Longish run and good start to the miliage week

I started out this morning not really knowing how far I would go. It ended up being a pretty long run of 8.5 miles. I kind of dragged through the whole thing, my speed was definitely no there. More than likely this was due to my diet yesterday and not getting sufficient water in me. At least that is my theory.

Today my new gloves arrived, going with white this round. Should help with visibility a bit. They are Defeet DuraGloves. They actually look better for biking than running, but I do want to have some sort of grippy surface on them and these do have that.

Thirty mile week

This week I did just over 30 miles, with a couple of good quality runs. I got a lot of the miles over in the early part of the week and even had Sunday as a rest day! I wanted to run today, which would have been my sixth running day this week, but I decided to take it as a rest day and get some chores over with. It feels good to have worked myself back almost to where I was a week before I went to Europe. In some ways I don't mind taking some time off from running and losing fitness as it gives me something to build up to.

I think I will try to plateau for a few weeks and not really add any miles, just build up a solid base. Perhaps in a month I'll make a decision on a marathon - full or half. I would really like to do another full marathon, but I don't know if it is worth the punishment and training I would want to go through. If I do it though, I for sure want to beat 4 hours, so I would want to be ready to do that. A half would be a lot better but I still would want to bust out the training. I think and under 2 hr. time would be awesome, so a solid nine minute pace throughout. I can that now for six plus miles, but it is tough. I do think I could work up to it.

Rolling ankles

I have a tendency to roll my ankles occasionally. Last week I did just that on my long run with 6 miles to go. I also have an ability to heal pretty quickly from them, maybe they are just so elastic that they expect to roll over. I do think I need to find some ankle strengthening exercises. So tonight on another night run in the rain I ran over something in the dark, and away the other ankle went. I walked it off for a block or so and was able to get back into the run. As I type it is a bit sore, but I plan to elevate and ice it tonight and see where I am. I think it will be ok. As I was thinking back to previous ankle injuries, I believe they came in pairs as well. I imagine it is because I tend to push my return to running and my gait is off.

After rolling my ankle I though that my still as undecided choice of base vrs. long run had been decided. I was wrong, I did a long run after all...

Last night I watched a basketball player roll both of his ankles in a single game. Andre Miller has played in 500 or so straight games and apparently rolls his ankles all the time. Tonight he played again, started no problem. But then he rolled one of his ankles again. He sat down, but managed to get back in and play. Pretty impressive if not stupid.

Night run

Yesterday morning I was dissapointed in myself for not dragging my but out of bed to go out for a run. All day I thought about it and wished I had gone out. So when evening hit, I thought well I should just brave the dark and go out. I am a bit apprehensive about running in the dark because of visibility issues (both me and the surface). This time of year I get even more concerned about the surface because of all the wet leaves. Not only are they slippery but cover up lots of things I will certainly trip over. But I decided I wouldn't let it bother me and headed out.

If I got into an area where I was a little worried about the surface I did sort of a high step gate until I got through it. Made it through the entire run without tripping on anything. Also didn't manage to slip on any wet leaves either, so a great run overall, at least as far as my concerns went. It was also really warm out last night as well, I was down to just a running shirt and I really didn't need my tights (but I had them on so what are you going to do.)

I did my devils run route (clocks in at 6.66 miles!) which I have to do to avoid running in the canyon when it is wet (or dark for that matter). It adds a bit of miles onto my run (which is good) and is still close to my base run. Good run.

Long run in the rain

Friday (yeah I have been procrastinating writing) I went out for what I was alternately thinking would either be a short run or a base run. Once I passed through the park (left for short, right for base) I knew it was going to be a base run. As I was heading down through the falling leaves of 37th I started to think about a long run. I have done two base runs since I was back from Europe and in the preceding three weeks I had run four times of less than five miles apiece. Was I ready for a long run? Well I was pretty rested (in general, though I had done 13 miles in the last three days but I hadn't run yesterday.) But was I ready for a long run? I doubt it, but that didn't stop me. Left for the long run and right for the base run. Left it was.

I was glad to find out that the sewer work that closed Springwater was occurring in the other direction which served as a traffic block that gave me the trail all to myself (not that there would be a lot of people in the rain.) At the end of the trail I had another choice, Left for the neighborhood of mystery (I have never been able to figure out what it is called) for a really long run or right for just a plain ole ordinary long run. Left to mystery I say! The neighborhood of mystery is anything but mysterious, but I enjoy running there none the less. Out of NoM and into Sellwood. After several blocks I turn east so I can run through the park along the golf course and wham, I roll my ankle. Crap, five miles from home and no cell phone (not that I wouldn't have run through it anyway as it didn't seem that bad. Though I had no doubt that I wasn't going to be doing it any good either...) I walked for a bit and decided it was ok enough to keep running and on I went.

Across the bridge, through W. Moreland, around Reed and up across the two bridges that span the canyon, through campus, over to Woodstock, then home. 10.72 miles in all, here is my run. Other than the ankle it was a really nice run in a gentle rain. I am really not sure what happened with rolling my ankle. I didn't hit anything in the path or slip on wet leaves. It just happened. I suppose the barefoot runners would say it was due to my shoes and perhaps they are right. Certainly came out of nowhere.

Today I am still nursing the ankle though I am sure I could go ahead and run on it as long as it was an easy run. Yesterday I woke up out of bad with a kink in my back that is really causing me grief. I suspect it had a little to do with hobbling around as again no event preceded it. Perhaps I am just falling apart. nah.

