Tomorrow we race

The half starts at 7:30. I am not looking forward to having to get up so early for it and to top it off with no coffee. I will make do with a caffeinated gel and emergen-C. I am looking forward to the run and my ankle is feeling MUCH better. I am pretty sure I would have run today.

I picked up my bib and chip today. It was funny, I didn't feel nervous at all, but the lady on the escalator behind me sure did. She fretted and stewed and wiggles in my back, constantly chatting away with her friend who desperately tried to calm her down. She was a wreck, I hope she makes it.

Paul's 5 and 1/2 year old daughter Josie really wants to run in the race with me, but decided that since she didn't get registered that she better not. So after the half, the big race happens as Josie and I have plans to race down the block to the end of the street. I am pretty sure she will beat me.

Three days to go

Today I am not running in order to rest my ankle more. Bums me out because I love to run on thanksgiving for some reason. My ankle still hurts and I am a little worried about it. Not much I can do other than what I am (or not) doing. I feels a bit better, I just wish it felt a LOT better.

I am going through with my pre-marathon eating plans and getting stuff ready for the trip to Seattle. Last night I got all my running candy out, Sport Beans, Gels and Clif Blocks. It looks like Halloween instead of thanksgiving on my desk! Regardless of how my ankle feels, I will have snacks!

On Friday after I arrive in Seattle I go to pick up my chip and bib. The chip allows you to start at any time by triggering your timer when you cross the start and stopping at the finish. Two years ago I got stuck in the bathroom lines and got a 5 minute late start, but my chip allowed me to get an accurate measurement of my time. My bib is my number, unfortunately they don't let you customize it like Portland, so no "Besaro" this year. I loved hearing people yell out "Go Besaro!" but that's ok, I'll settle for "Go 8734" or whatever I am.

Race week

Race week is upon me. I have been thinking about this and planning/training for it for a long while (ever since I wisely passed on running the scorching Sauvie Island half in June). I am feeling very ready for it and anticipated no problems, that is until I rolled my ankle this morning ARRRG! It is actually not too bad and I have four days to RICE it (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). I am sure it will be fine, but still a little scary.

It is sort of funny, I have been stewing about several running methods for pre-race preparation such as carbo-loading, hydro-loading and tapering. While I still will be able to eat a bunch of pasta this week, I won't be able to try out any of the extensive plans. One entailed going for a log exhaustive run a week before the race (a date I missed 2 days ago), then spending the next 3 days eating only 10% carbs in your diet, then finishing up the final 3 days at 85% carbs. This apparently builds up huge stores of energy in your body though people really complaign about the depletion stage in terms of how they feel. There are lesser ideas as well, which is probably what I will end up doing. Basically eat a large amount of carbs the days before the rave and have a heavy carb breakfast such as a bagel, banana or energy bar. I'll probably go the bar route. I am also planning on using 2-3 gels on teh run, so that will help as well

Hydro loading sounds interesting too. Basically you load up on water the day before. One issue with it is you can actually over do it and get water poisoning or hyperhydration. It sounds like a really weird thing to happen when you are struggling to get hydrated, but I apparently you can overdue it. I think I will stick to my normal hydration rigor, which basically comes down to drink water when thirsty and pack water on my runs. One tip I read fro training and drinking water, is force yourself to drink a little every mile as this both keeps you hydrated and matches the distance between aid stations.

Tapering is probably the easiest sounding of all pre-race preparations. As you are training for a long race you find yourself in a mileage routine. Tapering basically reduces your miles before a race to allow you to rest your muscles and build up energy in your system. There are tons of tapering routines. The one I am going to follow says, roll your ankle four days before the race, stop running and hope it feels good enough to run! My pre-roll plan was to run my full distance Monday (which I ended up sleeping in on) then do a 2-3 4 mile runs during the week before the race. I figured I would not run at all in Seattle on Fri and Sat. So my plan now is to possibly run a short run Thursday and call it good.

On to Seattle!

100th post and wow is it cold & wet

I can't believe I have actually made this many posts to this blog. I never thought I would keep it up which was my main initial reluctance to writing one. But here we are, six months later and I am still posting, Of course I say that and watch me never write again!

This morning I woke an hour before my alarm went off. I almost got up and headed out, but I thought nah, it will be too dark out, plus I was comfy. So I dozed until the alarm finally reared its head. I went through my morning routine of a cup of coffee, the start of an emergen-C (I usually finish the rest after my run) and half a clif bar. I can usually finish all this up and get dressed in a leisurely hour, but for some reason I was Johnny on the spot today. I walked out the door and turned around to get my light because it was still so dark. I have a flashing clip-on light that I attach to my hat for dark runs. I think it makes me more visible and also gives me a sense of safety especially when I also wear my bright orange running jacket.

