"Shoulda Been Here Yesterday"

On Two Legs Again

2011-06-12T21:40:00.000-04:00

Once again I've gone for far too long without updating my blog. I'm finally walking again after my January accident. Being non-weight bearing was boring, to say the least, and pretty frustrating. More waiting than I would care to do. Since I've gotten free from my wheelchair, however, the pace picked up very quickly. I began walking again just in time for final exams. Once all of my studying was done and exams had ended, I began working for the summer as an engineering intern.

The summer has been a blur since work started; I can't believe that just about a month ago, I was finishing up the remainder of my final exams. More significantly, it's been just over five whole months since I broke my leg. I'm still experiencing tightness and pain in my knee, and I've become a human barometer. I've regained my entire range of motion, however, and I continue to feel just a little better every day. I've been trying to swim as often as I can in the mornings, and when I do manage to make it to the pool, I'm very proud of my workouts. I've swam as far as a half of a mile some mornings, and I've begun mixing in some deep-water "running" workouts using floatation belts. The past week and a half, my workouts have been hampered by morning stiffness. It has returned with a vengance some mornings, and has devilishly coaxed me into talking myself out of working out. I'm afraid that I might be flaring up, as my back started to act up two days ago and I noticed heel pain that had been long gone, but most certainly not forgotten. This strange early June weather may be to blame as well, with the storms, fluctuating temperatures and the damp nights. Hopefully I can persevere through the pain and continue my workouts until the soreness subsides.

I have work tomorrow morning, and I'm going to swim beforehand; I won't let my morning soreness get me this time. I need this for myself. I hope to begin updating more regularly as time allows, and I apologize for the long hiatus between posts.

Stay positive and stand tall!

-Tim

X-Rays

2011-03-02T22:49:00.002-05:00

So, while I planned on updating at least twice a week, I always seem to lose track of the days. Before I know it, it's the following week and I still haven't updated. However, as promised I have electronic copies of my x-rays to put up.

Here's the first one, just a shot of my left knee. I sustained a fracture to my medial tibial plateau (green arrow), depression of the lateral tibial plateau (blue arrow), avulsion fracture of the femur from my MCL (red arrow) and a more run-of-the-mill transverse tibial fracture (yellow arrow). Here's another picture, this one of my whole tibia, and with the colors "swapped". You can much more clearly see the damage to my lateral plateau and the transverse fracture is more obvious than before.

Cool photos, huh? I'm sure similar pictures would look much better now; I'm 8 weeks into the healing process and now have 75 degrees range of motion in the brace, with my actual knee having a little over 90 without the brace on. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon followed by PT, so I'll probably be exhausted when I get home, but I'll definitely post on Friday to talk about whatever my O.S. says. The physical therapist seems to think that I may get toe-touch weight-bearing status! Good news to me, but not getting my hopes up about this brutal injury. I can't wait to move forward in PT though, and start doing more exercises with light weight. I think I'm most excited to get on the exercise bike. That'll not only help my leg, but my spirits too.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy.

-Tim

Where Have I Been?

2011-02-20T14:49:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

You're all probably wondering what's happened to me. I have been too. It's been too long since I've written a post to those who have followed me through my training and races, and for that I'm very sorry. Once school started in September, I became pretty busy and really wasn't able to actively race. Unfortunately, I let the blog lapse through the Fall semester, and I feel like I've let down all of those people who have been so supportive over the past year. I'm determined to get back to racing and raising awareness as soon as I can.

However, this may not come to fruition as soon as I may hope. On January 7th, I went snowboarding in Pennsylvania. I had the unfortunate experience of hitting a tree on my 5th run of the day. I sustained two tibial plateau fractures, a transverse tibial fracture, an avulsion fracture of my femur, a grade 3 sprain (complete tear) of my MCL, and microfractures of the patella. I really did a number on my knee, and having AS makes matters for that knee even worse. I'm now more than 6 weeks into the initial recovery phase - I will need to be non weight bearing for 12 weeks - and things are best case scenario. I've started physical therapy this past week, and my therapist seems to think I will run again! That's great news, considering the severity of my injuries. Things are looking up again.

The blog has come back to life. I'm going to post at least on the days that I have physical therapy (Tuesdays and Thursdays), and I hope to be back to at least riding my bike over the Summer. I'm aiming to ride the Twin Lights Historic Ride this September in the Atlantic Highlands. Monmouth County, NJ is a great place, and I'd love for nothing more than to have my first event back from injury be a ride through the hills near the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. I'll bring more info to everyone in the coming days. Also, I'd like to treat everyone to something special in the coming weeks: my x-rays from January 7th. I happen to have everything on CDs, and I think it would be pretty neat to put the films up on the blog.

Hope everyone is well, and I'm glad to be back to posting.
Stay healthy!

-Tim

The Chill of Winter Sets In

2010-11-17T22:44:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. It's been a very busy fall, and I'm sure a lot of you are surprised to hear from me. I discovered just how tough it is to balance a full schedule of engineering classes, be active in extra-curricular activities, and keep up with my health. I've always had trouble with balancing my schoolwork, and I finally seem to have my act together this semester. Little by little, I've been able to balance more and more activities and events. Sometime in the middle of the semester, I unfortunately stopped going to the gym, as I felt I was having trouble with squeezing in workouts and doing well in school. My body definitely felt the consequences of losing an exercise routine. I discovered that simply keeping up with my stretches is not enough to keep my body feeling good. The stress of college hasn't helped out much with that either. However, I'm rededicating myself to making time for fitness. I know that once I get back in the gym, back in the pool and running again, I'm going to want to race again. I need this, and I know that the Ankylosing Spondylitis community needs my help. I'm starting to finally find a total balance in my life, a balance between all of the things I love and enjoy. Exercise and racing need to be a part of that balance, and I've decided to run the Big Chill 5k here at Rutgers next month. I'm getting over a really bad cold, but I hope to start running again on Friday, and maybe post a fairly decent time in December. I'm just glad to be back working on maintaining my health through fitness, and glad to be racing to raise awareness again. You will definitely be hearing more from me very soon.

