Category Archives: chi running

Mt. Tabor small

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This morning I went for a run to my favorite volcano Mt. Tabor. I was up late and forgot to do my rebif in the early eve, so I did it just after midnight and stayed up till 1:30. So I was tired when I got up at 7:00 to run. I went out without water but turned around and wisely got my hydration. The first two miles to the crater is a slightly uphill but relatively flat two miles. As I started making my way around the west side I started to wear out a bit, should have brought a gel. I walked more than I usually do on one of the trails to the top. Halfway up I started running and finished without walking again. As I got to the top I normally do this 3/4 mile circular road at the very top, but I decided to pass and headed down. The remainder of the run went pretty well though somewhat slow. My total mileage was just under eight. I think I kept my form pretty tight through the entire 80 mins, no slouching despite being tired and I was really conscious of my foot placement.

The last couple of days I have been down to two doses of the dilantin daily. I have noticed a couple of minor seizures when I was really hot after running and cleaning the house and yard today. I am going to stick with that dose and see what happens.

Humidity and running

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These last couple of days our hot temperatures have cooled a few degrees only to be replaced with humidity. Not much of an improvement in running weather especially when the cool down is only a few degrees. My runs these last couple of days have been really tough. In fact yesterday I had to stop before the park and walk for a bit. Usually I have been able to push through that final mile, but not yesterday, so I cut my run short and walked for a bit (I did end up running the last little bit though.) The amount I sweat when it is this humid amazes me, my shirt looked like I had been squeezed dry. Good thing I have been carrying water, I think it has really saved me. Wait let me re-state that so it is not quite so dramatic: really allowed me to complete my runs.

I do think it is a matter of getting used to running in this, especially the hotter weather (not sure if I can get used to humidity). Already it feels a bit easier, less daunting.

Humidity and running

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These last couple of days our hot temperatures have cooled a few degrees only to be replaced with humidity. Not much of an improvement in running weather especially when the cool down is only a few degrees. My runs these last couple of days have been really tough. In fact yesterday I had to stop before the park and walk for a bit. Usually I have been able to push through that final mile, but not yesterday, so I cut my run short and walked for a bit (I did end up running the last little bit though.) The amount I sweat when it is this humid amazes me, my shirt looked like I had been squeezed dry. Good thing I have been carrying water, I think it has really saved me. Wait let me re-state that so it is not quite so dramatic: really allowed me to complete my runs.

I do think it is a matter of getting used to running in this, especially the hotter weather (not sure if I can get used to humidity). Already it feels a bit easier, less daunting.

Wammo-Slammo Field Day and today’s run

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Yesterday I did not run, well actually I did, just not around the neighborhood. I thought I would take in a little cross-training and attended Wammo-Slammo a neighborhood Field Day to bring attention to and gather feedback on what to do with an old school and the surrounding grounds that the city has donated to the neighborhood system to do with what they see fit. There were interesting ideas from making the grounds a place for homeless people to express themselves through art to housing and construction of a community pool. Me, I voted to build a track but I doubt that will happen.

So I can’t count my lip flapping about a track as exercise, and the neighborhood associations couldn’t get people to just show up on a hot day to talk about an abandoned school. This where the Field Day came in. The organizers had a bunch of different “recess” type games for people to play. I got to play a little volleyball, dodgeball, kickball, silly relay races (I dropped my egg in a furious attempt to bring my team from behind) and a sack race (fell flat on my face right out of the gate.) It was a blast and the heat was pretty bearable until the end when we all pooped out. I wish the organizers had gotten more attendees (and filled out surveys) but it was great fun and good exercise as well.

I was tired and a bit sore from yesterday’s fun but I decided to get up and get a jump on my week’s running. I didn’t have a whole lot of energy this morning and I forgot my water, but I had a really nice relaxing run even though now I feel a bit burned out. I don’t think I will go out tomorrow. Then again you never know.

Wammo-Slammo Field Day and today’s run

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Yesterday I did not run, well actually I did, just not around the neighborhood. I thought I would take in a little cross-training and attended Wammo-Slammo a neighborhood Field Day to bring attention to and gather feedback on what to do with an old school and the surrounding grounds that the city has donated to the neighborhood system to do with what they see fit. There were interesting ideas from making the grounds a place for homeless people to express themselves through art to housing and construction of a community pool. Me, I voted to build a track but I doubt that will happen.

