Running to defeat MS (symptoms)

My last run was Friday 12/7. Only 3 miles after around a week of taking it easy... On that Sunday the 9th my knee pain prevented me from going 200 yds of my 6.5 mile training run. Ugh. Hopefully only a minor setback though, right? I tried running again today after two weeks of being free from knee pain and I had to stop - again. This time after a half mile. My knee is clicking, at first I thought it was my shoelace or something - but it definitely is not. It is time to seek professional advice. This is really disheartening and I just turned 40! Salt in the wounds... Well anyway, as a late birthday present I was able to secure a Dr's appointment with a sports medicine doc, a local orthopedic surgeon tomorrow! Yay! I'm so glad I don't have to wait a month to try to get some answers. This certainly means I will need more time before running again which is terrible news. But I have to reaffirm to myself that my goal is to run for life, not just to train for Boston in Apri...

It has been killing me lately that I have not reached my goals for weekly mileage, speed training, etc. But, I do have to listen to my body and it is telling me to slow down. Fortunately the cool program at runcoach.com was able to adapt and adjust my training plan to suit where I am right now with my running. I toned down my weekly mileage from 26 to 16, which is accurate. I turned off the speed work at the track and added an easy run instead of a threshold run each week. Now: Sunday - long run Monday - off Tuesday - pace run Wednesday - cross/swim Thursday - easy run Friday - easy run Saturday - cross This looks great it is exactly what I needed to preserve my motivation and dynamically modify my routine. I am going to aim for slowly increasing my mileage once again. And, even more important, I am excited again! Instead of a mega speed workout at the track today, which I might have skipped/avoided I now .75 warm up  .75 cool down and an uptempo 3 m...

It is taking longer than I thought. I don't know what happened between my great time in the half-marathon and trying to up my mileage to prepare for a marathon. I guess I knew it would be hard, but my body seems to be letting me down. I have probably tried to move too fast in adding speed work. I am slowing down and trying to run about 75-80% of my planned mileage starting today. Looks like my schedule has a light week this week, so I will follow it and see how I feel for my long run on Sunday. This past Sunday was the first time I've missed doing any miles on Sunday and hopefully represents just a single low point on my road to recovery! 4 miles today, ran in my Newtons. Probably shouldn't have changed my shoes :( my hip flexors were getting sore at the end, but not too bad. My right foot went numb though, felt like I only had a club for a foot. I don't remember that feeling since my first ever 5k a few years ago which I didn't train for at all. Sucked, I had t...

Listening to my body, felt all out of whack last week, I was probably running too fast, moving to my new Newtons too fast, running too far, not rested enough... or something. But my body was telling me it didn't feel good so it was really hard but I took a week off! Also at some point last week I ran out of one of my meds for a couple days. I have since refilled it and one of my trouble spots - sore hips on waking up, is gone. The whole experience left me feeling out of balance, like one foot was striking harder than the other, one hip was more sore, opposite knee was sore... So I started to go to a Chiropractor this week. Couple visits, a nice adjustment to my neck, and going over the X-Rays. I'm not sure I buy this 100% but I am giving it a shot. The X-Rays showed my lumbar spine was twisted, rotated slightly and off center. My cervical spine was straight, none of the expected curve - maybe from too much computer time. And some temperature measuring devices looking for diff...

A lot has happened in the short few weeks since my half marathon. I have to keep going back to the feeling of completing the race in goal time for motivation... I started using runcoach.com after my friend Scott and his wife recommended it to me. At the same time I decided to get serious about training for the Boston Marathon. The starting line is only a few miles away and I will be 40 next year, so why not?! Not sure if I've discussed my plan to try to secure an official number in the marathon. So here they are: Sponsorship from Biogen - my neighbor is former marketing director for Avonex, the drug I am on. He said he would bring it up with his replacement and try to create some momentum. I haven't seen him for a month, so no progress there. Available bib from a soccer mom on my son's team that I coach. Talked to her two days ago, she asked about #1 and I said nothing yet. So she is going to ask her friend if I can have the number. Fingers crossed! My new plan...

