Enjoyable long run

Sunday was time for another long slow run. I usually enjoy these runs quite a bit, slow relaxed pace, good conversation, the joy of covering lots of miles.
This was an especially enjoyable one. It was relatively warm, the sun was mostly out, there were a lot of runners out, my running partner brought her new dog who is adjusting well to me and others. All the makings for a nice run and a great day.

We headed up to Lief Erickson trail in Forest Park, a mile and a half of uphill neighborhood running before we got to the trail head. We like this trail with the Declan as it is a wide hard packed dirt road that allows him room to avoid others if he gets spooked. It also has quarter mile markers all along the way which is nice and needed when you forget your watch (I felt naked without my constant stream of numbers to look at, but that also added to the relaxation of the run.)

Our run was punctuation with frequent stops to see other dogs and people. Declan did great and had a really good time, tail out for most of the time. We joked about my running partner telling the tale of Declan's rescue over and over again, she has it down to an elevator pitch. I could have heard it a hundred more times that day. At three miles up the trail we turned around and headed back. It was a little muddy that day but not as bad as it has been in the past. It is sort of fun getting mud all over yourself, makes you feel like a warrior. Speaking of, a run that would be fun, but I doubt I will do it: Warrior Dash.

Down the trail and back to the car we headed to the running store to see if we could get them to honor a coupon that we no longer had, but we got the wrong sales person, grrr. So new shoes for her and new socks for me are going to wait. Next came sushi again, I love the train of food that passes you constantly. After dropping Declan off we headed to Best Buy to get her a replacement laptop for the one that just died. The almost half off deal was a nice capper for the day (for me anyway, she still had manure to buy which wouldn't fit int he car with me so I got away with not helping, I tried!)

Anyway, great run.

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.