-Tim

Exciting News and a Long Break

2010-10-08T14:43:00.000-04:00

Haven't posted in a very long time; I've been so caught up with schoolwork that I've barely had time for workouts, never mind blog posts. I've finally gotten into a routine at school (it's about time, it's October), and I'd like to make regular posts on the order of two to three a week, at the very least. The Two If By Land, One If By Sea went better than my wildest dreams; I'll post my time and the results. My university's newspaper, The Daily Targum, highlighted my awareness campaign today. I had an article as "Person of the Week" and I'm honored that they chose to write about me and help me to get the word out. You can click here to read the article. I'm keeping it short and sweet today, since I'm really busy, but tomorrow I'll update in-depth on everything that's happened since my last post. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that I'm still here and still working to the best of my ability. Hope everyone is well and check in tomorrow for the latest!

-Tim

Ready Or Not...

2010-09-09T10:47:00.000-04:00

Here comes the Two If By Land, One If By Sea. I've been real busy at school and I suffered a minor setback this past week. After complaining about "allergies" for the first part of the week, I realized Thursday night that all of the OTC allergy medications weren't able to tame what I had. After a brief doctor's visit on Saturday, and one prescription for Augmentin later, I'm finally feeling better. I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be better in time for the race, but once my symptoms started to clear up fairly quickly, I knew I'd be able to compete. I know that I may not be 100 percent for race day; if that's the case, I'm going to take it slow and steady, at my own pace. I've promise myself that I will finish. I owe it to my family, to my friends, to the readers of this blog, and to everyone with AS. I can't say enough "Thank You"s to the people who make this possible for me and who are always there to lend a helping hand. This goes double for my brother Tyler. Ty and I suffered through all 6 hours of the 100-plus degree Virginia heat in July and, after a last minute change of plans, agreed to jump on board at the last minute for Sunday. I can't thank him enough.

In other news, I attended the first meeting of the Rutgers Triathlon Club last night. They all seem like really cool people and their coach is awesome. I spoke to him after the meeting and told him all about my story and what I do. He actually got into tris by doing adventure racing first, so he knows exactly where I'm coming from. I think it'll be cool to train with them a few times a week and do a few 5k races this Fall, so stay tuned for more about that!

Finally, I have really great news. The article was published in the Staten Island Advance today! If you live on the South Shore of Staten Island, you'll get the article. Everyone else that's interested can check it out here on silive.com. Finally getting out the good news about Rigid Racing!

Hopefully I'll be able to update once more before the race, and let everyone know about those pre-race jitters. Thanks again to everyone who helps make this possible and remember, even if you feel like the whole world is against you: Stop. Take a deep breath, and another if you need it. Repeat after me, "I can. I will."

-Tim

A New Month, Another Countdown

2010-09-02T14:44:00.000-04:00

Things have been really busy again, with getting ready for school, packing up, moving in and starting classes in the past week. I've finally started to settle into the new routine and was able to make it to the gym yesterday. I've decided that I really need to set a schedule for myself so that I can stay healthy, do well in school, and still accomplish the goals I continue to set for myself in the realm of adventure racing and raising awareness for AS. Tonight's the first Rutgers football game of the year, so I'll be able to relax with my friends and hang out at the game. Hopefully, I'll be able to hit the gym early tomorrow morning before any Hurricane Earl-related weather shows face in the area. I'm really excited for this race and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with the idea of the 10k. I don't plan on running all of it, but I will definitely try to crank out at least half. Even with walking it home, I think my final time for the race is going to be halfway decent. Also, to help stay in shape over the winter months, I might be doing some training with the newly-formed Rutgers Triathlon Club. A friend of mine, who lived on my floor in the dorm freshman year, got into doing Tris and helped get the club started. I spoke with him at the involvement fair here at school, and I really look forward into swimming and spinning workouts with them!

-Tim

Finally, A Logo

2010-08-26T23:45:00.000-04:00

I asked a friend of mine, Kevin, to help me out and hash out an idea that I had for a Rigid Racing logo. Boy, did Kev come through. He e-mailed it to me today and I was more than impressed with his work; it looked fantastic. Kev's a student in the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers and he's really talented. I'm hoping to have the logo trademarked and to put it on our jerseys and some t-shirts. It's going to look great! Thanks again to Kevin.

I've finally gotten back to working out after my flare; I went to the gym on Wednesday and then went for a run in the park today. The weather was beautiful and I was able to bang out two miles on the trails, no problem. I felt great, and after today's run, I'm feeling better about the race on the 12th. I was starting to worry after really thinking about the total distance on foot for the race, 10k, but I'm more confident after today. After all, it's broken into three segments on foot, separated by the bike and paddle. Neither of the first two segments are longer than 1.5 miles, more than doable for me, but the third section is 3.7 miles. I decided that even if I walk it down the homestretch, it's a victory in my eyes. I'm more excited than ever for the 12th now, counting down the days.

-Tim

14 Days

2010-08-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

Fourteen days since my last post. I always promised myself that I wouldn't spontaneously go off the grid for this long. There's been so much happening; I've been getting ready for the Fall semester of my junior year, preparing for the race on the 12th of September, getting equipment and attending a seminar for a job as an ice hockey referee, and, for the past week, battling a minor flare-up. It's my first flare since going on Humira in January of last year, and I'm not used to being more achy than usual or just feeling tired like this. I need to keep pushing on. I've already shown myself and the people around me what I'm capable of, and I can't let AS control me now. I have to roll with the punches and, on the days that I feel strong enough, take control back. So much has happened in the past two weeks, too much for one entry. I find my days busier and busier so I've found a solution: shorter but more frequent posts. I've seen the blog become an outlet for me after I've tried so hard to turn it into a journal, a log, and an uplifting read. It helps the symptoms and helps the stress. Making 15 minutes a day for my readers will also mean 15 minutes a day for myself. That's a good thing. More tomorrow.

