It’s been a great year for running so far. I have stayed injury-free all year, have PR’ed in the half marathon twice in a row, and then followed that up with a PR in the 15K. And these are lifetime PR’s, not post-A.S. PR’s. But with these early summer races now done, the rest of the year is wide open, with lots of options.

So what’s next? Well, for one thing, we still need to sell our house and buy a new one. That’s Thing1. And Thing 2 is to get the incentive and motivation to train hard again.With my both my family and my mapping business growing, it’s hard to find time to run, and also hard to find the desire at times. I do best when I just sign up for race to get a tangible goal, and then train in bite-sized chunks. This also helps prevent overtraining, as my training cycles are shorter and more defined.

Having kids changes things

I think I did well during April-June in balancing running with life. I never got mileage out of the low-70s…but I set a couple of nice P.R.s. A question everyone has to ask themselves is: “Is it worth it?“Is the training time and wear and tear on the body worth the reward? Is the hours and hours away from family worth those digits that you see up on the finish line clock, or the numerical rank of your placing you see later in the results? The answer will vary from person to person.

For me, I do think it’s worth it, when I can balance training 60-70 mpw with the rest of my life. My first priorities are my relationship with God and then my family. This family relationship also includes being a provider, which entails working. I choose to work extra in order to allow my wife to stay home with Seth, and am happy to have this opportunity. Suddenly, running becomes “low man on the totem pole”, relegated to 4th or 5th priority in my life (in the past it was much higher). If I spend much more than an hour per day working out, my priorities quickly become out of whack, and running eats into other areas of my life where it should not go. My time is precious, and I guard it jealously. Since Seth was born, I have had to set firmer boundaries, get up earlier, and manage my time better.

By far the best way to get in those extra miles in the evening…

I’ve said this before in this blog, but I do not know what the future holds, whether it’s with my family, my work, my health, or my running. Will I even try to qualify for the 2012 Marathon Trials? I honestly don’t know. Part of me wants to, and thinks I can do it, but another part of me questions whether the sacrifice is worth it. “Can do something” and “Should do something” are two completely different things. Ultimately, my goal is to discern God’s will for all things, and then follow it. Where running falls into that, I do not yet know, as it is just one small piece of my life.

Avid reader Jon has posed the question as to why I have not updated the blog in over two months, despite apparently having much to post about. Well, several factors are at play:

• Heavy load at work (recession, what recession??!)
• We are selling our house (hard to type with paint and caulk all over my hands)
• I’d rather see my wife and kid than write a blog post (fatherhood does change things)
• Lack of literary inspiration (I get dumber every day)

Well, my wife and son are in Michigan for another day, work happens to be slow right now, and the house is clean and perfectly staged, so that clears most of my obstacles, other than my dumbness, but I’ll just have to work with that.

In any case, it’s been an eventful couple months in my world of running and racing. After running 1:13:10 in the snowy windstorm that was the Striders Half Marathon, I was able to ramp up my training, get some quality workouts in, and prepare somewhat adequately for the 500 Festival Indy Mini Marathon. Weekly mileage leading up to Indy was 36 (missed two days from being sick), 72, 69, 55 (race week). I got a few decent workouts in, but kept it pretty simple: just some tempos, fartleks, and mile intervals.

Indy turned out to be a perfect day: great temps, no wind, and a very flat, fast course. I ran some of the early miles too aggressively for my fitness level, but managed to stay steady during the second half and keep all miles under 5:20. The race yielded a huge 50-second PR of 1:08:35.

The only downer was that I ran most of the race in 10th place, then got passed around Mile 10/11, but then closed hard on another runner who was dropping back, but could not seal the deal. I got outkicked, ended up 11th, and lost out on $100. Now, I can almost care less about $100, but it’s more about what the money symbolizes. It represents the value the race puts on a certain placing. 10th place is worth $100, and 11th place is worth nothing. In addition, the depth of money always drives the depth and competitiveness of the field. If I place in the money, it means that I out-competed my peers, and perhaps even some people faster than me. So for me, winning money indicates that I competed well against the field, and it is competition against others and against myself that I seek.

Unfortunately, when analyzing the Indy race, I feel that I did not “want it” enough. I think I could have beaten my competitor with a decisive surge with 600m left, but did not have the inner drive to make myself hurt enough to do it. I’ve found over the years that kick is always there, it’s just a matter of engaging that extra gear.

