The Best 90 I've Ever Gotten

After a recovery week my coach sent me back to the gym and sent me back hard. Finishing an Ironman is not easy, finishing it with my crazy expectations is terrifying! Since I'm transitioning from a power/ speed athlete to an endurance athlete it is really important that we build a foundation, strengthen my slow twitch muscle fibers and get my body used to aerobic instead of anaerobic workouts. So yesterday Coach Egg came after me with a vengeance and a nice fresh Welcome to the World of Triathlon.

On my workout log account I read 45 minute continuous run at an incline of 1 on the treadmill, no faster than a 9:20 pace. Coach knows I like to go as fast as I can and holds the reigns pretty tightly for the reasons discussed above. However, to date my longest run with diabetes has been 40 minutes - out of the 5 or 10 runs that were supposed to be 40 minutes long I have been able to complete just 3 or 4 of them, the rest were cut short because of low blood sugars. In the 3 or 4 that I was able to complete my blood sugar was in the 70s by the time I took my last stride. So yesterday I went to the gym with some trepidation.

I've been speaking with Rich Weil a certified diabetic educator and exercise phyisiolist, whose also on the board for DESA. Rich and I have talked about why it's difficult for me to maintain my blood sugar during longer runs and his one suggestion so far has been to start my runs with my blood sugar above 185. An unbolused clif bar will get my blood sugar up to about 170. Yesterday I complimented my carrot cake (delicious) clif bar with an Accel-Gel. I had the clif bar about an hour before my run and then had the Accel-Gel when I first walked into my gym's locker room - about 10 or 12 minutes before my run. 14 minutes into the run I had a second Accel-Gel and when I finished the 45 minutes I was greeted by this reading on my meter:

Sorry it's a bit tough to read - but that's a 90 for blood sugar - and the After Exercise setting! Can't wait till Coach makes me run 3 times a week, bike 3 times a week and swim twice a week as she promised in my weekly e-mail to me; as long as I keep getting 90s post workout I'll do all of that with a huge smile.

Trusting Your Body

Yesterday I made one of the scariest decisions I've had to since having diabetes in regards to working out. I trusted that my nutrition, pump settings and preparation would allow me to strongly complete my workout even though my meter readings indicated otherwise. My triathlon coach wanted me to do a 3 mile speed test which required me to have optimal blood sugars for performance. About an hour and 45 minutes after lunch my blood sugar was 90, I had turned my pump down to 5% about 45 minutes before that and after the reading had a clif bar. I headed to the gym 10 minutes later and after changing into my running clothes I gobbled up a hammer gel. I stretched and warmed up for 5 minutes, tested again and had a bs of just 99.

I knew I had just ingested over 65 grams of carbs and trusted my nutrition. I figured there was no way I needed more carbs and if I had anything else without a bolus I risked going into DKA (bs over 250). With great trepidation I set the treadmill to a 8:30 pace and finished my 3 mile run in just over 24 minutes (upped the speed each mile). By mile 2.5 my stomach felt like it was in a vice so I knew I was risking going low but I didn't have blurred vision

At Least We Got A Paragraph!

Today the NY Times ran an article on the increased risk for heart attacks in diabetics. Mind you the headline stated Diabetics and not Type 2 diabetics which the 4 page (online version) of the article was almost entirely about. The only mention of Type 1 diabetics was that we are "often thin". Now I don't mean to feel like the bastard step child of the medical community but seriously at least throw us a bone! This comes on the heels of a friend of Courtney's mentioning to her that my blog is boring because it is only about "blood sugars." I'm more amazed each day by the misunderstanding people have with Type 1 diabetes and continue to try and think of outlets to get the word out about this disease.

For example, today ESPN had a segment on Sportscenter about Todd Crandell, a former heroin addict who was able to overcome his addiction through triathlons and ironmen competitions. Todd's story was inspirational and I would love if a similar piece was done on athletes who overcame diabetes. On any given sporting event you'll often hear about an athlete who overcame some adversity in his life to reach the position he is at today. However, groups like Team Type 1, athletes like Adam Morrison, Jay Hewitt, and Michael Sinclair are hardly ever mentioned. I spent my football career without the worry of blood sugars and can't imagine having played at the level I did while having to constantly check my bs.

I think the only way to improve the products we have to help treat the disease (like the work Amy at Diabetes Mine is doing) is to improve the awareness of this disease. My motivation to train for Ironman Lake Placid was in part to inspire all those diabetic kids who are afraid to put on a uniform of some kind but if our message never reaches those kids how are they supposed to be inspired? I'll continue to write like all those people on my blog roll do and hopefully one day our message will be heard.

Time to Ring The Bolus!

I had an incredible past few days. On Friday Courtney and I drove up to Lake Placid to volunteer at Ironman USA. Although we both got a bit sick from the 40 degree temperatures at night and didn't get nearly enough sleep the whole weekend was a blast. I never thought that handing out water to so many sweat soaked athletes could be so much fun. The smiles on someone's face during the marathon portion of an ironman when you call out their name and tell them they look strong is just an amazing feeling - I was in complete awe of these athletes and have tremendous respect for each of them.

Since my college football days ended I have been looking for a new athletic challenge. I have been seeking a way to perform in front of crowds and test my body's limits. Diabetes has given me the opportunity to make endurance sports even more challenging than what they already were and lets me "fight" something during them. I was so inspired by what I witnessed on Sunday that I woke up at 5:20 am on Monday to get in line to sign up for the 2008 Lake Placid Ironman! On July 20th, 2008 I will swim 2.4 mile, bike 114 miles and run 26.2 miles.

I can't wait for my training to start and I'm really looking forward to sharing my blood sugar challenges with each of you. During the race we saw 2 people with insulin pumps and 2 people wearing Tour De Cure bike jerseys. Last week I did my due diligence to make sure it was an ok decision to sign up for this race and spoke with some amazing Type 1s who have successfully completed ironmans or other triathlons in the past. Jay Handy of the JDRF and Tom Kingery of the future Team Running on Insulin both spoke to me at length about the training requirements of the race but more importantly helped me embrace my enthusiasm for this challenge. Through this event I hope to show all those diabetic kids or adults that we can challenge our physical limits and can compete in insane athletic events. Now it's time for me to live up to my blog name and Ring The Bolus; this next year will have more sweat, more pain, and more commitment than any athletic endeavor I've tackled in the past and I can't wait!