Weekend At Placid!

I'm off to Lake Placid for the weekend and totally can't wait! Coach Eggers is having her annual training camp so I'll be meeting my Train-This teammates for the first time. The work performed this weekend will lay the foundation for my level of success at Mooseman but more importantly Lake Placid. I'm 8 weeks out from my first Ironman and it's time for the first 112 mile training ride - nutrition and fitness better be spot on! Full report with pictures on Tuesday.

Have a great Memorial Day!

Running, Riding & The Rain

From a pure training perspective last weekend did more for my mental psyche than any other training period in the past. On Friday night I was able to hammer out a fantastic 3,000 yard swim; this was the first time in weeks that I didn't experience massive calf cramps during my swim and finally was able to get through the mental barrier of what happened at Bassman. Saturday I ran 14.92 miles in 2 hours and 8 minutes while "laying it down" for the last 18 minutes of the run - my best long distance run, EVER.

Saturday afternoon I took a quick pit stop at my parent's house on my way to a pre-Memorial Day BBQ to take a few laps in their pool. I knew I needed to get into some really cold water and force myself to swim "normally" to get over what happened in the water during my early season triathlon. Like a little kid entering the pool for the first time, I held onto the wall, put my face in the water and forced myself to breath out, I did this drill for a good 5 minutes. After I proved to myself I could breath in 50 degree water I started to do some laps; for the first time I felt the true beauty of a wet suit as my stroke came back to me! What I realized was in really cold water you need to really focus on breathing, the stroke will take care of itself if you've trained hard enough but since your body wants to maintain as much heat as it can it doesn't want to exhale. It's a real mind over matter battle in frigid water, I have alot of open water swimming practice left to go but this was a GREAT start.

The real fun of the weekend came Sunday. I once had a friend who used to joke that, "if it ain't raining, you ain't training." As much as I love a challenge, as much as I want every obstacle possible thrown in my way to make the journey that much more fun - riding a bike in the pouring rain at 20 to 25 mph in 55 degree temperatures while stopping every 30 minutes to test blood sugars SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! The weather man is in store for a huge smack down if I run into him anytime in the near future.

Prior to heading out for my Sunday ride I checked weather.com which stated rain was supposed to hold off until 3:30 pm. Perfect, Coach wanted me to do a 5 to 6 hour ride, if I started at 10:30 I'd be able to make it to Bear Mountain and just about all the way back before the rain started. However, after a lap in Rockland Lake State Park and just getting through Congers around 1:30 pm the sky turned Armageddon black! Sh*t, I thought, I better not tempt fate and try to make it all the way to Bear Mountain, as is I was going to have an 89 mile round trip; the 100 miler could wait for my Lake Placid training weekend. I made it just through Piermont when the sky decided to open up and drench me; some 10 to 15 miles away from the George Washing Bridge. Thankfully I had purchased the Gore Xenon Jacket earlier that week:

The jacket did a great job of keeping me mostly dry and somewhat warm - a perfect addition to the biking wardrobe! As great as the jacket was I could have been in a freaking Gortex body suit and still gotten soaked in that freaking rain. As the rain continued to come down my bike began to feel alot heavier, my average speeds dropped from 23 mph to 20 mph to 17 mph, although my cadence remained about the same. Later that night as I was cleaning the crud off my bike, Niagra falls erupted and a good 1/2 gallon of water poured out of my bike frame - hence the slowing speeds at the same cadence. This in part is why the Lemon (which I now call my old bike frame) is being replaced by a shiny new Orbea Ordu bike frame.

A couple weeks ago the bolt that holds the clamp for the seat post in place cracked in half; every ride I've been on since then has required a quick stop every 45 minutes or so to readjust the height of the seat post. The clamp for the seat post sits on top of the head tube, instead of sitting flushly on the head tube the clamp began to pull away from the frame due to the cracked bolt. Orbea was "looking into" the problem and originally was just going to send Strictly Bicycles, my LBS a new bolt and a better tool to strengthen the tightness of the bolt. After 2 weeks of debate, Orbea decided they wanted to work with the bike directly and if necessary give me a new frame. Nelson, the owner of Strictly, knows I'm in the heart of Ironman training and a lost week at this point would be a huge problem. Displaying the amazing customer service he has always shown me, Nelson fought with Orbea to forego the examination process and give me a new frame now - I can't recommend this bike shop enough; it's a class act all the way! If you're in the market for a new ride and near Ft. Lee, NJ please put Strictly at the top of your list. Hopefully the next time I get stuck in the rain my carbon beauty won't go from a sub 15 lbs. stealth machine to a freaking Blue Whale.

