Here are some pictures for my non-Facebook followers to link/email/spread around/pass/etc...
22 December 2011
Pictures of my boy! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)
Yes, I'm a daddy. BradK has spawned, so in a decade or two, expect more... MORE.... MORE!!!!!!!
Here are some pictures for my non-Facebook followers to link/email/spread around/pass/etc...
Here are some pictures for my non-Facebook followers to link/email/spread around/pass/etc...
30 November 2011
GUEST POST - Liz Davies: "How to Counteract Cancer Treatment Symptoms with Exercise"
Hello all! BradK is turning the pen over to Liz Davies with this posting. Please enjoy! If you have any ideas for a guest posting, feel free to contact me at my email address on my profile. Thanks!
*********
Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April.
How to Counteract Cancer Treatment Symptoms with Exercise
Cancer treatments, like radiation and chemotherapy, are well known to produce a variety of rough symptoms. These can include insomnia, exhaustion, nausea, depression and vomiting. Many cancer patients reveal that they lose the urge to complete everyday tasks and no longer desire to live independently. Everyone going through cancer treatment has a different experience but exercise has been shown to combat a plethora of the negative symptoms associated with treatment and allow people to lead healthier lives spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Staying physically fit can help people undergoing cancer treatment by fighting nausea, improving appetite, and allowing for more restful sleep. Physical activity allows the body to crave rest and food both of which are necessary for cancer patients.
Exercise also has many psychological benefits. Endorphins are released when the body gets to a certain level in a work out and when they are released, they create higher pleasure areas in the brain. This lowers negative ideas and combats depression. Exercise also gives many people more self confidence which is useful for many cancer patients.
Spiritually, the act of exercise can be very positive. Yoga, pilates, and tai chi are excellent forms of physical activity that can provide meditation through gentle, repetitive motions. Many people also find peace through running, swimming and walking.
Cancer patients who feel healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually have a better chance of staying independent throughout their treatment process. Remaining active increases the mobility of joints and muscles which allows for better movement and balance. Muscle loss is also a common symptom that can be avoided through strength training. Being able to remain independent also increases confidence and leads to a more positive outlook.
An exercise routine doesn’t need to end with a cancer diagnosis. This gives people a bigger reason to remain (or become) active. Physical activity regimens need to be planned out with doctors and trainers who specialize in teaching cancer patients. These ideas are good for people going through all different types of cancer treatments, whether that is chemotherapy for mesothelioma treatment or surgery for breast cancer treatment. Thinking about the benefits of exercise for cancer patients is also beneficial for everyone else who is involved in the patients’ lives.
*********
Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April.
How to Counteract Cancer Treatment Symptoms with Exercise
Cancer treatments, like radiation and chemotherapy, are well known to produce a variety of rough symptoms. These can include insomnia, exhaustion, nausea, depression and vomiting. Many cancer patients reveal that they lose the urge to complete everyday tasks and no longer desire to live independently. Everyone going through cancer treatment has a different experience but exercise has been shown to combat a plethora of the negative symptoms associated with treatment and allow people to lead healthier lives spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Staying physically fit can help people undergoing cancer treatment by fighting nausea, improving appetite, and allowing for more restful sleep. Physical activity allows the body to crave rest and food both of which are necessary for cancer patients.
Exercise also has many psychological benefits. Endorphins are released when the body gets to a certain level in a work out and when they are released, they create higher pleasure areas in the brain. This lowers negative ideas and combats depression. Exercise also gives many people more self confidence which is useful for many cancer patients.
Spiritually, the act of exercise can be very positive. Yoga, pilates, and tai chi are excellent forms of physical activity that can provide meditation through gentle, repetitive motions. Many people also find peace through running, swimming and walking.
Cancer patients who feel healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually have a better chance of staying independent throughout their treatment process. Remaining active increases the mobility of joints and muscles which allows for better movement and balance. Muscle loss is also a common symptom that can be avoided through strength training. Being able to remain independent also increases confidence and leads to a more positive outlook.
An exercise routine doesn’t need to end with a cancer diagnosis. This gives people a bigger reason to remain (or become) active. Physical activity regimens need to be planned out with doctors and trainers who specialize in teaching cancer patients. These ideas are good for people going through all different types of cancer treatments, whether that is chemotherapy for mesothelioma treatment or surgery for breast cancer treatment. Thinking about the benefits of exercise for cancer patients is also beneficial for everyone else who is involved in the patients’ lives.
