Exercise and ms

I just read an interesting article called Exercise Helps Protect Brain Of Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Apparently tests were done on people who were physically fit as opposed to those who weren't and several differences were noted. Fit msers performed significantly better on tests of cognitive function and showed less damage in parts of the brain that show deterioration as a result of MS, as well as a greater volume of vital gray matter. Whoo hoo! I knew that all this running was doing something positive as far as the ms was concerned.

"We found that aerobic fitness has a protective effect on parts of the brain that are most affected by multiple sclerosis," said Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

"As a result, these fitter patients actually show better performance on tasks that measure processing speed."

"Physically fit MS patients had fewer lesions compared to those who weren't as fit and the lesions they did have tended to be smaller," Prakash said. "This is significant and can help explain why the higher-fit patients did better on tests of brain functioning."

Aerobic fitness was also associated with less-damaged brain tissue in MS patients, both the gray matter and white matter.

"For a long time, MS patients were told not to exercise because there was a fear it could exacerbate their symptoms," she said.

"But we're finding that if MS patients exercise in a controlled setting, it can actually help them with their cognitive function."

To me this old school of thinking just illustrates how little we know about the brain and ms, good to hear we are learning more all the time. I have to wonder how on track (or how far off) the scientific community is in their current thinking especially when it comes to drug therapy. I do know that since I have been on rebif I haven't had another set of symptoms pop up so that is a positive. But I wonder is that the drug or just the disease? I have heard of several people who have gone off of their drugs (different ones that they were on, not just rebif) and their symptoms flared up, so maybe it is the drugs.

I feel very positive that we will see a cure in the coming years, it seems like a lot of ms research (seen in my admittedly peripheral view) has been making great progress towards therapy and understanding of this disease. I also think that we have seen an increase in the disease whether that has been diagnosis or an actual increase I don't now. But basically ms has become the disease to have! This popularity can only mean more funding for research which will obviously lead to advancement in treatments like the new ms pill that is on the market (though I have heard plenty of bad things about it, though it sure would be nice to not have to give injections to myself...)

Six miles of recovery and new shoes

This morning I got a nice leisurely recovery run in which was needed after the long Sunday run and yesterday's speed work. The weather has been dry for the last couple weeks so I have been able to run on the dirt trails in the canyon which has been nice these last couple of days. The geese welcomed me back with a loud How Do You Do.

Last night I checked the miles on my shoes that I have been wearing. They have been giving me a bit of foot pain especially in the front of my feet. This in itself isn't a definite sign of needing new shoes especially with my ms-y feet, but I haven't looked at my total mileage in awhile. Sure enough I was over 600 miles on this pair which is pretty much way over when the shoe stores tell you its time for new shoes. I have had really good look with the Asics Kayanos, looking over my past shoes I have taken several over 600 miles total. Spend a little more, get a little more out of them.

This is the first time I have worn the new models (well new to me - kayano 15, they might even be on 16 now). The first day is hard to tell much from them but they feel good so far. Snug and solid in construction. This model has a new lacing method that I had read good things about, we'll see how it works for me. I am curious to see if they deal with the wet weather better than the 14s. I would get a little slippage with them on wet roads. So another test for another day, soon as the rain started again a little after I got home this morning. I stuck in a pair of Hapad inserts that I got as a sample, their new sport cloud inserts (so new they aren't even on their site yet.) www.hapad.com

Longish Sunday run and Monday speed work

Sunday was a really nice run up Lief Erickson trail with my running partner and my newest partner, her new dog Declan. Declan is 2 year old Irish Setter who was rescued from a show breeder who couldn't show him due to some teeth issues. Well his teeth didn't keep him from running with us and he did a great job. He has been having some nervousness issues with the new home especially when it comes to new people. He did really well, only getting spooked a couple of times by bikes. It was great having him with us!

Our run was nine miles, the first half was all up hill. It always a great relief to hit the halfway point in this run when you can turn around and go back down the same way. We didn't really target any sort of heart rate mostly just wanting to get Declan out to see how he would do. So it was a nice leisurely pace and run than ended with a bunch of sushi for your recovery meal which I found to be surprisingly agreeable in those terms. I felt really good after and didn't eat again until later that evening.

