Are you OA?

Guilty! Yes, I am OA.  I was recently diagnosed with joint effusion which is really osteoarthritis or OA. The x-ray confirmed the diagnosis. The report says "impression: beginning degenerative changes."

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease which is one of the leading causes of disability amongst elderly men and women.

At the World Arthritis Day forum today though, I found out that this disease is not age specific. Women are more prone to OA and tend to start developing symptoms in their 30s and 40s and worsen as they age. 70% of all OA is knee-related.  The risk increases to 57% in those with a past knee injury.

I must confess that my threshold for pain is quite high. I have ignored the aches and pain that come with my running regimen - drills, intervals and distance. It was only last month in Victoria, BC (Canada) when the weather dropped to a chilly 10 degrees Centigrade that I paid attention to my knee. I guess the cold weather affected my knee joint. I was experiencing constant pain, stiffness swelling and limited range of motion.  I found it difficult to walk, bend and even, climb up and down the stairs.  So, when I arrived home, I immediately headed straight to the hospital to see an orthopedic.

At the clinic, the orthopedic doctor overhead me discussing my ailment to my running coach over the phone. He corrected me and said "you have joint E-ffusion and not I-ffusion. . water on the knee which is actually a symptom of osteoarthritis." He said the cause is repetitive stress or overuse of the knee. He prescribed the following medications: anti-inflmatory (arcoxia), topical cream (V-Gel) and to wrap my knee for 20-minutes with a warm towel twice a day. He also advised to avoid anything strenuous and to specifically stop running. If the swelling does not subside, he recommended to aspirate the knee to remove the excess fluid which he said is better than knee replacement.

Well, I don't like anything invasive so I went to see an alternative, holistic sports doctor, an acupuncturist (Dr. Kit Navaro) who recommended to limit leg exercises to  3x a week and to go back to 'basics'. This means, correct my form and strengthen the leg muscles - knee, calf and hamstrings. He stressed the need to rest in between; meaning, do absolutely nothing.  Tomorrow I am seeing a sports rehab doctor, Dr. Bate, who hopefully, will recommend physical therapy.

If all things fail, I found out at the forum that another option is viscosupplementation. This is a procedure that involves the injection of gel-like substance into the knee. The first step is similar to aspirate to remove the diseased joint fluid and then, introduce the gel-like substance. The substance will simulate the synovial fluid to protect the joint by absorbing shocks and lubricating the moving surfaces. The product available in Manila is called Synvisc-One, a USFDA approved  injection regimen that provides up to 6 months of knee pain relief.  Of course, the procedure requires a prescription from either a rheumatologist or orthopedic.

The upside of this treatment is fast relief lasting from 6 to 12 months. The downside is, it's another botox treatment where you need a shot every six months.

My fave running gadget: 310xt

Yup! I confess! I'm a gadget junkie and got a Garmin Forerunner 310XT recently, right after the Condura Race.
In the next race, I promise to just cross the finish line, get the medal and take off instead of hanging around and checking out what's inside the tents. Well... I must confess that I also got an Asics after having my foot scanned and examined by the two japs who flew in for the event. They said that since my right foot is longer (22.8 cm) and breadth wider (9.2cm) plus I'm flat footed and wearing a heel support, the best would be a Kayano. Yup! Sucker. Bought a pair.
I ran with both this evening. I am currently tinkering with the 310XT and downloading all the freebie stuff online (including blackberry). I must say I am very very happy because not only can I sync it to Mac [unlike my old polar watch], it is to boot, GPS-enabled and I can view the route on the tiny 1.3 x 0.8 inch screen!! And, it is water resistant up to 50-meters! Should I go snorkeling with it? ha ha...

