Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Maxim went through the operation today.  Everything went well, and he is now back home, sleeping and recovering.  We’ll check back with the doctor in about 20 days, unless there will be any side effects (hopefully not).

Once again, thank you all, who wrote and called.

Yesterday I briefly mentioned that Maxim is about to have a surgery.  That was very inconsiderate of me.  I got a lot of people worried without providing any details whatsoever.   And for this I want to apologize. Thank you all who called and wrote.

Here are some more details just to lift that burden of the unknown.  Maxim will undergo removal of the adenoids and a related clean-up.   We are arranging blood tests and paperwork, and if everything will go OK, he’ll be operated tomorrow (Friday).  The procedure is widely practiced and should take only about 20 minutes, but will require general anaesthetic.   He should be back home before the end of the same day.

We tried to avoid the surgery for as long as we could, hoping that the problem can be cured other ways.  Unfortunately, in his case, it can’t.  And pushing it further is getting dangerous for his health.  He has been sick pretty much every other week for the last 6 month or so.  More often than not he needed antibiotics treatment.  His immune system needs a break, as well as his ears, which suffered to the edge of degrading his hearing.

So, that’s how things are for now.  I’ll keep you posted on how it will go.

Once again, thank you all for calling and writing.  Your support is very much appreciated.

It’s almost two month since I got back to the gym.  At first I started with the same program that I end up with last time.  For more than a month I was pushing and pulling weights up and down, back and forward.  Somehow, it didn’t feel the same.  It was much harder and results were much weaker, no matter how hard I tried.  That was a bit offsetting.

Then I did something very smart.  I talked to Uncle Vova - my coach, trainer, and P.T. advisor. He resolved plenty of my doubts. Aparently, doing weightlifting in the morning is not the same as doing the same weightlifting in the afternoon. The body needs to wake up and get prepared.

Since I can’t go the gym in the middle of the day with my current time table, but only in the mornings, Uncle Vova suggested that I change the program a bit. I listened hard, but than I changed it even further for my personal feeling.

Now I just run. I go to the gym about 8:30 in the morning and I run. When I can’t run anymore, I have a small break doing some other exercises (no weights though). After about 10-15 minutes I go back to running. And that’s it. But I do it every working day (Monday-Friday) for the last two and a half weeks.

The first week that I did this, I could run only about 1-1.2 km during the first time, and then another 0.5-0.75 km during the second time. Today I did 2.25 km for the first run and 0.75 for the second.

I feel that running works better for me. My mood goes up, I’m full of energy for the rest of the day, I have no pains, and I have some gains. I see (and feel) the progress every (and I mean every) day. And progress stimulates me…

Note to myself: consult with people in the know regularly. Listen to what they say.

Liepaja, originally uploaded by Emmanuel Smague.

… but it’s so good for your photography

I can’t really describe how I feel right now. But I’ll try.

Angry. Outraged. Speechless. Sad. Shocked.

(You probably shouldn’t read this post altogether, as it is more for me to release the hate, rather than for you to worry about.)

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