Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Six Sweet Miles Indoors

Running:

NSP Community Center indoor track 6.0 miles in 48:55, pace 8:09. This was just a fun run, to log a few miles and continue recovery from the marathon and two other races in the last 10 days. I let my body decide the pace, and was surprised that I felt good at this speed, which would be a PR if I maintained it for a marathon. I doubt that will happen in Austin next month, because I’ll be on thalidomide when I run that race, but maybe it can happen at Grandma’s in June. Or maybe at Avenue of the Giants in May if we decide to spend the money to run that race.

April 1, 2007 is my five-year anniversary of starting running (yep April Fool’s Day!). “They” say that an aging runner gets faster for five years before starting to slow down, but I’m dreaming that I have at least one more year of PR’s to look forward to. I hope I hope I hope. There are a couple of guys that I really want to catch.

Breathing was five footfalls per full breath, four in the last two miles. Splits: 8:22, 8:10, 8:05, 8:13, 8:13, 7:52.

Myeloma:

Yesterday's blog was a downer. But the doctor did give us some good news too (Eagle Momma always goes with me):

(1) My "M" spike (naughty protein) is still quite low, in fact low enough that Doc is not yet concerned about bone damage from the malignant white cells. He doesn't even think that an x-ray skeletal survey is worth the trouble just yet; may that decision not come back to bite me.

(2) My myeloma is technically classified as a variant called "light chain disease," which is not good because the light chains are tiny proteins in the blood that clog up essential organs like the kidneys and the heart muscles. But it appears that the light chains are secreted at an unusually low level, so they are not causing any damage, and are still not even detectible in the urine after three and a half years of monitoring. This is a statistical anomaly, but a very welcome one.

Research happens, hope prevails, time is on my side, live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece. I alway feel better after a run.

1 comment:

Danielle said...

Thank God for running and the great feeling we can have after it.

So you're going to do Grandma's...wow you do a lot of marathons too. I have a friend that is 62 and signed up for 10 so far this year...he hit 140 at Disney. I'm doing Grandma's with a specific goal in mind, now I just have to find a place to stay!