Tag Archives: ms

Two quality runs sandwich a rest day

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Today I ran my East Moreland Tempo run again, I thought I did my fastest first and second miles, but they turned out to be both sub 8 min miles which was a bit slower than the week I did 7:18 and 8:27. My third miles in both runs was really close, only a few seconds off at 9:10. I had to push that second mile for almost the entire run and I was tired. I slowed down for the entire third mile and kept it  pretty consistent at that pace.

I have been living on running candy on these quality run. This one I only had  four sport beans and no water until the third mile. No gels either, but a Lara bar beforehand. I swear those Sport Beans are addictive.

So this was the second quality run in a row with a non-running day in between. I did do lots of gardening that day, so a lot of up an down and crouching. So I was not feeling 100% for the tempo run which I think why I had to push myself harder to get the first two faster miles. I’m glad I did  though as I was close to just doing a junk run. Overall I feel good after both, I think I can see a recovery run in my near future.

Rainy week

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This week, actually this whole month, has been super rainy. While I don’t mind running in a little rain, downpours are too much! My mileage has been suffering, until yesterday that is. Saturday I got an early start on what ended up being the furthest I have run this year, 15.5 miles. Overall it felt pretty good though slow. I started by heading up to the top of Mt. Tabor, our friendly inactive volcano. After enjoying the run down and out of the park I headed in a southwest direction and entered Oaks Bottom wildlife refuge which eventually hooked up to the Springwater Corridor. I ran that for a mile or so and then curved around through the park and into Sellwood and West Moreland. Over the bridge I ended my run by going through East Moreland and up to Woodstock for that pizza I missed out on a couple of weeks back. I was pretty pooped and feeling a bit sore, especially in my hip. I need to break out the foam roller tonight for a little hip work!

I ended up with over 30 miles this week, but most of them came on Saturday. I am looking forward to being a bit more consistent this week. I got two quality runs in last week, so that was good, just too many days with no running. Next week will be better.

Mom asked me why I do this to myself. An extremely reasonable question! Part of it is the health benefit of the preparation for doing long endurance runs. Part of it is the burning of 2500+ calories. Part of it is the challenge of seeing just how far I can will myself to run. My distances are by no means incredibly long, but they are good distances and my body certainly feels it after I am done. I don’t feel like I am running away from the ms, always keeping ahead of it. No, it is more of an overall health benefit that I think is doing the most good for me. It has been over two years since any major symptoms so I am thinking it must be working. I have no illusions about curing my ms, but I do think I am helping to keep it at bay. I makes me wonder what effect running would have on me if I wasn’t taking the rebif. Would I be in a similar place? Could extreme exercise and diet work to prevent ms on their own?

Full week of running

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So far this week I have run every day. Today I went to the track to run 440s. When I first got there the place was empty, just like I like it. But it soon filled up with quite a good amount of folks. I wasn’t feeling all that energetic despite downing a gel as I got to the track. I was running a pretty good pace (sub 7 min miles) for the first several 440s which I separated with a recovery 220 that managed to get my HR down into the 140s. After five 440s I decided to call it a day and head home. As I ran through the Reed campus I decided to head to their pathway and add a couple more 440s in. So all in all I did seven of them today. I was greatly aided by some cool weather we have been having. Soon I am going to have to start getting up early again which won’t be a totally bad thing. I am making no promises for tomorrow, but a nice recovery run would be a perfect cap on the work week. Not sure what I am going to do for a long run this week. Maybe busing up to Duniway track and heading up the hill would be good.

Tempo Tuesday

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I am having a difficulty with scheduling my hard runs. Tuesday always seems to be the best day for it. If I do a long run on Sat or Sun, then I have Monday for a recovery run which means I should be ready by Tuesday to go for a quality run. The problem with this is that I have band practice on Tuesday night and after a quality run I am too tired to perform for two hours. Usually after an hour or so I have just lost it at rehearsal. Maybe it is a matter of just doing it and getting tougher. At least that is my theory tonight.

I did my traditional tempo run today, but I did a little bit slower than last time with splits of 8:23, 8:24 and 9:04 for the tempo portion. Two weeks ago my splits were 7:18, 8:27 and 9:12. Four weeks ago my splits were 8:26, 8:20 and 8:14. It appears that when I start out faster  than 8, I poop out. The uber consistent tempo run 4 weeks ago was all flat whereas my usual tempo has an uphill for the final half mile or so, so that could explain the fast third mile, plus I was trying to show off for my running partner who almost puked at the end of that one.

I think it will be interesting to keep track of these runs doing them every two weeks or so along with the speed work at the track and some hill repeats. All in all I am getting some good quality runs in and feeling pretty good about it. This weeks tempo was probably the easiest of the three some of which probably was due to the cool weather we had today. These runs are definitely early morning runs to take advantage of the temp for the summer anyway. I also gobbled nearly a full pack of sport beans on this run and had water.

