About my journey to remission

[moremuscle]

The following is also copied from the thread on the Main Message board:

Hi friends,

Wow - what a group you are!! I want to bring you all along next time I go - Thank you very much for all the heart warming congrats

Nice picture, PEG!!

Lucy, it was great to hear about your swimming - it's the first time I've heard about it. Awesome. Do you know, I can hardly swim breast stroke at all - never learned how to swim as a child and later I was too shy to take lessons. Perhaps soon I will want to so I can try a Tri-Athlon LOL!!

Polly, I am sure the thought behind starting the race so early is a purely commercial interest; if they started later we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel over night - lost income for the Myrtle Beach businesses. It's a good source of income for Myrtle Beach in an off season month.

Well, I was actually paranoid about my eating and possible energy depletion during the race. I think I had read too much about what can happen if you run out of glycogen while running such long distances. I didn't want to eat much before racing because of two things: First, I didn't want to be too full - I have experienced that in the past and it slows me down and makes it hard to breath right. Second, I was afraid that because of the nervousness and being away from home that if I ate too much I would run the risk of needing to have a BM at an inconvenient time - right before the start or worse even, during the race. Thus I had decided not to eat much before the race - in fact, I ate only half a banana and a cup of mixed tomatosoup/chickenbroth that I had heated in the microwave in the Hotel room. But by the time the race started I had already been up for two hours and most of the energy from the meal had already started dwindling away.
There were water/gatoraid stations every 2 miles but I never touch gatoraid so I was having water only. Also, my team mates use a fast type of energy that is called GU - it cosists mainly of some fast acting dextrines etc that I can't have because of my intolerances. IOW, I can't use the same kind of energy sources they use. I felt tired and slow early on in the race - but perhaps most of it was due to paranoia - I was really afraid I was going to crash in the middle of the race; so I chose to start eating small bites of a Larabar that I had in my tight-pocket; I was afraid of doing that too because I know that food sometimes trigger a BM - of course I did not NEED that.

Everything turned out OK after all - but the fear of crashing etc certainly weighed heavily on my mind during the race; I didn't really need those negative thoughts but I couldn't help having them.

During my training I have never had that fear - and I have been able to run the long runs w/o problems; but of course one's mind freaks out when under higher pressure.

I need to figure out how to make a drink that will give me some energy during longer runs - I will have to practise carrying the bottle while running. Do you engineers and medical doctors have any suggestions as to how to make a drink with water being the main ingredient and some source of glucose and sodium to replace electrolytes?

I am not sure why those fears became so monumental in my mind that morning - but they did.

I feel very good about having accomplished this much. Perhaps it will get better from here?!

Shirley, I am pretty sure I won't be able to do it under 2 minutes LOL!! It takes hours to run that far..........

Love,
Karen
_________________
Inspired by the paleolithic diet and lifestyle -
living w/o gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and yeast.
* All stunts performed without safety net *

[moremuscle]

Wow - I like the smell in this kitchen -
Thank you very much for keeping this wonderful kitchen open.
There is nothing like hot soup on a cold fall morning!!

I have quit the paleo diet.............

NAH, JUST KIDDING
I don't even consider quitting the diet.
It is literally a life saver for me. I don't know how else to do it anymore. Joanna, you know, I have almost forgotten how weird I am but yes, we are a bit weird, aren't we! The way I look at it is I would much rather be weird and healthy than have my MC symptoms back. No thank you to the latter. Been there, done that.

I have been in Denmark to visit my relatives in September. The boys, Benjamin and Noah, traveled with me. We had a wonderful time there and thoroughly enjoyed seeing something different and being around our Danish family, hearing them speak the language etc. We bought fresh caught flounders from some fisher men right off the boat, took them home and cooked them. The boys loved it. We also bought fresh smoked herring on the harbor where they had a smoke house - the herring was still warm from the smokery when we sat down on a pallet outside and unwrapped and ate it finger food style. To my amazement the boys loved the taste and wanted more - the way they usually react to candy!
Do you think smoked fish is paleo?

I ran a 1/2 Marathon while visiting Denmark - the Hans Christian Andersen 1/2 Marathon for Women on September 17. My sisters and brother, their spouses and kids plus my mother all came to cheer on me. It was a great experience to hear my name called out (pronounced in Danish) as I ran to the finish line.
I was in the middle of a training program for a local 1/2 Marathon while I was in Denmark and felt well enough prepared to take it on. I ran it in 1 hour, 53 minutes and 44 seconds which was a personal record by approximately 8 minutes. I felt very good about that!
On October 14 I ran the Governor's Cup 1/2 Marathon in Columbia, SC - the race we had been training for. My time was 1 hour, 51 minutes, and 6 seconds. I had a great day!! I ran it with many of my training partners and we just made each other go fast............

I have a wonderful time with my running. In fact it is running my life right now (weird again)
I am training for a Full Marathon now. The training is pretty tough and I am now running 50+ miles per week; the last long run we did was Saturday; I ran 23 miles including warm-up and cool-down. The race is on Kiawah Island, SC December 9. I still have time to improve on my pace. My goal is to finish in under 4 hours - that would qualify me to run the Boston Marathon in 2008. I am right on target with my training - I am trying hard to train smart from now on so I wont have to deal with an injury. So far so good!

