Motivation = Success

So I haven't posted anything in a while but I think I've just stumbled upon something that I'm sure many other people already know and I wish I would have learned long ago.
The key to success is to really want something so bad that you are willing to do whatever it takes. In other words, if you are motivated you work harder and you achieve success.

Last month I did a short triathlon for the sole purpose of proving to a couple guys at the office that I was the better all around athlete. I'm not much of a swimmer and I don't ride my bike a lot but I do run quite a bit and am fairly good at it. There is one guy in my office who is a very strong swimmer and another guy who is good at cycling and has even completed several longer triathlons. I agreed to compete with them so that we could finally declare someone to be the best athlete in the office.

After we agreed to the race, I was left with only 5 weeks to switch my training from only running to focus on the triathlon. I knew that the swimming would be my weakest leg but I also knew that the bike leg is the longest in duration so it is very important. So I focused almost all of my efforts on swimming and biking and assumed that my running ability would remain strong enough to get me through.

Three days a week I jogged to the pool and swam as much as I could, which at first was not very far. On three other days of the week I would do cycling workouts and these were not easy rides. I focused on the hardest type of workout, the long interval workout. I did sets of 3 minutes of intense efforts some days and sets of 5 minutes other days. Most of those days I followed it up with sets of 1 minute sprints. To me, those are the least enjoyable types of workouts but they have been proven to provide the most improvement in the least amount of time so I just had to do it. I also did not enjoy swimming at all by the end. Lap after lap of staring at the line at the bottom of the pool was not my idea of fun. On top of these six workouts, I threw in a few morning runs and another run on Saturday nights. So all together I did 10 or 11 workouts each week even with taking Sundays off.

By the end of the 5 weeks I was very tired of all these workouts and I couldn't wait for this race to be over. However, I was also stronger than I had ever been and I crushed the triathlon and beat my friends and claimed my success. The reason I did it all, was that I simply could not imagine losing to my co-workers. Ok, ok so I admit that I was a bit prideful but at least it helped me learn that when I am super motivated about something, I can achieve whatever I want.

A few weeks after that race I was just getting back to my normal running routine and then I got invited to run for Team Novo Nordisk at a 5k race in Barcelona, Spain. I jumped at the opportunity, of course, and immediately started training super hard again. I'm now pushing myself harder than the same time last year. I'm more focused on the little things like nutrition and rest and core strength. The difference is, I'm super motivated to do my best for the team so that I can get more opportunities like this.

Will I be successful? Stay tuned.

Running Cures Diabetes

Sorry for the sensational headline but this is really how I feel sometimes. Ok, well running doesn't really cure diabetes, at least not type 1 like I have. However, based on what happened tonight, I sure do like what running does for me in my fight against the disease.
I came home from work and wanted to decide if I should eat first or go running. The plan was to run an easy 4 miles to let my legs recover because I have a long hard race coming up in 2 days. Anyway, first things first, I tested my blood sugar. 252! I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, it is the day after Halloween and there was way too much left over candy at the office. I thought I counted everything correctly but even an extra piece or two can easily add up to a high reading like this.

So that settled it, I was going running.

Normally I eat some fast acting carbs before a run but not today, not with a reading of 252. Plus I wanted to see how much it would fall while I ran.

I headed out the door and was back in about 28 minutes. I washed my hands then tested again. 63.

So as little as a half hour of running brought me down about 200 points. I'm not saying that 63 is a safe place to be or that it should be a goal or anything but it sure was great to know that I didn't have to sit around with high blood sugar waiting for and insulin injection to bring it down. The best part is that I didn't even have to take any extra insulin, I just went out and did something I love to do anyway. Plus I got to enjoy a nice snack after the run to bring me back up to a safe glucose level.

It is little victories like this that keep me going for another day. I run to beat diabetes and in turn diabetes fuels me to run even harder.

Wish me luck in my race this weekend.

The Best Running Store

In case anyone is wondering, Shu's Idaho Running Company is the best running store in town.
They really know their stuff. They will get you into the right shoes, which can make all the difference, especially for beginner runners.

Stay tuned for my race report from last weekend's North face Endurance Challenge.

