Readers of our blog know that we are always excited to share the experiences of elite athletes using Restwise to guide their recovery strategies and optimize their training. We recently received an email from an athlete at the other end of the spectrum: Chad Ward is a commercial real estate executive, father and self-defined “middle of the pack age group athlete”… who also happens to be a cancer survivor. Defiantly a Type A personality, he had been trying – and failing – to regain lost fitness and stamina, after his second battle with the disease, until his coach (professional triathlete and Restwise athlete Kevin Everett) recommended that he give Restwise a shot. As you’ll read below, the result is a new approach, the return of vitality and hope, and for Chad that is a big victory.

RW: Chad, I don’t want to dwell on your cancer right out of the gate, but it is such a critical part of your story I’d like our readers to get the whole picture. Could you summarize what you’ve been through the past few years?

CW: Briefly, in the past couple of years I have been diagnosed with melanoma, which was treated in its early stages with 3 surgeries as the primary treatment and I have an excellent chance of not having to deal with it again… I still go get it checked out every few months and so far so good. Not long after treatment I was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive form of prostate cancer, which was treated with 28 radiation treatments over a 6 week period. Also, thinking I was a tough guy, I chose to have back surgery 2 weeks before radiation treatments because I had maxed my insurance and I thought it would be better to recuperate from two things at once so I would have less total down time. That was a bad idea.

RW: Brutal.

CW: It sounds bad but there are so many people that I got to know at the hospital who are facing much bigger challenges than I have. They are my heroes.

RW: I am sure there are and I can tell your heart goes out to them.

CW: Yes, I think about them a lot and it really makes me appreciate my health and I feel like, in some way I owe it to them to live a healthier and better life to honor them.

RW: I’ve read a lot about things like diet, life management and stress mitigation strategies to help cancer survivors. What are your thoughts on this sort of approach?

CW: I want to do anything that works including eating healthy foods, getting enough rest and the hardest part, which is reducing, and managing stress. Old habits are hard to break and just because you have had cancer you still have to work hard to actually change the way you think. I really believe stress can kill you. So, much of the hardest work I do is trying to change the way I respond to stress and finding creative ways to avoid it…that’s what I mean when I say I am trying to change the way I think.

RW: I’ve also read a lot about the cortisol-cancer link and knowing you have a demanding professional life and try to be a great husband and father, do you have any strategies that you use to control cortisol and stress in your life?

CW: Fighting cancer or losing a loved one to the disease is one of the most difficult and stressful things we can go through in life and I have done both over the past couple of years and for the longest time I was trying to just make it through. During the most difficult times I was numb. I’m sure my cortsol levels were sky high. I was not sleeping-lots of inflammation-joints were swollen and I ached. I would wake up and feel exhausted-no stamina, no energy…anyway I learned to not dwell on it-block it out-it’s a form of denial that actually helped me through it. I willed my self to disconnect from the negative and to be positive, and it helped me survive. But the net result was a survivor that had forgotten how to listen to his body. That is the great benefit of Restwise, it is helping me get reconnected with how I feel. I treat my daily scores seriously, and let them be the final word, because I became so good at neglecting my bodies feed back. And it is working…I’m slowly regaining stamina and energy and I am starting to feel strong and fit again.

RW: I’m glad to hear life is getting good again, now tell me about some of the good stuff?

CW: As you know I am not an elite athlete but I have always prided myself in being able to “say yes” whenever any one wants to do something epic like climb a mountain, ride a century, do a triathlon go on an epic anything. I love to show up, share the experience and do a respectable job.

RWAny good mountain bike rides with your son?

CW: Yes! Before cancer we used to ride all the time in the Boise foothills, and he had been out of the country for 2 years and the first full day he was home we celebrated his return, and my survival, by riding some of our favorite single track; it was one of those days I reflect on again and again because of where I was and who I was with. I feel really blessed to enjoy that kind of stuff again.

RW: When we met, you talked a lot about just wanting to feel fresh again. You were just tired of always dragging through your workouts. How are you feeling now?

CW: My approach was wrong, I thought I could bounce back from hard efforts, like before, but instead after a little improvement in fitness I just started loosing fitness and energy, and it was frightening, because my energy dropped so bad I thought I had cancer again. Get diagnosed twice in less than two years and you can get a little paranoid. I started worrying and stressing and found myself in a pretty bad place. Then through Livestrong at the YMCA I met Kevin and then you and things are going great. I feel so much better.

RW: We talk a lot at our company about understanding the relationship between stress and recovery so as to optimize the amount of time and energy you can dedicate to training. How have your thoughts evolved on this subject after using Restwise?

CW: A major change is how I view training. It is fun again, I look forward to it, and my goal is to come out of a session feeling better than I when I went in. That may sound like I’m not going hard enough, but I’m primarily after the day to day energy, plus it helps me manage stress. I am also improving my fitness (better than ever) but that is secondary. Linking together, “I feel good days” is my primary goal.

RW: So do you think you are finally starting to “respond” to training again, rather than just “surviving” it?

CW: Absolutely!

RW: Have you identified a “target” race next year?

CW: No, I’m trying to avoid setting targets right now. I have goals like, regaining stamina, and I can feel it coming back, but my goal setting has become refined and personal and a little abstract, for lack of a better word. Because when I was in the hospital or on the radiation table I had some specific target races that kept me focused. But being unable to reach those goals was devastating, so I changed my approach.

RWI won’t ask about any results-oriented goals because I know your goals are internally-defined, but can you share with us how you now think about going into a race now, as a cancer survivor?

CW: I’ve only done two, but there were moments during both that I just had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I was healthy enough to be there. Also, now weather, I’m racing or training, I think a lot about other cancer patients and survivors that are not as fortunate as me. They are my inspiration.

RW: Have your expectations shifted?

CW: Yes, I’m enjoying the training more, and listening to my body better and I expect to continue to grow and to learn more about myself.

RW: How do you imagine you’ll cross the finish line?

CW: I don’t know…I’ve really been trying to avoid the finish line…I mean…life is a race and I’ve been doing my best not to cross the finish line… but when I do, I imagine myself with a smile. You know… having fought the good fight and run the good race.

RW: Out of curiosity, have you shared your Restwise experience with other cancer survivors?

CW: Yes, and I want to share it with more people.

RW: I’m not a cancer specialist, but it seems possible that it could play a role in monitoring fatigue state, yes?

CW: I can’t speak for others, but it has been a tremendous help for me.

RW: Thanks for your time, Chad. I’m excited to watch you re-gain your fitness and to hear how your racing goes next year. But before we sign off, what are you listening to on your iPod these days?

CW: What’s an iPod…not really…String Cheese Incident, Slightly Stoopid and stuff like that, but only because my kids install my songs and I don’t know how to remove them.