Run 70 - Without Garmin - How will I cope???!!!

Got up this sunny morning to go for a run as yesterday, well, I should not have bothered with at all. Less said about yesterday the better! Fed the animals, fed me, fed Steve, and got ready to go out, as I knew it was going to get windy later.

Off out bright and early! I had lent Steve the Garmin yesterday for a cycle ride so had to change the settings on my warm up walk. However, that didn't go to plan as it didn't reset properly. Must remember to have a look at it again later!

So, told Steve to tell me when I had run for an hour, as an hour was what I had to run today. The run, itself, wasn't too bad, and I ran faster than I had thought I would, even though it was uphill on the way out, and into a "getting stronger all the time" headwind on the way back. Tired when I got back though, and run out of steri stumpies!

I think I did just over 9km of actual running in the one hour, and approximately 15 minutes of warm up/cool down. Happy because I have built this distance back up in 6/7 weeks, since my return from injury. Still doing lots of stretching after my runs, and core work on "rest" days.

Run 69 - Uphill and Headwinds

Thankfully, not both at the same time. I think! Fancied a change of route today (hoping that I would escape some of the wind) so ran up main Road to the R43 and over the road to B'bos. Managed a fairly steady pace, both up the mountain road and when I turned round and came down the hill into the wind!

Can't say it was much fun as it looked like rain as well, but switched off to all of that and concentrated on plodding along, not too slowly though, and listened to Marathontalk on my ipod. Including warm up and part of cool down, I did 7.5km in 55 minutes. I think 6kms of that was done in 40 minutes.

Run 68 - With my trainer

Actually got my "trainer" out with me today! It made a change that Steve came with me on his cycle, and I wasn't running on my own! We have decided that Alfie is old enough to be left for a while during the day so we made up some stuffed hooves for both Alfie and Mango and we went out for my run.

It wasn't a long run - about 45 minutes altogether, and very hard work. The wind is very strong and I didn't feel as if I had the energy battling against it, although it was much better once it was behind us. Still tired, too much going on, but that is another run 'done' and my monthly total is now 74 of 75kms. If I had known that, I would have stayed out for another kilometre!

Warm up and cool down, plus 30 minute run: 45 minutes and 6.21km. Will have to start taking off the warm up and cool down part - make the run time look better!!

Run 67 And 67km this month

We went to Cape Town this weekend. It was Steve's late birthday present. John Cleese at the CTICC. So we dropped the animals off at the kennels on Saturday morning and took the scenic route (around the coast) to Cape Town. Of course, not living near any decent shops, we had to stop at the Mall at Somerset West! Then went on to the hotel in Cape Town where we were staying overnight. We enjoyed the show, and went across to Brackenfell to see my Dad this morning. Of course, we had the rugby and the cricket to watch!!

Needless to say, I ate all sorts of things over the weekend that I shouldn't but, hey, I'll be back on track tomorrow! It was a great weekend!

Really felt I needed to get out for a run when I got home and, amazingly, I did so! So, put on my shorts and t-shirt and off I went. It was nice to get out as I had not run at all for 2 days. It was warm but very windy and I managed about 7km at a slow pace. Should manage my target of 75km this month.

I could really have done without the black guy that passed me half way round telling me, "Nice legs"!!!! I think, probably, that he thought I couldn't hear him because I had my earplugs in for my ipod, but I could hear him!

Scientists uncover Alzheimer's enzyme clue

20/10/2011

Scientists in Leeds have discovered levels of a specific enzyme are raised in the brains and blood of people with Alzheimer's disease. It's hoped their findings could be used to help clinical trials for new treatments for the disease.

A team at the University of Leeds, part-funded by Alzheimer's Research UK and the Medical Research Council (MRC), studied an enzyme called alkaline phosphatase. It's thought the enzyme could be linked to the build-up of tau, a hallmark toxic protein in Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers, led by Prof Nigel Hooper, studied blood plasma samples and post-mortem brain tissue, provided by the MRC London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank, from people with Alzheimer’s and from healthy people. They found that people with the disease had more of the enzyme in the hippocampus – one of the first regions of the brain to be damaged in Alzheimer's – than healthy people when they died.

People with the disease also had greater levels of the enzyme in their blood. Further analysis showed that higher levels of alkaline phosphatase were associated with a greater loss of cognitive function.

Although levels of the enzyme in blood samples were higher in Alzheimer's, the measurements were still within the normal range, meaning they would not be useful for diagnosing the disease. However, the findings could give researchers a new tool for clinical trials, helping them to monitor how people are responding to treatments.