JDRF Article About..... ME!!!!!!!!!!

A few months ago Rachel Bennett, a journalism student at Rutgers and intern at the JDRF contacted me for an interview. The JDRF became aware of my attempt to become an Ironman 16 months after my T1 diagnosis through some work information sessions I had attended with their marketing department. When Rachel asked permission to write the article I couldn't refuse (watch out for my smile & overgrown head right now!)

So while I was going to tell you all about my 90 mile ride in the rain yesterday I'll hold that off for later this week and simply provide the link to the article. Some of the things, like my nutrition plan and hours of training have changed but the overall message remains the same: No matter what obstacles you face in life, if you believe in yourself, if your desire is strong enough, you will be able to accomplish what you set forth to do.

Here's the link to the article. Thanks again Rachel!!!

Unwinding After Training - Top Chef Season 4

It isn't often that I feel compelled to talk about reality television or the media but in my over trained sleep deprived state Top Chef really struck a nerve with me last night. Last night's elimination challenge was to create a healthy boxed lunch using a protein, a grain, and a vegetable for the Chicago Police Department.

Padma, the host, brought out a trey of chilli dogs, burgers and steak sandwiches to show the cheftestants what a normal lunch order of the Chicago PD was. She then commented something to the effect of, due to the obesity epidemic facing America, diabetes is on the rise. Sam Talbot, a cheftestant from season 2, was the guest judge; Sam also has type 1 diabetes. Sam went onto say that as a diabetic he is always looking for healthy eating options, which SHOCKED me. Anyone affected with T1 knows that healthy eating allows for easier management of blood sugars, but the fact that Sam made no distinction between type 1 and type 2 really frustrated me.

In light of a recent conversation I had with someone who said their father's diabetes was "cured" after gastric by-pass surgery it is getting really upsetting that people do not make the distinction between the causes and symptoms of the two diseases. It is almost to the point where I want to call type 1 something totally different so I don't get quizzical looks and questions of "but you're so fit," when I mention that I have type 1 diabetes. It isn't the media's responsibility to educate the general population on the two types of diabetes, but it is negligent to lump them into one category. Last night I kind of felt like I was being put into a box that I really didn't belong in. Maybe I'll start saying I have Islet cellisis.

Cumulative Carbohydrates

Lauren has really been stressing the effect of cumulative carbohydrates to me during our nutritional meetings. For a "normal" athlete running at a cumulative carbohydrate deficit will cause them to feel lethargic or just crappy overall, this will eventually lead to bonking during a workout or not having the energy to perform. For a T1 diabetic a carbohydrate deficit will eventually manifest itself in a low.

For every 2 hours of exercise I'm supposed to have about 500 grams of carbohydrates. Pre-exercise I ingest 60 grams of carbs and during my workouts I have about 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour. From Sunday morning until Tuesday night I had exercised for 10 hours; therefore I should have consumed 2500 grams of carbs over those 3 days. Sunday I had around 700 grams of carbohydrates, about 300 less than I nutritionally needed; Monday I had about 500 grams of carbs and Tuesday I added 600 grams of carbohydrates. All together that led to a 500 to 800 gram carbohydrate deficit.

Several factors led to this:

1 - It's really hard to eat that many grams of carbs! Sure I could go to McDonald's and gobble up a few Big Macs but that wouldn't really be the best option.

2 - I should have consumed at least 1 more during exercise drink on my Sunday ride.

3 - On my Tuesday ride since it was an easy spin and I was running a bit high that morning I didn't drink any of my workout mix.

All of this manifested itself in a low that was really hard to fight through last night. For dinner I had a full cup of pasta mixed with ground beef, eggplant and red sauce - should have been at least 70 grams of carbs. Less than an hour after dinner my blood sugar had dropped to 69 so I had a snickers ice cream bar; an hour after that my blood sugar was still in the 50s! Two glasses of orange juice later I was able to stabilize my blood sugars in the low 100s.

Given all this, I had to skip my morning bike ride today. If I had worked out for an hour and 1/2 the rest of my week would have been ruined, I simply wouldn't have been able to "catch up" on my carbohydrate intake. As is, I'm going to have to eat like a hungry hungry hippo today to make sure I balance out my needed carbs. The hardest part of this is finding carbohydrate rich foods that aren't processed and don't come in powder form. For breakfast I had a glass of OJ and egg whites on toast - only 600 more grams of carbs to go!

