The Rythym, the Rebel

Last night and today went great! Both from a training and from a family perspective.
It's hard to juggle the family comitments along with the training, I try to train every morning at 5 but it can get tough sometimes - especially when Iwant to take Tricia to restruant on a Fiday night. But last night worked perfect, so i had to share.
I did get to the gym after work for a 1.5 hr bike ride - I went about 31.5 miles which felt like a really comfortable pace. (gee if only i could keep that up for more then 1.5 hours).
But the gem of the evening was that the YMCA I work out at is right next to our favorite resturant (and incidentally about 8 miles from home). After the ride I showered, then walked over to the resturant to meet the wife (she had a beer waiting for me - boy do I love her) for dinner. We drove home in her car, and left my car there. Then this morning I ran the 8 miles back to the parking lot to pick up my car and drive home before she was up. It worked out great!!! Why didn't think of this sooner?

Iowa Here I Come

Sometimes I’m just a lucky guru.

Yesterday I was asked to attend a Diabetes Day in Iowa on Feb 2^nd 2008. There’s going to be more then 2,000 people there including state politicians, healthcare professionals and national diabetes advocates. Topics are going to provide participants with information on current trends in diabetes management, carbohydrate counting, family dynamics, heart health, living and coping with diabetes, nutrition, foot care, research up-dates (and more)! Yours truly is going to talk about exercise – I can’t wait! Are there links for this, of course there are! There’s a link through JDRF and there’s also one through Hertko Camp Hollow

For those interested in the Diabetes Day in Iowa, here’s some easy links.
Info and Registration (3.2MB)Brochure (3.7MB)Register online

Oh yes, I almost forgot - 4 miles today at 7 minute pace. I’m gonna try and ride the bike tonight.

ADA Advocate

I’m registered with the American Diabetes Association as a Diabetes Advocate. Why? Well to tell you the truth, I’d love to be able to write my senator and congressman / woman and tell them to support Diabetes related issues every now and then, but I just don’t have time. So the ADA has a neat way of doing most of the work for you online. You just click away and your respective representative gets an e-mail from you about the issues you care about. Here’s the latest I got from one of thier e-mails, minus the fancy logo. Sign up, and forward it to a friend….

>> Forward to a Friend
Dear Diabetes Advocate,
$174 billion - that’s how much diagnosed cases of diabetes cost the U.S. in 2007. With an additional 6 million people believed to have diabetes but not yet diagnosed, the actual cost of diabetes may be much greater.
Yesterday, the American Diabetes Association released a new study showing the economic impact of diabetes on our country. You can find out how much diabetes costs in your state by going to the ADA’s diabetes cost calculator (www.diabetes.org/costs). This will give you the estimated costs of diabetes in your state (or congressional district), as well as the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in that area.
The Administration and Congress will soon begin working on the FY 2009 budget, and it’s important for them to hear that diabetes doesn’t just effect on individual, or one family, but that it takes a toll on all of us. Please click on the link below and tell your members of Congress it is time to properly fund diabetes research and prevention efforts to we can put a stop to this public health crisis.
Take Action Now!http://main.diabetes.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1162

Insulin - Is it in you?

It’s amazing what the body can (and in some cases cannot) do under certain circumstances. I’ve done a ton of endurance competions; marathons, triathlons, biathlons, I even ran 31 miles on a treadmill once (just for fun). And each time I compete in a competion or push myself in a workout I have to call on my body to perform. I have to push my body to its limits – and I always do. In all these situatons my faith in my ability and my emotions run the gammet; from feeling invulenrable, to questioning if I can keep my pace. But even if I slow, my body is always able to keep going.

But sometimes (and thank goodness it’s only sometimes) something happens…something happens with my insulin. In some cases my infusion set kinks, in this last one the insulin had gone bad (and yes, it can go bad). Without insulin in my body, I get so weak and cramped from the high BGs that walking up the steps is a challenge, let alone even trying to prepare for my next race with a workout. Heck it’s even tough to get out of bed and go to the bathroom (which when your BG is high you do about every 15 minutes).

It’s humbling sometimes, that for as strong as I might be physically I know I’m essentially helpless without insulin. Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.