I just found a fourth recent tempo run (I knew there was another). My splits for this one were 7:59, 8:23 and 9:02. This one I was more consistent, but still had a falling off for that third mile.

Lake of mystery solved!

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My choice of a run through Milwaukie (yep, spelled right this time) or check out the lake of mystery. I initially decided on Milwaukie, but I didn’t get too far before I hit railroad tracks The road along the track had no shoulder to speak of, so I turned east. After running through a little block long nature preserve (which was really nice despite being part of a housing development) I decided to make my way back to King road and then the 30 blocks to the east that woudl lead me to the lake of mystery.

I thought the lake might have been part of a development, but I wasn’t expecting an upscale trailer park. I barely got to see the lake which was all fenced off with 5 foot chain link. I’m sure the birds like it, though I din’t see any. I ran around the perimeter of the park which was walled off to the north by a steep embankment. I hardly saw anyone out; several for sale signs almost like breadcrumbs. The one person I did see was driving an SUV she had just barreled out of the driveway in. As I passed her she blew out a nice big puff of smoke, nice. Ok, time to go back.

I knew I had some hills ahead of me but I didn’t want to take the one nearest to the l of m. So I decided to see if Springwater Corridor was blocked off on this end. When I had crossed it on 42nd, it was fenced off. So it was, but I could see several people out on it, so what the heck (cue: Breaking the Law by Judas Priest). The first fence was easy, but they really did a good job at 42nd and I had to do a little climbing. Past the bathrooms they had the Tideman Johnson Park blocked off as well. A little ways down the road the city revealed its plan to keep it open by fencing a corridor to it. So I headed up the entrance and made it back to east moreland.

Two more miles to go. I decided to stop and get a couple slices of pizza. Good recovery food. At a busy corner I waited, the walk sign flashed and a bike cut right in front of me making the turn on my left. His asleep sorry was answered by my “nice.” On the way down Woodstock I see mr. bike is also getting pizza, so I passed and headed home.

Finally back at home after 2 hrs and 10 mins. I get in the yard, pet the dog and my neighbor yells across the fence asking if I can give him a hand. A hand turns out to be getting his new boat motor out of his tahoe and mounted on the rolling rack he made, ugh. It was actually easier than it seemed, but I’d hate to do it every day.

With the motor in place I was ready to eat some casserole I had left over, lots of pasta and cheese!

So with the lake of mystery solved on my bachelor long run weekend, it opens up a whole new level of mystery. What is going on inside that crazy trailer park? Why do these people live there? What do they do? Whatever it is it is all done inside with the curtains drawn.

Recovery run

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I did a good recovery run today. It felt almost perfect in terms of heart rate with everything being under 43. Looking at the watch report I saw I went above that rather consistently. So I wonder why it felt so on track? Actually my overs were pretty isolated to hilly areas and I was getting weird readings fr the first half mile till I started to sweat. I could have tried to moisten the back of the sensors on the strap, but its sort of a pain and I knew that once I got some sweat going then it would be more accurate. I think I really needed a run like that, maybe I will do my long run tomorrow? I am at 30 miles right now, with Sat and Sun to go.

This is the fourth day in a row I have run. So maybe tomorrow should be another short run. Maybe I will do a short tempo tour of SE tomorrow instead. The long on Sunday. Still don’t know where I will go for my long run. Lake of Mystery? Or Tour of Milwaukee?

Running naked

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In a cheap attempt to drum up readership today I write about running naked. Now here’s the point in which everybody clicks away. When I say naked I mean running without the steady stream of data coming in from my watch. After five miles or so my rechargeable Garmin ran out of juice. I knew I was going to cut it close on the run and almost waited around for it to recharge (good thing I didn’t as it started pouring right after I had gotten back.) So the final three miles I just ran. No numbers, nobody watching me, just running. It was surprisingly exhilarating. I wouldn’t think it was as free a feeling as it was. But the idea that I could do whatever I wanted at whatever pace I wanted was great. Very strange feeling. Makes me realize how addicted to the reports I have gotten. Funny thing, I got solace from knowing I keep two journals of my running: one the Garmin auto updates (actually three if I upload my data) and another I update myself that I have been using for 5 years or so.

On the ms front I have been experiencing some dizziness lately. It seems to be worse in the mornings particularly when I get out of bed. Sort of a woozy feeling and sort of unstable on my feet. It has been going on for about a week or so now. Yesterday it was the worst. As the day went on I felt more stable, but still a bit unsure. I’ll even have some moments where I have to catch myself. Oddly the running seems to alleviate it. Plus my momentum really seems to work as a stabilizer. If I keep moving forward I don’t feel like I will fall, odd? Right now, after eight miles of moderate running I don’t really feel dizzy at all. In fact I feel pretty good, just running tired. One supplement change was I started taking Lysine twice a day a week ago for a cold sore. I recently stopped as the cold sore went away (Lysine rocks for cs, thanks Dad!) which coincides with feeling better today. Probably has nothing to do with it, especially since I have taken Lysine in the past, the only diff this time is I was religious about it for the week, Hmmm.

