Yikes, I have a High Coronary Artery Calcification (CAC) Score. Was it Caused by Running? Will Running Make Things Worse?
My preceding post explored the question of how much endurance exercise is ENOUGH to get all its benefits. This post begins my exploration of medical concerns about damage to the heart from too much endurance exercise. The most frequently discussed concerns are increased-for-age coronary artery atherosclerosis (AS) and the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (AFib)…
About HappyAgingRunner
I am still very much a WordPress novice and am frequently baffled by how some things work and/or why some do not work. It seems to be standard to have a link from the home page to an “About” page, but I cannot figure out how to do this, so I just wrote a blog…
Have I Maxed Out the Health Benefits of Running?
Do I run too much? From conversations (with non-runners, of course) and reading descriptions of what others try to do regularly to maintain their health, I have found that a lot of people believe that “it has been determined” (by wise people who study such things, I guess) that there is an optimal amount of…
Can Running Reduce My Risk of Dementia?
I have almost reached the start of my 66th year and am, as far as I know, in excellent health. This puts me at high risk of living far into the age ranges in which a terrifying percentage of people develop dementia (pathologic cognitive decline severe enough to interfere with daily life). I have a…
Tibialis Posterior Tendinopathy Strikes
Was it too greedy to plan a second marathon just two months after my last one? All was going well until it wasn’t, two weeks before race day, after a 15-mile run prescribed by my coach for the end of my first week of “tapering” for the race. I did not get to participate in…
After Months Completely Unable to Run in 2021, 2022 was a Much Better Running Year
I paused my blog project after my DNS (Did Not Start) at the 2021 Grandma’s Marathon. In the four months following my hamstring injury, every time I tried a test run the result was intense pain in the back of my right thigh that stopped me after a short distance. Throughout these months, I walked…
Race Day, Grandma’s Marathon 2021. (Sadly for me, I was not able to run.)
Three weeks before the race I suffered hamstring re-injury about seven miles into a Saturday morning group run. Same body parts I injured in March, but this time I am having a much harder time coming back. I stopped running that morning as soon as I figured out that I had hurt myself. The organizer,…
Will Grandma’s Marathon 2021 be a major thermoregulatory challenge (too hot), or will it be a dream?
An important part of what has attracted so many runners to Grandma’s Marathon from far away probably is the hope that it will have reasonably cool temperatures even though it takes place only a couple of days before the summer solstice. Another important factor is probably that that course is relatively flat – total elevation…
The number one reason I run: The experiences of “awe” it enables.
I have read that study of the emotion called “awe” has become a hot topic these days, at least among people who study emotions (who knew there are “scholars of awe?”). Do a Google search on “awe” (or “awe walks”) and you will find numerous articles like one by Emma Stone, PhD, “The Emerging Science…
Finally, maybe, I hope, mostly recovered from a hamstring injury.
It happened two months ago running on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, March 13th. As more evidence of the unluckiness of the number 13, my route was a 13-mile “out-and-back.” I felt great and was running faster and faster on the mostly downhill “back” portion. I do not recall a specific bad event, just that…
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Happy Aging Runner 