MSers in Training 2015

[Ellie]

Dave glad to hear that you were able to get the trike out and get active. I bet that it felt great to get moving (pun intended) again.

Colleen, welcome to the group! I too have RRMS. I was diagnosed August 2014. Just past my 1 year anniversary. I am training to run my second marathon post MS. I love running half marathons and well pretty much any race. Can't wait to hear more about your half marathons. I am in total agreement with you. That every medal that hangs upon my rack is me kicking MS @$$.

[Colleen]

New to group

Hi all,

New to this group but not new to MS. Dx'd in 2004 rrms. 100% mobile thankfully. My dmd has been working great. I was inspired by another MS'er who I met back in 2011 at a MS conference. She told me she has walked Half marathons and 50 mile events. I never knew they let you walk half marathons. So I trained on my own. I do a lot of walking at my job so the idea of training was just a matter of extra effort.

I completed my first half in 2012 at Disney. It was the biggest accomplishment I have ever done. After that I was hooked. Because every medal whether 5K or 20K is a win against MS! I recently also participated in the Savannah, GA 50 mile Challenge Walk. I walk because I am still able to and I walk for all my friends that cannot.

I am inspired by everyone who continues to stay active and fight. Keep fighting.

[Colleen]

You guys always have crazy stories. Love 'em. Me? I've been wedging in workouts between moving, family, etc. and I've been mostly successful. Even gotten in a ride on the trike on the quiet streets of our neighborhood after Laura managed to get it out of the garage loaded with boxes.

I've started scoping out fitness facilities near our new pad. Joined PowerFlex for free (through my health plan), which is less than a mile away. Other options that I may investigate (or may not)....

Black Box Fitness/CrossFit Caliente

Planet Fitness

Elevate: Performance, Health, Wellness
Health Club

The Hit Fit Club

Ninja Park

Crossfit Assimilation

The New Fit

Abq Kickboxing & Luttrell's MMA

Functional Fury

Zero Point Parcour

Notice a theme? ABQ is pretty hardcore when it comes to working out. I didn't even list all of the nearby Ninja academies. Seriously. Ninja academies. Who knew?

Cool! I lived in ABQ for 10yrs. I miss the mountains and the GREEN Chilie!! And Sadies, and Dion's pizza.

I was dx'd by Corey Ford over there at UNM in '04.

Just moved out there? YOu will love it. NM is a Great outdoors state. Make sure to take time out for the ABQ international balloon fiesta around the 1st week of October. Breathtaking to watch. Such a great event.

[ActiveMSers]

You guys always have crazy stories. Love 'em. Me? I've been wedging in workouts between moving, family, etc. and I've been mostly successful. Even gotten in a ride on the trike on the quiet streets of our neighborhood after Laura managed to get it out of the garage loaded with boxes.

I've started scoping out fitness facilities near our new pad. Joined PowerFlex for free (through my health plan), which is less than a mile away. Other options that I may investigate (or may not)....

Black Box Fitness/CrossFit Caliente

Planet Fitness

Elevate: Performance, Health, Wellness
Health Club

The Hit Fit Club

Ninja Park

Crossfit Assimilation

The New Fit

Abq Kickboxing & Luttrell's MMA

Functional Fury

Zero Point Parcour

Notice a theme? ABQ is pretty hardcore when it comes to working out. I didn't even list all of the nearby Ninja academies. Seriously. Ninja academies. Who knew?

[Veronica]

Thrilling story, Larry! Had me gasping for breath as I read it! You are truly King of the Mountains.....would send you a Polka Dot jersey if I had one. Seems like you have a wonderful camraderie with the Bullet.....I'm happy for you.. And you truly have inspired me to push myself more in my training.

Marina, you also have my great admiration with the miles you are doing, and planning to do with the Cat. Don't you love/hate those Sufferfest videos!!! I've been doing Fight Club alot recently, as it has both the speed and climbing elements that I so need. If it wasn't for the heat/humidity or rain factoring into when I have the opportunity to ride outside, I had planned to do a Mini Larry training session on a nearby incline....just keep taking it over and over.... Sufferfest helps me to not feel like a slacker when outside isn't possible, for sure!

Teena Marie: Glad that you are moving on from not doing the team swim. I agree with Marina when she talks about swimming with MS. I also was never a big swimmer (could side stroke across the ocean, I felt, but that was it...) Now when I am in the water, my right leg feels deboned, and I have very little control of it. Love to hear of your ocean swims. Sounds like you are really in the right place for your needed R&R.....

