Author Archives: besaroboy

Another eight in the books

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A woman passed me today near the end of my run and said “I saw you running earlier.” My first thought was that she was one of the people I chastised for letting their dog wander in front of me instead of reigning in their illegal 12 foot leash after I clearly announced my presence for nearly a block. But it wasn’t, which I was glad of as I didn’t want to relive it until I was able to blog about it. It did make me appreciate my longer run today. I have been running my base runs of 6 miles for several weeks now and it was good to go a little longer. My feet were feeling a bit sore towards the end, but nothing too bad. It was the perfect time for a longer run too, I had taken three days off from running so I was well rested. It was sunny (though not necessarily warm) and I have nothing to do today or later tonight (in terms of music.) If I had thought it out I would have brought something to eat or some gels and gone longer and gotten an LSD run in, but eight will do just fine for today.

Spring running

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Ah yes, spring is here (or close anyway). The days have been a lot warmer and I have even done my last two runs without the warmth of tights even having to strip down to just a single shirt. Pretty darn welcome I must say. Spring in Oregon brings some downsides though, mostly allergies. I think I have tracked it down to the pear blossoms for me, just kills me. But running does seem to help a bit. Today was the first really bad day for me and my headache is letting me know that the seasons are a changing. Still, I welcome the warmth, flowers and rejuvenation. Time to get my run on!

To top off my bodies reaction to the seasonal allergies I also have somehow managed to get bitten my a spider or something right at the top of my thigh. I have a faint welt about the size of a half-dollar and a considerable amount of pain similar to a bruise, Hasn’t kept me from running the last two days. I have acupuncture on Thursday maybe I’ll have her look at it.

Made another ms friend yesterday. Friend of a friend gave me a call to ask me some questions and just have someone to talk to. He has symptoms that are consistent with ms (as if consistency and ms could possibly go together.) He goes in for an mri today and then hopefully both he and his doctor will know more and he can plan a course of action. I wish him well.

What’s next? Sick?

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Dang it, yes. But the good news is that I was really only down for a few days with a nasty cold though it sure wanted to convince me it was the flu. Best cure for a cold? Downton Abbey is massive doses mixed with equal parts sleep. Boom! Finished season three and kicked the cold! Well for the most part anyway. Today I went for a second run since feeling better. My first day back was rough, I was really feeling the reduced lung capacity and the hills out of reed pushed my HR up to 181, thigh highest I have seen in a long while. But I made it through my six mile base route though a tad slowly, but thats ok. The main thing to me was getting through the run and doing it with not feeling so hot. It is so easy to procrastinate running while waiting to feel 100%. I think that if my lungs can handle the activity, that I can go ahead an run through an illness, just maybe at a reduced level (umm, no 180+ HR counts please…)

Today I headed out again on another base run, this time in the pouring rain. My pace was much better today and I felt a good amount of energy throughout the run. I am a little tired afterwards but not nearly as bad as I was Monday. MY overall HR was pretty high -153 avg- but I felt strong. And my pace was good, sub 10 min miles. Running while recovering from sickness can be really hard, but I am always so glad when I have done it. Yesterday I wanted to run and didn’t, which was probably not a bad thing, but I was a bit bummed out I didn’t get out (especially with today’s steady rain!) I think it is the attitude boost that is most important to help me regain health. Pretty much how I think running affects my thoughts on ms.

I sometimes wonder about the negative affects of the exertion. If I am so wiped out after a run does that do more bad than good? I think it depends. On the one hand I think the body needs rest most of all to recover from sickness. On the other the emotional (as well as physical) benefits to running when you don’t really feel like it are huge. Feels like a big accomplishment to have gotten up for a run. I also think it it is good to clear out crud from my lungs. I may not be the most social runner when I am hacking and spitting through the miles, but I know it does some good. At least as long as the air outside isn’t too cold and especially if it isn’t super dry out (ahh some good reason to run sick in the rain!) Hot shower when done feels especially good as well!

I am looking forward to some healthy running coming up soon!