Other than that, Indy was a great race, and a nice breakthrough. It was nice to get a half marathon time that I knew I was capable of. The race itself was well-organized, and by far the biggest half I’ve ran (35,000 people). The course was not terribly pretty, but was insanely fast. I thought running on the Speedway would be really cool, but that part ended up being the most mentally difficult, and rather grueling.  The track doesn’t look so big on TV, but it takes awhile to run a 2.5 mile loop at 12mph, rather than driving at 200mph. You can read my full race report HERE.

Immediately after Indy, I had targeted the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon for my next key race. I wanted another half marathon PR attempt, I wanted it to be at sea level with good competition, and I wanted it to be someplace fun. Seattle was perfect, and I have several good friends in the area who I could visit. In addition, when I contacted the race management, they were very gracious, and I was able to obtain an elite spot in the race. Perfect!

In terms of training after Indy, I decided it would be wise to regroup, and spend a few weeks in base-building mode. In the past, I’ve been caught in the trap to “keep the ball rolling”, and do hard workout after hard workout, and race after race. I ended up re-building a base for the rest of May. Mileage during this phase were 60 (recovery), 72, 60 (sick for a day), and 71. Typical workouts were “slow” long tempos, and fartleks.

The “slow” tempo is something that I introduced for the first time, and I ended up really liking it, and I think it helped build aerobic fitness. Basically the idea was to do a 11-12 mile progression tempo, but not ever push the pace too hard. I would start at 6:15/mile and end up around 5:45-5:50/mile. I would pick a pretty flat, easy course, and focus on just hitting a good rhythm and feeling good. I figure hills are great, but you need to learn to run strong on flat before you can run strong on hills. In other words, focus on the bare foundations of running…which is running. It’s simple, but effective. I also like fartleks during this kind of base phase, as they are good workouts, yet are not too stressful on the body or on the mind, since there are no time goals to hit.

Beginning in June, I kept the mileage about the same, but ramped up the intensity. “Slow” tempos were replaced by MP and LT tempos. Fartleks were replaced by intervals at CV or LT pace. I also added more strides and 30-second hill charges after workouts to work on economy, form, and turnover. My June weekly mileage totals were 73, 37 (sick for half the week),  70, and 58 (race week). All of my workouts were really good, although no single run was longer than 16 miles (no need for a half marathon!). Each week my interval workouts and tempos were really strong and consistent, and gave me a lot of confidence, despite not racing since Indy.

The end of June finally rolled around, and I was excited to finally fly out to Seattle. The flight was short, the hotel was great, and I was able to meet and chew the fat with a lot of great runners and other people at the hotel. Along with getting to know several current elite runners, I also got to meet Todd Williams and Ed Eyestone, who work with the race management. A lot of good conversations, and I soaked in all the knowledge I could, plus they were all just really fun people.

You can read a full, very detailed account of my race HERE. In a nutshell, once again, weather was perfect with great temperatures and little wind. The course was more difficult than Indy, with several large hills, but still had enough speedy sections to get a good time. Indeed, I ended up with a 20 second PR over Indy, and ran 1:08:15, good for 5th overall and 3rd American. Moreover, I will end up with a hefty chunk of change for this placing, which vindicates my Indy experience somewhat. So I left with very positive vibes.

Some races you get a PR, but not a great placing. Other races, you place high, but the time stinks due to weather or topography. And sometimes you get both, and those are great days. I did have a goal of breaking 1:08 at Seattle, but I think I ran as well as I could given the course and the fact that I was all alone most of the race. Perhaps at Indy that effort would have been under 1:08, but I will have to wait for another day and another course.

And lastly, one week after Seattle I jumped in the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run, a local 15K on July 4th. This race is pretty low-key, with a net elevation drop (although is at elevation). I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. Seattle was obviously still in my legs during the first few miles, but eventually I worked out the kinks and rattled off a pretty good race and took first place. Like most people, I rarely race the 15K distance, so a new PR was ripe for picking as well, and I got it with a time of 48:14 (or so…the timing chips were wrong, so I used my watch time). The full race report is HERE.

Now it’s time for a little breather. I feel like I put in a series of good training cycles, and now it’s time to rest, lower the mileage down to 40-60 mpw for a while, and then rebuild a good base.

Recently I had the opportunity to create a course map and elevation profile for the Canylonlands Half Marathon. This is one of my favorite races, and I’ve participated in either the half marathon or the 5-mile event for five of the last seven years. My familiarity with the courses would definitely be helpful in creating accurate maps, but I also felt particularly obligated to present the striking beauty of the course through cartography.