Now We're Training!

Ironman lore is filled with stories of training day in and day out for hours on end, of the ability to consume an entire pizza without putting on a pound and of body aches that would make Earl Campbell wince in pain. After months of building a base I began to beg Coach Eggers to push me, to make me scream in pain and to scratch tooth and nail to the end of each training week. For me the journey is alot more special if it's hard as hell, by giving something your all you truly know what you have accomplished. To drive home my desire for her to bring the pain I sent Coach Egg this simple e-mail:

This morning as I sit here with my quads on fire, knees swollen, back screaming and eyes dreary, I know Coach Egg brought it, but each moment I push myself, each drop of sweat is a step closer to the finish line at Placid. My training week was in a word, ridiculous, and it's only going to get harder from here.

My 16+ hours of training last week included waking up at 5am a few days to ride in Central Park or go for a run. The nice weather finally arrived in NYC which definitely gave me some extra incentive to wake up early. My 14 mile run on Saturday and 85 mile ride on Sunday were awesome. I met my target pace and blood sugar goals for each activity and felt strong at the end of both.

Best of all, the EFS and Carbo-Pro electrolyte mix I'm currently using helped me avoid ANY blood sugar lows during training throughout the week. The highlight of the week was eating an entire pizza (small) from Two Boots last night and bolusing for it perfectly!!!! Insane training weeks have their perks.

However, with all the positives from last week there are some things that without question need work:

1 - Improve my climbing ability on my bike. I'm a strong cyclist especially on the flats but my speed suffers (in comparison to others) on hills. I'm working with Cliff this week on cycling technique so that should help.

2 - Stop being discouraged in the pool. Since my debacle in the water at Bassman I've been frustrated by lap swimming. I just don't see how I'm preparing myself for open water swimming by training in a controlled environment. I'm going to look for places near my parents house in Putnam County this week to practice open water swimming on the weekends. I know I just need to prove to myself that I won't drown when the water is cold; but that is easier said than done.

3 - Hydrate more, especially on the bike. I saw Lauren last week and she is still worried that I'm not taking in enough water. Both Lauren and Brian have stressed to me that electrolyte/ carb drinks are not hydration sources; endurance athletes need to take in pure water to hydrate properly. I may buy one of those damn aero-bottles/ jet streams this week and try it out on my 100 miler this weekend, hopefully that will keep my legs fresher towards the end of the ride.

And a huge congratulations to Coach Eggers for her strong performance at the Gulf Coast Half Last Weekend!

Pre-Workout Basal Rates

Over the past month and a half a smaller percentage of my workouts have been cut short by exercise induced lows than the percentage of workouts cut short in my previous 10 months of training. In addition to using PBN's Ironman Cocktail and EFS I've experimented with my basal rates. This experimentation has led to much more stable blood sugars during exercise.

Under the advice of my previous endocrinologist I was reducing my basal rate to 5% or 10% of the hourly delivery 90 to 120 minutes prior to exercise. This effectively reduced the novolog in my body to zero, meaning I was exercising with no insulin in my system. After reading a few articles on sports medicine and nutrition it occurred to me that insulin was necessary to help move carbohydrates from your stomach and blood stream to your muscles. Without insulin the carbs I was ingesting sat in my digestive track and were not transferred to the body parts that required energy. I think this is why when I'd return my pump to normal settings after an exercise low my blood sugar would sky rocket.

After 6 weeks of experimentation I have settled on turning my pump down to 30% of an hour's full basal rate and maintain that delivery rate of insulin for the duration of exercise (except swimming when my pump is detached). This change has allowed me to maintain a blood sugar of 150 to 190 during exercise while more importantly transferring energy to my muscles. Granted my fitness improves weekly but over the past 6 weeks I have not had the fatigue, cramping or bonking issues I ran into over the winter. From both a diabetic and nutritional standpoint I'm in a much better place now.

All this experimentation does not solve the most annoying issue about insulin pump therapy however. Why doesn't the pump allow us to set an advanced rate reduction?!? If I plan on working out in the morning I need to change my basal rate pattern from pattern A to pattern B. Pattern B is a carbon copy of Pattern A except I manually calculate 30% of whatever basal rate I would have an hour before exercise (or in this case before I wake up). I'm constantly changing Pattern B's time intervals or basal rate. This extra step probably takes more calculation than any other I've had to make as a diabetic. It would be alot easier to program my pump in advance 5am rather than having to calculate the correct basal rate and time interval.