-Tim

Encouragement and Disappointment

2010-08-10T23:45:00.008-04:00

On Sunday night, I was a guest on PIDD Radio with Joanna Tierno and the show was a blast! If you missed it, you can go back and listen to it here. I know that some friends and family were tuned in and I want to say thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed listening to the show as much as I enjoyed being on it. It was refreshing to talk to someone who faces challenges similar to mine on a daily basis. Hopefully I'll get another chance to visit Joanna on the show in the future!

I'm finally starting to establish somewhat of a schedule now that school is drawing closer. I've been making sure I'm at the gym on days that I've scheduled it, and that I keep myself moving with some sort of a cross-training activity on all of my non-gym days. Monday was a gym day and Tuesday was an off day, which gave me a chance to get to my favorite hour and a half long yoga class. Sal's a great yoga instructor and every one of his classes is an excellent core workout. Today I was back in the gym and tomorrow I'm planning to do some mountain biking or trail run/bike "bricks". I want to start pushing myself as much as possible without causing any health problems. Having a disease like AS and trying to train for these grueling races is somewhat of a conflict of interest. I'm really hoping I can structure my workouts leading up to September 12th in a way that allows me the most improvement with minimal impact to my joints and tendons. I'd love to have a personal trainer or physiatrist to work with who would be someone understanding of both my goals and my health situation, but they're hard to come by and very expensive. For the time being, I'm going to have to take it easy and listen very closely to my body.

Now for the disappointment. At the end of last week, I attempted to get in touch with reporters and editors at both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. I haven't heard back from either publication, and it's a little disheartening. I wish it was easier to reach people with the media. You'd think it would be easier in the electronic age, but it's still hard to get your foot in the door. I just have to keep my head up and do my thing, people will eventually take notice. Good work always turns heads.

More to come tomorrow. Everyone keep it real, and take it easy. Keep doing what you do, and people will notice.

-Tim

PIDD Radio Show

2010-08-08T15:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight, I'm going to be a guest on a blogtalkradio.com radio show about Primary Immune Deficiencies. Joanna, the host, and myself are going to talk about AS, my symptoms, and my project for raising awareness. It's an hour-long show, so if you want to call in and ask me a question or talk about something, feel free! I'm glad I'm getting this opportunity and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I've never been on a radio show before and while I am known to be a big talker, I'm afraid of running out of topics to talk about. I'm a little nervous, but I think everything will turn out just fine. You can listen to the show and find out more info by clicking on this link. The show starts at 9:30 PM Eastern Time and, like I said before, runs for an hour. I'd love it if I got some questions from my blog readers, but even if you can just listen for a few minutes, I'd really appreciate it. I hope the listeners get something out of it and enjoy the show; it'll be fun for everybody!

I'm also going to try sending out more sponsorship/donation e-mails the beginning of this week and I hope to hear back from those e-mails I sent out Friday night. As always, I'll keep everyone posted about things as they happen, and I hope to make some big strides towards September during the following week. I found more trails for training and I took about two hours on Saturday to start something new. I'm going to start using triathlete-style "bricks" and I attempted to implement some bricks on Saturday. People aren't kidding when they say that going from bike to run your legs feel like cinder blocks. I hadn't experienced this before, since the Odyssey Sprint ended with the bike leg. I'm going to try to design the bricks in future workouts to work better than Saturday's, and hopefully I'll be ready for the transitions in September.

That's about it for now, and try to listen in tonight!

-Tim

A Much Needed Vacation

2010-08-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

I apologize to my readers for seeming to have fallen off of the grid. Since my last post, I took roughly a week's work of much needed vacation time. I spent some time at the beach and relaxed, but I didn't stop moving; I ran on the beach to maintain my fitness and used the softer sand away from the water to get a good workout. Since returning, I've gotten back into my gym routine. I'm also running a mile more consistently, and I feel like my conditioning is improving significantly. I'm really excited for the September race here on my "home turf" and realized that it's a little more than a month away. I really want to do well in this race and make as big a splash as possible; I want to make a difference.

In preparation for September's race, I'd like to try and get a few more sponsors to sign on and maybe get some media coverage. Today, I e-mailed some newspapers in hopes that they'll agree to run a story about my journey. I'll let everyone know more as I get return e-mails, that way my readers can see any articles that may get published. Also, I have the Primary Immune Deficiency Disorder blog talk radio show this Sunday. Tomorrow, I'll post all of the information for everyone who wants to listen in.

To sum up, I'm back and ready to make the push towards September 12th. I hope this race can be just as great of a success as the last one. Thanks for stopping by and more posting tomorrow!

-Tim

Post-Race Short Term Goals

2010-07-28T23:30:00.005-04:00

So this race had me thinking: "I've accomplished one of the major things that I've set out to do, but where do I go from here?" After thinking about this question, I've made a list of things I'd like to accomplish for the rest of the year, including two races and trying to raise awareness via a large media outlet. My rough list of goals looks something like this:
       -Two If By Land, One If By Sea   SI,NY September 12
       -Odyssey Fall Finale          Buchanan, VA      October 16
       -Raise awareness via a newspaper/television station on the local level
       -Raise awareness by getting noticed in a national newspaper
   -Raise awareness by getting noticed by a national television program    (i.e. Today show)
   -Enlist the help of more companies in the fight against AS

I had to trim my schedule this Fall because a lot of races fell towards the beginning of the semester and school takes priority. I'm definitely looking forward to training for those two races and to competing in a full schedule of races next calendar year. I've already gotten back to race preparations for September; yesterday I went for my first mountain bike ride since the race and tomorrow I'm going to put in a hard day at the gym. While I don't expect to win, it's a goal I should strive for and placing high most certainly helps when trying for media attention. I'll let everyone know how tomorrow goes at the gym. It's going to be my first time trying Artie's swim workout, and it should definitely help me improve my endurance and core strength.