Fortunately, the state of Utah has the best GIS data clearinghouse I’ve ever used: the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) and associated GIS Data Portal. From this website, users are able to download many datasets, include 2007 1-ft color aerial imagery and 5-meter digital elevation models…for most of the entire state…for free. Finding data at that resolution, currentness, and cost is truly amazing, and for that reason I love the AGRC and love making maps for locations in Utah.

The 1-ft color imagery allowed me to zoom into the route very tightly (about 1:1000), and precisely digitize every tangent of the route and closely simulate its certification. This helps makes the elevation profile and the mile markers more accurate.

But the 5m elevation model was the real gem. For most of the United States, the best you can get is 10m resolution. In some places you can get no better than 30m. So to get 5m resolution for a tiny town in the middle of Utah is remarkable. I should note that 2m DEM’s are publicly available for some locations in Utah.

What a 5m DEM provides is better hillshading, which is the backbone of this particular map. Every ridge, canyon, drainage, and other topography are sharply defined, even at large scales. This not only makes the map more vivid, but allows it to be blown up to larger scales (and larger prints), and still look wicked good. In addition, the extra resolution of the 5m DEM accommodates better profiling, especially in narrow canyon areas. For much of the Canyonlands race, runners are tucked right up against a huge sandstone cliff. This can really mess with an elevation model, which tends to interpolate/average elevation values in steep areas. With a higher-resolution DEM, this effect is lessened.

The final maps turned out well, in part to the quality of the underlying data. I ended up making an overall map, an elevation profile, and zoom-in views of the start line and finish line. The race management also printed a poster version of the map, which is available for purchase here.

Canyonland Half Marathon poster

Map showing zoom-in view of finish line

I’ll admit it, I have a tendency to to write or say something about training, and then completely go back on it and do something else. Sometimes it will be years later when I change my mind, other times it will be within a matter of days or weeks.

Some examples:  I used to think it was best to keep speed-work days pretty short. Later, I figured out that was the worst thing to do, and adopted doing Big Workouts, where the total mileage for the day is 14-16 miles. I also at one point thought that short intervals were a great workout; later I dropped that idea in favor of long tempos. During the peak of my running, I thought that days off were an opiate for the masses. Now I think they can be necessary to maintain the balance of life.

My most recent flip-flop is that I’ve already bailed on the training plan I outlined in a recent blog post. I had decided that since my body can’t handle high mileage anymore, I would do all hard workouts and a large portion of my total volume on the elliptical machine. I still think the concept was good, but it turns out that pragmatism was lacking.

In a nutshell, I hated it. After three weeks of going to the gym every morning, dripping sweat all over the elliptical machine, and, yes, getting some great workouts in, I had the following revelation. I am a runner. I run so that I can run…longer and faster. I run because I enjoy the feeling of running. I run because running is intrinsically good. When I replaced running with elliptical, training ceased to be enjoyable, and I very quickly lost all motivation. My end-goals were the same as before: racing. But the process of getting there had changed, and it turned out that the process is as important as the result. I found out that if I destroy the process and replace it with something else, I no longer want the result, and I quit altogether.

It was an interesting little journey, and I’m okay with the results. So the little cross-training experiment failed, big deal. I am now back to running every day. And I’m happy. Spring is here, the weather is beautiful, and it’s great to be alive, get outside everyday, and run. My training is not terribly structured right now, but I get a little tempo once a week or so, throw in some doubles when I’m motivated, and now I’m actually starting to feel the hints of fitness, much like how my lawn is showing hints of green. Perhaps in a few weeks or few months that hint will bloom into the real thing.

My body is holding up fairly well. After much deliberation, research, and consultation, I decided to start Enbrel, a biologic medication that treats Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.) and other auto-immune diseases by dampening the immune system and stopping inflammation before it even happens. It can actually slow or halt disease progression, opposed to NSAIDs, which treat only the symptoms (similar to putting a band-aid over a gaping wound).

After two weeks of Enbrel, I am not pain-free, but my hamstring tendons have improved greatly, my knee pain/stiffness has subsided, my hip pain has vanished, and my feet are “good enough”. A fair amount of foot pain and back stiffness remain, but it is tolerable. So I am encouraged by the early results, especially since it usually takes several weeks or months to realize the full effects of the medication.

