Exercise, Anxiety and Beta Blockers

I've suffered from anxiety for quite a while now.  It's really unpleasant - aside form the emotional effects, he physical effects of feeling anxious can be completely overwhelming.  My heart races or feels irregular, my breathing becomes shallow and rapid, I fidget and feel like running away or hiding or crying.  I have had counselling and learnt a few mindfulness tricks to help manage it and get it under control and they certainly help.  Remembering that "this too shall pass" also really helps, as anxiety can feed itself.  For me, that leads to migraines and nausea.

If I go for a run before I get a headache, then my body deal with the hormones associated with anxiety in the way the body is designed to - after all, the feeling is the fig or flight response.  Unfortunately, during the day I cannot just get up and go for a run … I have a job to do and I'm pretty sure they'd not be happy with me popping on a pair of trainers and disappearing for an hour or so.

So a month or so ago I went to the doctors to talk about it.  I felt that I needed something that would enable me to stop the circle of anxiety, where the physical symptoms feed into themselves to make the feelings worse.  She suggested beta blockers.  During my various exercise courses I had heard of beta blockers.  "Ok" I thought "they cap my heart rate, so I'll not be able to work out so intensively.  I won't be able to rely on heart rate for an indicator of how hard I'm working".  I don't use heat rate monitors much anyway, so I wasn't that worried about their effects.

One day I was feeling particularly anxious and my heart was raving and my breathing shallow, so I decided that I needed to bring it under control and had one of the beta blockers.  Then I remembered that I'd arranged to meet some friends - so I jump on he Nike and frantically cycle up the hill.  I expected to get hot and bothered, but as well as those expected feelings I felt as though my chest was going to explode!  My legs were burning, my lungs felt as though they'd expanded in a vain effort to get as much oxygen into themselves as possible - while my heart just pottered on as though nothing was happening.  It was really confusing for my body.  At least I didn't feel anxious.  But i didn't like the feelings.  "Ok, so don't expect to do anything too intense after having one of them beta blockers" I said to myself.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me.  For no descernable reason I began to feel anxious.  Again my heart began to race and feel irregular and my breathing shallowed.  I had a few pills yesterday and by the evening the physical symptoms were under control and I felt better.  I had a decent nights sleep.

Today I went for my normal Sunday run.  I planned to run 10 miles.  So I start off up the hill.  I can tell early on that my heart was going to cooperate, so I slow right down.  My legs feel as though they were working really hard, but I was barley faster than a walk.  After about 2 miles I stopped.  I just couldn't keep going.  In the end, I resorted to doing intervals to get home - a recommended way of exercising with beta blockers, where you alternate periods of activity with periods of recovery.  I did get home and I felt as though I'd had a work out.  It took me 45 minutes to do 4 miles.  I was not pleased.  So I'll try again tomorrow.

I will probably get anxiety attacks again and I'll probably need to take a beta blocker again - and I will get used to them, but there's nothing quite like experiencing something for oneself to understand what it's like for others.  I don't know how many trainers have tried a beta blocker, but the experience will early help me appreciate and be supportive of others on medication.

Brighton Marathon Photos

Photos taken by the Alzheimer's Society during the Brighton Marathon - probably about 5 miles from the end.  Brings be memories.  I look a state, but that's because it's hard work!  The chap I ran with is in the photo set, but his number is hidden :( 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alzrun/sets/72157644636796744/

Always Wear Hat in the Sun

Andy went out for a run

Which he thought exceedingly fun

    But no hat did he wear

    And 'cause he'd no hair

Was burnt to a crisp by the sun

Gin Gym

Martha went oft to the gym

Hoping to become very thin

    She'd work out all day

    As often as she may

But her water was actually gin

An Ode to Deadlifts

Deadlifts sound so very grim

But believe me, sir, they'll make you thin

By working on those gluts and thighs

They'll help you to reduce in size

And though by mass you'll be a loser

Soon you'll be wearing a looser ... trooser

New Shoes!