Finally, as promised, the bib picture. Team #15, Rigid Racing

I'd also like to give another shout-out and big thank you to Ronnie and the whole gang down at Odyssey Adventure Racing. They know how to make a first-time racer feel welcome, and definitely know how to lay out a great race. They're southern hospitality at its finest and I couldn't have asked for a better environment in which to start my foray into adventure racing. I'll always remember my first race! Thanks!

-Tim

Team 15, Rigid Racing

2010-07-27T23:00:00.001-04:00

On Saturday morning at registration, seeing and hearing those words excited me beyond belief. "Team 15, Rigid Racing". We finally did it. I made it to Virginia, entered the race, and finished; I was satisfied and proud of having accomplished my personal goal. What's even more important is that we really got the message out. I met a few people at the race who are actually familiar with AS and its symptoms, and they allowed us to place materials on AS and the SAA out for people to pick up and read, along with some "Stand Tall" wristbands. Odyssey is doing a similar race in the Fall, called the Odyssey Fall Finale, that I will most definitely be back for. All said, it was a great weekend and I accumulated at least two blog posts-worth of stories in 6 hours.

I have to say, I was thoroughly surprised by the difficult nature of the sport. I expected the race to be tough, but nowhere near as grueling as it turned out to be. The borderline 100 degree heat with a heat index number well into the 100s didn't help much either. I had to have easily sucked down 5 liters of water. The heat made for slow going and a lot of sweating. Ronnie, the race director/course designer, made this race a test of body and mind and boy, am I glad I passed! I've learned a lot from the race that I'm going to apply to future races and my training. Speaking of training, today I did my first physical activity since the race. I've been so exhausted and sore since Saturday night, that I haven't had much motivation to do anything. So this afternoon, I took a bike ride into some local trails and wound up spending about 40 minutes riding around the park. It felt great to get my heart pumping again and it motivated me to get up early tomorrow and get to the gym.

Tomorrow, I'll have a longer post with more recap of the race, a picture of my race bib number and some exciting plans for the coming months that I'm eager to divulge. I'm proud to have achieved my first goal, but it doesn't stop here. Let's continue to get the word out!

-Tim

Tomorrow?!

2010-07-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, the day has finally come! Tomorrow's my first race and we're in Virginia. In a little while, I'm going out for a pasta dinner with my family, and then it's off to bed for an early start tomorrow. I'll definitely post all about the race afterward. I'm excited to finally get the message out by racing. This is just the first step; there will be more races, more blog posts, more conversations, all with the goals of letting the world know about AS, helping people to get diagnosed, and to inspire people to enjoy their life. See you all on the other side!

-Tim

Almost there.....

2010-07-21T23:27:00.001-04:00

I haven't been able to post on here the past few days; my schedule has been so jam-packed with daily tasks, race preparations and activities that by the time I make it home, I'm too exhausted to try and put together a coherent post. That being said, I've managed to make it to the evening with my wits about me and will post for the next to last time before Saturday. Here's a quick fill-in on everything that went on in the past few days.

Monday, I decided to go for another trail run in Blue Heron Park. I went in the park through the northern access point and found a trail I really liked. It was gently undulating and didn't have too much change in elevation; it was just hilly enough to be fun without being an absolute leg-burner. Later in the afternoon, I went to the Vitamin Shoppe and picked up this protein/health drink that I've been eying for a while. It's called mix1, and it's a really healthy, on-the-go energy snack/mini-meal/after workout drink. I got some in blueberry-vanilla, and it was actually pretty tasty! What's cool is that you get all these vitamins and minerals, 3 servings of fruits and veggies, and it's lactose, gluten, soy and caffeine free. If it's something mom lets you have, you know it has to be good.

Tuesday was much more of a full day for me. I met my friend Eric at his house and took a ride over to Allaire State Park in New Jersey. Eric wants to try to do a race with me in the Fall, which would be a blast! At Allaire, we went running in the trails for about 25 minutes to half an hour. It was pretty exciting for me since I'd never been to Allaire before and I didn't really know the trail system. We managed to keep ourselves from getting lost and ran on some sandy, yet pretty fast, single track and double track trails. To quote Eric on running in the 90+ degree heat: "Well, that was a good sweat."

Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with a 3 hour long surf session at Manasquan Inlet. We had good waves for the first time in about 2 weeks or so, and definitely took advantage. I think Eric's hooked, and I don't blame him. I found that I was smiling a lot when I was out in the water too. Surfing has proved to be therapeutic for me. It always makes me happy and helps me feel better mentally, big waves or not. I always recommend surfing to people; if you've always wanted to try it, go to your local shop and take a lesson or take lessons when you're on vacation. It's super relaxing for me, and I think everyone should try to find their "surfing". Even if you have trouble standing up on the board or catching waves, it's calming to just sit on the board and float around in the lineup, chatting with other surfers and taking in the ocean air. We should all try to find our "surfing" in life.

This morning, my brother Tyler and I took the canoe out for a test run and probably paddled somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 miles. We started thinking about times for the race, and we hope to finish with a time somewhere around 3.5 to 4 hours. Tonight, I started packing gear and clothes for the weekend. Tomorrow is going to be a rest day/prep day and we'll be on the road headed for Virginia at 7AM on Friday! We're almost there and I'm more excited than I imagined I'd be!