All of my hard work and preparation started to really come through in the last mile of my half marathon yesterday. I was surprisingly emotional for the last half mile or so, I actually started crying. I was just so happy my training had paid off, I felt good, I had conquered obstacles and I was about to fulfill my goal time! It was the greatest and one of the strangest feelings I've ever had. I was thinking of my wife and son there waiting for me at the line. About my MS and heart issues. I was thinking how great it was that I was picking up the pace to about 8:14 to close it out. I started to feel massive waves of emotion, I was so happy I think I had a big smile and tears were welling up. I crossed the clock at 2:00:55 and knew I was probably just under 2:00! I think I am officially addicted to running. Still, aiming for the Boston Marathon in April feels a little daunting but after the last 3 months of training I'm sure the right program will get me there. But that is th...

So much running, so little time to blog! School started and so did soccer for my son. I'm the coach so there goes one afternoon, soccer is mostly at 2pm so there goes another whole day! Ok, enough of that, onto the running which is my reason for the blog! Since it has been almost three weeks my major update has to be that I managed to complete the entire training program and all that is left is the half-marathon! I have been feeling for weeks that I will not be able to make my goal of a 2:00 marathon. Most of my long runs are like 10:20-10:40 minutes/mile. I can run faster, but I tire out quicker - no big surprise, right? My friend is encouraging me, saying that the taper-down at the end of the program will help and I should be able to run 30 seconds faster easy. I dunno, I certainly don't feel like it - I am at the point where my mind may be my worst enemy. Which would be different - I am an optimist, and i'm confident in my running ability. For some reason running fas...

I never thought I would be able to say at the end of my short runs for the week - that I feel great! Sunday I ran 10 miles in 1:43 and that felt great, I even pushed my last mile and it was the fastest mile of the ten, so I was feeling really good. Tired, a little sore, but no real knee or plantar pain. What a great feeling :). The next day is where I ran into several problems and learned some lessons that I will not be in a rush to repeat. This was Labor day but my Avonex nurse was coming out to help me with the Avonex Pen for the first time. The past few months I was using the pre-filled syringe and manually injecting. I had done one, with problems, last week after just viewing the video. I didn't get the needle on tight enough and when I turned the injector over to get it ready for my leg... the needle dropped onto the floor! Needless to say I couldn't use that needle, so I did the injection using one of the other packages the next day. She went over the usual, mostly...

It is really good news that I've worked out my kinks from the previous few weeks. All last week and so far this week I am feeling nag-free! Especially great since I ran my furthest - 9 miles on this past Sunday. Here let's see if I can paste it in from garminconnect. I ran into a friend on my 9 mile run and would have liked to stop but instead I just kept running, I was in the zone! I'm sure she understands. So, on the negative side I am still fighting with occasional flare-ups of the MS. They are coming in two different angles. First, my back parasthesia is sometimes problematic, but this seems to be almost 100% related to lack of sleep. Which is odd because I sleep well, but I'm pretty busy and usually up too late reading a book... The other is also parasthesia which is affecting my arms and hands. The way I would describe is that it feels like my hand or arm is wet, when it is not! It's discomforting and worrisome, but not completely unexpected - it is just...

Longest run today - 8 miles. Still on pace for half marathon end of September. New shoes felt great, same as the old shoe, but after 225 miles they were making my right knee feel a little sore. Today, mild soreness in the middle of the run but when i picked up my cadence it went away!

Last Tuesday I ran 7 miles in fairly hot humid weather and I felt great! Followed up with shorter runs during the week and was hoping to be ready for 8 on Sunday. However, when I got out on the road on Sunday I just didn't feel right. I turned it around at 1.5 miles and settled for a 3 mile day. My legs were tight and sore, my left plantar fascia was acting up, my right quad was stiff... All seemed to indicate to me that I should slow down. So, in order to motivate myself, and possibly even as a solution to my nagging spots I went over to Marathon Sports in Wellesly, MA to get new shoes. Talking to my best friend who is an avid runner on vacation I thought I would look at a pair of Newton running shoes as we noticed I have a fairly good midfoot strike and generally good running form. My old Brooks Adrenaline's were noticeably worn on the forefoot and I certainly felt like I wasn't getting the cushioning they originally had. Maybe that is part of the reason I'm fee...

