costco. And he had to buy stuff for the superbowl. I guess ribs and pizza aren't horrible, but I didn't stop. Last night I had ice cream. Then this morning there were donuts. Well, there was 1 left. Luckily is was one I'm not a big fan of so I left it there. Yea. Maybe I'll be better now.

Maybe I was eating for stress relief. I came home last night hoping that my new HD was all set. We are saving money by getting the package deal from time warner. So I get home and they brought the wrong box. And to top it all off the installer left crap everywhere. I was nice enough to pull out my tv and entertainment center. He couldn't put it back. Empty boxes laying around with twist ties. Couldn't he throw them in the garbage right next to where they laid? He couldn't even put the cables down neatly. And he didn't pull out my old equipment. Just left it. He moved my antenna on my wireless router. (OK I know the last one is a little picky). So, I was a little pissed. He even said my tv was 10 years old and can't do HD. I left the freakin' manual out so he could look if needed. I guess the stuff in the manual and on the tv that says 1080 is bs according to him. What a douchebag. I should kick his ass if I wasn't such a pansy. At least I'm guessing I can outrun him. Maybe I'll release a brown bear.

And my work is always um, well you know, work. People don't do their jobs. And if they don't they'll say 'it's not in my job description'. That is the biggest bs answer I've ever heard. Just do your freakin' job and be happy you have one.

And my daughter bus which I have to wait for on Wed. mornings was almost 30 minutes late.

So fun.

My diet

Lately I've been stepping up my training. For what some might ask. My answer like the great tevya from fiddler on the roof is "I don't know". I'm thinking about doing Mussleman half ironman in Geneva, NY but would really like someone else to run it with me. They even have a sprint on sat. and you can do both the sprint and the half im on sunday. I'm thinking, why not. Rooms are only $36 a night in the dorms. Other then that, I'll probably run my friend derek in the last half of cleveland. It'll be his first full mary. Anyone else running about a 3:40 ish pace in cleveland, I can run you the last half.

Last night I went to my boot camp at my local gym. I really like this class. But last nights we had to take a physical. Not the kind where a finger goes up your bum. Well at least that's what he told me. Anyway we did 2 minutes of situps, max number of pushups, pullups max, single leg stepups in 2 minutes and a 1 mile run. Not sure my exact number but they were something like, 100 situps, 20 pushups, 6 pullups, 70 single leg step ups on each leg and my run was 6:55. I was dissapointed on the run. I thought I could do better. I went out waaay to fast. But I should be able to do at least a 6:30. My excuse is that I ran earlier that day on the treadmill. Plus no running shoes or socks. Gotta have my smartwool to run.

I've also really been watching my diet. Trying to eat healthier. Lots of fruit. This morning I was debating what to eat for breakfast. I have the best place to work for diets. You just go into the cafeteria, see all the fatties, and it makes you want to not eat. One 'lady' got a donut with a side of pop tarts. I'm guessing by the looks of her she eats that way all the time. I had a big scoop of eggs on a single piece of wheat toast. For lunch I have a coworker. This guy is only 30 and he survives on condiments. It is insane. I try to bite my tongue, but it's impossible. Today he brought in a hot pocket, put a boatload of buffalo hot sauce and then topped it with about 3 minutes worth of salt. His freakin' heart is going to explode. Oh then he got a roll and dipped it in more hot sauce. If we weren't there I'm sure he would have salted the hot sauce. Poor kid.

OK. time to go get yelled at for trying to help a user.

Please people, sign up for mussleman in geneva, I'll drive.

Weekly boring workout

Uhh. So tired. 9 miles this morning in Solon at a slow pace. I forgot my garmin at work so I couldn't tell the pace. I've been working out swimming, running and doing my weekly boot camp. I really need to pick my race soon so I can get my training going towards that. I'm thinking of doing Mussleman Triathlon on July 19th in Geneva, NY. I'm hoping my wife can come and we can spend a couple extra days there and drink wine afterwords. Anyone else want to join in on the fun? I'm hoping to get a couple more to do this one. $145 if you sign up before 2/1. Damn, these races are getting pricey.

The last and only half im I did was the hardest thing I did ever. I'm hoping it was due to my lack nutrition and knowledge. Hopefully this time I'd go under 6 hours and shouldn't have any issues with that assuming I don't have any bad wrecks or anything. Lets hope 2008 was my year for that.

Tomorrow I have a vacation day from work. I have to take my daughter to play practice, I will take full advantage of the time. Spinning and long swim after. Should be a good day. Only problem is when to eat. Maybe I'll just snack on one of my awesome peanut butter cliff bars. Ha. Just heard 1 girl had salmonella from a bar she had.

Sorry the blogs are so boring. I promise I will get back to my funny, being mean, pooping, hating people blog routine soon. I promise.

