Another day, another run

To follow up on my previous post, my exhaustion experiment was a moderate success. After the shorter run I hit practice up and it went ok. I was a little tired and had some moderate focussing issues, but it wasn’t too bad. Part of that could have been due to the band working on some new and difficult pieces, but I do think the run had its affect. I am going to attempt this again and see if I notice some patterns (well more patterns than I already see).

On other notes I am having an issue with my Altras and am exchanging them. First about two weeks ago the logo pealed off. I didn’t really care as it was just a decal that floated on the middle of the side, I actually applauded the logo falling off, but hoped it wasn’t an indication of some sort of glueing defect. Everything else seemed fine and properly attached. Then today on the same side of the same shoe another part started peeling off and this seemed more structural than decoration. So I will try another pair and see how that goes. I hope it will be ok as I really like this model.

This week I have been battling a cold I brought back with me from our Reno trip, mostly a head cold and a bit in the lungs. On Monday I went for my first run in two weeks after the trip and the cold. I chugged along but it felt pretty good. About halfway through I was getting warm so I stripped off my jacket. I usually don’t stop to unzip it and just pull it over my head on the go, which I did again. All of a sudden I felt a sharp pinch/cramp in my upper back. I stopped and walked for a bit hoping it was more of a stitch and would go away, but it didn’t in fact it just got worse. Figures I was at the halfway point of my run, quite possibly as far away as I could be on this route and I slowly made my way home. That night I took a anti-inflamatory that I had laying around and smoked some indica, a strain meant for pain relief and threw in some icing. I think both helped tremendously as I felt a bit better the next day, so I repeated my relief the next night as well. I was really worried that I was going to have a longer recovery, but my se;f prescribed methods seemed to do the trick and I was able to run today. I also kept active after I did whatever I did and went on a couple longer slow walks.

Today’s run went well, somewhat slow (10 min miles exactly), actually probably a bit faster, but my first 1.25 miles didn’t register as I had turned off my watch instead of disabling the watch bevel (it was raining a bit and leaving the watch face active tends to cause trouble in the rain, my jacket sleeve sometimes causes issues too.) So I had to edit my run on Garmin.com and I just went with the same speed as the rest of the run. The run itself was a good one and I felt strong throughout. I was not so happy with the rain and cold (it was warm for the last couple of days when my back was out, grrr) but it wasn’t too bad.I took a short walk at one point, but jumped back into normal pace pretty quickly up a hill that I could have easily walked. Good run.

Garmin issues. Since I switched over to the new Garmin Connect system I have had nothing but trouble with the watch syncing with the computer. It is supposed to immediately sync once you are within range, and that is how the old system worked. But with Connect I seem to be a run behind and often it won’t let me re-sync to get today’s run into the system. I have tried to massage the settings on the watch and thought I had it figured out, but apparently not. Still I was able to manually sync today and get the system to acknowledge that I ran today (as well as my last run which wasn’t showing up either). I do like the watch a lot and would probably get another when this one finally dies, but I am starting to get a bit frustrated with it.

Big tree fall down hard

First off there was no fifth run in a row yesterday. Spend a day (which became a rest day) drinking hard cherry cider and eating pizza, not a bad way to go at all! I also ended my no-cannabis rule too, so streaks ending all around which is fine as they were going to eventually one way or the other. One of the things that prevented me from running before my indulgence in cider and pizza was that I have been wanting to go to the track and run some straights and curves. I haven’t done this in a long while but I got it stuck into my head that I wanted to. Now I don’t think a fifth day in a row of running when one isn’t used to such streaks is a good idea at all. I wanted to be a bit more rested and ready to do the interval training. All in all, yes it is just an excuse for not running yesterday, but a valid one. I’ll take it and took it.