21 August 2011
Reaching a Goal - 13.1 Miles in Madison
http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=20473&submit_action=select_result&re_NO=1533
That's my official result. :)
Well, a little more than 1 year after kicking that smoking habit to the curb, I crushed a 1/2 marathon!!!! By "crushed" of course, I mean I destroyed it as a very important personal goal, AND, I did so in a time I hadn't expected to...
As I read the results and compare to what I observed at each mile marker, I noticed something amazing, I actually had a better pace on miles 6-10 than I did on 1-5. I FELT GREAT for the first 10 miles (note - my "base" is 8). Miles 1 and 2 were in the pouring, glorious rain... which became very important later as the clouds cleared and the blazing sun came out. It was fun to run in the rain... though I did get distracted by my own chest as my Nike shirt clung to it and I though "dang boy, that P90X gave you some pecs-definition"... I digress. ;) Seriously though, it was awesome. The rain stopped on the third mile, and the clouds cleared on the fourth. I can't believe how well I remember all of this... Mile 5 was along the side of one of those Madison lakes... Mendoda or Monona or Mendoza (wait... that's a Argentine winery region...) and was gorgeous, but right about then, the sun started beating down and the water from the morning's weather event could literally be seen steaming off the blacktop. The good news is Miles 6 and 7 were through like a path through the woods - kind of - with some shade to help. Miles 8 - 10 were through more residential areas, parts of Madison that, as a runner near me said "the adults live in, not the students" :) Mile 10 was the last marker that I looked at and felt like I was sticking awful close to the 10 minute mile. I was thrilled... I had already outpaced my personal estimate of how I would do by almost 10 minutes. Mile 11 was when I first noticed two things. My calves were starting to feel it, and...wtf... is up.. with my nips? Yes, this was the first run long enough to start to rub the part of the male body that has no use whatsoever other than to chafe during a run. (Not too bad though, never bled, but dang, they got a bit-o-rug burn!) Mile 12 was when I downshifted, deliberately and then the last mile, 13, I put 'er in 1st gear so I could put EVERYTHING I had into the last .1 mile and finish strong... for the photographer ;) And because, dammit, I wanted to finish strong!!!
All this - after a 90 minute delay starting due to lightening and strong winds. I can't say enough about how well this race was handled by the race director, public safety officials and volunteers. The water / aid stations every 1.5 -> 1.8 miles was brilliant, offering aid, water, gatorade and port-o-johns was perfectly spaced out. (Note - I never stopped running once after I started... I grabbed the water or G-A and kept running through it... I was 7 for 10 in getting the empty cups into the trash bins though!)
One other nice touch were the "pace runners". Where I started in "Corral I", I was placed behind the 2:30 pace runner. Meaning, if I kept up with him, I'd run a 2:30 race. It felt GREAT to pass him up on mile 3, and even better when I caught up to the 2:15 pace runner on mile 6, passing him on mile 8... (though he eventually passed me again on mile 13, I wasn't upset in the least by it).
So, would I do another 1/2 Marathon? I don't know... I certainly haven't ruled it out. I know for a fact that I'll be running 13+ miles again in my life, as my next personal goal I need to map out is the full marathon... targeting 2013 for that one.
The important thing is that I've accomplished what I set out to do, and I accomplished it in a level of quality (pace) greater than I thought I could. I can't express enough the amount of joy that overwhelmed me when I finished... I seriously felt like crying I was so overjoyed by the whole experience. All the moments in my life that led up to this one, the people, the support, the running buddies (both literal, and e-buddies), my family (even my aunt Rachel who thinks this is a wonderful "second sport" to Nordic Skiing), the promises I made to myself to "not give up", the pain of the training and the pain of the event... I have a day of sore, heavy calves to deal with, and a new soreness on one spot on my left knee I need to keep an eye on, but finishing this race is by no means the end of anything... 13.1 is just a mile marker on the rest of my life.
Thank you everyone. :)
That's my official result. :)
Well, a little more than 1 year after kicking that smoking habit to the curb, I crushed a 1/2 marathon!!!! By "crushed" of course, I mean I destroyed it as a very important personal goal, AND, I did so in a time I hadn't expected to...