In addition to the dark it was also pretty cold, windy and rainy. It was interesting weather-wise, about a third of a way through the wind and the rain died down and it got much colder, so I think some sort of cold front moved in. It amazes me to see weather move so quickly. By this time I was thoroughly soaked and cold to boot. My running slowed down a bit as I fought the chill. Of course that could have been the last mile or so of my course that is all up-hill, one of the benefits to having flood plains around me but lower than my house. The hills I am forced to run no matter where I go have been a great training boon.

The nutrition book I am reading suggests a protein supplement that contains whey. I think I will try that. I have always been a bit concerned about my protein intake even though I get a good amount of soy. The other thing I read was a recommendation to utilize creatine in some form for recovery. The author plans to talk more of this in later chapters. BTW, the book is called Runner's World Performance Nutrition for Runners: How to Fuel Your Body for Stronger Workouts, Faster Recovery, and Your Best Race Times Ever by Matt Fitzgerald.

Cold morning run

We have had some sun this week after having so much rain, or at least rain during my runs. What was 6 straight rainy runs has now turned into 3 straight runs with no rain. It's hard to call them sunny as they have been mostly foggy. I like the foggy runs almost as much as the drizzle. There is a blanket of quiet that sits on top of me and a creepy sense of running nowhere. I love it!

I deviated from my 6.5 mile course and ran the canyon this morning. I don't get to do that too often in the winter as I don't want to tear up the paths (though they do a really good job there with putting organic material down, bark chips, leaves, saw dust, etc.) But since we have had some sun lately, I thought I would take advantage. With the leaves all fallen it is hard to tell where the path is, but I have run it so often that I just naturally stay on the covered path.

I just started a book on running nutrition last night. My diet is not the greatest in the world and I am hoping this has some good ideas in it. My main problem is I tend to eat what is easiest and quickest to prepare. As a vegetarian this tends towards a lot of bread and cheese which helps me keep my belly at the proper roundness. You would think that with all the running I do it would melt away, but no such luck. I guess that is what my dedication to bread and cheese does for me. One area I know I can do better in is eating more fresh vegetables. I really need to commit to working them into my diet. Yeah I am a vegetarian, but that doesn't mean I eat vegetables! Well it needs to. I probably get enough fruit, though a lot of the fruit I eat is dried. I probably need to mix in more fresh fruits. Two areas I am pretty good in are whole grains and soy. So there is at least that to celebrate! This book is interesting, I'll post the title at some point. The author is very realistic about personal nutrition and knows that we can't do everything. He suggests doing whatever you can, which will be better than nothing. That is an attitude I can ascribe to!

Sixth 6.5 run

This morning I headed out for my sixth 6.5 mile run in a row. I think I will keep doing that distance until the half in two weeks. I plan on not running at all at least 2-3 days before. Right now this distance feels really good, takes me less than a hour and I can comfortably do it 2-3 days in a row.

I am beginning to get excited about the half. I am totally confident about the distance, so the aspect of being unsure about whether or not you can complete the race isn't there. But I am looking forward to running in that huge group. I do think that it will not be as good as Portland, they are so well organized and have great support. I still have freebee gels I picked up along that run!

Evening run

I have usually been running in the mornings. I like to get up early and get it out of the way. I always feel this is a weird thing to say as I enjoy running so much. I guess it is sort of a love/hate relationship. Also I think I get used to it during the summers when mornings are so nice to run in compared to the heat of the day. The other reason for early morning runs is the traffic is lighter. I got hit by a car around 5:30 four years ago, so maybe that has a psychological part in my love of morning runs. I also like running through the Reed campus early as their first early class starts at 1:00, the poor kids need time to sleep it off. The other reason I like the early run is that as the day goes on I sometimes find it hard to fit it in especially when needing to coordinate with eating (and there is another reason to run early before breakfasting).

But yesterday the evening run (which was only as late as 3:30) worked out and off I went. I actually ran it really fast. Every run has had around 8.5 minute miles, but this one was the quickest. It was also sunny for a change, forcing me to break out the clip-on sunglasses. Nothing else spectacular happened on the run, but I am finding my conditioning picking up. I feel very ready for the half on the end of the month. My joints all feel good, my muscles feel active and my body hasn't been feeling tired at all. Granted I have cut down on the long runs since I did the 15 miles which I think is a big part of it, but I am feeling really good right now. Lung thing is done, I am eating well and I am ready for the race.

Rain break

Well I guess it was a rain break, certainly wasn't as wet as it was yesterday which kept me indoors and in bed late. Today was the third 6.5 mile run I have done this week, I'll probably do at least one more if not two. I have been keeping some good times and paces really close to Monday when I ran fast. It hasn't seemed like it, but apparently I was pretty close to 8.5 minute miles all three runs.