Running with Diabetes

Great article from a pro marathoner with Type 1 on my Team:

http://www.teamtype1.org/2012/10/some-other-reasons-for-running-with-diabetes/

 

 

Great Workout

Great workout tonight, 6 x 1 mile with 3 minutes rest in between. I started at 5:30 pace and worked my way down to 5:20 then blew out the last one at 5:10 just for good measure. I went into it with a blood sugar of 123 and still had about 1 unit of active insulin bolus. I had 30 g of carbs and hit the road. No eating the whole time and I finished with a blood sugar of 83 and I don't think I went anaerobic the whole time except maybe the last 30 seconds of the final set.

It is nice to finally see how good of shape I'm in now that the air isn't so smokey.

I ready to start crushing some races for Team Type 1.

Longest Run Ever.

I know a lot of people have been on much longer runs than this before and it is nothing special but I've never really been a long distance guy. I will be running my first marathon soon so I've been upping my mileage lately. On Saturday I was feeling so good that I added an extra 15 minutes to my run and ended up going for 2 hours and covering 17.8 miles.
See my route below.

Average pace of 6:45, which includes the first few miles warming up at about 7:30 pace, means that I was doing something near 6:30 by the end. I was breathing comfortably the whole time, just focusing on getting in some miles and not pushing the pace. I would call it talking pace but I always run alone so there is no one to talk to.

 

It was at 6:30 AM and I tested at 108 before the run. I had some Gatorade and a gel and headed out the door, I ate again every 30 minutes and went through about a liter of water. I got a little low at mile 7 but I still had plenty of food with me at that point. I was 84 at the end and had burned about 2000 calories. I enjoyed taking them all back in for the rest of the day.

My previous longest run was 16 miles back in January, this record won't stand as long. I should beat it in just a few weeks.


This Saturday I will do a race in the hills to get me ready for the Endurance Challenge in Atlanta in October. I'm hoping to get a new shipment of glucose monitors soon, they make long runs like this much easier.

A1C = 6.2

I'm getting closer to my goal of 5.9

I think I like Diabetes

The weirdest part of the relay experience was that even though I tested more frequently than normal that day, I didn't mind it at all. I don't know if it was because I was around other diabetics or just because I was fighting for a cause that day or what. Maybe it was because we were talking about running and diabetes and other related stuff all day. I didn't really know it at the time but I was actually enjoying the disease. I have always wanted to get to a place where I don't mind having it or maybe that I'm just not sad about it anymore but I never thought that it would be possible to actually enjoy it. Ever time I talked to one of the kids or one of the moms about how I manage my blood sugar, they were always so impressed that it gave me a good feeling of accomplishment and made me want to keep working at it.

While the race was happening I was just going with the flow, testing a bunch because it was necessary. But then when I got home, the next morning I had to do my normal first test of the morning and it kind of hit me that life was back to normal now and I have to keep doing this every day. The first test of the day still does this to me a little bit because I'm just coming out of dream land and coming back to the reality that I'm diabetic. Then later that day I was talking to my wife about diabetes and she said something to the effect of not wanting our daughters to get it. I wholeheartedly agree that I don't wish this disease on anyone especially my own kids but it also made me realize that my wife didn't really get it. I have always known that people who don't live with this disease really don't understand the challenges it poses but now I also realize that they also don't understand how awesome it can be.

Race Report

JDRF Rutherford Relay

May 12^th 2012

Rutherford County Tennessee

We were scheduled to start the relay at 8:45 AM and I volunteered to be the first runner. I woke up at about 6:30 and tested at a good level. There was so much testing that day that I can’t remember all of my numbers. I ate 2 packets of instant oatmeal and a half a bagel and had some water. I took about 30% less insulin than normal to cover those carbs because I knew I would be running about the same time my blood sugar would be peaking. I tested at 170 about 10 minutes prior to the start but still ate my normal gel because I didn’t want to eat during the run. It worked out perfectly. The combination of insulin from breakfast and the running brought me right back to normal. I ran 3 more times over the next 4 hours and tested at 109, 109, and 78 before each run. I ate about 30 to 45 carbs and some protein between each run for recovery and drank a lot of water. Each of my remaining legs were about 2 miles and I ran them at about 5:30 to 5:45 pace. I didn’t tell Matt about the 78 glucose reading because he probably wouldn’t have let me take my turn. Instead I just ate some fruit snacks and had some Gatorade. Plus it was only a 2 mile stretch that I was planning on running hard so I knew I would be fine. I had a snack with me the whole time just in case and I looked at my CGM a couple times on each run. Overall it was a very successful day managing my glucose levels, especially since I have never practiced running multiple times in a day.