The main downside to Enbrel or any other drug in its class is that it makes me more susceptible to getting sick. As a trade-off to eliminating pain and inflammation, I must now carefully monitor my health and my actions, which includes not to over-exerting myself. In other words, even if Enbrel forces the A.S. into remission, it’s not a free pass for me to run like crazy and do the kind of mileage I did before. Training 100+ miles/week often straddled the thin line between brilliant performance and crashing with sickness, fatigue, or injury; it’s truly a strain on the body no matter who you are.

That said, I am optimistic about training and racing. In the past, 70 or even 80 miles per week was pretty easy on my body, and I think I could handle that without compromising my immune system. But there is still a long way to go to even work myself up to that point. For now I am content to enjoy the spring and a fresh start on running. Mileage and performance are not in the forefront of my mind, but I’d be lying if I said I never thought about it.

But my current goals all revolve around the present and near-future, and I am not looking past May. I am running the Striders Half Marathon in Ogden in early April, mostly as a tuneup and exploratory race for the Indy Mini. Striders is a good course and a fun race, one that I’ve won before. I look forward to revisiting it and seeing how close I can get to my previous times. Four weeks later I will have the Indy Mini, and then beyond that I have no idea! In any case, I hope to have a fun spring and summer with running, and perhaps try a few races I have never done before. Happy training everyone.

I’ve gotten away from showcasing race course maps on this blog, so I figure it’s time to get back to my roots (the blog is named “Marathons and Maps” for a reason).

Recently I finished up a mapping project for a new race called the Palm 100, which is a 100-mile, 6-runner team relay race that hugs the Florida Atlantic coast from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach and back. This race, which is on March 28th, is different than many of the other relays that I’ve mapped, in that it is not overnight, and there are no fixed exchanges.

This yields tremendous flexibility. Teams will decide the the length of each leg and location of relay hand-offs, as long as good discretion is used for the sake of safety and the rule book is followed. This is a new and novel idea to me, and as an experienced relay runner, I like the concept.

From a mapping standpoint, the Palm 100 is unique in that the route had to be exactly 100 miles. The precise distance is very important in certified 5K’s, 10K’s, half marathons, and marathons, but is usually not a concern for long-distance relays. In other words, it usually doesn’t matter if the race is 185.7 miles or 185.6 miles or 192 miles or … you get the picture.

I had to refine my mapping in order the pin the Palm at 100.0 miles. Much of the race is on sidewalks and paved trails, and I was able to use high-resolution aerial photography to zoom in very tightly (up to a scale of 1:900) and digitize the route right on those walkways. With my mouse, I attempted to take every tangent and turn every corner just a runner on the ground would. The end result was the most precise relay course I’ve captured to this point. I have no doubt that it is as close to 100.0 miles as you can get with an on-screen capture method.

A couple years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. Marathon training was simple: just do 2 big workouts per week (15+ miles), an easy long run, and fill the rest of the days with easy doubles until I hit 100+ miles for the week. It was a formula that took my marathon time down from above 2:30 to under 2:20. And I expected it to work into the future.

Getting hit with ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.) has changed everything. My body’s old limits are no longer valid, and the disease has imposed on me new limits. Through trial and error (most error), I’ve figured out that if I go over 50-60 miles/week, I start to break down. Mostly it’s the tendon injuries that sideline me.

I had been holding out hope that I would be able to at some point resume my old high-mileage training, and get back to marathons. But just recently I’ve finally accepted the fact that A.S. and marathoning don’t mix, and my condition will likely prevent me from ever running how I used to again. Yes, it was a bit of a sad realization, but it was actually more liberating than anything. Once I accepted that as a fact, I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders, and I was free to look at and pursue running from a different perspective. The pressure of being what I once was is gone, and now I can look forward to running becoming something new.

Clearly hard marathon training is now out of the question, but I had proven this past year that I could still successfully train for and run quality races at the 5K through half marathon distance. So that is where my focus will now lie. If anything, it’s getting back to my roots, as I was a 5K/10K specialist long before I had even dreamed of running a marathon. I’m excited at the prospect of the shorter distances, of different types of training, and of potentially even setting new PR’s that I’ve neglected over the last several years.

So in essence I need to relearn how to train. I had figured out marathon training, but now I need to figure out 5K/10K training, and specialize it for running with A.S. with the training load I can handle. For now, the centerpiece of my training will not be running, but the elliptical machine. I’ve found over the last year that it is possible to get an excellent workout on the elliptical, and my heart rate elevates to levels similar to running while on the machine. When I push hard on the elliptical, I often get my HR up to near 180, which is 90% of my max. Seems good enough for most types of training!