I filled out my entry form for Seattle, now I just have to mail it. Part of me keeps waiting so I don't curse myself. But it didn't happen for the Portland Marathon, so I am sure it won't happen here either.

My friend Paul, who I am staying with in Seattle, the one who HAD to go see Sea and Cake called me with bad news yesterday. We won't be able to make the concert afterall, as it turns out he has an engagement he HAS to go to. He went on and on about how it would be better for me to get some sleep and that the show would be really late and that the venue wasn't very good (very different from his previous advice of "it won't be so bad to run on little sleep" and "the show won't go that late" and "what a great place to see Sea and Cake this will be"). So reluctantly I agreed to stay at his place while they go out and get a good night's sleep before I do 13.1 miles. Gosh I would have loved to stay out really late and run on 2-3 hours of fitful sleep. Whatever will I do! I was so glad I even offered to babysit their kid.

Six runs in a row with rain

One thing I do that I would recommend to every runner is to keep a dairy of your runs. Many people write everything down in a journal, I wish I did that actually so I could have a permanent (as permanent as paper is) record of my running. I use an electronic running diary that I got for free. It keeps a little database on my hard drive and keeps track of things like route, type of run, how I was feeling, weather, distance and time. It also keeps track of what shoes I am wearing which is great to easily pull up how many miles you have burned through. So, I bring this up cause I noticed that today was the sixth rainy run in a row I have done. Sounds like running in Portland in the fall. Today's wet weather run was a lot different than my nice drizzle yesterday. Today was colder, windier and the rain was coming down harder for about 3/4s of the run. I was bundled up with my tights, gloves, cold weather shirt and rain jacket. It felt great at first, but about halfway through I was too hot. First off came the gloves, then I had to stop to take off my cold weather shirt. I sometimes feel like a one-man band with everything hanging off of me, bandanna, water bottle, jacket or shirts tied around my waist, radio, hats, etc.

I use a site reporting tool on my blog that gives me pretty detailed reports about who visits, how long they stay, how they got there and search terms if they used a search engine. The two most popular sets of terms for arriving here are "bee stings ms" and "numb foot ms". I don't know that I will explore the bee stings more, but I am sure to write more about numb feet and my issues with it. It amazes me the global reach that blogs have, I have readers (well people who found the blog anyway) from all over the world.

I love drizzle

The rain in Portland is believed by many to be this constant downpour. In fact it doesn't do that too often. First off we have a rainy season (or seasons) which is usually from the end of October - November and then February-June. Our summers are exceptionally dry. Secondly our rains are more of a drizzle. People up here often bitch about it, or local news are the biggest belly achers. Me, I love the drizzle. It is the perfect weather to run in. Nice and cool and usually little wind. This was the case with my run this morning. I found myself starting out at a fast pace (for me) that I was able to keep up for about 3/4's of my run. The mile and a half of today's 6.5 was a bit slower and then I kicked it into gear for the last 1/4. Over all my pace was an 8:35 minute mile, about what I was doing when I was training for the Portland Marathon, ahh, those were the days!

Here is a good blog posting on a simple strategy for running a fast marathon. Many of the ideas are equally applicable if you are running it slowly.

Wet, windy, warm and wonderful

Four W's is all I can come up with, do I sense a feeling of relief? Last night I took my rebif and what started out ok with a painless injection ended up not so ok with a late night fever which kept me up. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed and grabbed some ibuprofen. It must have worked cause next thing I remember I was waking up at 7. I have been thinking about doing a long run with little sleep to test myself out for the Seattle half Marathon since we HAVE to go to my friend Paul's Sea and Cake concert. This would mean doing the marathon on little sleep. I actually am not as worried about it as I could be, but it certainly isn't optimum.

So anyway, I woke up on crappy sleep and decided what the hell, I'm gonna try a half marathon distance and see how it goes. I grabbed 2 gels (one of them had 100mg of caffeine (that's the one I need for Seattle)) and a pack of Wild Cherry Clif Shot Bloks. I like the Bloks cause they are like a giant gummy bear with electrolytes. I grabbed my radio to listen about the Oregon Ducks game and out the door I went heading to Mount Tabor. Tabor is about 2 miles away and is an inactive volcano. My run there is one of my favorites and I have always felt was responsible for how well I did hills at the Portland Marathon. After the first climb you run around the caldera and that is where I took my first gel. I ran to the top, did the circle and headed down past the reservoirs. Now at 4 miles, next stop Laurelhurst Park.

The Park is about 3 miles from Tabor. It has a ton of trees and a great natural area with a path. There is a tree on the path that smells like hash, I think it is a cedar of some sort. I used to live right by the park. I remember thinking the run around the perimeter was always just a bit too short, but twice was too much. Today it becomes the middle point of the run, time to head back. Mile 7.5.

