SIXTY? NINETY? HARD TO TELL

Weeknight four mile run with Sunstone

Ahoy! Mid-August update coming fast and hot. Make sure you are strapped in, because this is going to be some Earth shattering shit. Okay, not really.

Training for the New York Marathon is going fairly well. I made a "training plan" around the beginning of July because at that point it was four months until race day and I needed some kind of structure or something to keep me accountable. By that point I had worked up to a half marathon distance (as evidenced by the last post), so it was really just a matter of getting my way back up to 20 miles in a way I think my body could handle. And then hopefully get the normal three 20 miles runs in.

So far, so good! I have been able to hit each long run. So that's encouraging. My 16 last weekend went pretty darn well, all things told. Not quite as "easy peasy" as previous years, but it wasn't painful or anything. I'm starting to feel confident on my ability to work up to that 20 mile mark. That wasn't something I would have been confident about just a couple of months ago. If I can keep hitting these long runs as scheduled, I'll essentially do my normal long runs for a marathon training cycle.

The weekday runs are another story. Basically, I'm running twice a week and they are usually four miles a pop. Not exactly what I need to be doing for marathon training. However, in my mind, the weekend long runs are the most important to being able to shuffle painfully across the finish line, so I'm trying to make sure I can hit those without issue. Normally, I'd be running three times during the weekdays and total about 20 miles. I'm running twice totaling 8. That will be felt on race day.

I haven't let totally loose because I'm still not quite there with Simponi. If I were writing this post two weeks ago, I would have said it was working just barely enough to not immediately want to change to another medication. But the last ten days or so, I've felt fantastic! Not 100%, but the best I have felt on Simponi. I need to keep tabs on when I am feeling good and bad to see if there is any rhyme or reason to it. Maybe toward the end of the monthly "cycle" before my next shot it does wear out? That would square with my most recent "blah" period. And my most recent "wohoo" period started about a week after the shot when it had a chance to ramp up. Maybe. Or maybe not. I hadn't been paying attention closely enough in the previous months to know if that was a trend.

When I'm feeling crummy, it sucks. I have maybe 60% relief. Which, even that, I am grateful for. Because I know what 0% feels like and its miserable. So even when it's not working great, when it's enough to get me about my day and not be in a fetal pain ball, eh, I'll take it. But in terms of running or doing any sort of activity? It sucks. Right now? I feel like... 90% relief maybe? I mean, I feel pretty good. The arthritis is still there in a very mild fashion, but I feel like I can do active things and not get up from chairs like an old man. The problem right now is consistency. If it was consistently like when it's bad, I would have to try a new medication. If it was consistency like I have been feeling very recently, Simponi for life.

So yeah, that's the update. I will just ride these flares of good and bad all the way to the marathon. I plan to just run New York at my long run speed, 11:00/mi, and call it good. Running a marathon will be victory enough. Under five hours is like 11:20/mile or less, so I'll probably make that my informal goal.

In the meantime, hopefully the Simponi can continue to ramp. The 25th of August will be six months, when it is supposed to reach it's full efficacy. So technically I do owe it another two weeks. It's just frustrating when lefluonomide had it in 100% remission and I basically forgot I even had it.