Category Archives: fatigue

4th run in 6 days

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Like the title says, 4th in 6. Feels pretty good with some oddities. I wasn’t sure I was going to get the run in today as I was feeling a bit run down and sore from working in the yard yesterday and having a desperate food need forcing me to go grocery shopping this morning. But after getting back from the store I decided I should really do this, so off I went. Pretty typical run in that I did my normal 5+ mile route with a sub 10 min mile pace.

Now for the oddities. My awesome excuse for not running on Thursday was that I just didn’t feel like doing anything after my visit to the urologist for a cystometrogram. Basically the test fills your bladder up with saline as well as your rectum (to offset the pressure on the bladder), when full the pressure is checked on the plumbing and how well it deals with the full bladder. I was under the impression that this was going to reveal some insight into some of the bladder issues I have been having over the years (both frequency and incontinence issues, which was confusing to the doc as usually it is one or the other, but ms works in mysterious ways). So the first step is a catheter is inserted into the urinary track to empty the bladder with the help of some numbing gel. Off we go. The PA inserts this first catheter without issue. Now comes the fun, after the first one is removed a second catheter is then inserted into the bladder. It was smaller (thank you) and flimsier. Well she tried and tried and tried without success and asked me if I could feel it kinking up. Well I was feeling something, but kinking wasn’t it. So she stopped and called the doc. She came back and asked me how bad my symptoms were to which I said “well bad enough so that I am here!” to which she replied that the test was just to establish a baseline to test against in the future to track any further complications. She said it was a really good sign that I was able to completely empty my bladder via the first catheter and that I could come back in three months to try again. Ugh. Or, (and usually the “or” is a worse situation, but not this time) I could blow it off and she would give me a prescription for whatever symptom direction I felt was worse (frequency or difficulty urinating). Finally, this is what I was hoping for in the first place four months ago when I first saw the urologist. She gave me two weeks of samples of a med called Rapaflo. I was told to not expect to see anything for a week or so while I built the med up inside my system. If I see positive results and want to continue, then she would write a prescription.

So off I go, hopefully “going” in more ways than just that. I looked onto the side effects and see that there are a few somewhat rare side effects. One of the more common ones is dizziness due to lowered blood pressure, one of the odder and less frequently mentioned (I wonder why) symptoms is what is known as retrograde ejaculation. Wtf? Basically it means when a male orgasms the semen doesn’t leave the penis and instead goes into the bladder. Supposedly the person still orgasms, just not outwardly. It is not a huge deal and you just urinate it out. Great. Something to look forward to. Well I didn’t have to wait long and it happened the next day after I took the first pill. It didn’t have quite the same feeling either. Not a fan, but I will give it a week and some more research to see if this is temporary or permanent before I say no to rapaflo.

Another thing I noticed after a couple of days is that it seems to be effecting my running as my HR is elevated and I feel quite a bit more tired once I hit about 40 minutes of running. I have had to stop and walk these last several runs at times. I am not sure if this is due to the lowered BP, but I suspect it is. Looking at my Garmin numbers I see that my avg HR is a bit higher, but not nearly as high as I thought it would be. Today my HR hit 182 at one point before a walking stretch. The effort to get there didn’t seem that crazy, so again I suspect the low BP. Something to watch out for for sure. Yesterday working in the yard I experienced a similar bout of tired as well. I am going to make an appointment with my GP and see if there are some different solutions. I am sure there are.

Sick and quick

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I am a huge proponent of the concept of listening to your body. If your body says don’t do something you probably shouldn’t. This goes against the nike logic of “just do it” and listening to your body has the potential to keep one from doing what they should and want to do. Our bodies and minds should be the best indicator of whether or not we should or can do something. Our bodies and minds should know better about most things than any doctor, real or googled. If only we’d just listen.

So today I woke up from a crumby night’s sleep after an evening when I overate late with the feeling of a cold’s onset squeezing my head like a dog’s squeaky toy. I hadn’t run yesterday and I didn’t want to start falling into the pattern that I have been of late of missing several days, then weeks, then… in a row. So against my better judgement, with my body saying don’t run and head throbbing from sinus pressure, I geared up and walked out the door to hit the streets. How does this jive with my emphasis on listening to my body? Doesn’t. At all. Obviously the decision to run was a blatant slap in the face of my exercise/health philosophy. But my desire to run had won out. Valid mind and body arguments to take it easy be damned! So I decided to embrace the fool-hardy nature of pushing my body and just go with it. What the hell, a slow sloggy run would at least amount to something good. If I took it easy on my run, then maybe the destruction I would wrought wouldn’t be so bad. I had some good arguments in mind as I took those first initial steps along my route.