Weekly antics

Yesterday was my volunteer day for the winter 50k. Sometimes I think that's tougher then actually running the race. But both have goods and bads. I got their early and got stop having to shovel the front porch. So by 6 I was already sweaty as their was a good foot of snow to shovel. I should have brought my snowblower and would have made a lot of people happy. Then I got to carpool people from overflow to the start. One group I scared and said I wonder how fast I can get there, as the streets were full of snow. Oh yea and I had needed a push out earlier as I got stuck in 1 parking lot. Then I took my spot at pine lane rest stop. It was easy and everything was pretty much done. I tried to work it well just to keep warm. As the runners started coming in you could tell it was going to be a rough day for them. They all looked dead right from the start. Many didn't finish the full 50k. I think nearly 50%. I guess I'm glad I ran it last year. But it's always nice to see all the people I know.

I was still sore and still am today from a bootcamp class I did on thursday night. It was all lunges, squats, single leg step ups and more. He killed us. Therefore I will go back. If I can add that to my weekly workout and keep going, it should definitely help me to whatever race I do. Now I just need to figure out what race that will be.

I as well as others keep asking that. And I don't know. I'm not sure how my ankle will hold up. So I might not run a marathon this year. It would be my first time in probably 6 years. I'll try to stick to something safer like my bike. (If you know me you'd enjoy that)

Besides all that pretty boring. I think I'm going to raise alpacas. I hear they have good tax benefits. Oh and did you know the females poop in the same spot all the time. I'm sure my suburban neighborhood would love me having some. I'm sure there are no zoning regulations for alpacas. Uh huh.

Lastly my son's a nut. My wife and I try really hard to make sure our kids are not prejudice by race, religion, color, anything. If they are a good person... Anyway we went to dinner and they had a pic of mike jordan vs. world b free on the wall. My son who's 4 says 'there's barack obama'. I had to laugh at that but then we tried to explain to a 4 year old.

Update on the new year

I did make it to Ray's indoor mountain bike place thing on Friday. I went with a couple friends and met some others there. I felt all cool trying to show the newbies around. This time I brought my bike. Which I guess has lower pedals then the rental I used last time. So with my bad form, I kept hitting my pedals to the ground on the ups. Oh well it was still fun. One of my friends took a couple nasty spills. I think they looked worse then they were. But both of them definitely were more balsy then me. I think my wife put the fear of god in me. She'd never let me hear the end of it if I broke something else on my body. I came away unscathed except for a minor bump into a wall. But it was still fun and I wasn't sore the next day.

The next day I actually went for a trail run. Probably the first time in almost a full year. I met up with the group. By the time I met them they had about 18+ miles already done. So I figured my measly 6 would be ok. I was really nervous about my ankle, but luckily it felt fine.

I have 1 last appointment with my ortho for my wrist. It's been bugging me at night even if I don't do anything physical with it during the day. I don't think doing pushups or biking make it any worse. But in any case I'll have him look over some xrays and hope he doesn't say the inevitable 'surgery'.

On my way back

I was pissed this weekend I couldn't run with my group since my wife was working both sat. and sun. morning. So I took the kids swimming with some friends. Then the idea of pulling out the road bikes came up since the weather was so nice. My friend wussed out and we ended up going for a run. I only wanted to do about 4 as it's been a while for me. We started at his house, ran through silver springs park in hudson and back. It ended up being 7+ miles. I even took my shirt off on the way back it was so warm. Plus it was dark enough to hide my fat.

Today I ran 4 miles at lunch. A little colder but boy I miss running outside. And I'm trying to watch my calories and drop a couple like everyone else.

Friday I might go to Ray's mountain bike again. It was a blast last time I went. I highly recommend it even for beginners. It's a great workout and loads of fun. And even I, Mr. hurt didn't get injured. Maybe I'll be motivated and go swimming tomorrow am. The problem is having to share the lane.

Ignorant People

This was a conversation at my work lunch.

Coworker: So Brian did you put up a tree?
Me: No, I'm jewish
Her: Oh yea
Her: So, you don't celebrate xmas?
Me: No. I celebrate Hanukah
Her: Really?
Me: Yes
Her: What about birthdays? Do you celebrate birthdays?
Me: Yes. Jewish people celebrate birthdays

I can't and don't want to believe others are this ignorant of other cultures / religions.

Crazy Monday

Yesterday was my first day back working out in some time. So I start off in the am with a nice easy swim. Dammit the swim team is swimming. I get 1 lane to share with 1 other guy. Luckily he's similar pace as me and we both hold our sides. Then a third so we do the circle swim. But he's slower then us. At 1 point I go to pass him and he speeds up. Douchebag. So have to do a flipturn about 5 yards short of the edge to pass him.