So I can’t count my lip flapping about a track as exercise, and the neighborhood associations couldn’t get people to just show up on a hot day to talk about an abandoned school. This where the Field Day came in. The organizers had a bunch of different “recess” type games for people to play. I got to play a little volleyball, dodgeball, kickball, silly relay races (I dropped my egg in a furious attempt to bring my team from behind) and a sack race (fell flat on my face right out of the gate.) It was a blast and the heat was pretty bearable until the end when we all pooped out. I wish the organizers had gotten more attendees (and filled out surveys) but it was great fun and good exercise as well.

I was tired and a bit sore from yesterday’s fun but I decided to get up and get a jump on my week’s running. I didn’t have a whole lot of energy this morning and I forgot my water, but I had a really nice relaxing run even though now I feel a bit burned out. I don’t think I will go out tomorrow. Then again you never know.

Its almost 80

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Wow, my first hot (and humid) run of the year. I knew it was going to be tough, but I wanted to get it in before the day ended. I was going on two days in a row of not running and looking like three. Plus I was all fired up from finally writing my diatribe against healthnet and their lack of individual coverage of rebif for people with ms. It almost appears as if the disease is not recognized. I wonder what other fake diseases are out there? Ok, sorry, back to running.

The run went well for the first part. I managed to find some shade for most of it. Still I felt pooped pretty quickly despite eating a great vegan energy bar from Organic Food Bar. I’m gonna have to get more of these. I did bring water and I forced myself to go with the sipping routine to keep hydrated. The problem was I sipped too much and my water was gone before I was half-way through with the run. At about four miles I still hadn’t stopped running to walk, but when I hit the canyon the humidity of the rain forest was in full gear. I decided a walk through the canyon would be about all I could do, and barely that. It was oppressive but once I got out of the canyon the humidity tapered back a bit.

Once I was back up on our plateau and only facing a flat run, I decided to run the rest of the way home which worked out just fine. I actually had a little bit of water left, just enough to see me through. Phew! What a run. Now I need to mow the lawn.

Its almost 80

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Wow, my first hot (and humid) run of the year. I knew it was going to be tough, but I wanted to get it in before the day ended. I was going on two days in a row of not running and looking like three. Plus I was all fired up from finally writing my diatribe against healthnet and their lack of individual coverage of rebif for people with ms. It almost appears as if the disease is not recognized. I wonder what other fake diseases are out there? Ok, sorry, back to running.

The run went well for the first part. I managed to find some shade for most of it. Still I felt pooped pretty quickly despite eating a great vegan energy bar from Organic Food Bar. I’m gonna have to get more of these. I did bring water and I forced myself to go with the sipping routine to keep hydrated. The problem was I sipped too much and my water was gone before I was half-way through with the run. At about four miles I still hadn’t stopped running to walk, but when I hit the canyon the humidity of the rain forest was in full gear. I decided a walk through the canyon would be about all I could do, and barely that. It was oppressive but once I got out of the canyon the humidity tapered back a bit.

Once I was back up on our plateau and only facing a flat run, I decided to run the rest of the way home which worked out just fine. I actually had a little bit of water left, just enough to see me through. Phew! What a run. Now I need to mow the lawn.

Cold run

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Today i got up early and headed outside, only to return to put on tights as it was cold. I don’t mind running in the cold even though I am ready for some warm weather for sure. Even now (in teh afternoon) my hands are cold out in my office, of course I could shut the door and put on the heat, but I don’t want to admit that the warm weather isn’t here. Even so (back to the run) my cold weather shirt didn’t stay on for long and neither did the gloves, so something warm must be happening.

Today I ran pretty sluggish, I still feel somewhat tired. My time was pretty slow today, well back to where it was when I first started recently. But overall the run went pretty well. I wasn’t struggling or anything and managed to keep a consistent pace an rhythm going. I might have been somewhat dehydrated too, I have been guzzling water all day.