Two quality runs in a row

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I sort of went off my regimen of hard – easy – hard – easy runs today by doing a second hard quality run in a row. Yesterday my running partner and I ran up to Mt. Tabor to do some hill repeats. We started with a mile warm up that ended up including too much hill work to be a good warm up. Once we finally got to our repeat area we started our 1/4 mile runs. We did eight of them between 2:05 and 2:20 with the slower ones due to doggie troubles. By the time we got to the last one I was feeling pretty pooped  and my 2 mile cool down took forever. But a great workout.

Today I started out for six easy recovery miles. I decided to add on a couple of miles by running down to the Eastmoreland golf course. On the loop back I decided to add a couple of blocks to the loop (mile 4) and ended up going east for 30 blocks when I hooked up with the Springwater corridor (mile 6) and returned to the reed neighborhood. At the end of the corridor (mile 8) I ran through the Moreland Park (where I found a water fountain) and over the bridge to the Reed neighborhood (mile 10). At Reed I found another fountain (mile 12) and started to curse myself for not bringing water on this short run I had planned. I did have Sharkies which helped a lot. I headed home and ended up going 13.75 miles all together at 2:31. Super slow run and a burner for sure. I feel pretty depleted but I have been drinking a lot and eating well. Which would have been great if I hadn’t taken advantage of a beautiful day and worked in the yard. I am pretty tired. But I am going to watch a movie (Human Centipede) and  go to bed early tonight. I have a show tomorrow, but I may run after, we’ll see. That will definitely be a recovery run!

Better than 6 min miles

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Ok, less than 6 min miles in a interval workout with short duration, so not that impressive. But still I was pretty excited to see sub sixes as I pulled into the curves at the track for a straights and curves workout. It didn’t feel like I was really super pushing it either as my HR maxed out in the low 170s for most of the nine laps I did. For most of the run I had the entire track to myself which was really nice. Not too much exciting happened on the run other than that. It was really good to get a track workout in. The only downside is that I was pooped in the evening and I had rehearsal. I think on band night I really shouldn’t do a hard workout in the afternoon beforehand. The downside is Tuesdays work really well for a hard workout. Recovery on Monday after the Sunday long run and there’s Tuesday just begging for a tough workout. Ugh.

So my next quality run is going to be a hill workout, the same one I have done in the past. It looks like I will shoot for Thursday to do this after a recovery run tonight. I’d really like to get into running everyday, but I think my preferred distances won’t really allow for it. I don’t want to be running 50+ miles a week. As it is I am doing just about 40 and it seems like plenty. If I do over 30 I am always happy. Seems like that allows me to eat what I want to and not gain weight. I’d still like to lose another10 pounds. I have re-committed to not eating past 7 which I think helps a lot. And as long as I can keep getting green drinks in me that will help as well. The eating choices I have been making have been relatively good lately, if only I didn’t like sweets so much! I’d like to get into eating five smaller meals a day. That sounds like a better way to eat for me.

Long slow run

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Yesterday my running partner and I headed up Lief Erickson trail on another long Sunday run. Having someone to talk with on these runs makes the time go by relatively quickly for the two hours it took us. Oddly we felt like we ran it more slowly than the week before but actually we finished earlier. My HR was really low throughout (with the exception of the yelling match with a cyclist who was pissed we had the dog off-leash (which we really shouldn’t have she also shouldn’t have been going so fast around a blind corner.))

My hip has been causing my some pain (gads I sound old!) on these longer runs but it didn’t really bother me much yesterday. Perhaps my use of a foam roller to massage my hips has been paying off. It is also supposed to be good for back issues as well. Since I have been using it (admittedly sporadically) I haven’t had any issues with the back though I think the issues I am having have less to do with my hips and more to do with a nerve thingy.

Nothing too much to report on the ms front. I have noticed some forgetfulness but not to any degree that has been affecting my life (at least that I can remember anyway…) Yesterday I couldn’t remember the name of my fav basketball team’s star center (Greg Oden, though many Blazer fans would rather forget him…) It was frustrating as I could totally visualize his face and hear him talking in my mind, but the name escaped me. I am also noticing some balance issues, though again minor and usually if I am feeling tired or fatigued (more from running or working out than ms related fatigue problems which I have been happy to not experience much of). I just feel sort of woozy and a little unstable, seems to happen in the shower somewhat often (could be related to exercising beforehand). I sort of worry about the day I don’t catch myself and tumble over. Oh well, I have fallen before in life and have managed to get up, so I’ll just do it again.