Today I headed out to the track for a little speed work. I ran a couple miles of straights and curves, I suspect I did more than eight sets as I think I lost count of the laps. I haven't dived into my report yet. One frustrating thing with the Garmin is I am having a hard time getting the laps to reset. Sometimes it is not a problem and all I need to do is press the button, other times it doesn't seem to work. Not sure what is going on, but it is quite frustrating. The laps I did get all found me running under six minute miles on the straights which makes me pretty happy.

Track work

Wow, what a beautiful warm day. I decided to head over to the track and run some 440 intervals which I have never done before. My plan was to do 440 at a just below all out, slower than I do my straights and curves. The I would cool down for 220 and start over again. I had it in my plan to do six of them and see where I was. So after 2 and a quart mile fast warm up I jumped in. I of course started too fast which is typical for me if there are people at the track. Slower runners don't phase me, but the damn long legged sprinters really bring it out in me. Especially when they are cute and compliment me on my pace!

So my third and fourth 440s turned out to be slower and the fifth was downright plodding. So when I cam around for the start of the sixth I said "aw forget it" and just did a lap to cool down a bit before I headed back for the 2.5 mi return. With a wave from my sprinter friend I head off the track and on my way home.

The last 2.5 I kept a reasonable pace up, the HR was pretty steady and high until the last mile or so when I slowed to a crawl to really cool down. Great run all in all.

Tempo followed by recovery

Yesterday I ran an eight mile tempo run, well the second through sixth miles were anyway, I started out with a half mile warm up and then picked it up for a sub 8:30 pace for the next 5.5. It went well was I felt strong throughout, My pace dropped a bit for mile four which is up hill for half of it, but I only lost 15 seconds averaged through the mile split, then back under goal for two more miles. The HR was obviously pretty high though this in the 160s for the first three miles and then over 175 for the next three on avg. I had to push it through this fast 5.5 and then spent the next mile and first of two in a cooldown going up hill and still keeping a relatively high heart rate. The last mile and a half was really slow (12 min miles) and I kept my HR around 150 or less.

I saw a barefoot runner go by and chatted at him for a bit. he told me he had heard that Vibram runners have been cutting the heels out of them. He didn't own a pair and was doing it full on barefoot. Said he might get some for the really hot weather.

After my hard run in the afternoon, I got up pretty early and went out again for a recovery run of six miles. It was slow going and a really good recovery run with very little time spent over my recover ceiling and a lot of it under by 5 beats or more. Boring run, slow run but a totally successful one. Recovery done, time for another quality run tomorrow! Maybe an AeT run with an HR around 160?

Long Saturday run

After getting some hours in for a client I headed out towards Mount Tabor. I needed to get a quality run in of some sort, be it a tempo, long run or hills. I ended up combining all three. My plan was to head to the volcano first, originally I set out to just do the eight mile loop to the top which includes 4.5 miles of low grade elevation change and 3 miles of hills and half mile loop at the summit. I brought a Clif Shot gel along and a bag of Sharkies but I made the mistake of not bringing enough water with me, something I paid for later.

Mount Tabor was a bit muddy but not too bad. There were a couple of spots that really need to dry out.I hit the climbs pretty hard and made it to the top without stopping. HR was pretty high but I kept it under 170 for the most part as I was going pretty slow.

On the first steep part to the caldera I decided I'd like to try out the first long run I did when I was marathon training. My Ipod Sport then told me it was 13.1+ total but I always thought it exaggerated. So this has been a run I wanted to measure with the Garmin and see what I came up with. I tried to stay with the same route, but I did have to go checkout the off leash area and see if it was fully fenced in (it isn't). At the top I gobbled and mocha gel and chewed a few sharkies. Even at this point I knew I was not going to have enough water. For some reason I passed up a water fountain, I think I had a good pace going and just cruised by.

There are some good downhills on this run too, but they wood chip several of the trails and I find those better to run down on than hard packed dirt (or mud for that matter). Once I was off the volcano I headed west and north for 25 blocks each direction and did a loop around Laurelhurst Park, one of my favorite parks in Portland (Mount Tabor is my fav). Time to head back. I had a couple more sharkies at the park as well as the last of my water, again I foolishly passed fountains. When I realized I still had four more miles to go to go along with my lack of water I should have gone back through the park but I was sick of hills and it would add another.