So that brings me to today. Is it now the sixth day in a row? No, excuse destroyed. Did I not fuel up yesterday? No, tons of pizza and cider carbs, excuse left by the curb. Was it too hot out? Uhhh, yeah actually it was as I procrastinated long enough for the heat to set in. Yes, an excuse! But not one I relied on. So out the door I went, heading north through Creston Park across Powell on my way to the recently refurbished Cleveland High School track. One of the things that make track running extra tough for me is that it is two miles away, so any track run automatically has four miles included. I guess I could drive or even bike but driving is something I don’t really do and seems lame for a run and biking is well biking for four miles which has its positives from a cross-training approach (though the distance isn’t really far enough to feel much benefit). But if I had taken either method of transport I’d be feeling much better right now, not just from the soreness of an interval run, but because I was that big tree and I fell hard.

About a block away from the track I was cruising along listening to talk radio speak on the great duh-bate. I must have been distracted as I hit a sidewalk crack (which I am usually on the lookout for due to the many we have in Portland in trade for our shade) and I went down hard. Usually I am able to roll through such stumbles, but this time I went down fast and hard and my inclination to tuck and roll caused me to land with a crack right on my elbow..The only thing to do is roll right back up and continue to run and with blood trailing down my arm I did just that. Initially my hip was pretty sore, I guess I balanced out the elbow abuse with some hip abuse. But it wasn’t too bad (yet!) and I kept on running to the track where I got in six laps of straights and curves (sprint the straight portions and recover on the curves).

I didn’t go super all out on the straights and instead pushed myself solidly but not to an extreme. At one point my watch registered 197 HR, but I think that was a anomaly (189 was my previous high chasing Fig and a pit bull while running) and I feel like I may have approached 180 or so. I was a little discouraged that I wasn’t able to get down to 144 (my goal for the resting curves) and instead was starting my sprint portions around 150-52. I will look for that to improve as my overall fitness increases. I initially set out to only do a mile at the track, but I ended up adding two more laps to that before I headed back. I set no speed records on the two miles back, but the last .6 lap came in under 10 min mile pace, so that was pretty good.

As I sit writing having rehydrated and showered the soreness is really setting in. My right hip is killing me. My cool down hip stretches were really rough but I finished them all. I think it is mostly just bruising on the hip and my elbow will take some good scabbing to return to normal, but it should be fine. Hopefully the pain I am feeling in my hip will recede (I know it will eventually…) after taking a couple of Ibuprofen and maybe dome targeted cannabis (indica strain for pain) later tonight. Oddly I feel really fuzzy headed, almost as if I hit my head, but I know I didn’t. I think it is just teh exhaustion of the hard run coupled with the heat and some tension in my neck after the fall.

I just read an article on a supplement called Cogniq that Steven Hawkings is taking to increase cognition. I am really curious. I would normally be a huge skeptic, but Hawkings makes me less so. The places it is for sale on the Internet make it look as if it is one of those gluten-free jellyfish pills but I am curious. Skeptical but curious.

Sunny base 10k run

What a nice day today, almost perfect running weather. I am finding myself craving some warm runs, but that is coming soon. I was clad in just shorts and a short sleeved shirt today. I started with a warmer shirt, but it was soon around my waist. My speed was under 10 min miles, but just by 6 seconds or so.

I have to say my lungs are feeling really good. If you are using marijuana for ms (or fun for that matter) the vaporizer is the way to go. No smoke, just hot vapor to breathe in. Its the way to go. I think the smoking of pot was interfering with my breathing, making me cough and I had trouble coming back from a bad cold this year. I have only used the vaporizer for a month now and feel much better. I cough a lot less and just feel like I am taking deeper breaths. I haven’t really experienced a huge running benefit yet, but I was able to bounce back from taking a week break from running recently.

Today marked the third run in four days and I felt really good. The cold is coming back so that will be my next challenge. But I think I’ll be able to keep up the runs.

I ran into Zach, the guy in charge of keeping the canyon maintained. He was putting up “Canyon Day” signs so I had to commit to going. I haven’t been in a number of years, so I guess it is about time I do it again. I’ll be pulling up ivy and planting ferns in the western end of the canyon, but not until the end of the month. Zach got a good head start on his marketing!

rebif’s energy burst and other ms stuff

So I have recently noticed on several runs that if I do my injection an hour or so before I go out I tend to perform well on these runs. I have done some successful LSD runs as well as fast tempo runs. Today it was just a recovery/junk run, but it went well. I felt strong throughout and my heart rate stayed really low. Today I ran early so it was a lot cooler that my runs have been of late. So that had something to do with how strong I felt.

