LIFE
How I Started Cycling and Running With MS and What Changes it Brought to Me
Personal Story
This story is not about the science behind cycling and running or any specific training programs that individuals can practice. This story is about Me (Diagnosed with MS) ending up cycling and running regularly and what changes has this brought to me.
The MS
So some of you will probably wonder what is MS? For those of You that don’t know, MS stands for Multiple Sclerosis, which is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS), including the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. The CNS is responsible for sending and receiving messages between the brain and the rest of the body.
In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks and damages the protective covering of nerve fibers (myelin), which disrupts the ability of nerve signals to travel properly. This damage can cause a wide range of symptoms, including muscle weakness and spasticity, fatigue, vision problems, and difficulty with coordination and balance.
So yes, I have been diagnosed with MS since 2010 and yes it may be that I have only the relapsing/remitting form for now, but in any case, it is a serious and progressive disease that can end up with immobility and fatal outcome.
So far I have gone through probably 2–3 serious relapses and have been undergoing steroid-related treatments for the same.
Also, I have been facing some vision, coordination, and gait-related issues in the past which I have coupe with and managed somehow. It is easier said than done for sure, as there were days when I was feeling really bad and helpless.
Moreover, MS can also affect your mental health, so often I would face depressive episodes and so-called brain fog. Brain fog can be a real struggle as you will often find yourself struggling with finding the right words for the sentence or you cannot remember the right words at all. On top of it, concentration and focus are sometimes a real mountain climbing process.
I’ve also tried various diets to ease my symptoms, like vegetarian, fully vegan, or only meat-based diets. Those are all separate stories to tell, which I will at some point in the future.
The Usher
It all began in 2020 by the 4th month of the now-all-known COVID pandemic outbreak which took the whole world by storm.
I, like many others, started working from Home since the company I work for implemented a work-from-home policy which was executed by turns.
So half of the employees would work in the office and half of them would work from home. I think this was more or less the same scenario for all at that time.
Some companies implemented a full work-from-home policy, which was the case for our company as well in the latter stage of the pandemic.
Anyway, since I was working from home and my wife is an elementary teacher on summer break, having a preschool kid at that time was an easy decision for us.
So we packed our bags and moved to our summer getaway place which is by the Lake of Ohrid in the City of Ohrid.
Now you will probably ask where is this place called Ohrid.
Well yes, so I am from North Macedonia or in the past known as the Republic of Macedonia (long name dispute story for some other time) and in North Macedonia we have this really old and deep lake (I think one of the oldest in Europe) called Ohrid lake which is situated in the south of the country and at the cross border with Albania.
Beautiful place for spring or summer vacation and also a proper weekend getaway. You should try to visit it sometime if possible.
Did I say a beautiful place?
Ok, so we situated there not knowing what the COVID pandemic would bring and I tried to combine my work from home with usual family-related tasks like grocery shopping, taking care of our boy for some time of the day, helping with usual home-related things, and exploring Ohrid.
At this time I was practicing a fully Vegan diet. I must say that it helped me with my symptoms as some of them were reduced but still there.
The most problematic were the gait-related issues, tiredness in general, and concentration.
At this time I also often had tingling sensations in my legs especially when I would sit in one position for a prolonged time.
The Cycling
As I found that mornings were usually quiet in Ohrid and I was getting up early anyhow (6:00 am) I thought that maybe I could give a try to cycling near the lake shore and see where this would take me.
At this time my fitness was bad, like really bad. No physical exercise of any kind and I was often tired due to MS for no particular reason.
Up to this point I had used my bike mostly for commuting and that was it.
So I started doing this almost every second day at the same time before work hours. Usually, I would get up at 06:00 am, prepare and go about 15–20km rides (about 1 hour) without any structured training process, just average effort rides.
My fitness started improving gradually but my MS-related symptoms were still there. As I got fit, I started hill climbs with my bike. It was a challenging but rewarding process, especially when you climb the hill and you get these really beautiful lake views when descending.
For the first time after many years, I felt good and optimistic about myself. Even though I still had my MS symptoms with me, I was feeling more energetic and positive overall.
Now it all sounds fun and games until the all-known Murphy’s law “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” kicks in.
One day, as I was descending with my bike from one of my hill climbs, at one of the turns I suddenly faced a fully stopped car in the middle of the road.