The findings are published today in the journal Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Prof Hooper, a Scientific Adviser to Alzheimer's Research UK, said:
“We were surprised to find that levels of this enzyme in people's blood correlated with cognitive decline, and we think this could be significant for helping to monitor people with Alzheimer's over a period of time. We hope that with more research, our results could be useful to people who are testing new drugs, giving us a better chance of finding an effective treatment to fight Alzheimer's.

“Dementia is not a normal part of ageing, and with research it can be beaten, but we need to know much more about its causes in order to develop effective treatments. I hope our research can help bring us a step closer to that goal.”

Dr Simon Ridley, Head of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said:
“These important findings could give researchers a vital tool to aid the development of new drugs for Alzheimer's disease. It will also be important to find out what causes alkaline phosphatase to increase as the disease develops.

“Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, which currently affects 820,000 people in the UK and more than 7,500 people in Leeds alone. If we are to find new treatments that could really benefit people in the future, it's crucial that we invest in research now.”

Professor James Ironside, Director of the MRC-led UK Brain Banks Network, said:
“What's so fascinating about this study is that the researchers were able to directly compare healthy tissue with samples from Alzheimer's sufferers to demonstrate the importance of alkaline phosphatase levels in the brain.

“This cutting-edge research would not be possible without access to a reliable supply of high-quality brain tissue samples, which is why the UK Brain Banks network is so important as a national resource to support neuroscience research.”

The study received funding from Alzheimer's Research UK, the Health Foundation and the Medical Research Council.

Run 66 - That was hard!

I must remember never to go out to eat again if I want to run reasonably well! I went out for a meal a few evenings ago, as you may remember, and we ate lunch in Hermanus whilst we were there yesterday. Not just a little lunch - a big lunch! With cake! Does not bode well for running the next day!

It has been very windy here over the past week and that always means sleepless nights! Not impressed! Am tired!

Still, I went out for my run remembering that I will then have 2 days off running, so a bit of 'rest' to look forward to.

I was out for 50 minutes and was supposed to do 35 of those at a 'steady state'! In that wind? You have to be joking! But I did run the 35 minutes and not walk - so, surely, that is good???

I covered nearly 7kms running around Pearly Beach. that brings my monthly total to 60km exactly, so another 15km and I've reached my target for the month. :)

Run 65 - It's hard work running after an evening out!

Steve surprised me yesterday afternoon when he told me to get ready to go out for a meal. We were celebrating the start of our fifth year together in South Africa and I hadn't given the idea of going out for a meal a thought! So, out we went, an hour later and Ronnelle came to doggy-sit!

It was a lovely meal at Seemans Taphuis with a starter, main, sweet, and wine (of course)! We were even given a celebratory bottle of champagne by the management. Very nice indeed!

Anyway, none of this bodes well for a run the next morning. So it didn't happen! However, as I want to go shopping tomorrow for wine for Sam and John's wedding next month, I decided I would do my run after all, albeit slowly. So out I went. It was hard work, but not as hard as I thought it would be.

5kms at a steady pace around the village. Done! :)

Run 64 - On the treadmill!

What a windy day! It is s-s-o-o-o windy today! Dust is being blown up from the gravel roads, so I absolutely refused to go out and run in that! I would end up choking and spluttering from all the dust I would swallow (as happened to me once in a relay race in Cyprus - but that is another story!)

So, out came the treadmill. I found it quite hard to run on at first, as I haven't been on it at all for a long time and for the first part of the run I found myself 'hanging on'. I had a recovery run to do, 20 minutes long, which was actually lovely to do and ended up being a nice, easy, comfortable jog! I started off with a warm up walk, and finished with a cool down walk. Then, 10 minutes of stretching! Yay, another few kms done! :)

As I type this, I must add that Chilli, our 8 month old cat, is sitting in front of Steve's computer watching the birds. She spends

literally hours in front of the screen, trying to catch the birds. Steve has a birds screensaver going round and round, and she LOVES it! She will even wait patiently on her cushion (pretending to be asleep), until the screensaver kicks in, before stalking the birds! He might have to change it soon before she destroys the monitor!

Run 63 - Going well

I am a lot happier with my running (at the moment) than when I was running before I got injured. Not sure why, perhaps it's because I'm concentrating better on it and focusing more on stretching and core work than I was before. Whatever, I went out and did just on 8km this morning, which includes a warm up and cool down, and it was a very enjoyable run.

So far this month I have done 45kms, and I am aiming to do 75km by the end of the month.

Run 62 - Didn't notice this one

I woke up really not feeling like a run. It has been a very busy week and I haven't slept well due to the howling wind some nights! So, feel quite tired. However, I thought I had better do my run - at least it wasn't a long one, so get out there woman!