At lunchtime I do about 20 minutes on the treadmill and then do some curls for my weak ass wrist and lunges, squats, enough to make my legs burn and start to shake.

Then a friend emails and says they are going to the indoor mountain bike place 'Rays'. So I call my buddy Sam and we head out there. Holy cow. Crazy stuff there. If you've ever biked you have to stop out there. It is insane and a great workout.

Today my legs are a little shaky, but not too bad. I'll post some pics if I get them.

And can you believe it. Expect for maybe a little bruise on my leg I didn't get hurt. Hurray.

Maybe that will make up for all the junk I've been eating lately

Here's 1 pic of me after I was done. I was pooped at this point

My Disney Experience

I just got back from Disney. 7 or 8 days or something. How about I just say a week with the 2 kids and my wife. And in the middle we hung with the wife's family for a little. All you marathoners, you know that thing called the wall at about mile 22ish where you have to dig deep down to continue. Well imagine doing that every day for a week. Disney was fun, but it was also a lot of work. Definitely not a relaxing beach vacation.

My wife is very type A personality. Sometimes it makes me nutty. But she had everything planned. Where to eat, when, the best restaurants, rides for our age kids, etc. She really put a lot of effort into her planning and it paid off. We stayed on a disney resort called pop century. It's a 70' 80's and 90's themed. A real blast from the past.







We got to orlando on a Tuesday afternoon and luckily got checked into our room, luggage, changed and headed to magic kingdom. We did a bunch that first day / night. The second day we went to Animal Kingdom. This was fun. We ate breakfast with some of the characters which turned out nice. They were using jack hammers and I thought I was going to demand our $$ back if that continued. But they stopped luckily as it was super loud.

That night the kids went to bed really well as they were beat. At about midnight my 4 year was moaning and saying his stomach hurts. So I tell him to goto the toilet. Didn't make it. Puked all over the floor. I clean as best as I can and throw some towels over it and I'll call houskeeping in the am. He proceeds to throw up every hour the rest of the night into the trash can. Poor guy. In the am. he toughs it out and we make it to a park. MGM I think. He's burning up with a fever. We've been giving him tylenol but it doesn't help. I screw up my wife's lunch plans with a character and take him home. He pukes a couple more times along the course of getting him back. I think that night we were going for dinner with the family. We got him some children's motrin from disney's health center and that helped. But we didn't have any of our own. At dinner he didn't feel well and slept on my lap. We crushed up a motrin and put it in his water. That stuff is like magic for him. He champed it out. Then puked again back at the hotel.

The next day he was better, but still weak. He toughed it out with minor puking and no eating. Anyway the puking was off and on for about 2 days. But he was a trooper and kept going. We went to MGM, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We saw just about all for the young kids and my 7 year old went on many of the coasters with my wife.

After the puking episodes, my son and I were waiting for my wife and daughter and my son tells me he pooped himself. He hasn't been wearing diapers for probably 2 years or so and hasn't had accidents for ever. So my wife is still in a ride and I'm with him with poop in his shorts and no extra clothes. I make him wait till my wife comes. She changes him and my daughter and I haul ass around to try to find him clothes. We get some new pj's for him and he's good. He must really have a bad virus. So we start heading out and he's pooped. (Haha) So I carry him. My arms are killing. But I suck it up for the little guy and tell my wife she's holding him on the bus ride back to the hotel. The bus is packed but luckily we get a seat. It's probably a 15 minute ride. About 5 minutes into it I hear a tooot. He did it again on my wifes lap. I bite my tongue not to laugh. But the smell is horrid and the bus is packed and we can't move to help him. Some nice people gave us wet wipes after we get off the bus. But we make him walk back. The poop in your pants walk. Throw him
in the shower and I take the new clothes to the wash.

Luckily that was the last incident for him of the week.

Oh yea. Another good story was 1 night we had a nice dinner and other kids got some cool stuff so I asked the waiter and he said it was there birthday but he'd see what he could do. He brought them crowns that said birthday boy / girl. So my daughter wore this crown all week. Everybody kept asking and she pushed the truth and said 'today is my birthday'. She got signed stuff from the characters. It was quite funny.

As I write this there is a puke bag sitting next to me on the ready. My stomach is doing flip flops. I can't wait for day 3 pooping my pants.

If you care here's all my photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/bberk01/DisneyDay1#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bberk01/DisneyDay2#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bberk01/DisneyDay3#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bberk01/DisneyDay34#

http://picasaweb.google.com/bberk01/DisneyDay67#

No more rehab no more docs. No more orhtho's dirty looks

How's that for a title. I'm free. Like a slave given freedom. I too was granted freedom. My ortho said no more rehab needed and don't come back until next August 1 year from the date of my bike crash. He said my wrist looks great and can't believe how fast I healed for how bad it was. And he can't believe my range of motion. Well go ahead and make your comments on how that was possible. :) So I'm happy about all of that.