On the racing front it was a successful day as well. I ran hard from the beginning and held of another fast team where the guy wanted to run 5:45 pace for the first 5 mile leg. He only had to run two legs that day so he was really pushing the pace. I was only planning on running 6 minute pace to save more for later in the day. I couldn’t let him beat me though, this day was going to be all about Team Type 1 Sanofi and all about Diabetes. So I held a small lead the whole way and handed off to Benny who easily pulled away and built up a big lead. In that first leg, I had already caught up to a couple runners who had started 15 minutes before us and as the day went on we just continued to catch runners and pull further and further ahead. By Benny’s third run (leg 12 of 15) we had caught the team who had started first and we never looked back. We set a course record that will be hard to beat and that even includes the last two miles where we jogged together as a team at a comfortable pace.

Our best success of the day though was the way we got to interact with people affected by diabetes. All along the course from the beginning to the aid stations to the end, there were people who either have diabetes or know someone who does. We talked to some moms who are learning how to care for active young boys with Type 1. I talked to the photographer who said his daughter is Type 1 and she is thinking of becoming an endocrinologist. At checkpoint 11, Matt was just about to hand off to me and one of the kids yelled out “Hey, cool pump!” I turned to look and there was a young boy showing me his pump which was the same model as mine. I quickly gave him a high five and then him and a bunch of other kids gathered around and we took pictures. Right then, Matt came flying in and passed off the relay baton to me so I had to take off running and the kids were super exited to see the racing action.

Everyone I talked to was very impressed with our speed and our commitment to managing our health. Every team saw us run past them that day and then we cheered them all back in at the finish line. We had a great time bonding as a team in the van but we also had some great conversations with people about diabetes and the success you can have with the right motivation.

Longest diabetes survivor dies.

Here is a lady who was diagnosed at only a few days old right when insulin was first becoming available. She lived to 81 and held the record for longest living with the disease. Good inspiration to prove that it can be done.
http://www.theprovince.com/health/Banting+diabetes+patient+dies/6347280/story.html

This is our team.

Here is a new promo video for my team. I think I am in it but only for a brief moment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlhewmxB2DE

Not too shabby

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here is a nice post from someone on my team.
She has lived with the disease for much longer than I have so she does a much better job explaining how it really works.
http://tripeej.com/2012/01/24/whats-it-like-to-have-diabetes/

Back To Basics

Ever since my last race I've been really struggling. I gave myself a few weeks of nice easy runs with no pace or mileage requirements to make a nice break between last season and next. The problem is that I don't look forward to my run anymore. I think of it as just something that has to be done.
It doesn't help that it is below freezing most nights when I head out. It also doesn't help that on Saturdays I run for about 15 miles which makes my legs tired for the next several days.

I can handle the inconvenience of cold weather and boring dark winter running because I know the results will be explosive speed once I start waking up my muscles again in the spring. The real problem is that I haven't been keeping my blood sugar as controlled as the weeks leading up to the race.

I don't know if I'm just getting lazy or if it is just that my body is adjusting to the less strenuous workouts. Either way, I need to get it figured out.

I think I will try just getting back to basics. Testing more often and getting precise carb counts at every meal.

Maybe I'll switch it up to morning runs or something just to get jump started again.

Yeah, that's it. That's a great idea. Look for me on the streets at 5 AM.

First burgers of 2012

I have always loved burgers, but now I love them even more. They are easy to count the carbs and they burn slowly.
And they are delicious of course.

It's that time again.

My old shoes have well over 1000 miles on them. Check out my wear pattern. 
I'm now going to try these Nike Pegasus 28s. I haven't worn a Pegasus since '92 I think.

