Well, I guess I have kind of settled into a once a month post rhythm. So welcome to your end of May Thomas update!
The monthly Simponi shot was effective even longer this time around. In fact, I got to the 25th of the month without feeling the need for it. My knees still felt A-OK on the 25th. So that was encouraging! I do think the relief is building in my system, so hopefully another two shots, six total, and I'll be at full effectiveness. If I am already getting month-long relief four shots in, that's probably a good sign.
I am not going to celebrate too early though. I thought Humira was working for a long time too. I was even able to get back up to 10 mile long runs (I think I even threw in a half marathon distance at one point). All of a sudden though everything went to shit. So right now I am still very much proceeding with a "wait and see" approach.
Last weekend I was finally able to get back up to 10 miles on my long run. I've been increasing it by one mile each week being very conservative and deliberate. It was really hard... I'm not going to lie, it was a huge effort to go ten miles and my body felt like I usually do after a twenty mile run. However, my knees felt 100% fine. I think I am just very out of shape. Ten miles is a LONG way for me right now. So I'm not too concerned over the fact I was pretty sore for two days after that. My knees were seemingly fine. Hopefully it is just the matter of getting my distance legs back underneath me.
The pressure is on though, because I got accepted into the New York Marathon for 2021. I was supposed to run it last year but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. So I deferred to this year (with 2022 as a second choice) and I got in for this year. Which... I'm not thrilled about. I was kind of rooting for 2022. I have to decide for sure in a couple weeks, so I'm going to continue to monitor my body. I have plenty of time to train, I just need to make sure my body is going to be up for it. And then I'll just need to run like a 4:45 or something. This will not be a fast marathon. I am so out of shape. If I can maintain a 10:30ish pace for 26.2 miles it will be a minor miracle.
So yeah, that's about it. Ready for summer to start!