Tucker's running blog

Cancer can be a challenging and life-changing event for many people. While a positive test result can be a challenging time, it's important to understand how one can improve his or her odds for recovery. Many types of cancer like mesothelioma respond positively to proper diet, exercise, and positive thinking. While lifestyle changes should not be a substitute for chemotherapy under a healthcare provider, they can be extremely beneficial.

Cancer is caused by uncontrolled replication and division of cells inside the body. This uncontrolled replication can be caused by genetic factors, unhealthy lifestyles, cellular mutations, and some types of viruses. Cancer is usually treated with a combination of radiation chemotherapy and pharmaceuticals. While most chemotherapy treatment plans are designed to target cancerous cells that are reproducing at a rapid rate, there can be some collateral damage during treatment. Many forms of chemotherapy can result in hair loss, apathy, depression, anxiety, weight loss, and systemic pain.

Exercise can help mitigate many of the symptoms of chemotherapy. It can be a great way to improve one's appetite, reduce insomnia, improve muscle tone, and reduce depression. The following forms of exercise can be very beneficial for cancer patients.

Yoga is a form of stretching exercises combined with a low-intensity cardiovascular workout. Yoga can be a great way to exercise muscle groups all over the body. In addition, yoga can be a great way for patients experiencing depression and anxiety to find peace. Yoga puts minimal stress on individual parts of the body. This can be a great way to minimize pain while exercising.

It's important to avoid high-intensity forms of exercise. These can put excessive strain on the heart, lungs, joints, and metabolism. In addition, very rigorous exercise may reduce immune function. While this may be ok in healthy individuals, it may not be appropriate when undergoing chemotherapy. Exercises to avoid include running, jogging, weight lifting, and extreme sports like skateboarding. These can expose a chemotherapy patient to unnecessary levels of risk.

Low impact sports like swimming can be great for many types of cancer patients. Swimming provides a low-impact cardiovascular workout that targets many different muscle groups in the body. Swimming may not be appropriate if a patient has had surgery in the past few months.

Exercise can be a great way to boost one's mood, improve energy, reduce systemic pain, and improve one's quality of life. Always talk with a doctor before making any exercise decisions.

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. If you would like to contact her she can be reached at healthylizd@gmail.com.

I've been wanting to combine a tweetup with a Sunday run for a while now, so I've decided to go ahead and do it. So if you're a in or near Bristol on Sunday 28th March, please feel free to join in.

The run will start at 10am in Gainsborough Square, Lockleaze (shown on the map). The run is a nice 5.5 mile cross country route which I have blogged about here. Pace will be nice and easy so don't worry about keeping up, but don't be afraid of getting your shoes a little mucky (and that goes for Mrs T).

I'm having a little trouble with my comments links, so please email or tweet me if you want to get in touch.




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Thanks to Runners World for these great warm up routines

As a distance runner and self confessed gadget geek, the idea of Powerade Pulse really appeals to me. Pulse is an application that scans your itunes library for tracks that match the intensity of your workout and creates a playlist for you - a brilliant idea.

The first time I tried to use the app, everything froze. Second time, same again. A few reboots later and I managed to use Pulse for the first time - I punched in my desired bpm, selected the profile of my workout (you can choose a tempo session, fartlek etc), a little bit of status bar action, and hey presto - new playlist.

Out on the road, and the playlist actually worked really well for the tempo run that I had planned.

Sadly this was also the last time I got to use the Pulse app - at the time of writing this, it's taken 24 hours to scan my itunes library - I havnt got that much music, have I?

Verdict - a brilliant idea, but quicker to just select the songs you want for your workout.

After my painful experience this weekend, I decided to review a some products that should help avoid blisters (and change my socks in the process).

I visited the Moti running shop in Bristol today and was immediately disappointed with the range of running sock - the store only stocks two brands, X-Socks and some really expensive Nike ones. I then spent ten minutes defending my gait (I have gait analysis when I buy my shoes from Easy Runner and wouldn't recommend getting it done at Moti any way - that's for another post).

Then, finally, the conversation turned to socks. I chose the X-Sock Sky and X-Sock performance, and since I've identified a join in the materials of my shoe which is causing the blisters I got some Engo patches (these stick to the inside of the shoe to reduce friction, and I'm assured that they use one of the most powerful adhesives known to man). I couldnt get one to stick inside my shoe, so I've given up and can't recommend them.

The X-Socks on the other hand, seem to be some of the most comfortable I've tried. I ran a gentle five miles in the rain wearing the performance socks and even the blister I already have didn't give me any trouble - I find this pretty amazing.

So I'm looking forward to a blister free Bath Half Marathon. Just a shame I wasted £5 on the patches.