My new staple elliptical workouts are 10×3-minutes hard, with 1-minute recovery, and 2×15-minutes hard, with 5 minutes recovery. These are designed to simulate CV and MP workouts. As I get stronger on the elliptical, I plan to extend the time of the “tempos”.

Perhaps the best aspect of cross training is that since there is no pounding, I can recover faster and work out more frequently. Rather than doing 2 hard workouts per week, I will be able to do 3 hard workouts per week. I firmly believe that I can achieve a high state of fitness from cross training like this, and that it will translate to good races.

Of course I will need to run too, but for now I’m just doing 2-3 miles/day on the weekdays, and a 9-miler or so on Saturday. Once the weather warms up, the snow melts, and I get more daylight to work with, I’ll add a second 4-5 mile run with the jogging stroller in the evenings after work. Adding doubles will give a total running volume of 45-50 miles/week, along with a cross training volume about 5 hours/week. This cross training volume I convert to 30 “miles”, based on the approximation of 10 minutes on elliptical = 1 mile running (Jack Daniels suggests 1 unit of cross training = 2/3 unit of running) . So the end result will give me up to 80 “miles” per week of total training volume, which is certainly sufficient to run some nice 5K/10K/half marathon races.

Some of you readers (assuming I still have readers) may wonder, why isn’t 70-80 miles/week good enough to run a marathon? Simple: I’m not doing any long runs or big workouts. Everything is short and sweet. A huge part of marathon-specific training is geared to adapt the body to handle of pounding and fueling of a race longer than two hours. It is that type of training I’ve determined I can no longer handle. No more 20-milers, no more huge tempo runs or interval workouts, no more runs over 60 minutes in duration. Dropping those kinds of runs, I believe, will keep me healthier, but they will also prohibit me from really doing any race longer than a Half.

So marathons are out, but other races are in. And I’m excited about it. I feel like it’s a fresh start and a new challenge. And is this to say I won’t ever run a marathon again? No, it’s just saying that I won’t ever train for a marathon…in the near future. I could easily see myself taking this training plan, adding one longer run (16-18 miles), and then jumping in a marathon for fun. But it would have to come at the end of the season, and would have to be dialed back with lowered expectations.

But who knows what the future will really bring? I’m just grateful for everyday out there I have to run and be active. I look forward to trying to PR at the Indy Mini Marathon in May, and to perhaps running the USATF LDR Circuit again this summer.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease.

Well, it’s been a month since my Part 1 Review on Padma Basic. I have finished my supply of the product, meaning I’ve been taking 6 tablets/day for 30 days in an attempt to suppress my ankylosing spondylitis. Time to discuss results.

Frankly, for the first three weeks I experienced no change whatsoever. I wasn’t exactly disappointed with this, as my expectations were not that high to begin with (given my lack of faith in alternative therapies). However, during the final seven days of using Padma, my neck and shoulders became noticeably less painful and stiff, especially in the morning. Pain levels went from about a “3″ to a “1″ or even “0.5″.

At the same time, pain and inflammation in my feet and toes subsided somewhat, probably from a “3″ to a “2″. I experienced no change in my lower back or my bothersome left hip. I also noticed no change in my chronically cold hands while running outside.

So it’s safe to say that results were mixed. Yes, my neck feels better right now, so it could be because of the Padma, or it could just be the natural ebb and flow of my ankylosing spondylitis. Simply put, with A.S. some days are better than others, and some weeks are better than others. My final week of taking Padma was certainly a “good” week.

My own conclusion: I will not continue taking Padma, simply because I can’t afford the $85-$100/month pricetag, and the results weren’t sufficient to justify the price. That’s still a lot of money in my world for something that is not proven to work (especially in today’s economy). Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your view), prescription medication combined with insurance costs much less, and is proven to be effective. Even the biologic medications, such as Remicade and Enbrel, can often be obtained with less than $100/month, with insurance and financial aid from the respective drug company.