Sponsor news: I'm pleased to announce our first corporate sponsor, A&B Collision of Staten Island! I'm so grateful for their contribution to the cause and when I finally get the shirts and jerseys screened, I'll be sure to include them on the graphic!

-Tim

Breaking In The New Shoes

2010-07-18T23:29:00.000-04:00

Today marks the beginning of a busy week filled with race preparations. I figured that a good way to start would be to take out the new trail runners for a quick break-in session. I took a 5 minute drive to a local park with relatively flat trails, stretched, and then took off. I wished it hadn't been so hot today as, even at just 9AM and in the woods, I was already soaked to the skin from sweating. I managed what I estimated to be roughly a mile by completing these two looped trails back-to-back and twice in a row. After a brief cooldown, I tanked the rest of my water bottle and headed to the car to grab my camera. This local park, called Blue Heron Park, has some great views and offers plenty of wildlife to photograph. I personally enjoy watching the park transform itself through the four seasons, and every 3 or 4 months getting to see familiar scenery in a slightly new light. Here's some photos from the day; the first photo is taken from a small bridge off to the side of the more well known pond in the park and the second is of a dragonfly on a bush bordering the pond. Enjoy today's photos!

Nature at it's finest, no editing necessary.

This afternoon, I also got the chance to drop the bikes off at Kim's for a pre-race tune up. Hopefully they'll be done by Tuesday night, and I'll be able to pick them up and have them ready well before Friday morning. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call the ranger up at Staten Island's Boy Scout camp, William H. Pouch Scout Camp, to see if the lake is busy. Gil, the ranger, grew up with my dad, and I've known him my entire scouting life. I told him all about what I'm trying to do: the races, the blog, and raising awareness. He agreed to let my brother and I use the lake for paddling practice, since we haven't been in a canoe in quite some time and it's probably not a smart idea for the race to be that "first time in a while".

Aside from paddling, I'm going to try to get in a trail run and the first of two gym workouts before the race. The last day for training is Wednesday; I want to make sure I'm healed and rested for that start at high noon on Saturday. More pictures and updates to come tomorrow!

-Tim

New Goodies

2010-07-17T23:00:00.000-04:00

As promised, I have photographic proof of my trip to Eastern Mountain Sports. I could spend hours in the store ogling every single pack, shoe, boot and piece of climbing equipment; I unfortunately have to stop somewhere, as funds are as far from unlimited as imaginable. I did manage to pick up some really quality stuff and I'm excited to show everyone! First, the shoes; Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX...wow, that's a mouthful. Great fitting, cushioned in all the right places, and Gore-Tex uppers. They'll help give my feet, knees and back a break during these long races and keep those feet nice and dry if I'm wading around in a stream.

I also like taking pictures of things with the semi-wide-angle depth on my smaller zoom lens. It gets pretty obvious sometimes. Here's a side profile of one shoe:

The second big item from the bag of tricks is a brand new daypack/ultralight. It's this awesome orange and grey Osprey. The one big selling point for me was the extra-large, generously padded (for a pack of its size) hip belt and shoulder straps. Another thing about buying gear is that I always need to be wary of the Spondylitis. When I look at shoes, the first thing I check out is the support. I ask questions like "How will these feel after 10 or 20 miles?" and "Is this enough support to keep my back from hurting until long after I finish?". I always used to want to be flashy, and sometimes I still am, but my health is definitely more important than getting the fastest-looking shoes on the market. Here's the pack:

I'm hoping to get some pictures before/during the start of the race and as I finish, so that everyone can get to see the gear in action. I can't wait for it to be next Saturday! I'm so excited, that I'm taking the trail runners on a brief excursion before I start my day tomorrow morning. I'm thinking about bringing my camera in the car to take some pictures of the trail afterward. I'd really like to start doing a daily photo on the blog, whether it be from just day to day life, something adventure racing related, or even a photo chronicling the day to day speed bumps of living with AS.

That's it for now, but I'll be sure to post again tomorrow with an update about the run and maybe another picture or two!

-Tim

Friday Already?!

2010-07-16T23:30:00.009-04:00

I can't believe it's already Friday. The Odyssey Sprint is only one week away! I've been meaning to post the past two days but I had a lot of obligations to fulfill and didn't get much time to sit down and blog. As I type, I should probably be sleeping, since I have early plans for tomorrow. So, here's a short synopsis of the past few days. I took a day off on Thursday after another hard workout on Wednesday that included running, biking and my strength training. Today, I took Ty to the gym with me, just to get him used to being in a physical environment with me, and we ran for a while. Then this evening we took a ride up to EMS in Paramus and picked up some last minute gear for the race. The guys up there were really helpful and gave us a 20% discount to help out the cause. Big thanks to them! Hopefully, tomorrow night's post will have some nice pictures of the new goodies and finally those energy bar pictures I promised, along with the schedule for next week and more info about the race.

-Tim

Yoga, Homemade Bars, and More Awesome News

2010-07-13T22:30:00.037-04:00

Today, I'll have the opportunity to discuss many more important developments that I didn't really have a chance to touch on during my last post. Today has been another long day full of chores, errands and plenty of exercise. Yesterday was a weight training day, and I managed to get in about 10 miles of the "mountains around the world" program on the exercise bike. Today, I decided to go with the exercise bike again for my day of just cardio and I didn't regret it one bit. I chose to do some wattage workouts and gradually worked up to 200 watts at a cadence between 90 to 100 rpm. I really love challenging myself on the bike to dig deep and really make power with my legs. When I was younger, I'd look at photos of my great uncle in road races and ask to hear the story about the race he was in with George Hincapie, and some summers I'd follow Le Tour religiously. I wanted to be a cyclist in the worst way. So any time I get on any sort of bike, I'm transported to my childhood and I feel like I'll really excel at the mountain bike leg of these races.