Things are going well as far as running. I upped the pace and hills last week while running with my friend Scott in Maine. Even though we were on vacation and running through the hills, kept it fast and pushed myself. It really makes a big difference to have someone pushing you harder. I loved it and hated it! Twelve runs for the month of July for a total of 44 miles and 2,400 ft elevation gain. Thanks to garminconnect.com and my new watch for give me fun figures and gadgets to motivate me. There are not as many cool colors and icons as nike+ but I love having the convenience of just a watch, no headphones, armband with iPhone and bounciness in my ears. I still like to run with music so I will continue to try to find the perfect headphones. I'm looking to keep increasing my distance in August and push it hard to be ready for the half marathon at the end of September. I still haven't registered though.

I finished my first 10k which I am quite proud of! Unfortunately I started out at too fast a clip and bonked after 3 miles :( My plan was to run at nice slow 9:50 pace, what actually happened was quite different! I ran   out at 8:20 pace with the over-enthusiastic crowd and felt good for a few miles on a massively humid 85 degree evening. I bonked at three miles and walked for about a 12 min pace in the middle mile. Then I felt a bit better, but still defeated by the heat. My body was overheating, I had chills down my back - thank you to my MS... I finished up at around 10:20 for the last two miles for a total of 61:00. I am happy with that, I now have run two races recently and gone out too fast and hit the wall. The heat probably doesn't help. Now, back to my feet. After a month and a lot of bandages and 2nd skin, they are back to normal. I have adapted my barefoot plan to simply incorporate more minimalist running, stretching and foot massage and exercises to increase foot str...

I was feeling good on my short run on Saturday so I took off my shoes and ran the last .5 miles home. Apparently my foot parasthesia prevented me from receiving good feedback on my form during the last 1/2... My feet ended up with huge blisters and I have been out of commission since. Today, I can walk with barely any pain, so that is nice. Perhaps it will not give me feeling back in my feet after all :). But. I am not ready to give up yet. Next time I will try to focus more on the feedback from my soles and work on being lighter on my feet. One week until 10k at Gillette! I should be well rested if anything!

All was going well until I sliced my right middle toe open! Noticed my toe hurting right at the end after running across 6 lanes barefoot :( I guess that was a bad idea... Looked at the bottom of my foot and a dime size flap of skin was ripped off the bottom of my toe. Under it, a nice jagged rock! Felt better after removing the rock. But, I guess I need some minimalist footwear.. or to be careful where I am putting my feet, or not cross those wide main streets in Sunnyvale... My legs feel BETTER after getting out of my hiking boots. I am going to get a pair of trail minimalist shoes. I tried on some Merrell Trail Glove shoes at some big sports store in San Jose. Almost bought them, but they were $110 and I'm still not sure where I am going with my barefoot quest...

Almost bought a pair of Merrel Trail Gloves today because I want to be able to run further in barefoot mode, you know, with a forefoot strike and curling up my toes to absorb the impact. But, I decided I would just work on a month or so of just adding in a barefoot run into my normal run routine. This should help me slowly build up strength in my crammed dead toes. I just can't see being able to run except if I take it slow. And  though I want to improve my form, I just can't do it in my Brooks Adrenalines. I have to lean too far forward to forefoot strike with these things on. But I don't want to start over because I am aiming for my first 10k on July 3rd. So I have two weeks to keep going, then a few weeks before half-marathon preparation time. The previous two days I wore my Merrel light hikers and have been suffering from lower back pain until taking two blue Alleve's earlier. I noticed some knee pain as well. I just decided to wear my running shoes into the off...

I was thinking about how I could log my experience as I enter into a new era of my own physical well-being and remembered I already have a blog!! So, I want to set this up to tell the story as it happens. I need to fill in some background so that my quest is understood - continue to run, bike and be active while reducing pain and hopefully eliminating pain from MS symptoms. The big adventure is to try to incorporate barefoot running into my routine and see if it is able to reduce or eliminate the pain in my feet that I have had since months before my final diagnosis. Feet: they are in a constant state of mild pain, burning sensation, it seems like sitting, tight shoes or just going through a day make them worse. Culminates in me lying in bed with a couple degrees more discomfort in my feet and looking forward to falling asleep. They feel better in the morning, or else I just am not thinking about it as much and barely notice. Clearly I am able to block out the ongoing pain for shor...