Awesome Parkour Practitioner Documentary

If you are at all interested in Parkour/Free Running, take the time to watch all 4 clips, it's great!



Great thoughts from these guys on challenges and the value in life growth. Inspiring.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks - Went to Canada for the first time even!

Time to get crackin on my goals and training! Running a Relay Marathon in 2 weeks, and the Vegas Ragnar in just under 2 months, and I am definitely not ready! (you can tell by my lack of posts on The Fitness blog, eh?)

(from RossTraining)

Random Video of the Week

Okay so this isn't a full time feature or anything, although it certainly could be, but here's a random video I thought was great!



Amazing how that can be done on a 3 stringed instrument!
(via Tokyomango)

Allergy Testing and Diagnosis Complete

As I sit here dealing with a STILL itchy forearm from the last allergy test (see below), I think maybe it would be a good idea if I just became a bubble boy!!

Yeah that'd be GREAT!

Basically I'm allergic to EVERYTHING outside (weeds, grasses, trees, rainbows) but surprisingly I'm not allergic to many foods. I am sensitive to nuts (not Almonds or Sunflower seeds thankfully!), gourds (watermelons, squash, etc) carrots, and some milk products (milk protein, but since I've never really had any problems with cheese, I'll try to cut back but not eliminate it.). Good stuff to keep an eye on, but I really shouldn't have to worry too much. Nuts was my highest reactant in Foods, so I should try to be aware of that, but I don't think it will stop me from occasionally enjoying a Snickers bar!

So on to my 4th skin test:

Right Arm

See that big bump on the inside of my right arm? That is "Tree Mix B". I should find out WHICH trees those are... but as of right now I have no idea.

The "flare" (redness) was huge and the "wheal" was bigger than any other reaction I've had. This is what still itches. Yesterday the whole part that had flared had puffed up a bit and itch like crazy. It has gone down a little today, but still itches a lot. It's very difficult to not scratch it like crazy.

I have the results of the 2nd under the skin tests at home, I'll take a picture and put 'em up here, as they are somewhat interesting.

So what does all of this mean now that I know?

Option A is that I enter a bubble like I mentioned before. At the moment I can't think of many reasons that this appeals to me.

Option B is allergy shots, carrying an epipen with me as often as possible, and avoiding mowing the lawn (amongst other things)

So after the rest of this crazy summer is done and we figure out our finances, I'll most likely be going with option B. On top of that I'm very excited to try out this pre-exercise inhaler I've got now. For years I've felt totally fine while running, but at the same time I was always ridiculously out of breath. I thought "Huh, I guess I need to work on my cardio more!" but after all of this testing (and feeling the same feeling when not exercising due to the wear and tear on my body) I'm very interested in seeing if it helps.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Second and Third Allergy Tests

So I don't know if anybody really cares about all this stuff - but I figured it'd be good for me to document it, and if it DOES help somebody with their allergy problems, then great!

But before that - I thought I'd discuss something near and dear to my heart:

BADMINTON!



There wasn't that nice?

Now for the allergies:
First here are my arms after my 2nd skin test:

Right Arm after Foods

Left Arm after Foods

I thought for sure that I would have some more reaction to the foods tests, but I'm really not allergic to much there!

I was able to get a picture of the Allergy Prick test today - here are the full results:

Today's test was a few things to pinpoint problems, like Horses, House dust, Cockroaches, Aspergillus (a mold), Histamine (control) and a few others (I'll have to get the full list tomorrow when I go AGAIN) but instead of pricks they inject a little bit just under the skin. Looks like this:

Left

Right

So tomorrow I get to do more of the same.

My wife did some research considering that I have pretty strong reactions to most common forms of grass. She thinks it is highly possible that rather than something I ate - it was camping in Idaho amongst the sage and trees up there followed by playing in my Aunt's backyard a bit with the kids, and then playing more (and doing other things Dad's normally do) with the kids who had been more exposed to grass along with the high amount of exercise I've been doing. Interesting to think about.

I guess I need to stop doing yardwork!!