But to bring up the biologic drugs brings up a reason to try Padma Basic or Padma 28: through my own experience or through my literature review, I have not found any discernable side effects. Many side effects of the immuno-suppressant drugs or NSAIDs are downright scary. With Padma, I experienced no gastro-intestinal discomfort, no orange skin, no sensitivity to sunlight, no compromised immune system. This all observational; I did not have any testing done (liver, kidneys, etc.), so please take my lack of perceived side effects for what it’s worth. I also encourage readers to go through the literature review and links from my first posting; I have yet to see mention of side effects from the studies I’ve looked at, but that does not mean that don’t exist. So in a nutshell, my own experiences were positive, but please be responsible and be cautious when trying any new medication or any especially any non-FDA regulated supplement.

But pushing aside side effects (or lack thereof), Padma’s benefits to me were subtle at best. Perhaps Padma could be a viable option for people with very mild auto-immune diseases. Also, I think to truly test Padma better than I just did, a person would have to use it for 6-12 months. One month was probably not long enough to get the full effects. But then again, most of us with ankylosing spondylitis simply do not have 6-12 months to fool around, as permanent joint damage can occur in that kind of time frame. That is reason enough to go with a form of proven medication prescribed by a rheumatologist as front-line treatment; there is simply too much at stake to bank on an alternative therapy as the main treatment.

So to summarize, I took Padma Basic for 30 days to help suppress ankylosing spondylitis. I found:

• No side effects
• A small but noticeable reduction in neck/shoulder pain and stiffness
• A very small reduction in foot/toe pain
• No change in lower back/hip pain and stiffness
• Not convinced that improvements were necessarily directly from Padma
• Found the cost prohibitive
• Feel that a longer term of use would be more conclusive

I would love to see some real studies done with Padma Basic/28 on various auto-immune arthritis’s. How does it really compare to the anti-TNF drugs? Let’s see some real numbers, double-blind trials, and other methods that will hold up under scrutiny.

I would also love to hear back anecdotally from other people who use Padma to inhibit TNF and control rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, Chron’s disease, and others. Does it work for you? Please leave your comments, questions, and experiences. I hope this blog can be used as a resource for auto-immune sufferers who are investigating Padma and looking for real-life experiences about it.

It’s a new year and time for more racing! I usually don’t run many races in January, but this year I decided that it would be a good idea to get out of northern Utah for a few days to get some warm temperatures and clean air. Several of my friends ran the Painters Half Marathon in St. George, UT last year, and it looked like a race worth trying. What primarily drew my eyes to it are that it is a rolling loop course, it is USATF certified, and it has decent competition.

The fact that it is a loop course is important to me. In my humble opinion, there are way too races out here in Utah that are point-to-point downhill screamers. They all start up some mountain canyon and funnel you out to the city in the valley below, usually dropping 1000′ or more. Is it beautiful? Yes! Will it give you a meaningful time? No! And the relatively high elevation of these races (~5000′ above sea level) just complicates things even more. We Utah runners inevitably end up standing around after the race discussing what our time is really “worth“.

It was much simpler back in the flat, low lands in Indiana and Michigan, where I began racing as a high school and collegiate runner.  A 15:30 5K was “worth”…15:30. My time was simply taken at face value (you are what you run), and I always had a good assessment of where I was really at in my training and racing. In Utah, a 15:30 5K could be “worth” anywhere from 15:10 (if you normalize to sea level level) to 16:30 (if the time came from a downhill course). It’s very confusing, and at times very unsatisfying. While it’s nice to witness the beauty of our surrounding mountain canyons during races, beat the high elevation, and get a fast time, ultimately I can never count my Utah PR’s as “real” PR’s. Perhaps if I had done 100% of my running out here I would feel differently, but all of the racing I did in the midwest while growing up has set my perspective.

So to summarize: Loop courses are good. They yield times that I can take a face value. Furthermore, getting down to a lower elevation is good for the same reason. And it’s all worthless without USATF certification and the security of a correct distance. The Painters Half provided all of these incentives with its certified, loop route that averages around 2600′ above sea level.

My wife and I were glad to leave the smog of Logan on Thursday morning. These red air days get really depressing after a while. We were rewarded to clean air and temperatures hovering near 60 in St. George. The trip was already worth it!

Race day morning was chilly, but perfect: sunny, upper 30’s, and no wind. Temperatures during the race climbed into the low 50s, and was quite suitable for shorts, singlet, and gloves. The half marathon had just over 1000 finishers, so it was a good size. Competition up front looked good; there were several guys who I knew could run near 1:10:00 or in the mid- to low-teens. I myself thought I could hit around 1:11 to 1:12, based on some recently workouts and my total training volume. I thought I had some chance of winning, but so did four other guys. Due to some tendon issues and setbacks, I had been scaling my weekly mileage back to the 40s, including  a fair amount of elliptical cross training.