You may wonder how I eat/drink during my Marathon training.
I have been experimenting a little. Most runners carb load prior to long runs and they also eat lots of refined carbs post-run. I have stayed away from that eating style and stayed true to my paleo diet. The thing is, that I tend to function very well on the paleo diet - my intestines stay quiet my entire body/mind system feels good on the diet. Why mess with something that works?
But after the completion of our 1/2M training the Full M training has taken a turn to even more weekly mileage and even longer weekly long runs and all of that added stress is taking a toll on my body - I have been feeling very tired. So I recently decided to try adding a little more refined carbs to my diet on the day before a long run - I added rice pasta (Tinkyada). I felt very good during the long run the day after and I feel I am recovering well too. In addition I added a little Maple Syrup to my 2/3 water, 1/3 orange juice home made sports drink that I sip during the workout. The drink tasted wonderful and I didn't lack energy for a 23 mile run on that drink. NO trouble with the bowels at all. It is truly amazing to me how well I can run and how well my intestines usually work during these runs. Remember, I am 46 years old and I have never run before - it has only been a little over a year ago since I started running more than 10-15 miles per week. I am completely in awe and I feel like a very very lucky woman - I am very happy!!

I have no reason to abandon the paleo diet - it works wonders for me.
I am only tweeking it a little because training for a marathon is no small task to take on and I feel I need to be smart about my training diet. I need to be able to go to work and take care of other things between my training runs - can't do that if I am too tired or burned out.

When I added Maple Syrup to my drink last week (that was the first time I ever tried it) my thoughts went straight to you guys - you have taught me so much about how to do my diet and been a huge inspiration in terms of trying foods/products that I would otherwise not even had thought of. So thank you for mentioning Maple Syrup in the past - it's a lovely tasting product - and mind you, I don't need much of it to taste the sweetness since I don't otherwise use any sugar.

Do you think Maple Syrup is paleo?

Love,
Karen

[moremuscle]

Hi Friends -

I promised I would let you know how my first marathon went. I ran the Kiawah Island Marathon on Dec. 9 which was Saturday. Today is Tuesday and the first day that I feel "normal" after the race. Running a marathon is very draining on the body and I felt drained and tired in the first days after the race. I also had sore calve muscles and quadraceps. Strangely I didn't feel very tight in my glutes or ham strings - I used to become very tight in those areas after long runs but recently my running buddy who is also a yoga teacher taught me a new stretch that goes deep into hams and glutes - the stretch works wonders for me. All of the soreness I felt was/is normal and to be expected - it is very different from pain. The only place I felt a hint of pain after the race was/is in my throat and lungs - go figure!! The morning of the race was VERY cold - we started out in temperatures below freezing, in the upper 20s. It was sunny but the highs during the race remained in the 40s - still cold. I think it was breathing the cold air for so long that made my lungs/throat sore. I don't have a cold - not at all - it is just a different kind of pain/soreness that is new to me. I don't caugh. I think I will recover from this very fast.

I ran a sub 4 hour race - my time was 3:57:37; I qualified for Boston

Wow, the marathon is a very demanding distance to handle - due to very good training I was prepared for most of it but there were some surprises and some things I need to work on so I can improve my time when I run the next marathon. No, I don't have any immediate plans. The next thing is a 1/2M in Myrtle Beach in February - same one I did last year.

My training partner's husband helped me with my special race nutrition - I had mixed my own drinks prior to the race and he handed them to me from certain mile markers along the course. We had planned where I would meet with him and he would hand me a bottle. I ran with a bottle in my hand the entire race with exception of the last mile or so - I discarded it and gathered my last energy for going to the finish line with good form and a decent pace. W/o his help I would not have been able to race since I cannot drink gatoraid and/or eat GU (an energy gel that you can carry in a pocket). It worked very well.

I used 2/3 water, 1/3 OJ and a little Maple Syrup added for extra sugar and flavor.

Before my next race I want to experiment with making other types of sports drinks to see if I can find one that works better for me. I am thinking of making one that has coffee in it - caffein can give you a good kick. I also want to try blending some rice or rice pasta into a drink - I want to see if I can actually get it through the sippy-spout. Other ingredients I would like to try is peanut butter, chocolate, crystalized ginger, banana. Maybe I can make a diluted variety of a smoothie for the race? Definitely want to try black tea or coffee with something else in it. Any ideas anyone?

If you click on the link below or paste it into your browser you should be able to see a picture of me and some of my running friends. The site changes very often so don't wait!!

Love,
Karen

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/index8.asp

[starfire]

You did WONDERFUL!!!

Thanks for sharing the pictures also.

I think it's simply incredible what you are able to do. I admire you a LOT.

I'm so glad you keep stopping by and giving us a little update. We do miss you, Karen.

Keep on truckin'.....

Love, Shirley

[tex]

Karen,



Fantastic

Love,
Tex

[moremuscle]

Shirley, I'll keep on trucking (love that expression!)
I had a great race - Thank you all for being here so I can tell you about it; David, my husband, thinks it is important that I tell about my experience if newbies read the site - there might be someone else out there with MC who is an Athelete and needs to feel hopeful about being able to continue with his/her sport.

Love,
Karen

[harvest_table]

David, my husband, thinks it is important that I tell about my experience if newbies read the site - there might be someone else out there with MC who is an Athelete and needs to feel hopeful about being able to continue with his/her sport.

Your husband is a wise man and he is right, your an inspiration for all of us, atheletes or not.

Congralutions on a terrific run and feeling great living with MC.

Love,
Joanna