The Results

I got a new personal best, but still had a lot of room for improvement.

First the highlights: 1 hour 14 minutes 49 seconds for a half marathon (even if it is slightly downhill) is pretty good. 8th place overall is not as good but more on that later.

Here are the rest of the details:  I had eaten a good meal of carbs and protein the night before. On the day of the race, I woke up at 4:30 AM for a 7 AM start time. I usually like 3 hours to prepare but that is just too early. I had some water when I woke up and made sure my blood sugar was in range (it was 107 I think). I got my stuff together and got in the van and had about a half of a granola bar for 15 carbs. I had more water at 5:30.  I always stop drinking an hour and a half before the race. I turned off my insulin pump at 6:30 so there wouldn't be too much insulin in me during the run. My blood sugar was up around 140 by then but that was ok because I wanted it to be higher rather than lower for my first attempt at a long race. With 15 minutes to go I at a Gu Energy Gel for 20 fast acting carbs.

I warmed up a bit and the gun went off. Normally I warm up quite a bit but I figured I could use the first mile or so to get warm. I had secured a spot right on the starting line like I usually do and I went out with the leaders. 3 guys started pulling away almost immediately. I figured I would just hold back for a minute and see what develops. Those 3 guys kept pulling further and further away and by the mile mark they were 10 seconds ahead. I figured I probably couldn't keep up with them so I stayed in the pack right behind them. We hit the first mile at 5:35 and held that pace very steady for the next 3. Again, those 3 guys were pulling further and further away and so was one other guy who decided to try to chase them down. So I started to resign myself to just going for top 10 or something now that it looked like the podium was out of reach. That was my first mistake.

As the miles clicked by, I told myself to just keep going at the current pace and see how long you can hold it. I knew that after 4 or 5 miles people would start falling off the pace. Sure enough that started happening and by mile 7 there were just 5 or 6 of us running together with those 3 guys way ahead and on guy trying to bridge that gap.

At the first water station, I did not take a drink and a few of the other guys did. This caused them to slow down a bit and I got a small lead. The problem was that I didn't have the guts to take that lead and try to run away. Later in the race I realized my training was lacking a certain element. I didn't know how to drink on the run. I never practice it and since I never do races longer than 5 or 6 miles, I don't ever need to drink anything during the race. This time, I had already planned on drinking Gatorade at a couple spots to keep my blood sugar up but when I tried to take a drink, it was very difficult. I will have to practice that in the future.

Fortunately I didn't need it that bad, the Gu I had before the race had made my blood sugar rise to about 190 by mile 3. I turned my pump back on at that point because I was worried that I might have too little insulin in me to process those carbs. After a few more miles my blood sugar was coming back down and I turned the pump off again. I finished in the low 100s so the diabetic aspect of the race worked out just fine.

Each of these little things that I did like messing with my pump and trying to drink while running slowed me down a bit but that didn't cost me the race. The real problem was that I wasn't confident enough in my own ability to know how hard I could push it. Because of this I didn't have the guts to really push it to the limit. In my mind I settled for a top 10 finish and so that's all I got. It turns out that after all those miles, only 2 of those top guys could hold that pace and I could have had 3rd place by just running 84 seconds faster.


Note for next time: If you are going to put in all that effort to train for a race, make it count on race day and don't let anything stop you from giving it all you've got.

But for now, I'm going to go have a milk shake and enjoy a couple weeks of easy runs to let my legs heal up for next season.

Hope to see you out there.

New racing shoes

I've been racing in Pumas for the last few years but I needed something light and fast and they stopped making the one I was using so I got these Nike LunaRacer 2 shoes. They come in at about 7.5 oz in my size with just enough cushioning for a long race.

Race Day Approaches

I always get a little nervous as race day gets closer and closer and this time is certainly no exception. Normally I go over all the little things in my head and even practice some of them so that there are no surprises. This time though, it seems like there is more riding on it and for some reason I'm all worked up about it. It will be my first real competitive effort since diagnosis so I want it to go well.