Reed college is directly south of Laurelhurst. I headed off through the Belmont business area as well as Hawthorne's where. Across Division and I was in the Clinton neighborhood where a buddy of mine used to live (great parties). I veered west again for a bit so I could cross Powell by Lincoln track. I almost did a few laps there so I could fill up my water bottle. Anymore running though was out of the question. So I popped some more sharkies and continued to plod on.

Past the Wimbledon is fun apartments I came up on Reed. There was a lacrosse practice going on. I passed them and headed for the east bridge. I powered across it pretty fast though in reality I was going pretty slow. I kept my HR at 160 which was high, but I didn't really want to go over than. It had been pretty high all run. Campus was sort of quiet and as I passed a few walkers I came upon two water fountains, but they were turned off. So I hit the final uphill climb, at least I didn't have any extra water weight to deal with. I really slowed down as I was truly feeling done at this point. I made it up the first hill only going over 160 at the very last steep part but I had to go really slowly. After the last hill the light didn't give any reprieve either. I had to pick up the pace to make it before it changed. The last mile was a killer, I was really feeling the lack of water as well as the hills in my legs. I passes the same old houses I always run by but I the lack of water was making my head sort of swim, and a lot of the houses looked like I had never run past them. Spring slowly popping out all over didn't help my dementia either!

I turned into Woodstock park and decided to check the fountains there. The bathroom were all still "Closed for Season" so I was skeptical. It had been really warm this winter, so I had some hope. I spied a brand new fountain over near the play area and thought I'll check it out. As I twisted the knob on the dry bowl I was all ready to be disapointed, but water came out! Even though I was only about a half mile from home I felt like I was saved. I decided not to turn the timer back on and guzzled some water, I was done.

I did a little stretching when I got home but mostly I wanted to eat. We had pizza and I had my eye on it. But first a shower.

Speed workout that should have been a recovery

This week I have gotten off schedule mostly do to a high workload in the ole non-running life. How dare it interfere! Tuesday I did a tempo run that really should have been a recovery run, but I felt it was ok as I took Monday off. Same thing happened today. I did a speed workout that should of been a recovery day but I took Wednesday off so it wasn't too crazy of a run. Tomorrow I definitely plan on a recovery run and I mean it!

I ran to the track which gave me a good 2.25 mile warm up. I pushed it towards the end of that, but not too hard. At the track I took off my jacket and water bottle and made the mistake of not turning my watch timer back on. I did six laps of straights and curves before I realized it. I was so mad as I really wanted to look at the numbers. The heart rate monitor was going during it so I got to at least watch the numbers, but I have pretty much forgotten most of it. I was getting up to 180 on the straights and then back down to 150 before I set off again. I felt pretty good about that, but I think I pushed it a bit too hard at the start. I was sprinting more than just running fast. Felt good to sprint, would have liked to ogle the pace number if I had them, grrrr.

I added another mile before I headed home. I was pretty beat by the time I got halfway home but kept plodding along although slowly. Good workout!

Time left 'til spring races

I have five weeks before the Shamrock Run 15k and nine weeks until the Race for the Roses Half Marathon. What to do with those weeks? I want to keep between 30 and 40 miles a week, but more toward the 30 end. I think this week may well be my high mileage week this spring at 39.5 miles. So If I drop off my miles I would still want to do five weekly runs. If I keep my long Sunday run to around 10 miles, that leaves me with 25 or so to split up for the other four runs.

Possible workouts:
AeT/Speed
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - 7 AeT
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 7 speed
Friday - 5 rc
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10 lsd

OR
tempo/hill week
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - 7 tempo
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 6 rc
Friday - 6 hills
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10+ lsd

OR
Long tempo week
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 9 tempo
Thursday - 5 rc
Friday - 6 aet
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10 lsd

I think I will start out with an AeT/speed week (since last week was hills). This way I can do a long tempo the following week and get it lined up for Shamrock Run 15K three weeks after that to be the second long tempo run.

Then four weeks after Shamrock I have the Race for the Roses Half. I could spend those weeks building up mt LSD runs to get to 13 or so and a taper.