After running many, many more miles than I have ever run before in the last 12 months (three half marathons, that Clevedon to Filton run and the Brighton Marathon), I decided that i was way past time for me to buy a new pair of trainers.

Old faithful trainers

You can see in the photo above just how sorry my old pair had become: the tread is completely worn away, the structure is splitting apart in places, the cushioning has collapsed and you can see to the left of the upside shoe that the sole has completely worn away!  That's because I changed from heel striking to mid-foot striking about 18 months ago.

Heel Strike versus Mid Foot Strike

Above I've doodled a picture of the mechanical differences between heel-strike (how I used to run) and mid-foot strike.  The key thing with a heel-strike is the straightness of the leg - all the forces are transferred directly from the heel up the leg and through the knee joint ... I used to get a lot of knee pains when I first started running.

Over the years I strengthened pretty much every muscle in my body, but particularly in my legs and core; this enabled my muscles to take more of the impact and about 18 months ago I shifted from heel-striking.

Initially, I went full on toe-strike - this works for some people, but not for me - it was just too unnatural.

The I compromised and started landing more middle of the foot.  The effects were quite surprising.  My speed increased slightly (don't get me wrong: I am still just a plodder, I just plod slightly faster), and my injuries went down (until very recently - and that was nothing to do with how I was running, just a big increase in distance in a short time).

Mid-foot (and forefoot) running requires much stronger legs - you can see from my amazing artwork above that more joints are flexed so that muscle, rather than bone and cartilage, is taking the strain: and muscle repairs much faster than bone. 

So off I go to Easy Runner.  A small shop just off St Michael's Hill in Bristol - it's the place I've bought three of my last four running shoes.  The one pair I didn't have specially fitted were a real mistake: injuries in next to no time and I had to go back to Easy Runner to be fitted properly.

There was as bit of a wait, but I knew it was going to be worth it: they spend a lot of time assessing how you run and trying different shoes on you.  I lost count of how many pairs I tried on, but the chap knew his stuff: he could see that I no longer needed shoes that compensated for a large amount of pronation (an foreseen benefit of mid-foot strikes are that my feet no longer collapse inwards as I move from heel to toe - and that lack of collapse had transferred itself all up the kinetic chain so that my knees stopped hurting from impact and twisting inwards).

The assistant-chap was really knowledgeable and with some careful observation and gait analysis using a treadmill and a slow-motion camera was able to reveal a few things about my running that I could never know on my own.  I need to do some more glut, hamstring and abductor strengthening work.

Gradually, this chap edged me towards what he described as "transitional" shoes - something half way between the heavily padded types that I'd worn previously and the "bare foot" types that were the vogue a few years ago.

These new pair are even lighter than my last pair and are way more flexible so that they don't fight against the mid-foot striking that I've been doing, but still offer some stability.

So I'll be off for a run soon (when the rain stops) to trial out my new shoes.  Easy Runner are so confident that they'll get the fitting right for me that they'll replace them if they don't work out (as long as I've not been wading through mud).

Shiny New Shoes!

If you're interested, this is Easy Runner's website: http://www.easyrunner.co.uk/

Funky Names of Body Parts

I love the human body, some of the names given to parts of it are magical (or silly); here's some of the meanings I've dreamt up for them … can you think of others?

The Great Trochanter

Cheesy magician for children's parties, catch-phrase Spinnywinnyroundaroom!

Bicipital Groove

Seventies disco group, famous for such hits as Pumping Iron and Feel Those Guns, Darlin'

Fibula

A little lie that supports a bigger one

Teres Minor / Major

Binary star system in the constellation of Umerus

Acromion

Ancient magical text book containing all knowledge of the human body

Sciatica

A Greek Island famous for little old ladies carrying enormous loads on their aching backs

Gluteus Maximus

Roman General, famous for standing up against the Greek king, Iliopsoas at the battle of Pelvis in 104BC.

Angina

Beautiful maiden of legend, said to break men's (and women's) hearts