I took my ipod with me, and I hardly noticed the 40 minutes I was out there. It was a fairly easy run with a warm up and cool down and I covered about 5.25kms overall.

Charity News

As I am trying to raise money for Alzheimer's Research by doing the London Marathon next year, I thought it might be a good idea if I put on here some research news from the charity, from time to time. So, to start off with:

A Swiss study testing a potential new Alzheimer’s treatment has promising results. The drug, called gantenerumab, is designed to stop the build up amyloid in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s. The results mean that the drug is now being tested in larger phase II clinical trials to assess if it gives a clinical benefit to those with Alzheimer’s http://is.gd/UpVKZl.

See the link for more details.

Run 61 with a metronome!

But it worked! It really helped me keep a steady pace, even up hills and into the wind!

It was drizzling, very overcast and very windy, but not really cold this morning. I took a metronome with me to keep me at a steady pace of 160, and it really worked well! The second half of my run was really hard but I kept up the same pace, and am really pleased with it!

Just over 6km in all with a warm up and cool down. I did 4.5km of it at the steady pace.

Run 60 Start of Pre-Marathon Plan

I woke up early this morning and thought, "Ugh, I really don't feel like getting up and running this morning." Even though I had planned a recovery jog this morning, I thought, "Everything is aching. I'm tired!" But I got out of bed to let the animals out, and to feed them. Then I thought, "I'll go and get my running stuff on now!" And out I went.

The wind was blowing hard, but it was bright and sunny, and it was only a very short (15 minute) jog I needed to do. So, I did it! and it wasn't that bad once I was out. I actually quite enjoyed it.

Warm up and cool down walk, and 15 minutes recovery jog at a slow pace.

Run 59 - Hooray! Got back to 5km!

Got up this morning to a beautiful day and looked forward to going out for a run. A special run today because it was the day I would manage a full 5km running again. Not done this for what seems like a long time.

Didn't take my ipod with me because I forgot to put a new Marathon Talk on it, so went out to enjoy nature instead!

ran up to the R43 and did a km along there, with not one vehicle passing by me in the 12 or 14 minutes I was on that road! All too busy watching South Africa lose to Australia!

Did just over 7kms in all in 53 minutes with 32 minutes of that running an actual 5km. Started out a bit too fast, and had to slow myself down. I was supposed to complete it in 30 - 35 minutes, so I did manage that ok, but needed a couple of drink walks because it was very warm.

Run 58 - Early one before it got too warm

Did a quick and early 25 minute run this morning before it got too warm, and I got too busy! Did a warm up and cool down either side of that, and ended up doing a 15 minute cool down because I misjudged the distance I had left! Oh well, never mind. It was nice out there running with the sound of the whales in the background!

Lots of stretching when I got back home, showered, then got on with cleaning the rooms as we have more guests arriving later.

Run 57 - Ran past a (dead) puff adder!

Woke up to a bright, sunny morning, and looking forward to a run. My running plan hasn't let me run for 2 days, so I was raring to go. Warmed up along CvB and ran up towards the R43. Got a fright when I saw a puff adder just a few metres from me but, thankfully, it was well dead! Didn't like the look of those fangs though, even if it was dead!

Did 20 minutes of constant jogging, the longest constant jogging (without any walking) I have done since my injury. It felt good, although I had a head wind for the first half, until I turned round to come back. Second half was quicker than the first half!

Timing went a bit awry at the end as I met Otto and Bella out for their morning walk so stopped to chat, but it was into the cool-down walking bit so it didn't matter!

Good run though! :)

Run 56 - Very windy

I had been looking forward to my run today and felt very enthusiastic about it yesterday. However, I woke up during the night to rain, strong wind and no electricity (not that no electricity is unusual in Pearly Beach!) and began to wonder whether I did actually want to go out for a run after all.

When I got up this morning, it had stopped raining and was just very overcast and very windy, and thought I may as well go. After all, it would get me out of having to help do the guests' breakfasts this morning, ha ha! (Yesterday, I let Steve have a day off and he went on a bird trip at Stanford. I had to do all the breakfasts myself! Yes, all two of them! AND he forgot to get the bacon out of the freezer! So...)

I was supposed to run for 40 minutes this time, with walking breaks, so I did a warm-up and cool-down either side of a jog of 10 minutes and 1 minute walking, until I had completed the 40 minutes. It went quite well, and I covered a greater distance than I had thought I would, so pleased about that. Also pleased about the fact that Steve was just finishing the washing up after the guests! :)