Four weeks of possible workouts pre-half:
March 15-21 Hills & 11 lsd
March 22-28 Speed/AeT & 12 lsd
March 29 - April 4 Tempo & 13 lsd
April 5-10 Taper
April 11 Race for the Roses Half

After the half I have two weeks before the Sean's Run 10K which is going to be tricky to plan ahead for. I think I'll a speed/AeT workout for teh first week, then a tempo/AeT workout the week of the race. I do think the race week should be light on effort/mile overall.

I say all this and it will probably change as the races come up. I am getting excited for it. It is like an actual season for me. I am seriously thinking about a July full marathon in San Francisco. What a great cap for a racing year.

13+miles, hers and mine

Today was a long run day both for me and my running partner. The only difference is we were in different states, she running the San Francisco Half Marathon, me running the Cemetery 13 run as I like to call it.

First off the main event, my running partner finished the half in 2:03:49. Amazing! I am so proud of her. She worked really hard to make it happen and she did it. An average pace under 9:30, way to go! I don't know too many details of her race, I am sure I will though as we are planning a celebration dinner this week. Man, I am so psyched for her!

So the half of today's running that I can account for was my run up Mt Scott along and through the Lincoln Cemetery. The run starts out with my typical path through East Moreland neighborhood to the Springwater Corridor. I took a little detour to check out this weird little spot where two creeks come together. It is a circular area with old stone walls that is tucked into a dead-end area at the end of the street. One of the creeks drops about 10 feet to meet the other in a little waterfall. Recently the city restored the creek bed before the waterfall and widened it. It isn't as dramatic anymore, but still neat. The last time I was there the area was completely overgrown making it a really secret spot, but it looks like someone has done some work on the area. Not so secret anymore I guess.

On the Springwater Corridor usually take this path toward downtown for some of my standard longer runs, but for this one I head east. The trail is pretty flat and offers a nice path with few street crossings. I stay on it for roughly three miles before I turn off taking a road that crosses under the freeway and up, up, up the hill. The next three miles are all uphill and a great hill workout. I was trying to do an aerobic threshold (AeT) workout and keep my heart rate in lower zone two, or somewhere around 147-151 bpm. Going up the hill was really slow going in order to keep my HR down, but I did a pretty decent job of it with one steep exception where it climbed over 160. The hill runs through a neighborhood and eventually through the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery. If there is no fog you get a really nice view of the city, however all I got was a nice view of a thick gray blanket, I could barely see a few blocks behind me. The downside of this run is that the road up doesn't have any sidewalks for most of the way and the road shoulder is very slight. I kept finding myself moving to the wet grass to avoid traffic, it wasn't that bad but not a traffic situation I would normally want to run in. Near the top of the hill there is a huge newer development and legally they have to put in sidewalks, so I had them for a quarter mile or so. The hill starts to make the turn down into Happy Valley when I turned around.

For my downhill journey I decided to run through the cemetery. I wasn't going to as I don't know how visitors would feel about that. But the prospect of the crappy sidewalk-less road made me reconsider. Fortunately nobody was around, I guess it was too early and church time as well. I circled the outer rim of the cemetery. It struck me as somewhat odd that I was paying so much attention to my beating heart among all these hearts that were no longer beating. I passed by their Oregon Korean War Veterans memorial and thought of my dad's contributions to that war. He wasn't happy about it but drove his trucks as he was asked to do. He told me many stories about timing his supply runs ahead of mortar fire, scary.

At mile ten or so I was off the hill and no longer pounding my knees. Both of them felt a little tender when I stopped at a traffic light awaiting my walk signal. I had a run in with a litterbug that got my HR up (funny, I could see the exact moment on the report when it happened) where I got to use my favorite litterbug line "Excuse me, I think you dropped something (thank you Cindy for the life lesson! I have never forgotten it.) Unfortunately (for the world) I don't think I made much of an impact on this clown.

I made my way back again targeting my lower zone 2 until the last 3/4 miles where I decided to pick it up and but out nine minute miles. I was able to keep it going pretty steadily for that last bit despite my bodies exhaustion. I think I was more happy about that part than any. Maybe it was because it was the first time on the run I wasn't holding back. Hopefully I didn't undo the good I had been struggling through for the last couple hours+ for.

My final numbers: 13.47 mi 2:22:43.