I have trained for the last 3 months specifically for this race and it has all been going very well so I just don't want anything to go wrong. I have been doing long runs, recovery runs, intervals, and Fast Continuous Runs (FCRs) every week at varying distances and paces. I have hammered and re-hammered all of the body's different fuel systems. I have been extremely diligent in monitoring my blood glucose levels so that I will know exactly how to handle race day.

It turns out that I may be joining Team Type 1, a diabetic running team, and the sponsors will all be at this race so I really want to do well. It is a half marathon in Tucson AZ. I normally don't focus on such long races but I figure that I can always get back to speed work in the spring.

I wrote my own training plan so that is another source of my nervousness. Did I do enough long runs, or speed work? Did I over train? I guess we'll see.

So as race day gets closer, I do a lot of things that I'm not sure that other runners do. I start doing my Saturday runs at the same time that the race will start, in this case 7 AM, to simulate race day. That is even more important with diabetes because you have to really know what your blood sugars are doing that early in the morning.

I practice eating what I will eat the night before and the morning of the race. In this case, lots of carbs and protein the night before and just a power gel in the morning. I am going to use just 20 carbs before the race and probably another 20 at the half way mark to keep my blood sugars up. I hope it is enough.

Then I get online and go over the whole course on Google Street View so that I recognize different parts of the course when I see them. I will be racing against locals who know the course so I need any advantage I can get. I even scoured Google Earth to find some training runs in Boise that mimic the same elevation changes of the race course.

I even go over the previous years results and find anyone in the top 5 who is also registered this year so that I will know who my competition is.

I got some new racing shoes (Nike LunaRacer) and trained in them a few times to make sure they are fast enough. I ran a couple 5 minute miles and a couple long runs just to make sure they would hold together.

I should be all ready to go but that is why I'm nervous. Everything has gone better than I could imagine. My test effort 2 weeks ago was a 10 mile run at 6 minute pace and I nailed every last mile with energy left at the end. My blood sugars are doing great. My interval work has been faster and faster each week. I'm worried that if one little thing goes wrong on race day, the whole thing will be ruined.

Maybe I wake up and my blood sugar is too high and then I take insulin which makes me crash in the race. Or maybe I am too low and have to eat too much which could cause stomach problems. Maybe just the nerves alone will throw me all out of whack. And I haven't even started on that one problem that every racer knows about. You know, the one that keeps you in the bathroom the whole morning of the race.

Anyway, I guess all I can do is just do my best. If I don't win, I'll just try again. When I think about it, I was planning on trying again even if I do win, so what's the big deal.

Sorry for the long rant, thanks for letting me get this all out. I'll make sure to update you right after the race.

Wish me luck!

Now I know.

A few days ago, I found out something new. My pump can get blocked and insulin might not be getting inside me.

Here is how I found out. I was going along just normal and then one day my blood sugar levels starting showing unusually high numbers. I tried taking more insulin and it didn't seem to work. I was quite confused as you might imagine.

Here are some charts that show how it all played out.

The first chart is a Saturday and it is mostly normal. I had stayed up too late the night before eating snacks and playing Call of Duty but that is another story. By the morning I was right on track.

The next chart is Sunday and you might notice that I went very high after breakfast. I had just switched out my infusion set (that's the part where the pump gets inserted into my body) so I just assumed I had an air bubble or something so I didn't get enough insulin. But then lunch sent me too high and dinner sent me way too high. Now I was really starting to wonder what was happening.

The next chart, Monday, starts high where Sunday left off and eventually comes back down and is very choppy all day. It is choppy because some parts of the day I tried pumping like usual and other times I took an old fashioned insulin shot just to try to figure out what was happening.

By Tuesday, I had pretty much assured myself that the pump just wasn't getting enough insulin in me. The weird part was that it did seem to be delivering just a tiny amount. I pulled out the infusion and sure enough it had a small 90 degree bend in it so it was kinked. 

Once I found the problem, it all made sense again. Now that I know that is even a possibility, I won't wait so long to fix it. It was weird though, I started getting those same thoughts that I had just before I was diagnosed. Thoughts like "what's wrong with me" and "this doesn't make any sense" and "what if I never get better". It was certainly not fun but it was good that I learned about this problem now.

I guess that's life with diabetes, one challenge after another.

Bring it on.