As I read the results and compare to what I observed at each mile marker, I noticed something amazing, I actually had a better pace on miles 6-10 than I did on 1-5. I FELT GREAT for the first 10 miles (note - my "base" is 8). Miles 1 and 2 were in the pouring, glorious rain... which became very important later as the clouds cleared and the blazing sun came out. It was fun to run in the rain... though I did get distracted by my own chest as my Nike shirt clung to it and I though "dang boy, that P90X gave you some pecs-definition"... I digress. ;) Seriously though, it was awesome. The rain stopped on the third mile, and the clouds cleared on the fourth. I can't believe how well I remember all of this... Mile 5 was along the side of one of those Madison lakes... Mendoda or Monona or Mendoza (wait... that's a Argentine winery region...) and was gorgeous, but right about then, the sun started beating down and the water from the morning's weather event could literally be seen steaming off the blacktop. The good news is Miles 6 and 7 were through like a path through the woods - kind of - with some shade to help. Miles 8 - 10 were through more residential areas, parts of Madison that, as a runner near me said "the adults live in, not the students" :) Mile 10 was the last marker that I looked at and felt like I was sticking awful close to the 10 minute mile. I was thrilled... I had already outpaced my personal estimate of how I would do by almost 10 minutes. Mile 11 was when I first noticed two things. My calves were starting to feel it, and...wtf... is up.. with my nips? Yes, this was the first run long enough to start to rub the part of the male body that has no use whatsoever other than to chafe during a run. (Not too bad though, never bled, but dang, they got a bit-o-rug burn!) Mile 12 was when I downshifted, deliberately and then the last mile, 13, I put 'er in 1st gear so I could put EVERYTHING I had into the last .1 mile and finish strong... for the photographer ;) And because, dammit, I wanted to finish strong!!!
All this - after a 90 minute delay starting due to lightening and strong winds. I can't say enough about how well this race was handled by the race director, public safety officials and volunteers. The water / aid stations every 1.5 -> 1.8 miles was brilliant, offering aid, water, gatorade and port-o-johns was perfectly spaced out. (Note - I never stopped running once after I started... I grabbed the water or G-A and kept running through it... I was 7 for 10 in getting the empty cups into the trash bins though!)
One other nice touch were the "pace runners". Where I started in "Corral I", I was placed behind the 2:30 pace runner. Meaning, if I kept up with him, I'd run a 2:30 race. It felt GREAT to pass him up on mile 3, and even better when I caught up to the 2:15 pace runner on mile 6, passing him on mile 8... (though he eventually passed me again on mile 13, I wasn't upset in the least by it).
So, would I do another 1/2 Marathon? I don't know... I certainly haven't ruled it out. I know for a fact that I'll be running 13+ miles again in my life, as my next personal goal I need to map out is the full marathon... targeting 2013 for that one.
The important thing is that I've accomplished what I set out to do, and I accomplished it in a level of quality (pace) greater than I thought I could. I can't express enough the amount of joy that overwhelmed me when I finished... I seriously felt like crying I was so overjoyed by the whole experience. All the moments in my life that led up to this one, the people, the support, the running buddies (both literal, and e-buddies), my family (even my aunt Rachel who thinks this is a wonderful "second sport" to Nordic Skiing), the promises I made to myself to "not give up", the pain of the training and the pain of the event... I have a day of sore, heavy calves to deal with, and a new soreness on one spot on my left knee I need to keep an eye on, but finishing this race is by no means the end of anything... 13.1 is just a mile marker on the rest of my life.
Thank you everyone. :)
13 May 2011
11 May 2011
28 April 2011
Reason and Passion - Can they Coexist?
I stole this from a now-defunct blog that I don't know if I can even reference anymore... I found it in Google' s "Cache", read it, thought it applied to humanity *outside* of the original context here, and it made me think of today's political climate. A lot.
Read on, comment if you wish... made me think about things either way...
Read on, comment if you wish... made me think about things either way...
Reason, Passion, and the Soul
Nearly four hundred years before Christ walked this earth as fully man and fully God, Plato within his dialogue Phaedrus, created a rather interesting allegorical representation for a person’s soul.
Plato described a charioteer being pulled by two winged horses. The charioteer himself was seen to be the reason and intellect of the soul that must guide the stallions to enlightenment. Now one of the steeds is pictured to be of noble breed and character and representative of rationality and moral impulse of a righteous nature, while the other of the two horses was the diametric opposite in bearing and virtue and thus represented the soul's irrational passions, appetites, or decidedly more base natures. The two horses of such disparate natures were exceptionally hard to drive accordingly as they each wished to venture towards their own predilections, while the charioteer struggled mightily to drive them to his wanted destination of that elusive enlightenment.