Through the Belmont neighborhood. I spy another sign advertising pit bull poppies for sale. remove it and head on to Hawthorne. I just miss the light and get a break. Next stop is the Cleveland Track, but before that another gel - powerbar caramel which was too sweet. I did a lot of my marathon training at this track. Speed work and 8118s where I start on the outside and work my way inwards moving in one lane each lap. They are trying to raise money to resurface it. I tried to donate, but the donations thing on their site wasn't working and nobody emailed me or called me back. I should try again. Mile 11.

To finish my half distance I head over to the Reed canyon and run the east portion. I take a walking break on the stairs out of the canyon and make my final potion home. Mile 13.5 (I hit the half distance according to my watch which I think exaggerates my runs (I wonder why I don't fix it?))

As I neared the house I ran into the mailman. We talked about running and all the walking he does. He paid me a really nice compliment by saying I have good lung control because I wasn't breathing heavy and I guess I do. I didn't win the Glen Cove Underwater Breathing Contest in 1971 for nothing...

Overall this run went great. It was warm and it misted most of the time with one downpour. The mildness really helped the run. I felt a steady tiredness, but never to the point that I could go no longer. The gels worked really well to give me a boost and the one blok I had was also good. I think (and I also thought this the last time I did this same run 2 months ago) that I could go the full marathon distance, but I wouldn't care for it. After today I am fairly confident that Seattle will be ok and I won't have any problems. I feel tired, but not exhausted.

So I ended up doing 14.67 miles according to the watch, but like I said I think it measures long. The run was probably around the half distance, maybe lightly more.

As I write this my legs feel pretty heavy, they know they did something today.

Hard wet run

Today I hit the roads a bit later than normal first thing usuals. I had TWO cups of coffee as well and not my normal one. In addition it was cold. So are you sensing that I am fishing for an excuse? Well I am . It was not the best run in the world. I kept finding myself hitting that point where I thought I had done just about everything I could do. The good thing for me today was that I kept going, treating it as a step I need to take to get back to good enough shape to do that half-marathon. I wish I were more prepared and more ready, but that damn illness has really set me back. My lungs are still extremely heavy and it gets tough to breathe like I know I can and want to. But I keep pressing forward. Never give up becomes my motto. I'll hit a point where I want to just walk for a bit and somehow I manage to keep going and not give into the temptation of rest. That said I am not nearly killing myself or anything. It is just a point I know I have reached before and have made it through. It can be done I say to myself.

On another note I seem to see the spells coming back a bit. I have had a couple of instances, mostly it seems to happen when I am exhausted like last week when I did a long run and then raked leaves. I am thinking that my body being overheated is basically the cause. Still it sort of sucks as I thought I had this licked. I actually think I still do, but I have to acknowledge that they are happening again, fortunately not with any sort of regularity like before. I have read about ms symptoms happening, then going away and later returning but with less frequency and intensity. This almost seems like a lesser version even of that as so far it has only happened a couple of times. I gave myself the litty-kitty-kitty test where I say that over an over again. During the spells I can't say it. So I keep an eye on it and see what happens in the future.

I am wondering if I should get a flu shot. I have never gotten one before. But I read an ms blog that recommended it. I don't think much of the blog, so I wanted to ask my neurologist about it, but she is on vacation for three more weeks. All my GP said was "Oh sure make an appt and we can give you one." I don't want the "opportunity" I want to know if I should or not. Ruthann thinks I should call OHSU and talk to the doc who gave me the second opinion. I don't know why I am reluctant to do that?

Last night I talked to a friend who was the first person I ever knew who was diagnosed with ms. I remember at the time I found out how bad I felt for her. Then three months later I got my diagnosis, Funny how that works. She had optic nueritus, but hasn't started any medications yet as the docs feel it is too early. I thought that was a good time to start. Hmmm.

worn out

Today I ran a long run after taking three days off. It was a perfect running day, cool but not cold, lite rain and lots of energy. Well I did fortify with a caffeine infused gel so maybe the energy really wasn't mine. Good nine miles plus in an hour and eighteen, not a fast pace, but not totally slow either. When I cam home is when I really burned myself out. I raked leaves which I have been neglecting, cleaned out the bird's pools and huts and wrapped up hoses. By the time I finished I was done and just in time to take a shower and lay down to watch the second half of the Oregon game. They blew it, I felt like they felt just like me!

On another sport note, Channing Frye of our Blazers does a lot of community work in Portland. I have always had great respect for him for doing that. The other day I found out he also does work for the MS Society of Oregon. My respect has selfishly gone up even further! Here is his site http://www.channingfrye.com/. I really hope the Blazers can find room for Channing, he is a great guy.