I wonder if interferon is tested for in professional sports drug tests? So I am gonna keep an eye on this and see if my good reaction to rebif continues. As much as I dislike the injections it seems to be pretty stable with me so no gilenya for me yet.

The weird on again off again feelings in my thigh are not bothering me at the moment, I think the medical marijuana has a lot to do with it. I tried doing a massage on the muscle and got some really painful tingling. Bu then it goes away. Sometime numb, sometimes nothing I notice. Another weird ms thing.

I am surprised how well I have taken the heat this summer. My days of getting one of those cooling systems for runners my mom found are in the past, at least for now.

23 degree return

It was so great to get back to running today, even with the 23 degree weather. I have to say, whenever you start up running being it from illness or injury, DO NOT decide to go for a longer run 1/3 into your run because you feel great. You will pay at 2/3s, I guarantee it. Still it was a fantastic run this morn, it was a bit hard on my lungs but I managed to make it through it just fine. It is actually the stopping that really kicks the lungs but (is there such a thing?) My breathing throughout was fine except for a little burning but not that bad.

The worst thing that happened on my run was my radio finally gave up the ghost. I have got to find a new one. My problem is I want AM and FM, of which there are less to choose from now days. Ultimately I want to find one that is weather resistant (don’t need it to be waterproof, though that would be nice) I want it to have preset stations so I can easily switch during all the commercials. The search is on.

It is so great to be back running, I’m not sure I will go tomorrow as I am running Saturday and snow shoeing for the first time on Sunday. Plenty of exercise to come!

On the ms front I have decided my reduction of dialantin (which I take for the seizures) has been a failure as they have sort of come back a bit. Not bad at all, but I can feel them happening. I was down to 3 a day when that happened, so I am going to try 3 and 4 and see if I level out. Unrelated I am sure, but my foot numbness has come back stronger. Feels like I am wearing shoes that are too small. Sort of a pedal (word?) version of the ms hug. One thing I have noticed is that marijuana seems to make the feeling subside a bit. Not sure if this is just that I didn’t notice it when I smoked or what. I don’t plan to do an everyday study, but I will see if the results are similar next time.

23 degree return

It was so great to get back to running today, even with the 23 degree weather. I have to say, whenever you start up running being it from illness or injury, DO NOT decide to go for a longer run 1/3 into your run because you feel great. You will pay at 2/3s, I guarantee it. Still it was a fantastic run this morn, it was a bit hard on my lungs but I managed to make it through it just fine. It is actually the stopping that really kicks the lungs but (is there such a thing?) My breathing throughout was fine except for a little burning but not that bad.

The worst thing that happened on my run was my radio finally gave up the ghost. I have got to find a new one. My problem is I want AM and FM, of which there are less to choose from now days. Ultimately I want to find one that is weather resistant (don’t need it to be waterproof, though that would be nice) I want it to have preset stations so I can easily switch during all the commercials. The search is on.

It is so great to be back running, I’m not sure I will go tomorrow as I am running Saturday and snow shoeing for the first time on Sunday. Plenty of exercise to come!

On the ms front I have decided my reduction of dialantin (which I take for the seizures) has been a failure as they have sort of come back a bit. Not bad at all, but I can feel them happening. I was down to 3 a day when that happened, so I am going to try 3 and 4 and see if I level out. Unrelated I am sure, but my foot numbness has come back stronger. Feels like I am wearing shoes that are too small. Sort of a pedal (word?) version of the ms hug. One thing I have noticed is that marijuana seems to make the feeling subside a bit. Not sure if this is just that I didn’t notice it when I smoked or what. I don’t plan to do an everyday study, but I will see if the results are similar next time.