Some post-NY Marathon Stats

Yes I would run a marathon again despite the pain I'm nursing on my left side right now and OD on pain killers last night. I actually empathized with Simon Pegg's character in the movie Run Fat Boy Run who managed to cross the finish line despite odds. One thing for sure, any newbie who plans to run a marathon should train for at least nine months; and please target first half marathons before embarking on this ambitious distance.
Here's some NYM stats: 99%of the 38,356 starters finished the race. Among the fnisheres were two octogenerians the oldest man was 87 year old-Peter Harangozo who finished in 8:00:39 and the oldest women was 83 year old-Yolande Marois who finished in 7:48:46. (Note: According to Doris Nuval, she came out the next day in the Today Show and she said that it was her 56th marathon and 21st in New York). 66% of the finishers were male and 34% female. The top two non-US countries were from Italy with 3,153 finishers and 3,037 from Great Britain (note only 20 from the Philippines).
The event raised more than US$18M for 27 charities and 5,000 runners ran for charity. New York Road Runners Foundation's Team for Kids charity raised over $3.67M for youth health and fitness programs in under-served New York City public schools and Memorial Sloan Kettering's Fred's Team raised over $3.25M for pediatric cancer.
It was the third win for Brit's 32-year old Paula Radcliffe, breaking the tape at 2:23:56 (record in 2007: 2:23:09 and 2004: 2:23:10). The oldest female 'elite' to finish and placed second is 40-year old Russian Ludmila Petrova who set a world masters record of 2:25:42(record in 2000: 2:25:45). Unfortunately, Beijing's Olympic silver medlaist Catherine Nderba from Kenya finished fifth (2:29:14). The top male finisher is Brazilian Marilson Gomes Dos Santos, 2:08:43. To check out results of runners, go to: http://www.ingnycmarathon.com/results/index.php
And lastly, big cheers to the pinoys who qualified for the Boston Marathon - Michael Mesina who finished at 3:12 (1,948th overall)and the Carpo sisters Amanda (3:39) and Leica (3:40). Go Pinoy go!!

#94 in the Poland Springs 5-miles Kick-off race

Despite jet lag and warnings to taper off, I joined the 5-miles (or 8-km) Poland Springs Marathon kick-off race this morning. My bib number was # 94. Man, its a major fluke! I made a mistake of putting my pace down to 6 min per mile; duh - dyslexic--i meant 6 min per kilometer; because of this, I placed in the first corral (#1-999) among champions and elite runners. I loved my spot though because I was next to the stage and saw everyone from Mayor Bloomberg's rep, the Poland Spring (sponsor) exec and an actor who sang the national anthem (and ran too and will run next Sunday).
There were 8,000 runners (40,000 are expected in the marathon). Of course, everyone was overtaking me including the runners with numbers 2000 (2nd coral), 3000 (3rd coral) and so on. I think the Philippines' race organizers should learn from the Americans. The whole 5-mi course was so organized with volunteers cheering us on, visible signs per mile, water stations with lots of water and portalets stationed along the way. I didn't push myself since I'm still jet lagged with the nagging fear that I won't be able to walk after. I should actually be resting and saving my legs for the big day.
Saw Jeremy Pivens in "Speed the Plow" on broadway yesterday afternoon. He plays the same Entourage character in the play - neurotic, fast talking producer. The play just opened Thurs and got raving reviews in the New York Times. Will check out Miller's "All my Sons" sometime this week which stars Lithgow, Wiest and Katie Holmes.

Survived my first 21-km!