This morning I swam for the first time since my rib injury. I had to use the ladder to get out of the pool. What a big sissy I felt like. My friend made fun of me and asked if I needed the handicap chair. Haha. I also ran today. I did hills on the treadmill. And since I'm feeling good, I think I might do a spring marathon pacing. Heck, why not. Let's see how my ankle holds up. I might do a lot of running on the treadmill this year.

Next week I'm off to Disney with the familia for a week. I should have lots of good blogging material from there. I probably won't bring much if any workout stuff as I don't think I'll have much time. But I'm sure I'll be walking a fair amount and probably lugging the kids around. Hopefully not too much yelling at the kids. I so hope they are good and we have fun. It's costing so much. It better be fun.

This week I'm on jury duty. I have to call in or look at the website every night. Monday I had to go in. I got there right on time, 8:30. Right by the start of the marathon. I could still see the blue line. Anyway, I get there, sign in and find one of the few empty seats. To my right a normal looking female. To my left a dressed up poor person. No problem. He didn't smell too bad. But after sitting there in the seat for over an hour the guy on my left started with the head nods. Then he started leaning and falling over luckily to the guy to his left. If that situation occurred and he fell asleep on my shoulder, what do you do? My coworkers suggested to get up and let him fall over. I'm not sure what I would have done. It would have been so awkward. Anyway, I don't have to go to jury tomorrow, but maybe thurs or friday. we'll see. Should make for more good blogging.

My thanksgiving was interesting. I drove to visit family in Louisville, KY with my family including my mother and grandmother. My grandmother is evil. She's probably 93. She's always been mean. My dad's favorite story is when I was a little kid I slapped her. Her husband at the time said she deserved it because she was messing with me. But my family and I have always been scared of her and we've always had to walk on eggshells when she's around. I could go on with stories for hours on her. Anyway now she has Alzheimers. I never really know anyone with that so it was quite awkward. She kept asking where we were going. I decided to play the alphabet game. So the first time I said Alaska, then Baltimore, etc. Well not really but I did say a couple off the wall states to her. But can you believe she still drives? I told my mom how I don't think it's safe for her to drive. She could hurt herself or someone else. But they won't say anything to her. Do I step up and put in the paperwork to have her license taken away? There are busses from where she lives. She probably shouldn't be in her apartment anyway. She should be in some sort of assisted living.

And I can't forget to post my dreams the last 2 nights. Really odd stuff. Last night either Jason from Friday the 13th or Mike Myers? from Halloween was coming after me. And just like the movies, I'd either eye gouge him, punch him in the nuts or something else but he kept coming. Woke up all sweaty. And the night before there were these souless creatures coming after me. The only way to stop them was to shock them. So in my crazy dream I was with some girl. Not sure who she was. And I was like hey zombie guy, look at this and the girl would show her breast and the zombie would open it's mouth from shock and I had to put my fingers in its mouth and stretch my fingers outwards to kill the zombie. I'm guessing this one has a little to do with my rehab for my wrist. I have some putty and that is one exercise. So weird. What does it all mean? Do I really want to know? Probably not.

Yea. I'm running again. Slowly

2 days in a row of running on the treadmill for me woohoo. I've been off from 1 injury to the next and haven't run in almost 2 months. I'm going to try to start slow and not reinjure myself. I was so feeling fat that I had to start running again.

I have a new toy. My Blackberry Bold. I've never had a smart phone. So now I'm happy with my new toy. This week our vps get them and I'll have to support them. Should be interesting.

Also any of you running the bt50k that want anything special? I'll be at pine lane stop. I'll also be at the start in the am so you can drop your crap with me. At least this time I won't have to worry about keeping your crap cool.

I'm off to Louisville for Turkey day. Driving with the family and my mother and grandmother. It should make for some interesting stories.

Off the the windy city

I'm headed to chicago tonight for a 2 day class. The snow was blowing hard when I left my house at 5 and my dad called me to scare me and ask if the flights were canceled. I had both kids with me and planned on getting a decent meal before dropping them off at my wife's work. But with the snow I was scared we would be pressed for time so we headed to mcd's. Nuggets and fries for the kids and i treated myself to a quarter pounder and fries. So after eating all that plus the kids nuggets and a large coke, blah. I feel like hell now.

I drop off the kids and head to short term parking. I don't want to have to walk and burn off the calories. :) But I had to pee sooo bad. I actually peed in the garage. It's dark. Nobody around. Times I'm glad at being a guy.

This is the first trip in as long as I can remember that I'm not packing or wearing any athletic shoes of any kind. With all my freakin injuries I don't plan on working out. I'll sit in the hotel room and either play on facebook or read some new book I brought. Maybe I'll call an old college friend to go out for a beer.