Not something I would recommend for every week, but as hard as that second run was I felt great afterward. My thighs are a bit sore and I feel a bit out of it mentally, but my body feels really awesome. Full of sore energy. I feel like I have worked hard, and I have.
Yesterday I ran down to the Cleveland Track to run on their newly surfaced track. Very nice. I did a comfortable 2.25 to the track to warm up. Once I got there I started in on 2 miles of straights and curves. My pace on the straights was as high as 5:30 and my heart rate got up as high as 178 (not far from what I estimate my max of 184). For the most part my straights got the HR over 170 before I brought it down to below 150 on the curves. It felt so good to go all out especially after our super slow Sunday ten miler. I even got to show off a bit as the girls track team came out to the track to workout, they had to wait for me to run a straight. I heard one of them say “I wish I could…” as I passed by them. I am sure she finished with something like “date Johnny” but I imagined she finished by saying “run as fast as that!” Ha ha. I only had one more lap after they got to the track before I relinquished it to them. I ended the run with another 3.75 back to home.
Overall I felt really good like I usually do after a speed workout. The other benefit is that the next runs always seem really fast as well. Speed workouts really do help improve in the fast arena. I think you are just getting used to the speed especially after months and months of base runs.
So today, my running partner wanted to do a seven miler at her potential half pace of 10 minute miles (though I know she is going to be faster). I thought I could handle that. Then she decides she wants to push it a bit. Of course I have to step up and say “Yay, let’s do it.” So now we decide to do 1 miles slow, followed by 5 miles at 9:30, then end with another slow one. By the time we got to the waterfront, our 9:30 goal became a 9:15 goal. Phew, now I was gonna be hurting.
The first mile went well. My legs were sore and we were passed by several runners, but it felt good. I wished out loud that this would be a super long mile so I could enjoy the pace, and it actually did go on for a long time. Then our fast miles hit and boom we were off. I think my running partner and I feed well off of each other and though I was lagging a bit I kept up with her fast pace. We usually talk the entire time we run together, never seeming to run out of topics. Well this mile there wasn’t anything said. Second mile done and I looked at our pace and was greeted with an 8:33! Holy moly that’s fast. So we agreed to slow it down a bit, but not a lot.
Third mile was grueling, but I was determined to keep going and so was my partner. Our conversation was sparse, I think we realized how quiet we were for the last mile and both felt that was odd. So we got a few words in. Mostly though we ran. I concentrated on my breathing, deep from the belly. I was really glad we were slowing down, but it really didn’t feel like it was that much slower. Third mile done and our pace for the mile was 8:40. Yeah we slowed down but not nearly enough for me!
Mile four was another grueling one. I concentrated on breathing and was even able to blurt out a couple of things. I wonder, did they even make sense? As the mile wound down, my partner gave me some words of inspiration, only a mile to go! Well not quite yet, but yeah only another fast mile to go. At this point we decided to only do four fast ones, we were extremely happy with that. Especially since our pace was so much faster than we had started out with. Mile four done and our pace slowed to an 8:50 crawl (yeah right). One more mile to go.
As our final fast mile came to a close we realized we would finish it before the next hill which was a great feeling. Both of us had worked up a great sweat. Felt really good to be flying along with each other. We rocked this run. Phew, mile 5 done with an 8:42 pace. Time to cool down for the final two miles. Max heart rate for the fast part 170.
Those last two miles were heavenly and a great reward for us both. What a fantastic run, we both were really happy with it. We are getting good.
I must say that I am very excited to have found your blog.I am a runner, wife, mother, and I also have been diagnosed with ms. I have been running for the past 6 years and was diagnosed with rrms in June 2009. Like you, I was concerned about continuing to run. I even thought about bumping down to the half marathon instead of a full marathon. I decided that I was not going to give in to ms and ran my first marathon since being dx'ed in December 2009. I have very few (if any) symptoms of ms at the moment so I'm trying not to be concerned about it. It is very comforting to have found a runner with ms. I don't know many people with ms, let alone a runner!
I've read several of your stories and they are very inspiring. I'm going to run as long as I possibly can. If I don't, I know I'll regret it later. Thank you for sharing your stories. Gotta Run!
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
Great to hear you are still running, in many ways I think it is probably more of a challenge for the both of us to not run. I too have been mostly symptom free for awhile now. Many days I forget even have it, then I remember OOP! gotta do that rebif injection and get reminded. Sure would be nice to have a treatment that is less invasive. Oh well, even that has gotten way easier.
In many ways my writing has become less and less about ms and more about running as time has passed. Same with my thinking. I am sure you will find this happening too. Especially when we realize, Hey we can still run! Other than some oddities we have to occasionally overcome, we are still the same old runners (old, did I say old? I meant same runners!)
The thing I have found with running with symptoms is that it can still be done and done well. I remember running with numb feet and just convincing myself that hey, they are still there, so why can't I run on them. Who needs to feel your feet? I think the moment I discovered that momentum was my best friend and would carry me along if I just trusted it, was the moment I knew I could run through anything.
I'd love to hear more about you and your experiences. It's great to know there are more of us out there! Feel free to chime in any time. Take care and good luck with your ms and your running.
-Marco