The first thing I should say is that it was a beautiful day out. The kind of day that has no place in the Pacific NW in early March. The kind of day that we and the region will be paying for this summer when the droughts hit from no winter rain/snow. But for the moment (and aren’t we all supposed to live in the moment? Who cares if it rocks right now?) So embracing the now and ignoring the future I relished the warmth and soon stripped off my jacket after the first mile or so. My pace at the start of the run felt ok. Nothing great but it certainly didn’t feel “sloggy” (whatever that is?) I took a peak at my watch and it said I was clipping along at 9:15 pace! WTF? I am supposed to feel crappy. Why am I moving so well? I thought it was an anomaly, perhaps brought on by the slight downward slope into East Moreland. Then my first mile past and I got notice from the watch that I had done it at 9:36. Huh? Second mile came through even quicker as I was now embracing my quickness rather than a potential bonk, 9:18. Damn, I was cooking, so I just kept it up. Third mile – 9:18 again. Consistency seemed to now be the word of the day. Great, but my fourth mile was coming up, a normally slower paced portion of my normal route due to some twists and turns, exhaustion and unaware students at reed. All I had to do was keep it up until the hill out of the reed campus and up to Woodstock. I had decided that would walk that as I have been prone to do of late. I hit the hill portion with a few tenths to go before I hit a mile marker to check my pace and what did I see?

9:24.

Killer.

After the walk up the hill I just had to crush the final mile. The first portion of it was up hill and the watch said I was on track for an 11 minute mile. While I would certainly come in under 10 (first time in awhile) I really wanted better, so I pushed it. It didn’t take long before my avg pace dipped below 10, then below 9:30. And as I made my way through Woodstock Park and the fifth mile clocked I was at 9:14. Wow. The last quarter mile back to the house dropped me even further overall as I managed a 8:21 pace (didn’t seem like I was trying that hard, I just mostly wanted to get home). Overall for the day, a 2015 PR on 10k(ish) of 48:18 with an avg pace of 9:20.

All I have to say is that today my mind and body listened to me instead of the other way around. I had no idea I was speaking so loudly.

Rains turn to sun and four in a row again

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Yesterday was as soggy a run as I have had in awhile, but today the sun broke out as the universe cracks a joke about spring being here (snow expected this weekend…) I guess if we get 24 hours of no rain we shouldn’t complain and instead we should go out for a run! So that is what I did this morning. I felt really good through most of it, but ended up taking several walking breaks. Still I managed to run under 10 min miles. The extra walking breaks were a bit surprising but I think my body is feeling it a bit, especially with all the night rehearsals I have had this week. My energy level will get a break this weekend sort of as the band heads out for a southern “tour” which is really just a show we are playing at a band-mates uncle’s commune in southern Oregon. Should be a lot of fun, but also a lot of driving (I’ve heard estimates of anywhere from 6 to 11 hours, so we’ll see I guess.)

My experiment with running and playing music on the same day has gone really well this week. I even got a couple of five milers in on rehearsal days. I was especially concerned with those days and I felt pretty well (though somewhat tired, but not what I would consider “ms fatigued”). On all three days I did this this week I made sure I was fully hydrated and ate a good amount of protein afterwards. It really seems to help, especially the water. I also included a large cup of tea before the rehearsals to give me boost. I just wish I had gotten a bit more sleep this week. But that’s ok, life isn’t perfect!

So this has been the third week I have been serious about running and managed to get my runs in (maybe not the mileage totals I would like, but I was out on the roads!) I can already feel some vast improvements in my energy levels and health and mood. It is interesting to me about the effects on my mood. I feel great even though a tad sore and more than a tad tired. Its that feeling of a spring in my step that I think best describes it.

Fastest (and soggiest) five miler this year

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Today’s run was cold and wet and for some reason I cranked it out at a pretty fast pace clocking a 9:50 time. I knew I was running fast as I saw that both of my first two miles were sub 10s. But around the 3.5 mile point I looked at my watch and saw that all of a sudden I was running 8 minute miles! I couldn’t figure out what happened until I noticed that I was looking at calories instead of miles. Still, I’ll take the sub 10 minute miles! I was really surprised I was able to do that as the rain was pretty heavy today and the roads were really wet which led to much hopping around puddle dodging.

I am feeling really good after the run today, my third in a row. After tonight, this will also be the third run in a row I have done when I have a rehearsal in the evening. Last night’s 2 hour soul band practice was rough, we worked hard and made it through most of our songs in prep for a show this weekend. I was pretty pooped after it was done, but I think most of that had to do with not playing my alto sax for a month or two, my armature was suffering. Tonight is another soul band rehearsal except this one will be an hour longer! I am going to focus on getting some protein in my body and properly hydrating. Hopefully that will what my body and mind need to get me through three hours of horn playing.

I am really glad I am working on getting over my not wanting to run on rehearsal days. I think I have been using that as an excuse to not do it (running that is). I still need to recognize that I may be feeling ms fatigue, but I want to push myself through it and figure out methods to allow me to do both. I think perhaps limiting myself to shorter runs on practice days will be good but then I need to combat my dislike of short runs both in terms of the prep (pre and post), the neighborhood and my desire to burn more calories. If I can just wrap my brain around the idea that shorts runs are better than nothing then I think I will be ok.

