Week 4

My official workouts this week ended a couple days early. It is Thursday afternoon and Tauni and I currently are on an airplane en route to Memphis. Tomorrow we ride the train they call the City of New Orleans to New Orleans for Wil Colom’s 60^th birthday celebration. I have met Wil’s daughter and his wife, Dorothy, as well as his nephew, Carl. I also know a few of his friends, including, of course, Parky, and Derrick and Leticia Johnson. I hope to see New Orleans lawyer Maury Herman on Saturday. Otherwise, I have no idea what to expect, other than perhaps assorted members of the Colom family and of the 100 Black Men of Columbus, Mississippi.

Workouts Monday and Tuesday were tough. Monday was a long, painful lower body workout, and Tuesday and intense series of anaerobic exercises. I flew Tuesday morning to Denver, met that afternoon with my client, Bob Dunlap, and then wandered the 16^th Street Mall in the evening. I have never seen Denver’s downtown area as anything but a rather sterile series of high-rise office buildings, but 16^th Street does have a bit of historic charm, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it lively.

I stayed at Denver’s downtown Marriott, which turned out to have an excellent fitness center equipped with dumbbells and weight machines. I took the 90-Day training plan for Wednesday with me, which called for a series of bicep, tricep and shoulder exercises. Shortly after I started working out, a guy about 6’6”, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Gaston, walked in. Veins popped from his biceps, which were roughly the diameter of my thighs, only vastly firmer. It was mildly amusing for me to struggle to do curls with 15 pound dumbbells while Gaston did the same exercise with dumbbells the weight of anvils. My consolation was that he appeared spent after maybe 7 reps, while I struggled through my standard 20 reps and 10 minis. After trashing my arms and shoulders I completed a series of ab exercises.

Following my workout I dressed quickly and headed to the office of Dunlap’s Denver lawyer, Flip Rouse, Esq., who cheerfully greeted me on my arrival. He was nattily attired in a pin striped dress shirt and well-pressed cargo pants, which I took to be a uniquely Colorado twist on business casual. I had to haul two briefcases full of documents, as well as my suitcase, to Flip’s office. I felt so generally weak, and my back so sore, from that week’s workouts that even carrying my smaller briefcase any distance pushed me close to level 10. I didn’t see this as a good sign, but not necessarily a bad one either. I figured I would feel better, but wasn’t sure when. I could only hope that my strained back and other fatigued muscles would come around before Thursday’s workout and, if not then, by the beginning of next week.

Dragging my briefcase around the airport following Dunlap’s deposition didn’t make me optimistic that I would feel better very soon. I arrived home too tired to do much of anything besides cook myself a bowl of oatmeal, and plop myself into the easy chair in my office to watch the DVD of the old 70s movie “Robin and Marian” on my iMac. Sean Connery seemed amused in his Robin Hood role, Richard Harris completely over-the-top and ridiculous as Richard the Lionhearted, and Audrey Hepburn luminous as Marian. About 45 minutes into the movie I recalled that I needed to pick up a prescription before the pharmacy closed. As I headed out the door Tauni asked how I liked the movie. I replied, “They don’t make them like that anymore,” to which we both immediately added, “Fortunately.”

Upon my return from the pharmacy, after I fidgeted through another half hour or so of the movie, my brother Tracy called to give me his take on BYU going independent. He had already written a lengthy comment on the subject on our family website, so he mostly repeated himself. Tracy is brilliant, and I thought his arguments sound, but he has a need to repeat himself and seek reassurance, which I was happy to provide. I like the thought of BYU playing basketball with the Catholics and the good Christians at Pepperdine. Seems like a nice cultural fit. And there is symmetry to BYU beginning a rivalry with Gonzaga, alma mater of Utah Jazz great John Stockton. Also, for BYU’s emerging women’s soccer team, playing against national powers Portland and Santa Clara can only provide a boost. As for football, if the goal is exposure, the ESPN deal assures that. The money doesn’t hurt either. As for the ethics of dumping the MWC, the MWC hasn’t done much for the Cougs lately, and in this supposedly capitalist country chasing a better opportunity seems the quintessentially American.

All of which brings me to this morning. I was expecting a painful and difficult workout, but instead I felt great and managed to work hard without aid of back or knee brace. Part of the recovery was simply the result of a good night’s rest. And perhaps part was a benefit of taking Aleve. The unknown was how much Prednizone, a corticosteroid, contributed to my rapid recovery. A few weeks ago my dermatologist prescribed Prednizone for a rash, and after a day or two of the recommended dosage not only did the rash but also painful canker sores go away. The second week of the program the canker sores recurred. I took 10 mg before bedtime and in the morning not only my mouth but also my back felt better. I attributed the back improvement to sleeping with a brace, but Tauni immediately concluded that the Prednizone had done the trick. It apparently having helped once, I took 10 mg last night and this morning my back was much improved and I otherwise felt strong and lively. I worked out on a stationary bike and elliptical this morning, both of which I am used to doing, but still the sudden absence of bad pain was a surprise. Not only was my back improved but my knee felt better following today’s workout than it has at any time since I injured it seven years ago.

I don’t know whether the Prednizone made the difference. If it did, it is easy to understand why world-class athletes have succumbed to the steroid temptation. The hardest part of training is dealing with injuries and fatigue. Assuming steroids aid recovery, athletes can train harder and become more fit. I have friends who played college football during the steroid era. Pills were freely disseminated ito players in the 70s and 80s. Back then players were incredulous that use of steroids could even be an issue because steroids were such a normal part of their training regimen. I have no intention of seriously juicing up, but I certainly appreciate the relief that my small dose seems to have provided.

There have been two themes to our coaching this week. First, we need to step up our nutrition, and specifically to eat more alkaline and less acidic foods, ideally in a ratio of 80/20. My new friend Ryan Peterson explained that cancer cells simply cannot survive in an alkaline environment. Certainly countries whose diets are high on alkaline foods have lower cancer rates than those whose diets are more acidic, such as, e.g, the US. During the first four weeks of the program my diet has trended toward more alkaline foods and the benefits have been obvious.

Second, we are encouraged to transform our view of who we are. For me, this process is well underway. In the year or so before I began the program, I had concluded with dismay the aging process was both accelerating and irreversible. My joints seemed to be breaking down and my weight steadily increasing. At the Ragnar Wasatch Back I decided to take steps to reverse the trend, first by improving my diet, and second by enrolling in the program. I have lost nearly 20 pounds since the Wasatch Back, more than half since I began the program. My knees and hips feel better, and, to my surprise, I have discovered that I can still jump and run fast. I feel a good 10 years younger, and again see myself as an athlete. In addition, I have been calmer, more confident and more at peace than I can remember. I am eager to start the day, and find it easy to get up early. My goal of running the Ragnar Tennessee seems increasingly possible, something I had thought I could never do. It has even been easy to overcome what I thought were my addictions, Coke Zero and sugar. I have mostly eliminated sugar from my diet (it is an ingredient in so many foods that eliminating it completely is, well, nearly impossible). I have cut out Coke completely. My concept of self and what I can do has changed.

May the transformation continue.