Recovery day

After my hill training yesterday I decided to keep with my heart rate plan of following heavy days with a recovery day where I target my recovery ceiling of 70% of max. These runs can be agonizingly boring and they take what seems like forever. But the goal of being able to do more hard runs in a week with the rest I am getting form these recovery runs is worth it. Tomorrow I am taking a full day off. Part of me wants to do another recovery run, but I have plans for a 13 miler for Sunday before the super bowl, this way I'll feel like I earned my chips! So today I did just over six miles in 1:04. Pretty slow, but I am actually pretty happy with the speed I am able to attain and still keep the hr under 143 (my 70%). The one thing I notice is that these runs tend to strain my Achilles tendon a bit and they are usually a bit sore after.

Two lonely runs

My running partner is in her taper week before the San Francisco Half Marathon this weekend so I have been on my own. It is amazing how dependent you become on a running partner when you run regularly with them. The runs seem so boring if I am not yacking away with her. I used to run with music all the time, or with the radio, but I have been spoiled! They are no substitute!

So my first lonely run was a recovery run where I did my best to keep my heart rate at or near 70% of max (recovery ceiling) which for me is 143 bpm. On the run I was really happy with how well I did keeping it relatively steady. The reports I got when i got home showed more variation than I would have liked, but that is ok. I was also really happy with how fast I could go without going over that, at least for the first half. At one point I was able to keep up a sub 9 minute mile pace for several blocks before it started creeping up. The hills were torturous, I really had to slow down for them, but I was successful at keeping the hr down. Toward the end as I ran through the Reed campus class was just getting out. I was crawling along, but I decided to check the ego at the door and just do what I was supposed to. I was really tempted to jet past several smokers, can't believe how many people still smoke. The run took forever, 1:26 for 8 miles but it felt pretty good. Despite the slow pace my legs were pretty sore.

So this morning after my slow run yesterday, I figured today was time for some pain! My plan was to do my hill run in Eastmoreland. I started out with a mile of warmup then hit the hills. Three blocks down, one block over and three blocks up. For the most part the pattern goes three blocks of hills, then five recovery blocks (one over, three down, one over to the next hill) so essentially I just criss-cross blocks along this ridge. On the hill portions I really step on the gas and try to do them as hard as I can. I maxed out my hr at 180 today, spending a lot of time in the upper 170s. The thing I am most happy with is is my hr drops considerably on the recovery portions, at times all the way into the 120s, mostly mid 130s.

This being the second time I have done this workout, I was especially excited to compare the two runs. Unfortunately I realized that they were really not identical as the first time I had run down to Reed to use the bathroom. Also they are doing sewer construction and on different blocks, so that sort of messed me up a little bit as well. But I was able to compare pace and hr. This time I did the run a bit faster and got my hr up higher. I still want o comb over the numbers and see how the recoveries compared. I just love the data you get out of the Garmin.

Speaking of the Garmin Forerunner 405, I just figured out how to customize all of my displays as well as my heart rate zones. Pretty slick. I am not going to go into how to do it, suffice it to say it is all in the manual and is surprisingly simple to do. I love this watch.

ms Monday

I have written so much about running in this blog that I often forget about the ms part. Not a bad thing I am sure! So today I did my rebif injection in my right thigh ending a string of my four favorite injection sites (LR stomach, LR thigh). Seems sort of funny to have favorite injection sites, but that's how it goes. For the first year and a half or so that I was taking rebif (going on year two now) I followed Serono's advice of taking it before bed to mitigate the side effects - flu-like symptoms. Those have seemed to tapered off (though I still take a single acetaminophen and a single ibuprofen). I also started to notice that I was having some trouble sleeping at nights I took it. So with occasionally running in the evenings, I often wouldn't take it until around 9AM which was getting too late for me. So I started experimenting with taking it in the afternoon. This has worked out fine even on nights where I was running afterward or even going out for a beer or two. The only change I have made to my routine with these afternoon shots has been to also take an additional Ibuprofen at night. I probably should be very consistent with the times I shoot the rebif, but life gets in the way and sometimes I think my schedule will only allow me to get the three shots in with 44-52 hours between injections. As long as I get my three shots in a week then I feel like I am doing myself good and taking care of this stupid ole ms. But this is not medical advice, just reality advice. Just another ms Monday, wish it were Sunday.