Rest days, rolled ankles and a quick return to running

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As is often the case it has been awhile since I wrote here. It has been an interesting month or so of running or not running as the case might be.

At the start of the month I found myself taking several rest days in a row. Between laziness, weather and music I ended up not running for 12 days straight. I was surprised to discover it had been so long, I had figured it was 5-6 days at most a week. But the diary reveals all. So after a few false starts, I managed to go beyond just thinking about running and actually doing it. My first day back was a little rough but not that bad. I was slow and feeling sluggish, but I managed to push myself through it at a reasonable pace. The following day I got back on the horse and found myself running a pace close to 10 min miles, actually just over. I had initially intended to try to do four days in a row to get back into running form, but I ended up taking a day off before running back to back a second time. The second pair of runs was a lot better in terms of pace, well I should say the first one was, cause right at the start of the second run I…

Rolled my ankle.

It was pretty dumb actually. There were two cars coming towards me in the street. I was running on the asphalt to make life easier on my knees and staying close to the edge of the road to allow the cars to easily get by me. All of a sudden the front car stopped in the middle of the road. I kept an eye on them to see if they were upset I was running in their street or if they were just being a crappy driver, neither option was all that great. So distracted I managed to step right into a pothole and down I went. As soon as I face planted both cars sped away, it was weird. Not even a rolled down window to ask if I was ok or even to laugh at me. I tried to walk it off and decided I had better end my run (I hadn’t even gone a mile) so I turned around and headed home. About a block later the pain subsided and I foolishly decided I could finish my run. And I did without any problems or pain though I was a little gimpy. Pretty quickly after I stopped running my ankle swelled up nice and big. I strapped on an ankle brace and headed to band practice. I got around fine but by the time I came home and got the brace off my ankle was pretty angry, swollen and hot. The brace was a far infra-red brace that might have been partly responsible for the heat as that is what they are supposed to do (somehow, I don’t actually get it…) The next night I played a Go-Go show and though I didn’t dance, I was up and about on it until 4 in the morning, again swollen! For the next couple of days I took it easy and even though I really wanted to run I didn’t. But today, I couldn’t hold back any longer and I did…

A quick return to running.

This morning my ankle seemed quite a bit less swollen. The weird thing over the last couple of days is I had very little pain in my ankle. The swelling was occurring on the outside of my left ankle. IIRC my usual ankle problem area has been on the inside of my right ankle, which is my shorter leg (I’d always partly blamed the shortness on my past ankle sprains.) But this was on the outside of the ankle and didn’t really hurt to boot. I had found myself running after the dog in the front yard without even realizing it on several occasions. So I figured I could try a short run today to get back into things (once again). Well the short run started out really well, no pain or discomfort at all, so I extended it into a base run of 6.2 miles and it felt great. I didn’t push the pace so no major success on that end, but just running again so quickly and pain free after the roll was a success all on its own. And now after as I type I feel no extra pain or swelling.

Base run with leg lifts

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Today I was challenged by my wife to incorporate the leg lifts into my run that she is doing with her zombie run ap. I thought it a good idea despite the ridiculous way it looks (marching band on speed.) Her challenge had her doing five sets of ten reps (20 steps). I decided I didn’t want to do it until I warmed up, so after a half mile or so I found my self in the park with no one around, time for leg lifts. I tried to keep my pace te same as my regular running, but I found myself going faster than I did normally. Each step for the cycle of 10 is basically an exaggerated running step lifting your leg as high as you can. I did the first set pretty easily and it was over before I knew it. I thought to myself that wasn’t bad. Ater several blocks I decided to do another set, this time I went longer. Even with the increase in distance, it still felt pretty easy. So after a bit of a regular run rest I decided to do my third set, but this time I went a full block. For the fourth and fifth I did the same. My legs weren’t burning at all, but I noticed that at the end of the fifth set I wasn’t lifting very high at all. Finally the fatigue won the battle. The rest of my run (another four miles) my legs felt like lead, I could barely move! I am looking forward to trying these again.

