Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Conditioning and testosterone
Hi, Tracy.
It has been months since I've posted to this blog. I'm doing so now after reflecting on my conditioning. Before I was treated for prostate cancer I was pretty fit. My weight wasn't quite where I wanted it, as I recall, but my stamina was fairly good. When I made my last failed run at Mount Adams, I was packing 50 pounds. I'm not sure I can do that now. Yes, I'm older, but I'm persuading myself that I should be able to get into condition. However, there are some things I've discovered:
Weight gain: I think the impact on my schedule from daily radiation treatment made me less active. Along with that was the impact the radiation had on my body. I experienced significant loss of energy and corresponding weight gain. And the Lupron shots and Bicalutamide that blocked my testosterone seem to have contributed to that gain.
Weight loss: After the testosterone blockers wore off, I have it hard to take off the weight I gained. Part of the difficulty is the belief that I can always take off weight, because I took off 35 pounds over five months about 12 years ago. So I can always get serious tomorrow. But I have gotten serious, and it still seems quite difficult. I think the radiation affected more than my prostate gland, and that I'm producing less testosterone now. I'm kinda fat. I took a photo of myself lately, and this picture here shows what I look like on a good day. People say I look fine, but when I get out of the shower, there's just too much tummy. This shows me at 200 pounds (bathroom scale--207 at 24 Hour Fitnesses' rather clunky scale). I managed to creep up to 210 recently, but then pulled myself down to 200. My top weight was back in 2004, when I weighed about 220. The incentive to lose then was when I realized I was within 5 pounds of obesity.
Swimming: I have been swimming at the gym and worked my way up from pathetic to 1/2 km at a time. My styling is improving (you'll recall I was on my high school swim team) and my speed as well, and I feel good about that. However, I can't sink! I used to be able to let all the air out of my lungs and sink to the bottom. I could actually identify the point where the last mouthful of air allowed me to submerge. And I could hold my breath for a long time under water. Now I have little capacity for holding my breath a long time, and I just bob to the surface. It's a fight to stay under water. Fat has displaced muscle. Big time.
Upper body strength: I started doing pushups, and worked up to 150 a day in repetitions of 15. This was hard to sustain. It seemed that my arms would get only so strong, but no stronger, and that I was wearing myself out doing this. 15 pushups at a time is all I've build up to, and that's hard to do.
There was a time when I could push off the floor, clap my hands, slap my chest, and have my hands back in position to keep me from smacking my face on the way down. I don't see that happening again any time soon. What I do see, from time to time, is a big fat belly and some emerging muffin tops.
While I don't expect to be in the same shape I was in in my mid-20's, I would like to see improvement in my upper body strength in terms of strength and speed, but it's slow going.
Hiking: This is my strong suit, but nothing to write home about. I hike regularly, but I'm definitely not where I was. I sometimes hike was a group led by a man 10 years older than I (83) and he's hard to keep up with. Roger Matthews and I are talking about climbing Mount Adams next summer. I know people my age do that, and I am continuing to train for that possibility.
I am going to monitor my progress and speak with my physician in the near future. Next month it's time for another blood draw to measure my PSA. I'm optimistic that it is staying within normal range.
Love,
Dad
It has been months since I've posted to this blog. I'm doing so now after reflecting on my conditioning. Before I was treated for prostate cancer I was pretty fit. My weight wasn't quite where I wanted it, as I recall, but my stamina was fairly good. When I made my last failed run at Mount Adams, I was packing 50 pounds. I'm not sure I can do that now. Yes, I'm older, but I'm persuading myself that I should be able to get into condition. However, there are some things I've discovered:
Weight loss: After the testosterone blockers wore off, I have it hard to take off the weight I gained. Part of the difficulty is the belief that I can always take off weight, because I took off 35 pounds over five months about 12 years ago. So I can always get serious tomorrow. But I have gotten serious, and it still seems quite difficult. I think the radiation affected more than my prostate gland, and that I'm producing less testosterone now. I'm kinda fat. I took a photo of myself lately, and this picture here shows what I look like on a good day. People say I look fine, but when I get out of the shower, there's just too much tummy. This shows me at 200 pounds (bathroom scale--207 at 24 Hour Fitnesses' rather clunky scale). I managed to creep up to 210 recently, but then pulled myself down to 200. My top weight was back in 2004, when I weighed about 220. The incentive to lose then was when I realized I was within 5 pounds of obesity.
Swimming: I have been swimming at the gym and worked my way up from pathetic to 1/2 km at a time. My styling is improving (you'll recall I was on my high school swim team) and my speed as well, and I feel good about that. However, I can't sink! I used to be able to let all the air out of my lungs and sink to the bottom. I could actually identify the point where the last mouthful of air allowed me to submerge. And I could hold my breath for a long time under water. Now I have little capacity for holding my breath a long time, and I just bob to the surface. It's a fight to stay under water. Fat has displaced muscle. Big time.
Upper body strength: I started doing pushups, and worked up to 150 a day in repetitions of 15. This was hard to sustain. It seemed that my arms would get only so strong, but no stronger, and that I was wearing myself out doing this. 15 pushups at a time is all I've build up to, and that's hard to do.
There was a time when I could push off the floor, clap my hands, slap my chest, and have my hands back in position to keep me from smacking my face on the way down. I don't see that happening again any time soon. What I do see, from time to time, is a big fat belly and some emerging muffin tops.
While I don't expect to be in the same shape I was in in my mid-20's, I would like to see improvement in my upper body strength in terms of strength and speed, but it's slow going.
Hiking: This is my strong suit, but nothing to write home about. I hike regularly, but I'm definitely not where I was. I sometimes hike was a group led by a man 10 years older than I (83) and he's hard to keep up with. Roger Matthews and I are talking about climbing Mount Adams next summer. I know people my age do that, and I am continuing to train for that possibility.
I am going to monitor my progress and speak with my physician in the near future. Next month it's time for another blood draw to measure my PSA. I'm optimistic that it is staying within normal range.
Love,
Dad
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