It is a story of which I first learned back in high school the better part of three decades ago, but was recently reminded of a few weeks back in the homily at Mass one Sunday. In the homily, our deacon spoke of the soul that is the Charioteer driving the winged twin horses of reason and passion.
While perhaps not truly faithful to Plato’s original story, one can see the troubles that the charioteer soul might encounter when one steed tries to pull the chariot in one direction at the expense of the direction that the other steed wishes to travel, and thereby going to a place that the soul neither intended nor wished to venture.
If the horse of passion is allowed full rein to pull the chariot at the expense of the horse of reason, one might very well find one’s soul fulfilled, albeit for a very short lived time, as we do not live in a world where rationality and logic are absent for long, and thereby the consequences of having ignored them will quickly become apparent to the soul with excruciating and even grave consequences.
Indeed, fall in love with someone where the physical chemistry is magnificent initially, but the character or intellect are wanting and one will soon find that passion to falter and extinguish, leaving the soul injured and longing.
At the same time, if one were to marry and commit oneself to a person for practical matters that made unassailable logical sense, as the person was of sterling character, quality, and the perfect complement to one in all things of a pragmatic nature, but yet there was no chemistry or passion and love for that individual, it would be a marriage that too would soon falter as the purpose and meaning of such a marriage would never be fully realized.
The consequences of such disproportionate reason and passion, in favor of either steed, can likely be found applicable to any number of one’s relationships, career, vital interests, or critical elements to that which makes us each lacking in our own humanity. I suspect that in all things, ensuring that there is a balance of reason and passion would ultimately make for a much longer lasting and far more fulfilling life’s journey within the context of the soul driving that chariot.
Indeed, when passion and reason are yoked equally, one will find the chariot soul easy to steer towards that wanted destination and the journey will prove to be far smoother and enjoyable for the traveling.
05 April 2011
P90X... 90!!!!!
Well all y'all... P90X day 90 was reached. Technically, today is "Day 91" (or the final day of week 13, cuz, ya know, 90 doesn't divide into 7 evenly and "P91X" doesn't really roll off the tongue as well).
I accomplished the goal I had set out to accomplish. I am no longer so skinny you can count my ribs every time I inhale. I am far from "buff" but you know what I am? Satisfied with the results, and ready to take on the next challenge! I'll be mixing P90X resistance workouts with some aggressive running. I'll be on the indoor elliptical during the chillier or rainier days of the spring, and up and down the Oak Leaf trail here in Bay View during the warmer days. I'll have a few 5K's and a 8K and 10K or two as part of the running regimen, all leading up to my 13 week training plan for the Madison Mini-Marathon (13Miles) in August!
I've learned to eat better, I've all but 99.9% cut fast food and soda out of my diet. (I had a Coke the other day and MAN those are sweet!!! Gol-ram!!!!) I drink a camels-hump worth of water every day, and you know what, I just FEEL BETTER about myself physically.
I'll be making-pretty the photos and spreadsheet charts in the next few days or so and post them up here.
Let me see if I got one or two shots for this entry though....
That's me doing some elliptical running... See, here in Milwaukee, we get only about 5-10 days per year where running outside is preferable.. and April generally ain't part of that equation!!!
That's me apparently under arrest for running? :)
More pics and charts next time!!!
I accomplished the goal I had set out to accomplish. I am no longer so skinny you can count my ribs every time I inhale. I am far from "buff" but you know what I am? Satisfied with the results, and ready to take on the next challenge! I'll be mixing P90X resistance workouts with some aggressive running. I'll be on the indoor elliptical during the chillier or rainier days of the spring, and up and down the Oak Leaf trail here in Bay View during the warmer days. I'll have a few 5K's and a 8K and 10K or two as part of the running regimen, all leading up to my 13 week training plan for the Madison Mini-Marathon (13Miles) in August!
I've learned to eat better, I've all but 99.9% cut fast food and soda out of my diet. (I had a Coke the other day and MAN those are sweet!!! Gol-ram!!!!) I drink a camels-hump worth of water every day, and you know what, I just FEEL BETTER about myself physically.
I'll be making-pretty the photos and spreadsheet charts in the next few days or so and post them up here.
Let me see if I got one or two shots for this entry though....
That's me doing some elliptical running... See, here in Milwaukee, we get only about 5-10 days per year where running outside is preferable.. and April generally ain't part of that equation!!!
More pics and charts next time!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