The race ended up going really well for me. We started with a pack of seven at the 2nd mile that drifted to a pack of four by the 5th mile, and a pack of two by the 7th mile. That pack of two included myself, and I felt strong and snappy through about Mile 9, but then the distance of the race wore on me and my pace slowed, from about 5:20/mile to 5:30/mile. My competitor, Jeff McClellan, did not slow whatsoever, and cruised to the victory with a time of 1:10:59. I chugged in with a 1:11:31, which I was count as both a “January PR” and a “post-A.S. PR”. And thankfully, I don’t have to figure out what the time is “worth”, since it is worth exactly what it is: 1:11:31. But this race gave me confidence that I can go under 1:09:00 and get a lifetime PR later this May in Indianapolis, provided I get in some good training.

I would do the Painters Half again. I thought it was fairly well-managed. The course had a lot of hills, but none were too steep or too long. It was not an extremely fast course, but it was not slow either. There were a lot of 90-degree turns, which slowed things down, and also threw off everyone’s GPS units (sharp turns really mess up the distance accuracy of Garmins…but that’s what certification is for), but other than that I liked the route a lot. It was not monotonous, and snaked its way through several different neighborhoods, bouncing on and off the local trail system. There were several very nice views, some cool red rock outcrops, and a bridge crossing over the Virgin River. The race started and finished at the Dixie Center, which featured a huge amount of easy parking and lots of bathrooms (very important!).

Good times, and perhaps I’ll be back.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease. 

As those who read my blog know, I’m been dealing with an auto-immune disease called Anklyosing Spondylitis (A.S.). In a nutshell, A.S. incites my body’s immune system to attack my own cells and cause inflammation, most notably in the lower back, hips/SI, and neck. These are all distinguishing markers for A.S. In addition, it has also caused swelling and painful inflammation in my toe joints, as well as a variety of tendon-related injuries.

And reportedly it only gets worse over time. This is certainly bad news for a 29-year-old guy like myself, supposedly entering my physical prime. It almost makes it worse being a competitive runner. I felt like I was finally coming into my own and making real progress as a marathoner over the past couple years. The 2:18:09 at St. George and 2:22:34 at the Olympic Trials four weeks later were real high points, and I felt like I had the ability to break 2:18:00 or even 2:16:00 on an unaided course. All I needed was time and continuity of training.

When the A.S. diagnoses was revealed, a lot of my hopes went down the drain. But I did keep a mere fragment of hope: If I could find a way to control the A.S. (and the tendon injuries that go along with it), then I would be able to resume training at an elite level, find my body’s true limits, and achieve my goals. Thus began my search for the treatment(s) that would work for me. I am open-minded: drugs, diets, herbal remedies…my main interest is in finding something that works.

Do date, the most effective treatment I’ve tried (and still use) is simply NSAIDs. Meloxicam has been effective in reducing pain and stiffness, and has not caused any gastrointestinal damage (yet). I take the tummy-protector Omeprazole to reduce acid and help out my gut with the NSAIDs. Also, I am doing the No Starch Diet (NSD), which supposedly reduces disease activity through eliminating all starches (wheat, rice, potatoes, legumes, processed foods, etc.). NSD indeed has helped dial back my pain levels by a couple points, but so far has not been a panacea. Right now, I view it to as a complement to traditional drug treatment, and not the primary treatment in itself.

I have also tried fish oil, ultrasound, and various supplements. They all basically did nothing other than make me wary of alternative treatments and throwing my money away. With NSAIDs plus NSD, my pain levels most days are around a “2″. I have daily stiffness in my neck, and intermittent stiffness in my lower back. My left foot has been constantly inflamed and sore for the past year, and I have experienced numerous tendon-related injuries. I am doing “okay”, but would like to do “better”…and I would also like to reduce the amount of NSAIDs I need to take, in order to preserve the long-term health of my gut.

So that is a rather long intro, but it lays the foundation that:

1. I suffer from A.S.
2. I have several ways to treat A.S., none of which are perfect
3. I am constantly looking for new treatments to try. Anything that can take off a point or more of pain and inflammation levels is worth trying, especially if there are no side effects.