Tonight, I finally got back to doing the only thing that kept me able to move and out of pain until I got on the right medications: yoga. I really recommend yoga to anyone and everyone who needs a boost mentally, physically or spiritually. It's a practice that can be a workout, can be restorative, and is always introspective. Start with a gentle yoga class and don't be afraid to talk to your instructor before class about any concerns or health issues you have. I've found that yoga teachers are one of the friendliest, most accommodating and most knowledgeable group of people when it comes to the human body. There's something to be found in yoga for everyone.

Upon returning from yoga, I gathered up some healthy and tasty "building materials" to try my hand at an all-natural energy bar recipe. I found the recipe here at roadcycler.com. It's the third recipe given. I'm hoping to snack on one of the bars tomorrow mid-workout. I'll take pictures in the morning after I take them out of the fridge and cut them up, as well as let everyone know how that recipe worked out for me.

Now, down to business in terms of raising awareness. I'm excited to announce that I've been invited onto a radio show at 9:30PM on August 8th. It's hosted by Joanna Tierno, who has a primary immune deficiency disorder called hypogammaglobulinemia, and is all about immune disorders. I'm ecstatic at the opportunity to finally get the message out! I'll be sure to pass along more info as it comes to me, so everyone can listen in online or on the radio. I've also been given the support of the New Jersey Spondylitis Support Group! My mom went to their most recent meeting this past Saturday, which I was unfortunately away for, and spoke to them about my blog and campaign to raise awareness for this family of diseases. They had such a welcoming and positive reaction, and furthermore, placed links to the blog and donation pages on their site! Dr. Craig Gimbel is one of the leaders and is doing fantastic work with this group. You can check out their page here and I've also added their site to my Important Links section.

So much has been happening daily as the first race gets closer and closer, and I'll have plenty more to talk about leading up to and after the race on the 24th!

-Tim

Here Before I Know It

2010-07-12T20:00:00.011-04:00

The title of this post refers to the first adventure race. Less than two weeks away, it'll be here before I know it. I'm getting the race day jitters early; two weeks early. Today at the gym, about halfway through a 10 mile ride on one of the bikes, I started to really wonder what this race would be like. Many events happened over the past week that prompted this pattern of thought. I got held up from posting for over a week, and I want to make it my priority to update this blog at least three times a week. Now that I'm back into the swing of things, I'll hopefully be posting almost every day.

The real big major news update: I'm back down to just one team member. James had to withdraw for personal reasons. The search for another team member continues. I've been talking to my friend Eric from Rutgers and he seems pretty interested. I'm hoping Eric decides to join me for future races. For this race, my brother Tyler agreed to join me. He's been hurrying to prepare, but he should be okay since it's only a sprint race and he's a pretty fit kid. If I want to do longer races, I'll definitely need to find other racers too; I'm not exactly sure a 24 hour race would be his cup of tea. Once I return to school, I'm thinking about going to the Rutgers Outdoor Club and talking to a few people to find an adventure racing partner. I'm pretty hopeful that I'll have found a partner to stick with by the next racing season.

Another update is that the August race might not happen. Registration closed earlier than expected, and I wasn't able to register as early as I originally wanted due to the unexpected loss of James as a teammate. This will give me more time to prepare for races in September and October, however. Also, due to my current teammate situation, 24 hour collegiate nationals might not happen. In lieu of this, I would probably do a sprint race somewhere else on the same weekend as collegiate nationals. I'm really hoping to compete in as many races as possible next year, including a few 24 hour races. I've found that training is an awesome outlet for my stress and it has really helped me to get my symptoms under control. It has helped me to enjoy to the fullest other activities that my symptoms had previously made difficult. Most importantly, I've gained mental toughness. I feel more confident in my abilities and I feel as though I now have AS in my grasp. While I know that may not always be the case, I now know that I can live life to the fullest as much as I can. Even if I'm having a bad day, I can enjoy just one small pleasure that life has to offer, just as a reminder that tomorrow is a new day and that it's important to keep fighting.

This past weekend, I visited my friend Artie down in Ocean City, MD. We surfed and got to spend time together for the first time in months. I'm glad I got to just sit around, surf, and talk about life with Artie. I had been feeling stressed, and Artie helped me get back into the right frame of mind. The best moment of the weekend was on Saturday. We surfed through a torrential downpour; two to three inch per hour rain. The rain hitting the surface of the ocean was so loud, you had to yell over the roar. The pelting rain felt almost hail-like and you had to shield your eyes to see the waves rolling in. In that moment, I can say I felt truly alive. It was just the two of us and about half a dozen other surfers, sharing an experience that not many others have. Just a reminder that it's the little things in life. I walked back over the dunes to the car after a break in the rain, just feeling happy to have experienced something new and out of the ordinary and feeling renewed. It's as if the rain temporarily washed any worries away. I re-learned an important lesson on Saturday. Stop and take a moment to appreciate being right here, right now. Life is not always beautiful, but when it is, it is truly something to behold.

Finally, I have some more excellent news! I'll hopefully be doing a radio show on August 1st; I'll have more details about that later. Tomorrow's post will talk about my training and exercise from today and tomorrow, the radio show, more information about the first race and much more. It's supposed to be a rainy day around here too, so I might try my hand at making healthy, AS athlete-friendly energy bars! I'll be sure to put up a recipe and take pictures of my handiwork.

Tomorrow I'll post an entry that will most likely be equally as long as this one, as I have so much to talk about after being away from the blog for over a week. I'll have some goodies too though, like those energy bars!

-Tim

Desperately Needed Update and Race Registration

2010-07-02T22:33:00.004-04:00

Here is, as the title notes, a desperately needed update. A lot has happened since Monday and I ran out of time to post last night, so it looks like we have ourselves a super-entry.