Trying to avoid a direct hit I somehow managed to avoid hitting the car from behind but my instinct instructed me to push on the brakes and this is the moment where I lost my balance and fell, hitting my left arm on the road.
Fortunately, I went by miraculously without any broken things on me as X-ray scans showed, but I was forced to wear an arm immobilizer since the fall took its toll.
My arm was hurting badly and I was not able to use it at all. So I was forced to forget about my cycling routine for at least one month, no question about it.
The Running
At this point, I was almost two months into fitness building via cycling and I was concerned that if I completely stopped the training I would again return back to the old me, with no fitness and having depressive episodes all over the place.
I bragged about my unfortunate event to my family and friends all the time to the point where one of my friends told me, “Why don’t you try running?”
Now, to be honest, I never thought that there would be a point in my life where I would be running. This concept was so strange to me that I never thought that I would ever give it a try. Cycling goes along well with MS, at least for my form of MS as it is a low-impact exercise and you don’t have that much of a burden on the muscles.
Running on the contrary is a high-impact exercise and considering my MS issues I was kind of hesitant.
Nevertheless, I decided that I need to give it a try and see how it goes. I ordered a pair of basic running shoes (nothing special really), I got some running tips from a friend of mine who was already into this few years, and one morning went out and tried my first ever run.
It was strange for the first few kilometers since I was unfamiliar with the concepts of cadence, pace, or anything important in running really and I ran about 5 km.
My overall timing was nothing special (was bad) like a pace of 7 minutes something but I felt really good at the end since I had achieved something that I never thought I would.
It was kind of harder than I was expecting since it is quite different from cycling in the sense that it requires complete body movement and coordination. But the truth is that if I was into keeping my fitness and knowing that cycling is out of the question at least for 2 months, I need to chase this road (no pun intended) and try to attend the running at least 2–3 times per week.
Next thing I know, I was ordering all kinds of running outfits and equipment and was reading all I could find about running, different running techniques, pace-related articles, the importance of heart rate zones, and so on.
After 3–4 runs I was feeling quite comfortable with this new training routine. Especially the period immediately after each run when you get this endorphin rush or so-called runner’s high.
My MS symptoms were still there but I promised myself that I need to keep this momentum and try as hard as possible to manage both things.
Yes, I got the Runner’s knee syndrome after a few runs since I was a complete beginner in this, but I managed it somehow with a knee pressure bandage and after a few more runs pain was completely gone.
Two months went by and here I was with my MS, doing cross-training through running and cycling (my left hand was back to normal finally) which I never thought that would happen.
I continued this journey during the winter season by implementing an indoor trainer for my bike so I could keep my fitness level there and tried to run during the winter season whenever that was possible.
A few years went by and the next thing I know I enrolled myself in my first-ever 10km race which I finished in 50 minutes mark. That same year I went on and enrolled myself in a half-marathon race which I also finished in 1 hour, 58 minutes mark. An achievement that really makes me proud and is a product of my hard work invested behind.
On top of it, I also finally managed last year to make a full cycling circle around Ohrid lake, something that I have been thinking about for some time but never got a chance to do it before. Absolutely lovely experience. You can see this from my Strava map.
So what has all this brought to my MS ?
Now when we talk about my MS-related symptoms I must say that it took some time before I noticed some changes, I think it was about 6 months to 1 year as symptoms started to fade out gradually.
So today after almost 3 years of active cycling and running with almost over 10.000km in cycling and 1.000km in running, I can say proudly that my gait and coordination issues are completely gone. My muscle spasticity issues are completely gone.
My concentration issues are completely gone.
My memory and focus are as good as it gets for a 40-year-old and I haven’t had any relapses during the last two and a half years.
Yes, I still have those tingling sensations in my legs from time to time, but that is very rare compared to what I had before and that is it.
Most importantly, I haven’t had any depressive or feel-bad episodes since I started this journey and I feel more energetic than ever.
Yes I know it sounds too good to be true but this is the result of pure physical exercises through running and cycling and its impact on my nervous system and I will continue to practice this routine as long as possible.
This journey not only improved my MS-related symptoms and my mental health overall, but it showed me that I am much more capable as a human being which I am really proud of.
For the end, I will leave you with a picture of one of the breathtaking sunsets over Ohrid Lake.
Till next time, stay safe and keep yourself active!
