Frustrations

It has been about 2 years since I was fully emersed in Iron distance training.  I had forgotten how much planning, preparation and eating was needed to complete a full week's workouts for this distance of a race.  Over the past couple years I pretty much got the half iron training program down pat - iron training is a whole different story.  My training schedule for the end of last week looked like this:

• Friday - 40 minute continuous swim; 2 X 1000 increasing pace
• Saturday - 100 mile ride (20 min zone 3 - 4b, 40 min zone 2 per hour), 15 minute brick
• Sunday - 18 mile run:  2 mile wu, 10 mile zone 2, 4 mile z3-4a, 2  mile cool down

Friday's swim went off without a hitch.  Each of the 1,000 yard intervals was done in about 16 minutes, so all in all I swam 3,000 to 4,000 yards.  Saturday I woke up a bit later than I had wanted so instead of starting my ride at 8am as planned I started at 11am.  Sadistically I thought that riding during the hottest part of a very humid day would prepare me for any conditions I'd encounter on race day.  The thing I forgot - training isn't race day!  I sweated up a storm and stopped twice for an ice pop to try and cool down my core temperature.  I got through the ride without too much problem although I was exahausted by the end of it.  When I finally made it back to my car about 5.5 hours later I was so thirsty I drank the gatorade I had in my car which was about as hot as coffee, bad idea!  10 minutes into my 15 minute brick I threw my guts up and called it a day.

That evening I ate a pizza (yeah a whole one) had some more gatorade and pretty much whatever else I could get my hands on.  I fell asleep at 11:30 but was awoken about 6 times that night because of lows.  I took in close to 300 grams of carbohydrates during the course of the night but still couldn't fight off the lows.  The next morning I woke up, had my breakfast shake and a clif bar in my pre-run protocol.  I started the run with a blood sugar of 399, a bit high so I took in .5 units of insulin.  I skipped my first feed interval trying to get my blood sugar down into the 180 - 200 range but by the time I tested 6 miles into my run (52 minutes) my blood sugar had dropped to 104!  I took in a gel and a fuel belt bottle, jogged a bit, then walked for .25 miles seeing if I could spike my bs again - it was a no go, my blood sugar had only gone up to 130.  Knowing my bs had somewhat trended up I ran mile 7 to 8 and called it a day.  That turned out to be a prudent decision as the rest of the day and into the night I was fighting off low after low.

I forgot how hard it is to keep up with a fluctuating basal rate due to 10 hours of workouts in a 3 day span.  I'm working on establishing a few different basal rate protocols and am trying to be as vigilent with the Dexcom as possible (which really is an awesome device).  Right now my basal rate gives me 13.5 units of insulin per day - I probably should be closer to 11.  Today with some changes and on the flats of the beach (in the Outer Banks for beach week) I hope to nail my 10 mile run and not encounter any lows.  The key with Ironman training and diabetes is to not get frustrated, to keep a positive outlook and to know that I'm putting in the hours to have a solid race.  I got pretty down on myself last night after I couldn't finish my run - but I know my legs are fully able to run 18 miles, sometimes the best laid plans just don't work, I'll be ready and I'll stay positive.