Let's start with Tuesday. As planned, I woke up early, put the boards on the roof, and headed down to Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey. A friend of mine from Rutgers, Eric, lives down there and agreed to paddle out with me for the morning. After grabbing some frozen peanut butter sandwiches from his freezer (and discovering my new favorite summer snack), we headed down to the inlet and surfed a double session totaling around two and a half hours. I was so happy that I finally got to surf; my last paddle-out was on Thanksgiving Day of last year. I feel really proud of the way I paddled around and caught waves. While I can't surf like the locals do, I have definitely improved since I started doing regular cardio and weight training. The summer after my symptoms arose, in 2008, I could barely surf. My family and I hadn't yet come to terms with biologic drugs, as everything happened so fast and our heads were spinning while trying to make sense of Ankylosing Spondylitis. I spent the rare occasion in the water on a bodyboard with a pair of swim fins. I was able to start really surfing again last summer, but I was easily winded and had trouble keeping up with my good pal and surfing buddy Artie, a high school and collegiate swimmer. Long 2 or 3 hour sessions really got to me. I'm really glad that I'm having significantly less trouble catching waves and I feel like I can really enjoy my passion for surfing again. Just writing about it makes me feel good. I felt the same way after climbing with my buddy Devin last week; getting into shape allowed me to focus less on the pain and more on my moves. This blog really is turning into a journey for me and teaching me to appreciate winning the small battles. Forgetting about the worries of having AS for a few minutes and just enjoying the moment is really important.

Wednesday, I awoke still tired and sore. Surfing is an awesome core exercise. The positions that paddling out and paddling to catch waves put you in works muscles that no machine at the gym can. The soreness was my disease's way of welcoming me back to daily life and a small reminder that I need an extra day to recover here and there. Wednesday was my girlfriend's birthday as well, and we both needed a rest day: myself from surfing and her from an intense spinning class the night before. I combat the soreness by looking at it all this way: soreness => muscle repair => being stronger => less stress on my affected joints. When you think about it like that, being a little sore from working out really isn't all that bad.

Thursday was the day I woke up and came to the realization that we're now in July. The first race, the Odyssey Sprint, is on July 24th. I decided to enter the sprint as opposed to the 1-day due to my short time remaining to train. So last night I registered and it's official. I will be competing in my first race in New Castle, VA on July 24th as Rigid Racing! I chose the name after becoming attached to my Blogger posting moniker. I think it's really catchy and is the best way to sum up how I'll probably feel after the race: rigid. You can see the event's site by clicking here. With the race lurking right around the corner, I decided it was time to start logging the hours on a grander scale. I woke up at 7am and went for an all-morning mountain bike ride. In total, I logged 13 miles of trails yesterday. It's a good sign for me, and I feel like if I can keep it up, I'll be able to finish the race without having to take a single cutoff. A cutoff is like a detour that race organizers build into the course. They're built to allow slower racers to still have fun and finish on time without running themselves ragged while letting stronger, veteran racers challenge themselves with the full race course. Not only did I ride yesterday, but early in the evening I headed to the gym. My last day there had been on Monday and I'm trying to make a trip there 3 days a week. I ran a mile as a warm up and then did my weight circuit. It was a jam packed workout day and after crunching the numbers, I probably burned around 1700 calories on exercise alone. No wonder I was so hungry!

Today, was "half of a rest day" in that I didn't do any strength training or prolonged cardio. I went for an hour-long mountain bike ride with my brother before heading home to do chores in preparation for the holiday weekend. Tonight, I'm going to do some housekeeping with the blog and try to add labels to all of my entries. Tomorrow morning is another gym session; hopefully I can manage a mile or a mile and a half on the track before my circuit training and maybe have a cool-down session in the pool. Next Tuesday and Thursday nights I'm going to start my yoga again. I've been putting it off because of my busy schedule but if I want to make sure I maintain my flexibility, I need to force myself to make time. That leaves Monday, Wednesday and Friday as gym days. I'm hoping to have Artie help me devise some swim workouts too. It's true, you can sweat in a pool, and if anyone knows how to really get a good workout in the water, it's Artie.

Also, if you haven't already checked out the donation page, you can click here, or you can also find the link at the top of my "Important Links" section on the right hand side of the page. We've added smaller donation amounts of $5, $10 and $20 and are working on a fill-in box. If you know someone with a business who'd like to help by sponsoring the team, you can e-mail me at tim@shouldabeenhereyesterday.org. You can also e-mail me there with any questions you have about AS, my journey, the team, or pretty much anything in general. Hopefully I can get a few questions and do a post of just answers to all of the questions. I think that would be really cool. I'd really like this blog to become both a conversation and a place for people to come and read to feel like they're not the only one fighting AS, or dealing with any sort of trouble in their life for that matter. There are a lot of lessons you learn by putting yourself to a test like this and hopefully I'll have a bunch to share along the way. Today's lesson: take time out to take care of your health and appreciate winning the little battles. Revisit something you love to do and just take a moment to soak it all in. You'll be happier for the next few minutes, hours, or even days. It's a huge help when dealing with any sort of problem, disease or otherwise.

I hope everyone has a safe Fourth of July and a great time however they choose to spend their weekend. See you on Monday!

-Tim

Stepping Up The Workouts

2010-07-01T23:30:00.008-04:00

It's now July and the first race is only a little over 20 days away! Time to kick it into high gear! I had a really busy day of training and working out, so I didn't get to post a full entry like I wanted to. I promise to post a full length post tomorrow and trust me, I'm going to have plenty of things to talk about!