Throughout the run I was flirting with sub 10 min miles. Every time I looked I was a tad slow, but just a tad. With a couple miles left I was still slow and I had the hills to deal with, combined with my dead legs I figured that was that. Still I picked up the pace and went from 22 secs behind pace to 16 secs behind goal pace as I went into my final mile. I realized that my flirtation was actually doable and with a quarter mile to go I thought I can make up those seconds. My fast pace became a sprint and I got to the gate just under 9:59 pace for the entire run! Boom! My speed has really been suffering the last year, it is something I would really like to improve. I see some track workouts in my near future…

12 miles, cold and wet style

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Actually, 12 and a quarter and that’s the miles not the rain gauge, though I suspect it was close. OK, ok I am exaggerating a tad. The rain was constant but not hard and I managed to get 3/4s of the way through before I dragged my foot through a big puddle. Still these warm dry clothes that I write in were highly welcome!

I thought of my route last night before I went to bed. My thought was to head down the Springwater Corridor until I got to the Sellwood Park where I diverted and ran through the park to get to Sellwood proper. Next onto East Moreland where I skirted the edge of the neighborhood past the golf course and nice homes. In my mind last night I figured I’d be about 8-9 miles at this point, but the watch said only 7.5. My original plan was to continue down Crystal Springs to meet up with a shorter route of mine around Brentwood Darlington park and home. I thought I would have to add on some miles to get me to my total I was looking for (12-13). Well, I am not sure where I thought this would take me but I soon found myself in the lower southeast hillbilly bario. Big potholes and even bigger trucks! And I was nowhere near a route that would have taken me to the park in question.

I continued on down roads with huge puddles for sidewalks which forced me into the road and into the way of unforgiving motorists. Surprisingly I managed to not get splashed and continued on my way. I made it back to sidewalks eventually and congratulated myself for remembering to bring a Clif bar which greatly reduced my wooziness from hunger. Actually it was a Clif bar and gel that really made the difference and pulled me away from dreaming of burritos.

Soon I found myself in more familiar territory and the run ended with me buying that dream burrito (actually it ended after I ran home with my bag). All in all it was a good run despite the neighborhood I ran the last quarter through. It was good to do something different. All of my long runs this winter have been different routes though I think I am running out of new local areas. I feel pretty good after.

Crummy run

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After three days off I ran today, 10k. My feet felt frozen for most of the run, but I made it through it. Acupuncture tomorrow! Also my calves felt really tight on the run, no idea why… Accu canceled…

This week’s long run

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This week’s long run got pushed further out in the week, I keep getting further and further away from a consistent Monday LSD run. Overall I am going to say that is ok as I have been getting them in and I keep making them longer. However Monday is the perfect day of the week for them so hopefully I can get back on track especially considering that today’s run was the second quality run I did this week (actually second run in a row too). Though to do another long run in three dyas seems excessive.

I feel like I am really building on my base, the long runs seem much easier or should I say less painful! Today’s run was 12 miles exactly and interestingly I almost kept it under a 10 min mile pace (ended at 10:04). I was under 10 through nine miles, but the final three were more or less uphill as I climbed up from the waterfront to my neighborhood. And I can’t really say the entire three miles was all up-hill either, but there are some tough patches!

This was actually the second fast run that I did. Two days ago I did eight miles at a 9:13 pace which felt really good. I was strong throughout and even considered adding some miles to make that my long run but I had a rehearsal that night and was already pushing it.

I’m not really sure what has changed to make these runs feel better. I have been eating and sleeping well, so I am sure that had something to do with it. Still it doesn’t seem like that would completely explain why I have been running so strongly as of late. Both of the last two runs have been on injection day and I have always said that I feel stronger after the rebif, so maybe that has helped as well. My weight is also down a bit and I am sure that is a factor. Whatever it is I’ll take it!