I was so surprised that I didn't vomit or crawl to the finish line on October 11, 2008 at the Adidas King of the Road race at the Fort in Taguig. For someone who just started marathon training in July, got injured for a month from over training, then resumed training mid-August - -I am very very happy, thrilled that I completed the 21-km distance (i.e. Fort-Buendia-South Super-Buendia-Heritage Park-Fort), finished in 2 hours 17 mins (note: arrived late and started running 4 mins after flag-off)... and didn't experience any pain that day! Note though that I felt the tightness in the thighs (lactic acid build-up) and some muscle twitches the next day and on the third day after 48-hours, feverish and deadweight. My therapist called it delayed onset of fatigue.
Anyway, a lot of things contributed to this 21-km milestone! First of course is the training. After the heel spur and plantar facitis fiasco that kept me off the track for a month, my coach (Mario Canjas - 0919 657-5124) resumed training slowly. He focused more on endurance and gradual building up the workouts in terms of time instead of mileage. He reduced the training from the previous 6x a week schedule to 5x a week with Sun-Wed as rest days. The weekly workout consisted of 2x speedwork, 2x fartlek and a long run on Saturdays where the length is increased each week by 30 mins. Plus 1x-2x Core training with Pilates instructor Cecile Sicangco. At the last 5km when I felt like I was about to hit the wall, I just tucked in my tummy and remembered her saying to use core muscles.
I still had to contend with my prevailing heel and foot injury and mind you, had additional injuries - like the shin splints on my left leg and patella femoral pain syndrome on my right knee. The plantar actually disappeared when I started wearing my specially moulded orthotics (from Ortho Frey 634-2705). The second factor is therapy. My weekly therapy sessions with Sante's acupuncturist Dr. Butch Ong was increased to 3x a week and also with intuitive nerve therapist Miguel del Prado. Note that Jo the healer left for Russia and found instead Miguel.
Third is nutrition and rest. I started taking Timelab's Endurance Fuel during training and Whey Protein after (both available at Health Express) and the chinese herbs presecribed by Dr. Ong. I also started taking a lot of carbs - pasta and bread. And most of all, sleep. I'm in bed at 10pm!!!
Lets see how I fare in New York on Nov 2!! Wish me luck.

must've mishap to be a bike warrior

Major reality check yesterday! Raeanna and I decided to simulate the upcoming Tri-event this weekend in Subic by doing the sprint distance swim-bike-run yesterday. It was pathetic! We did the whole thing in 4 hours!!! Well, it's a bit of an exaggeration… minus the mishaps and loooong transition times, maybe the total time is three hours (?).
We started off with the swim with coach Ria Langit present at Polo Club. We finished the 750m leg in 22:47 and Rae timed ~26 min. Note that we had to do a 600m warm up swim before the time trial (so the total swim was 1400m). It took some time for us to transition to biking. We said hello to Ninfa and Ricky who joined us for the bike/run leg and then trodded off to the parking lot to switch to bike gear (total of 30mins). When we were finally ready, Rae crossed over a rope and fell on her left side! So, we had to stop and attend to her abrasions (knee, elbow)….
Afterwhich we started our bike ride – entered Flame Tree (South Forbes) and biked the baby hills for 7-8km then crossed to Dasma to North Forbes. At around 10km, I flew off my bike on Cambridge Circle since I didn't see the hump on the left turn. I scraped my left knee (the icky photo) and my right leg has a long chain marking on the calf. We spent another ten minutes or so to do first aid. The scrape was bad and my wound kept bleeding throughout the ride.
We continued biking for another 10km around Dasma. Then headed off to Baby's house where we parked our bikes. She gawked upon seeing the blood trailing down my knee…. We then proceeded to run 5km. Well, more like pretended to run the 5km. At that time, it was already 11am. My right calf was cramping, Rae's heel hurt (she has plantar faciatis) and both Ninfa and Ricky sped off but recounted later that they were dehydrated and decided to drop by a friend house for a cool glass of water. Total run (more like Walk) distance was only 4.75 km.
After the run, we hopped on our bikes to go back to Polo around noon and stopped by the clinic to treat our wounds… we were starving then and dehydrated. It was absolutely hot at 32 degrees!! We're now thinking of doing a relay instead in the upcoming Bali Triathalon this end-June (instead of the individual Olympic) if we don't improve our pathetic time of 3-4 hours. Anyway, we've got warrior scars now so we're officially certified to be tri-candidates?
Ninfa has now posted a poll on who's wound is grosser. She got the bear-claw injury the other weekend in Anilao (right photo) ...