IT IS THE INSULIN!!!

I’ve been battling the hibyy BGees all day, so it’s gotta be the insulin. I’ve doubled up on my doses and I’m just barely under 180mg/dl. I’m gonna change out as soon as I get home but I thoght I’d write a quick note in case I go into high BG road rage on the way home and smack the car up.

Toodles.

Hi again!?!

Woke up this morning with a 263 mg/dl, and that was after correcting for a 230 mg/dl at 2am – so NO bike ride for me this morning. It wasn’t what I had last night. I was at 98 mg/dl before bed and hadn’t eaten in hours. (This disease really blows sometimes.) I changed my infusion set but it looks like its fine. I’ll plan to ride tonight instead, if I can make it through the day. I’m always dead tired when I’ve slept all night with a high BG, but that’s the way the BG bounces.

Today is really going to suck.

Did I mention it was cold?

Ran 9 miles before work in about an hour and one minute (or 6.50 pace). It could have been faster though. Why you might ask? Well for those of you playing along at home, you have a choice of A, B, or C:

1. My BG hadn’t been 250 when I started (ugh)!
2. It wasn’t 18 degrees (and dark)
3. All of the above

Yea that’s right running with a 250 BG is never a good time. I knew I should have changed my set out last night when I woke up with a 254 mg/dl, but I’m not always exactly with it at 3am. Well hopefully I’ve learned from it (who am I kidding? I’ll do the same dumb thing next time.)

Trailer

Click here if you're not redirected to the triabetes video in a few seconds...

Ain't so Bad...

I’m still trying to get over the jet lag, and adjust to the realization that home is about 50 degrees colder then California (there will be no more running in shorts). I decided to venture to the gym just because I wanted to keep a closer eye on my BGs (and because of that whole 50 degrees colder thing – I’m still in whiney mode). I biked for an hour and a half (about 34 miles) and then ran for about 15 minutes (2 miles give or take a tenth). It actually felt pretty darn good, probably cause my BGs were between 98 and 122 mg/dl. I need to get going though. I’ve read some of the other blogs from Triabetes – and if I don’t get working I’m gonna get worked.

Redding Marathon

So today I thought I would start off my training for triabetes with a bang, the bang of a gun that is. I ran the Redding marathon in Redding California. I was in Redding for the weekend for work, I had gone to a diabetes support group on Saturday (two of them in fact) and when i saw there was a marathon that same weekend i thought 'how could i not do it?'

Althought the course was said to be beautiful, the course was a bit daunting. (See above.) It looks easy, but don't let it fool you. Even though the course was considered downhill, if you look closely there are lots of little uphill and downhills. Over the course of 26.2 miles those little up and downhills add up.

So I started off on the wrong foot (of course) I over calculated the carbs I ate for the dinner the night before and ended up with a low right before bed. And what do you do when all you want to do is go to sleep? RIGHT! OVERCORRECT!

So i woke up at 3am with a 333 BG (not off to a good start). I corrected and went back to bed. I got up at about 5am (3hours before race time and bolused for my meal) I had come down to 172 which was better then before. I waited about 45 minutes before eating, and had come down to about 123 but was back to about 222 with about 15 minutes before the race. I took a very samll bolus 0.15 to try and bring it down a little...

...which ended up being to much, i should have done nothing. About five miles into it I had come down to 50, which was making the 7:30 pace I was running (normally a coversational pace for me) feel like sub 6. I had about 70 grams of carb total and was back to 122 at the 10 mile mark.

I had been running with a guy I met on the way to the start. He was trying to qualify for Boston and needed a 3:15 so I thought that would be a great pace. we agreed to give it a shot but not old back if either of is fell apart.

We lost contact at around mile 15 or 16; he had stopped to use the bathroom (you would too if you had too) and we never hooked up again. I was able to real in about 10-15 people during the last 10 miles and finished in 8th overall - not bad for little training.

The course was absoultely spectacular, there are some photos (thanks to the Redding Marathon website of what the course looked like.

8 3/7 114 Brian Foster 34 M Glenmoore PA 03:17:17 7:32