A couple months ago I read a press release on the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) website. It was about an herbal supplement called Padma Basic. The press release stated:

First, we look at an “exotic supplement” called “Padma Basic”. The “Dear Pharmacist” column in Tulsa World reports, “It works for rheumatoid arthritis by calming an overactive immune system that is bent on destroying cartilage and bone. The destruction occurs thanks to TNF (tumor necrosis factor), which signals the attack. Padma contains an herb “Pterocarpus santalinus,” which inhibits TNF and T-cell proliferation in a similar way to prescription drugs like Humira, Remicade and Enbrel. It could improve inflammatory conditions among them, Crohn’s disease, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.” 

Whoa! That’s an eye-catcher to me! The release states that the herb has potential to inhibit TNF (and therefore slow or halt A.S.) similar to the very powerful biologic drugs available. These biologic drugs work very well, but they have many side effects and are very, very expensive. The press statement gave me a great interest in Padma Basic, so I started googling for anything I could find on it.

Padma is an ancient Tibetan herbal formula manufactured by Padma, Inc. in Switzerland under international pharmaceutical standards. It is sold in Europe as an OTC drug known as “Padma 28″, but in the U.S. it is distributed by EcoNugenics as a herbal supplement not regulated by the FDA. The only difference between Padma Basic and Padma 28 (beside their name) is the presence of 1 mg/tablet of aconite in Padma 28. This does not really affect the formula, and the function between the two is exactly the same.

With my wariness of herbal supplements in mind, I needed to be convinced to even try Padma Basic. But as it turns out, quite a body of objective research exists that validates using Padma for a variety of applications and ailments, including:

• peripheral artery disease (Atherosclerosis. 2006: Nov; 189(1):39-46)
• angina (Herba Polonica. 1986: 32; 107-114)
• stroke (Europ J Neurology. 1998: 5(suppl1); p. S9)
• hepatitis (Phytotherapy Research. 1993: 7; 224-247)
• arthritis (Int. Journal of Immunotherapy. 1991: 2(3); 143-147)
• ulcers (Nowiny Lekarski. 1992: 2; 40-44)
• AIDS Related Complex (Internation Congress for Infectious Diseases. 1988. Rio de Janeiro)
• multiple sclerosis (Phytotherapy Research. 1992: 6; 133-136)
• dental root canals (Forsch Komplementarmed. 2006 Feb; 13 Suppl 1: 28-30)
• recurrent infections (SchweizZschr fur Ganzheits Med. 1992: 7/8(Suppl 1); 22-23)
• inflammation (Inflammopharmacology. 1999: 7(1); 47-62)
• antioxidant (Redox Rep. 2000: 5(1); 17-22)
• antimicrobial (Research in Complementary and Classical Natural Medicine. 2002:9; 346-351)
• immune modulating (Inflammopharmacology. 2004: 12(4); 373-89)
• TNF / IL-inhibiting (Eur Cytokine Netw (0) 15: 203-9)
• 

I perused many of these journal articles (see links for yourself), and became even more interested. Although there was nothing directly studying the effects of Padma Basic/28 on ankylosing spondylitis, there were indeed many studies that indirectly stated that it could help in a variety of ways, including reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and inhibiting TNF.

The results of the Bernacka et al. (1991) study on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, published in the Journal of Imunotherapy, were particularly encouraging to me. The group of children who were given Padma improved in both symptoms and laboratory tests without side effects during the six-month clinical trial. It was a very small study, but enough to stir more interest and hope in me that Padma can help dampen my overactive immune system.

So I believe it is worth a try. I plan to take Padma Basic for 30 days, and report my findings in a full review on this blog. Of course I have no delusion that this is some sort study; rather, it is merely my own personal experiences with Padma. Everyone’s form of A.S. is different, and different treatments will help different people. But my goal is that through this review and the followup review that other A.S. sufferers can find pertinent information, and be exposed to the option of Padma.

The kind people at EcoNugenics were gracious enough to supply me with a 180-tablet supply of Padma Basic. It arrived yesterday (January 2nd), and I have begun to take it. My dosage is two tablets 30 minutes before each meal (6 tablets/day). I am still taking meloxicam and omeprazole, and will continue to do so unless my pain drops down to a 0 or 1.

I plan to be as objective as possible when reporting the effects of Padma. My hopes are that it will:

1. Reduce or eliminate stiffness in my neck
2. Reduce the pain and swelling my left foot
3. Allow me to take fewer NSAIDs
4. Help the circulation of my hands and feet, which are constantly cold

So come back in 30 days for a full report of results!