One little funny trike story. When I was on the return side of my regular trail ride recently, a walker, coming toward me, warned me of a tree down ahead. I honestly didn't know what he was referring to, as I had just come from there all of 30 minutes earlier. But sure enough up the trail a 1/4 mile was a tree...completely ACROSS the trail... Ugh, I thought , now what??? I clambered out of the trike, and very carefully was able to lift it, and then ME over the tree. Got one leg covered in chain grease, but no worse for the wear.....and I DID NOT fall over...shocking .... Felt like the "Good ol' days"..... Actually had me humming David Gray's "Back in the World Again" for the rest of the day......

Keep Calm and Keep Movin', everyone!!

[teena marie]

Hello all,

As usual, Larry, most impressive. You're pretty amazing.

The team triathlon was this past week. In the end, I didn't participate. My team was short a runner, and a host of other obstacles made it not meant to be. I was all right with the decision. I'm still doing some amazing swims. I'm still recovering from such a hectic winter and spring and still sleeping 8-10 hours a night. I will consider a beach to beach swim in August.

Take care all,

Teena Marie

[AMFADVENTURES]

Absent not idle

Love hearing about everyone's updates, good luck with the training Ellie - first long run 8 miles - WOW. And good luck with the climbing Marina - 3,000 ft. and 100 miles on a trike is no mean feat. Suebee, Surgery? TM, hope your training is fun and your swim goes well, can't wait to hear more about it. And Veronica, love the trike stories and glad you seem to have found your groove with the new wheels. Here's a little story back at you about what I've been up to.

I talked the Bullet into doing the Copper Triangle bike ride, 80 miles and 6,000 ft of ascent. She said she'd do it if I helped her train. We laid out some pretty detailed plans which mostly involved climbing in the foot hills which we subsequently did. Then about 10 days ago she asked me how we were going to close everything out in the last weeks, distance?, intervals?, ascent?, to which I said I'd have to think about it. At 4:00 the next morning I woke up with the answer. A couple hours later I sent her a text, "We're going to get HIGH baby, as high as we can, as often as we can!!!!!!"

Since then we've climbed over Squaw Pass down the other side and back for 50 miles and 5,800 ft with a maximum elevation of 11,100. We met our respective families for a picnic lunch at the top prior to our final descent and had a blast.

For our next high we climbed Loveland Pass up the east side, over the top and down the other side and back. That one was less than 50 miles but had 6,100 ft of climb and got us up to 12,000 ft. On our first summit the Bullet beat me to the top by about 10 minutes. Being the gregarious type, she started talking to the couple dozen or so tourists that are always hanging around there because it's an accessible spot marking the continental divide. As I got to within a couple hundred ft of the summit she began cheering me on - along with a number of the other visitors up there. It actually got quite raucous with many congratulations when I finally stopped at the summit. I have no idea what she told all those people.

The return summit was a little different. This time I was about 20 minutes behind her and when I got to the top I found her lying on her back in the dirt softly cursing my name while patiently waiting. Now for the bullet, cursing my name is something she does when the going gets tough and she needs a diversion. At the end of the day, it turned out that that little adventure really had tested her, and of course it thoroughly trashed me.

I decided for our next high we'd get as high as we could get and climb Mt. Evans. Mt. Evans is one of the Colorado 14'ers that has a paved road all the way to the top. We started at 10,600 ft. and decided, since she would undoubtedly be ahead of me, no matter how far we each got up the mountain I would turn around when she passed me on her descent. The Bullet being the Bullet made it all the way to the top at a little over 14,100 ft. A friend of mine later told me he had seen her climbing near the top and that he was a little shocked at how much she was cursing me. I took that as a very good sign. At any rate I made it to 13,600 ft. before she caught me on her descent. Although I only had about a mile and a half to go, I was perfectly happy to turn around and lead her down. Fact is, I can't breathe at those altitudes. The ride was relatively short at less than 30 miles and the ascent was slightly less than 4000 ft for her but boy did we ever get high.

Our final ride before the Copper Triangle will be Vail Pass itself. I expect it will be relatively easy for both of us. Although I'm not going to do the Copper myself this year I will be there to cheer the Bullet on, secure in the knowledge that she won't have any problem with it.

Larry
pic. The Bullet and me on our first summit of Loveland Pass

[Marinadca]

I am sorry its been so long! Busy times here

Its awesome to hear about everyone's activities. The swimmers particularly have my interest, I really wish I had learned to do it properly before I "came down with" MS. Now I cannot seem to coordinate my limbs to do the right thing and, unless I am doing the back stroke, I just fall about. So Kudos to you who are out there doing it. What a great exercise for people with MS!

