I've been noticing that the majority of this blog lately has been about training and preparation for various events. I don't know if its unusual for people with MS to do these sorts of things or not, but I can imagine that it might not seem to some people that having MS is that big of a deal. For me, having MS is a big deal, and what I'm doing now is living the best I can while my body is allowing me to do all of these things. MS hits people differently, sometimes it hits hard and fast and never goes away to the point where someone can be active and athletic and other times it hits hard and retreats and sometimes it never hits really hard at all.
I think that how MS effects our lives depends on how we live with it, and we all live with MS the best ways we know how. I don't think that running marathons, doing triathlons and riding an insane number of miles on the bike is THE right way to live with MS, or that if people with MS did all these things they wouldn't have it so bad. This is just the right way for me to live with MS and I'm sharing and recording all of this so that when or if it gets bad again, I can go back to these posts and remember what I did so I won't have regrets about what I didn't do.
That being said... onto the latest in training....
The Boulder Half-Marathon is less than a month away and I am getting really excited/nervous. Excited because this is the culmination of months of ass kicking hard work and nervous because unlike other events I've done, I'm not as sure of myself. I don't know why, after all the work I've done I can't really say that running is my weakest area anymore. It's not my strongest, but I don't struggle to run like I used to; somewhere along the line I turned into a runner. Who knew!!! Last year when I started trying to run to get ready for the triathlons I was doing, it was hard to run even a mile let alone 3.1 miles. Now, a slow training day for me is 3.1 miles.
During my training, I haven't focused on mileage so much as time spent running. I figure, and I've read articles supporting this, that the one constant in this race is the mileage but what is not constant is the time it's going to take running the distance. There are so many variables to consider, temperature, wind conditions, road conditions, etc that it would be impossible to guarantee that I could run 13.1 miles in a set time and would therefore risk tiring out before finishing on race day. So, I'm working on being able to run for longer and longer periods of time without wanting to die. I'm up to an hour and a half and I think I can start pushing it a little harder and farther, my estimate is that it's going to take anywhere from two and a half to three hours to finish so I need to be able to run for that amount of time.
Out of all the trainings I've done in this past year, running is the hardest on my body. I've learned, often the hard way, that I have to be careful as to just how hard I can push myself without going overboard. It's frustrating because with the cycling and swimming I can go all out and not have the same issues I've had when I try going all out running.
I am getting stronger though, I no longer have the issue of my feet going numb (at least on the treadmill), and I don't get winded when I run (my heart rate no longer jumps up off the charts but stays at a nice, even cardio pace). If my feet do start to go numb, it's my body's way of telling me to slow down I'm going at it too hard, so actually its kind of a good thing my feet go numb. How many other runners have a built in setting that tells them to back off a little before getting hurt?
I've really taken advantage of the benefits a treadmill can offer; a set pace, even surface, comfortable climate... However, it is time to get back out into the elements. I think that the treadmill has strengthened my leg muscles considerably, and now it is time to get them out on the pavement where I will have to learn to keep my own steady pace and deal with the bumps and cracks in the road and wind resistance. Tomorrow I'm going out for a long run outside, instead of driving to the rec. center, I'm running to it where I'll meet up with Jeremy and the kids. It should be about half the distance of the marathon and it will be good to get out there and run it even if I'm not quite ready to make the journey back on foot. Honestly, it's not the distance that is daunting on my training runs it's the amount of time I have to spend on running. We're a busy family and I feel bad leaving my husband alone to do everything so I can spend hours running but I'm at a point where I'm going to have to in order to be ready on April 1st.
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