-Tim

Cross-Training: An Excuse To Surf

2010-06-28T23:30:00.024-04:00

We're almost to July, and July means my first race. I'm continuing my 3-day-a-week light weight regimen along with plenty of cardio. I'm a little upset that I haven't been able to ride the new bike on the trails too often. The past week or so, the temperature has already climbed into the 80s by 7am. That combined with the humidity we've had has made 5 or 10 mile rides a death wish. The end of this week should bring much needed cooler temperatures around here, with the highs not getting much over 80 from Wednesday through Friday. I'm looking to do two serious test rides on Thursday and Friday if the weather holds as planned. I don't feel very much closer to being ready than last week. My level of endurance has improved slightly and I feel stronger, but I still feel a disconnect from being race-ready. I think it's the fact that the heat has forced the training indoors for the time being. However, I think I will be ready for the race on July 24th. By then, I'll have put in much more trail time and it's only going to be a sprint race. This means the race is significantly less strenuous than a 12-plus hour race and should only last 4-6 hours. I plan to use it as a trial run for my body and a stepping stone to the Bitter Pill 12hr in Vermont. I really want to focus my efforts towards that race and hopefully making a big splash.

In other news, the surf is up. Not by much, but it's definitely an upgrade from 3 weeks of ankle-slappers. The Atlantic Ocean has worked its summer magic and once again become Lake Atlantic. Tomorrow, however, there looks to be a little wave action down in Jersey; waist to chest high waves and breaking clean. I'm going to paddle out with my friend Eric from school and hope that the forecast holds. Eric lives down in Manasquan, so the surf break is only a few blocks from his house. He's also a big rock climber and mountain biker; tomorrow I'm going to ask him if he'd like to be the 3rd man on the team for Collegiate 24hr Nationals in October. Hopefully he says yes; Nationals would be HUGE! I'll take some pictures of the waves tomorrow to post up. The first session of the year is always exciting.

Finally, I've had some lower dollar amounts added to the donation page. The minimum donation is no longer $35 and we hope to soon have a fill-in box once some technical difficulties get worked out. I'm still waiting to hear back from Eastern Mountain Sports about the sponsorship opportunity for jerseys. I'd love it if they said yes; their gear is awesome stuff and those shirts would be perfect for what we're looking to do. By the end of the week, I'm going to try to make contact with more companies about donating to the SAA and my cause. I've never had to interact with people in this regard before, and asking for donations is very new to me. I'm lucky to have Susan at the SAA helping me out with contacting companies and dealing with the "corporate" side of things. Also, we may have some good publicity soon! The other day, my cousin Cathleen met a woman here on Staten Island who has an autoimmune disease and does a talk show. Cathleen told her my story and the work I'm doing in trying to raise awareness, and the woman said she's love to have me on for a chat! Next time I see my cousin, I'm going to get the contact information and hopefully get to visit her on the show and talk about our experiences with disease, my mission, and raising awareness for AS. I'm really excited about this opportunity and I'll definitely let everyone know what's happening as I get more information.

So some sun and surf tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get a decent workout out of it too!

-Tim

And the weeks get busier and busier...

2010-06-25T23:00:00.025-04:00

Boy, does it seem like things never slow down. As soon as I got the majority of that "wisdom teeth business" over and done with, I immediately returned to training and it seemed like my week picked up speed from there. Wednesday I went to visit my friend Devin and we spent the afternoon slacklining before heading up to Garden State Rocks climbing gym. I really got a good workout that night after climbing for the better part of an hour and a half, stopping only to take some water breaks. I had a blast hanging with Devin and tearing it up on the wall; we definitely need to, or at least attempt to, make a regular thing out of climbing. It's an activity I really enjoy and a great way to stay in shape. You don't realize how much of a full body work out it is until you wake up sore the next morning.

Thursday, I spent a surprising amount of time at the YMCA. After a short jog to warm up, I did my circuit on the machines and felt really good about the progress I've made. I met my good buddy Artie down in the pool for a quick lap swim and some treading water. Artie just came back from an overseas trip and hadn't gotten to swim for 45 days, so it was a great way for us to work out and catch up on stuff. He's a competitive swimmer and an awesome athlete, and he's going to write up some swim workouts for me. I'm really excited for that. I feel like I'm really blessed to have a support system of friends and family that helps me to achieve the goals I set for myself.

Today, I stayed busy all day, in keeping with the trend of the week. I woke up real early to go on a Boy Scout charity golf outing with my dad, uncle, and a friend of my dad's. We had a great time and I got to play my first round of golf in about a year. I did surprisingly well for not having swung a club in so many months. On top of having a fun (and surprisingly relaxing) day on the links, I won an new sand wedge in the chance raffle! It was especially ironic since there were plenty of jokes made over the course of the round about how a sand wedge might improve my short game.

Tomorrow, I'm going to spend a relaxing day with my girlfriend just hanging out, but not without a brief morning run. I have to keep honest on my promise to myself, James, and everyone out there who wants to see me succeed that I'll keep up with my cardio and my workouts. Hopefully, James and I will substitute mountain bike and running shoes for a little cross training, Tim-style. The waves look like they'll be up for the first time in about three weeks, and surfing is a fun and strenuous way to keep in shape. Fingers crossed and praying that the forecasts hold for Monday and Tuesday.

Finally, some housekeeping issues for the blog. I finally worked out my camera issue (after having to re-format the memory card only a half dozen times) and took some pictures of my USARA card that came in the mail. It's an awesome emotional lift and a reminder that the first race is closer than I think. Here's a few pictures:

Pretty sweet, huh? I'd also like to say thanks to my friend Kevin for suggesting the long ride up and down the West side in Manhattan. I'm definitely going to try it for endurance; I'm sure it'd be a great ride for a fixed gear bike. Trying to get my hands on an old fixer-upper fixed gear for school and leisure rides if finances and availability allow. That project might have to go on hold for the time being though, seeing as I'm pretty busy already.

So while some people try to escape to a tropical island or beach somewhere in order to do absolutely nothing on their "vacations", I say: "Let the good times roll."

-Tim