On the biking front, after enjoying my first (very flat) century on the trike I have decided to take on more of a challenge. So I registered for the Indian Head 100 on Sep 7th. It is 100 miles wit 3k+ of climbing. This doesn't sound like a lot, but that first century have less the 1K of climbing and climbing is the thing I am least go at so this is going to be very challenging for me.

In general it has been been very hot (90+) and humid (80%+) here so I have been mostly inside on the trainer. A few months back I started doing the Sufferfest indoor training videos and hopefully this will help me suffer less on the climbs. Either that or add extra suffering to my indoor training!

Lets hope it cools off though! I am looking forward to reading all about what you all have been up to!

[Suebee]

I didn't use all 33 pool exercises I found here :

,http://www.shape.com/fitness/workout...ired/slide/all
but used a few and it was a good way to recover from lap and change muscle groups at same time.

[Suebee]

All these stories everyone has posted are great and encouraging. I am 6 weeks post surgery and went in the pool. I have lost quite a bit of endurance , so I started really slow and tried to switch muscle groups used each lap. I used a kick board to isolate legs and kicked. I did breast stroke with modified leg movement on return lap. It felt great to feel my muscles stretching in strokes. In between Some laps I did different exercises in pool. I know it's not as impressive as some of you all, but it's a start! Yay!

[teena marie]

Hi all,

Arrived in Cape Breton a week now. Still had work to complete so haven't really settled. It's been tough getting around my lumpy house. My nervous system has to remember how to manoeuver. Getting to the beach is good and I've had some great swims. It feels amazing to be in the ocean again. Today was a good training day with fairly good swells. I worked with and against the current to get a good feel of rough water. A good workout. I was able to feel one with the water. Some good walking after.

And now it's time to rest my body.

Keep up the amazing work, all.

Teena Marie

[Ellie]

Sorry, Veronica this message was supposed to be to you. Oops!

Teena Marie, it sound like you are on a great path. You know what you want to accomplish and you have the equipment. I can not wait to hear about you journey.

[Ellie]

Good Day All

On Friday I went for my first long run for marathon training. I ran 8 miles. Saturday I went to a MLB game and a party and watched fireworks. Sunday I went to see Peter Pan 360 with the family. Today I went for a run. I had to cut it short due to heat and my legs feeling weak only ran 2.75 miles. This afternoon not wanting MS to have the upper hand I took the kids to the pool and I swam 1250 meters.

[Ellie]

Teena Marie, it sound like you are on a great path. You know what you want to accomplish and you have the equipment. I can not wait to hear about you journey.

[Veronica]

Hi all, it's me, Veronica, the Happy Girl.....( well, I'm 64 years old...hardly a girl anymore, but sure feeling like one these days!)

This Catrike has given me back the absolute JOY of riding again. In the past four days, I have ridden three times..... I haven't ridden that often in decades... feels so so good. Now, my speed is slowly climbing up there....I am really feeling the difference in ability with the longer cranks, that HUGE back wheel, the featherweight of the machine, and the aerodynamic position of the seating. And while I hate to malign my little Greenspeed, I also appreciate that the Cat isn't as tweeky as the Greenspeed is when sailing downhill.
My plan of attack to really get some good training is to get out on my little trail locally here once or twice during the week after work and just see it as if I am going to the gym. I want to just use the 11 mile trip to work on cadence and rhythm and to have some fun just "suffering" through the series of small inclines that kill the speed on the trike. Also will work on increasing my flat speed so it averages better. On the weekends, I plan to devote one day to take the hour's drive up north to the trail that the bike shop is on, and ride longer and hopefully with some of the other trikesters who are always around the shop there. I realize that I need a stronger support system with this, and while my two wheeling friends are all happy to ride with me, for training reasons, I think having this crew around will be good for my morale. I've signed on as a member of their riding group, and we have a ride planned in a few weekends also, so I will hopefully meet many more "bent riders".

I haven't yet ridden with my dear friends who almost fell over trying to go as slow as they needed to in order to stay with me last year, but am planning to do so soon as I want to see their faces when I go abit faster!

I am so hopeful that I can continue to have cycling really back in my life. Don't need the miles or speed I did from my past at all.....but not gonna limit myself to just training for my 30 mile ride in October around NYC either. Really focusing on just getting out there, enjoying the freedom, and the ENDORPHINS from challenging myself and pushing myself.... Gotten get back to earning that beer at the end!

Have a great weekend everyone...

PS: I have been really enjoying all the posts of those of you who are really rocking the miles with cycling and running.... We are such a group, aren't we?