When I woke up I headed to the gym for my second day doing the Spartan WODs. Today’s workout was the same for all levels with increasing rounds per level:

Warm-up 

Jump Rope – 3 minutes 

Main set 

.5 mi run, hard 
10 push-ups
5 pull-ups
15 crunches  

Cool down 

Stretch

When I saw the pull-ups as part of the WOD I knew that I would only try completing today at the Sprint level which called for a single round of the above.

Even with all of the progress I have made I still can barely do a full pull-up and that was with terrible form.

I was determined to get at least a single full pull-up, if not more, so that I could stay true to today’s workout. To help I decided to attempt the pull-ups as band assisted pull-ups using my Rogue Monster bands.

Not only was I able to complete a single pull-up but I was able to complete all 5 pull-ups unbroken.

Unfortunately when reading my email with bleary eyes I missed that there was 30 double leg butt kicks during the warm-up and a 15 minute easy/recovery run at the end of the workout prior to starting the cool down.  

After finishing the WOD I decided to also tackle the #Spartan30 challenge - a monthly Spartan Race challenge that focuses on variations of a single exercise. This month’s challenge is lunges. 

Yesterday’s challenge (I’m trailing by a day) was to complete the following: 

5 rounds:  

- 10 lunges per leg 
- 10 seconds high knees 

Though I did miss the additional exercises dictated in the WOD, I felt that I could have done another round by the end of my overall workout.

That makes me happy because it lets me know that I can push myself even harder especially when it comes to pull-ups which is what concerned me.

Once I got back home we headed up to UCSF to begin a long day of appointments.

Up first was another MRI to check on the status of the surgical area and to ensure there was no additional growth of the tumor tendrils.

You know that you have far too many MRIs when the entire staff recognizes you when you arrive.

After the MRI was finished we headed upstairs to meet with our neuro-oncologist.  

Thankfully, the neuro-oncologist told us that the surgical area has shrunk some and there hasn’t been any other issues since my last MRI a couple of months ago. We then spent time discussing what to expect next week.  

The plan is for me to start the chemo regimen on Monday, taking the medication at night just prior to bed on an empty stomach. Approximately 30 minutes before taking the chemo I will take a pill for the nausea to help ward off any potential side effects. 

I was a little surprised that I would be taking the treatment at night but the more we talked about it, the more it made sense to me. Since the primary side effect is fatigue hopefully it will set in while I am sleeping instead of during the day. 

I will have blood work done on day 21 and day 28 during each rolling period with an MRI every 2 months including a follow-up visit with our neuro-oncologist. 

After grabbing lunch we met with our neurologist who had me run through a few neurological exams which I passed without issue. 

We talked with her about having my license reinstated and since this was my second time she said that we can start by calling DMV to see if the hold has been lifted. If not then we have all of the paperwork so that we can schedule another hearing. 

Laura’s parents had been in San Diego for the last few days but, due to weather back in the Northeast, they had several delayed/canceled flights since yesterday.  

They had a layover in SFO that was supposed to take off before we had left UCSF. However, when we called them on our way back home we found out that their flight had been delayed until 7:30p.  

Since we were passing right by the airport we stopped by, picked them up and headed out for dinner. 

We had a fun and unexpected dinner before dropping them back off at the airport and heading home. 

Today was a long day but one that had the best possible outcomes with hopefully more light at the end of the tunnel including getting my license back.