I have been curious to see how my feet reacted to the increase in miles and the consistent longer runs with the zero-drop shoes. I really feel like a convert. I don’t have nearly the fot pain that I was experiencing before with the thicker heals, in fact I wore a pair of boots the other day that made me imagine that this is what high heals must be like! Changing my stride to more of a ball landing/mid-strike (as opposed to just a mid-strike landing) is working better than I had imagined. I have always felt like more of a distance runner than a sprinter. Initially I was concerned that I wouldn’t like running more like a sprinter, but it seems to feel much better overall even though the majority of my running is mid-strike oriented. With the zero-drops I occasionally will concentrate on my feet landing on the balls of my feet and spreading out in my shoes (Altra) expansive toe box. It feels really good landing that way. Despite initially having trouble lifting my feet enough to clear cracks an other obstacles, I seem to have corrected my gate enough so that it is not an issue (even though I am not lifting my feet much higher, at least consciously).

I have been pretty good about fueling for my last couple of long runs, gels and water. They both seem to make a pretty huge difference in my running performance. Today I was starting to fade a bit around six miles. A couple slugs of Hammer gel and my energy level picked up and I was able to comfortably continue.

The long runs have been great but I am reaching that point where increasing the mileage every time is making the runs a huge commitment, both in terms of time and the mental ability to gear up for them. Two hours seems pretty doable, but I know longer runs are soon going to be getting up closer to three (an beyond). My other problem with them is having interesting places to go. I have a pretty decent 11 mile run that I can add onto so maybe I’ll use that as a base for my longer runs and then just add on. Today’s route was new(ish) to me and I could probably use that as a good base as well even though I don’t really care for all the uphill at the end (pretty much my curse living on a hill.

I am starting to think about a long race again. My pace is pretty slow even though I do feel it getting faster (or is that just the last two? Yes it probably is). Still running another marathon would be fun, maybe make it a destination run which would be super fun (then again I can’t think of a better place to sleep the night before than my own bed.) We’ll see.

Oh and did I mention it was 28 degrees when I left? Brrrrrr.

Tempo interval run

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I am sure you have read about the benefits of doing both tempo and interval runs. Intervals work your heart by increasing your heart rate for sprints and then recovering with cool downs, then repeat. Tempos strengthen your stamina by getting your heart, body and mind used to increased effort over an extended period of time. But which to do? Which is better? The answer of course is do both, preferably with a recovery day in between. All fine and dandy if you have three days! So my new answer is to combien the two (absolutely no scientific basis for this!) getting the benefit of 72 hours of running combined into a one hour run!

Like I said, I have no scientific basis for the benefits of doing a tempo interval and in fact I have only done it once on my run today. But buy my new book and workout plan today and become the runner that wins gold in the Olympics! Only $19.99 comes with a water bottle and free iphone/android ap that doesn’t work.

But seriously that today I ran a tempo/interval run. I did about a mile of block long intervals sandwiched by two sort tempo runs, and I did it all under 10 min miles. It felt pretty good, definitely feels like more effort than a normal run of equal distance. I think I’ll do it again at some point. The block long intervals were a bit longer than my normal interval trac workout (straights and curves) and it was a bit of an effort to keep up the sprint for the full blocks (longer blocks than normal too!) I did them along the reedway park strip, next time I think I’ll go back as well.

Long run in the cold

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I took a couple of days off due to the cold temps and an ugly hangover (just cause it is free doesn’t mean you should drink it!) I was especially bummed about missing my Monday long run as I had done it for four weeks in a row, but I was playing music that night for New Years. Fast forward to Wednesday with the recovered hangover in the works I braved the cold wind and hit the roads.

I wasn’t sure how far I’d go today but I started out thinking I’d do 10K, my typical run. As often happens when a run feels good I added another couple miles. The winds were pretty stout, but not as bad as they were at home in the upper elevations of Woodstock (make it sound mountainous doesn’t it!) So I decided to re-route and run 10+ miles. It was a great run (though cold and windy (have I mentioned that yet?)) and I found a good way to end my long runs – at the track. This way I can add however much I need to to get to whatever distance I am shooting for. Worked out really well as my run was about a half mile short of goal distance, so I added a few laps and it worked out perfectly.

I am pretty sore right now, I wonder if the cold had anything to do with that. Even my core was feeling it with a couple miles to go. I wonder if I was clenching my muscles or something? Even my feet were feeling it, not like I was running on glaciers but it felt like it.