Grappling With PD

Ever since my abdominal surgery in August 2020, I have had occasional  pains--usually mild--in my stomach and abdominal cavity in general.  Most of those pains have been due to excessive crunching/slouching, excessive eating, or excessive abs workouts.  This past Sunday (May 19) my parents came to town to celebrate my daughter's high school graduation.  We went to the Yard House by the Linq, and I had a cheeseburger.  Nothing fancy, except that I upgraded from regular fries to truffle fries.  I also ate some pieces of a huge pretzel appetizer that we all shared, plus the remains of my daughter's dessert cake and ice cream.  I knew what was in store for me--a little pain following a minor bout of over-eating.   I went home that night, slept well, and got up early for the 5 AM boot camp class at Camp Rhino.. The workout went well.  I normally eat something beforehand, but on that morning I was still full from the night before, so I skipped...

The original purpose behind this blog, I suppose, was to increase awareness of Parkinson's, especially as it affects me.  I want to capture current events in my life for posterity, and if it provides inspiration to someone, all the better.  But there is another reason for writing these blog entries, and that is fundraising.  Team Fox is the group of volunteers who raise money for the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.  MJFF has provided a level of funding for research exceeding  that provided by the federal government.  In other words, MJFF is a big deal!  To contribute, please click the link.  Forward it to your friends.  Any contribution, large or small, is greatly appreciated.  Every contribution helps. https://give.michaeljfox.org/fundraiser/5513862

When I say I had a bad day today, I'm not suggesting that I got hurt or lost or took a fall or anything like that.  I just wasn't running well this morning.   Backing up a bit, I've known for at least a year now that my running was suffering from inconsistency and that I would do better if I had a group to run with.  It was not long ago, maybe a month or two, that I found the Revel training group on Facebook--a fantastic bunch of runners.  I ran with them last weekend and again today, but today did not go as expected.  We ran essentially the same run as last week--eight miles down Mt Charleston along Kyle Canyon Road.  We ran a slightly different section of the road, but still eight miles downhill.  Close enough.  I had hoped going into today's run that I would be slightly better than last week in terms of endurance, by which I mean more running and less walking.  I started off a bit too fast, trying to catch up after stopping to mess wi...

  After several failed attempts to run a marathon, I decided last year to walk one.  It is not the same, of course, but it did serve to break the ice, so to speak.  I knew I could do it, and now that I have, all that's left is to improve my time.  Easier said than done.  I do a lot of cardio at the gym, including HIIT (high intensity interval training), but that rarely lasts more than 30 or 45 minutes.  I need to be able to sustain a run for hours.  There is no way to prepare for that other than actual running, at least none that I know of. Some published marathon plans include strength training, but I have never seen one that had zero running.  Ya gotta put in the miles. So yesterday (Saturday 5/4/24) I met up with some local runners who had planned a run down Mt Charleston along Kyle Canyon Road.  I fully expected to be the slowest of the group, and I told them as much, if for no other reasons than to set expectations.  After all, I do...