Coming back from a cold

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Cold, flu, whatever it was is still in my lungs a bit, but I am coughing less. I have been meaning to write after taking a week off. I have run through illnesses before but this one was particularly nasty. So my first run back went pretty well, that was four days ago. 10K slow, I felt pretty good through the run. It was hard and I had to push myself along at times. But I made it through it and even ran again the following day. This run was tough and I walked a couple of times, but I got through 5 miles +. I followed this up with a couple days off mostly to perform better (actually played really poorly, kept forgetting my notes…)

Which brings me to today. I started out with some overcast but that quickly burned off and got warm. I didn’t bring water and that was a mistake. But I was going by water fountains on the run and I did ok, still should have had it with me. My pace was fast right from the start. I stayed conscious of my pace trough most of the run and pushed myself several times. For the last mile or so I knew I would make it averaging under 10 min miles. I finished my 10k distance just over 60 minutes and ended with a 9:46 pace, I was happy with that. I felt pretty beat and a shower flet great but I recovered throughout the day pretty well.

My feet have been bugging me a bit lately and today was no exception. Yesterday I had to play a show standing on audio cables which felt really uncomfortable on the bottoms of my feet. Today on the run I was feeling it. Weird feet!

Still running, I swear

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Yeah I am still running, despite having little time for blogging. The last couple weeks have been full with music performances and I have dedicated my energies to that. Today I just have a rehearsal tonight, but I decided I would stop using music as an excuse to not run. So for at least a day I am not gonna be lazy! This time of year is almost perfect for running. The dyas are coolish with a bit of warmth thrown in and enough sun to really make me want to run. Today’s run was actually really humid, I sweated a lot. Its almost time for a water bottle requirement. I should be bringing one anyway just to get in the habit plus it is so good to stay hydrated.

Today I started out with plans to just run for three miles to get me out and running. That quickly turned into 5 miles and then I thought what the heck, I’ll do my base 10k. And considering a friend of mine who is training for his first marathon this fall just did his first 10k run, I figured I had better join him. I actually couldn’t do my full 10k, well I suppose I could have gone further, but reed college is doing its annual neighborhood exclusion they call renn festival. I see it as more of a class war against the perceived riff-raff of Portland or the neighbors of Woodstock and East Moreland. Every year they force all the neighbors to stay off the campus while the children run around and get wasted. I am sure they consider it more than that, but I certainly don’t. I just feel excluded. Anyway, enough anti-reed words for now.

I have been feeling really worn out after running lately. Makes me think this is what they are talking about with ms fatigue. Either that or I have let my base lag and I am not in as good a shape as I used to be. Either way I am positive I will be able to beat it back. I’ll either get in better shape or learn to live with the fatigue or better yet, both. The plan this week is to get more running in and since I won’t have as much music performance going on I’ll have less excuse to be lazy. Now I’ll have to blame work. Nah, I’ll just do it.

Three days in a row, not quite four

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I have always said that in order to get back into running as a habit that you need to do four days in a row. This seems to gear the mind (at least for me anyway) to continue to run. It sets the pattern or habit that all runners need to keep going. Well I only managed to run three days in a row before I took a couple days off. I guess it is up to me to start that four day run period again. So today I think I will do a shortish run as I have rehearsal tonight. If I exhaust myself before I rehears I get really tired and have had a little trouble with the fingerings. I think this is as close to the ms fatigue thing that I have seen in my ms life.

I have become a real wimp about the rain, or I guess I should say I have become lazy about it and use it as an excuse not to run. How lame is that? An Oregon runner who won’t run in the rain. I need to get over that pronto. Then again we have dry weather ahead so maybe I’ll just wait it out.

Next week I will be running in AZ as I am heading down there for my niece’s graduation. I always seem to be able to get running in when I am down there. With the heat all I have to do is wake up early enough to do it. I will!

Busy week just in time for a needed break

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Its been three days since I have run. Part of me is dieing to get out and hit the streets, but another part of me is relishing the rest. I have been feeling particularly fatigues lately which I attribute more to over-training rather than the dreaded (and often spoken of) ms fatigue. But I suppose it could easily be a part of things. Still I think the hard training is making itself known and it is angry! Well not that angry, but certainly it is speaking out loudly enough so that I am listening. The great thing is I have had a very busy set of days and it promises to stay busy for at least a few more. So I am skeptical that I will run soon. Though I could get up early and get a run in tomorrow, maybe a short one as I have band rehearsal later that evening and don’t want to be too tired (running before rehearsal/concerts is a bad idea for me, I get too tired to concentrate on the notes!)

I am reading Matt Fitzgerald’s new book called The Runner’s Edge. It focuses on a scientific approach to training using heart rate and pace analysis. I am curious to see what I can pull from it. It looks like it will contain some good advice about refining what I have been doing lately with HR training. I am hoping that the specifics are worth the time. So far the reading has been very breezy as he talks about the watches and monitors. I feel like I am flying through it. The upcoming sections are supposed to talk about specific zones of training for specific performance increases. I’ll let you know.