I injected my rebif on Friday and thought I haven't written about taking the medication in a long time. It has been 18 months or so that I have been on it, 234 injections. Does that qualify me for expert status? Probably not. I haven't seen a relapse of any ms symptoms, at least in a major way. I have noticed what they call pseudo symptoms where I get slight reoccurances of the seizure symptoms. It usually only happens when I am really hot and or tired, for example after I run on a warm day. It happens ever so often, say maybe once or twice a month. I can't remember the last time it happened so it has probably been at least a couple months. I had nothing during my trip the Europe, where I was a little worried the stress of the trip might cause things to act up. But nothing. Side effects for me have been minimal, I have the red spots on the injection sites on my stomach and back, but not my arms or legs. I still take a single Ibuprofen and a single Acetaminophen before I inject, for the most part I no longer get the flu like symptoms. I have noticed a bit of insomnia when I inject, but it doesn't always happen or seem that bad. No depression at all from what I can tell. Lately I have been experimenting with injecting earlier in the day to see if that helps with the insomnia and it appears to do so. I have even injected and then gone out with no ill effects or grogginess. It seems I am nearing some sort of expert status after all!

One side note, plane travel was surprisingly easy. I had a note from my doctor saying that I would need to carry it with me. I also had the box that it comes in so I could show any prescription info. I had the needles in a zip lock bag that I could easily grab and hand to security. On the way back I had filled up my little travel sharps container, so I stuck the used needles (with needle bent over and the cap reinserted over it) in a bag as well. I was nervous as I approached security and both coming and going told them about the needles. Neither of them wanted to see them and asked that I just send my back through x-ray without pulling them out. Very easy! Of course they still think I am carrying explosives in my sneakers!

Third base run in a row

This morning I set out to do a third base run of 6.5 miles in a row since coming back from Europe. It felt like it too. I was dragging for most of the run, but I kept it going although at a slow pace. I did exactly the same run as yesterday and did it four seconds faster, I couldn't believe how close they were!

One of the most irritating running things happened to me on this run. My radio died. It did yesterday as well, but it started working again. I am not sure what the deal is, maybe battery. I have been expecting it for a while. Running without music or commentary gives you a lot of time to think about stuff. I find myself doing it anyway and tuning out the sounds coming through my headphones, but running without audio input is a totally different beast for me. I really miss it!

This morning I strapped on my neutral shoes with my orthotics for the first time in awhile. It is amazing how heavy they seem after running with my Asiacs for so long. I think I will keep wearing them for a bit, mostly because they offer better traction, all so important now that the rain is bringing down the leaves.

Back from Europe

I haven't written anything for a couple weeks not for any of my usual litany of excuses, but because I went to Europe with my mom (and seven other ladies from my hometown). It was a lot of fun, but not from a running perspective. We were on a tour that took us on a mad dash through seven countries. My initial goal was to run in every country we went too, I ended up running in three. Not bad when I look back on it, I got four runs in. All of them were pretty short as we were always late in getting off of the bus and slow getting our rooms in order. My running partner didn't get much running in either while I was gone and she was in Baja for a week. So our long slow run on Sunday was mostly slow. But that is fine, we'll get back into it. It is amazing how three weeks of combined vacations sapped the conditioning out of us. We did six miles yesterday and it felt like a lot more. If it wasn't for the French bakery at the end of our run we may not have made it.

I followed that run up this morning with another six miler. I felt really good through the first half, but then started to bonk a little bit. Not bad, but I was wishing I had brought water with me. The cool air helped me quite a bit, made the run completely bearable!

My favorite run in Europe was in a valley in the Alps in a small town called Giswil. The town had just brought all the cows down from the mountains for the winter and their was a huge celebration getting ready to happen. I had managed to get back to our hotel early and before most of the others who were going to top of one of the alps. I left our hotel (which was a renovated barn) and headed out through the small town. I passed several small shops catering to locals and a resort crowd and found myself in front of a large hill with a church on the top. I figured since this was going to be my marker for the hotel, I might as well go to the top and then down. Next I found a long dirt road in between cow pastures, the sound of chiming cowbells was heavy in the air. I followed the road and moved to the side to let a slow tractor pass. The road ended at an old and small hydro electric plant that barely looked to be running. Close by a waterfall cascaded off the wall of the mountain making our valley. I found a cow trail up the side of it and got a short hill run in. After marveling at the view, I headed down and found another road that appeared to head to the main road through town. On the way, I saw a cow look up and upon seeing me let out a huge MOOOOOO followed by turning and moving my way. In moments the cow couldn't contain his excitement and he broke out into a sprint towards me which inspired the rest of the herd to do the same. Soon I had a whole contingent of running partners as they reached the edge of the pasture and the electric fence. A corner in the fence ended our fun and I stopped to say hello before continuing. About a half mile later I came across two locals running, but they were not interested at all in tourists (as was later evident in our group pointedly NOT being invited to their celebrations.) I followed them down another road and decided it was getting dark and I should head back. I decided not to backtrack completely and that I would find the hotel by following the main road, plus I always had our church on the hill to lead me home. The church turned out to be ineffective once dark quickly set it. But I continued on the main road figuring I would get back eventually. Well, on and on it went. Nothing looked familiar. Just as I was about to backtrack, there was the hotel. My great run was over.