I guess there isn’t too much else to report at this point today which can be a good thing. No news is good news? Not if you a reader reading a boring blog…

Oh, now I remember what I was going to write about. I ended up watching a track meet down in Eugene on TV last night. It was pretty interesting, a lot of the female runners were not what you would expect from female runners (maybe I watch to many marathons) and many of them were pretty big. Not fat by any means but large and muscular especially the steeplechasers. The OR women kicked butt, but the men’s was really close. Right at the very end (they were using a Euopean scoring system) the OR men and Kansas men were real close. It was down to the relay. If OR won and KU came in third it would be a tie and then the discuss would determine the winner. And that is what happened! So on to the discuss! That was when the announcer said, “well, sorry but we don’t have time in the broadcast for the discus” and then they referred us to a website to get the results. The stupid site didn’t even have the results! I was so mad, and I haven’t been able to find them anywhere else. Grrr

Cold run

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Today i got up early and headed outside, only to return to put on tights as it was cold. I don’t mind running in the cold even though I am ready for some warm weather for sure. Even now (in teh afternoon) my hands are cold out in my office, of course I could shut the door and put on the heat, but I don’t want to admit that the warm weather isn’t here. Even so (back to the run) my cold weather shirt didn’t stay on for long and neither did the gloves, so something warm must be happening.

Today I ran pretty sluggish, I still feel somewhat tired. My time was pretty slow today, well back to where it was when I first started recently. But overall the run went pretty well. I wasn’t struggling or anything and managed to keep a consistent pace an rhythm going. I might have been somewhat dehydrated too, I have been guzzling water all day.

I guess there isn’t too much else to report at this point today which can be a good thing. No news is good news? Not if you a reader reading a boring blog…

Oh, now I remember what I was going to write about. I ended up watching a track meet down in Eugene on TV last night. It was pretty interesting, a lot of the female runners were not what you would expect from female runners (maybe I watch to many marathons) and many of them were pretty big. Not fat by any means but large and muscular especially the steeplechasers. The OR women kicked butt, but the men’s was really close. Right at the very end (they were using a Euopean scoring system) the OR men and Kansas men were real close. It was down to the relay. If OR won and KU came in third it would be a tie and then the discuss would determine the winner. And that is what happened! So on to the discuss! That was when the announcer said, “well, sorry but we don’t have time in the broadcast for the discus” and then they referred us to a website to get the results. The stupid site didn’t even have the results! I was so mad, and I haven’t been able to find them anywhere else. Grrr

Inserts

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I forgot to mention that I wore my old motion-control Asics Gel Kayanos the last time I ran. I pulled out the stiff “extra” motion-control inserts I had in there and used the standard one I got with my new Mizunos. As far as my feet went, the run went pretty well. I once again felt the need for extra cushion on the ball of my feet.

So today I wore them again, but this time I found an old cushiony set of inserts to use instead. My thinking was I might be able to deal with the issue with the balls of my feet. The cushion felt pretty good on the run. Toward the end I noticed that I was flapping with my left foot. My right footstrike felt fine, but the left came down as a slap. This immediately caught my attention as this was one of the first things I noticed when running with the ms-related problems I was having with my legs. This happened twice before and at times would get so bad that my one foot (I think it was the left) would almost drag causing me to fall a couple of times. Basically what was happening then was I couldn’t get the front of my foot to pull up far enough, which would cause my toe to drag on the surface. It was almost as if my whole lower leg went numb and I couldn’t make it work as fully as I normally would be able to (and need to to run). I remember thinking at the time that I was worried I was reprogramming my stride to do the incorrect form and that I would never get it back. When the attack ended after a couple of months, my normal stride came back.

So, I was alarmed. I continued on, step, slap, step, slap. I tried to pull my foot up higher as I struck the ground. I could, with none of the previous problems. I also noticed if I ran on the side of my foot that the slapping would subside a bit. But that wasn’t right either. Then it dawned on me, maybe it was the insert. The heel of this particular cushion insert was really thick which I thought maybe was enough to cause the front of my foot to slap as it tried to land correctly, but hit the heal to quickly.

So I finished my run, went in and replaced the cushion inserts with the standard Mizuno ones and went out for a few more blocks to see how it went. Turned out I no longer was slapping. Even when I tried to relax and let my footstrike happen without any mental intervention, everything was fine. I think this was a bit more pronounced for me as my right leg is shorter than my left and I wear a lift in the right side to compensate. This has caused me a variety of issues over the years. This was certainly one of them.