The Diabetic Athlete

dAthlete.com – talking about the needs of athletes with diabetes mellitus type 1

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Mar 12

Back in Action

By Cary cycling, diabetes, exercise, Running No Comments »

…or how I’m getting back in action.

Current Situation

179 lbs-ish (not happy with, but has been hovering around here for a while)
8 min/mile @ 4 miles (basically can do without any training)
2 hour half marathon (done in July 2011 with minimal training)
Not terribly active (what we are rectifying)

Short Term Goals

170 lbs (5% loss over current)
7 minute mile @ 4 miles (12.5% better than current)
1:45 half marathon (12.5% better than PR)
Prepare my actual goal for a sub 4 hour NYC Marathon and reseting the rest of my goals.
I also would like to set a goal of a single track mile; I have not done one in a very long time (my prior PR was around 5:05 growing up); I would like to see what happens.
Lowering both my resting and exercise heart rate 5-10% (this should just happen)

Execution

DO SOMETHING EVERY DAY. NO MATTER HOW LATE OR EARLY IT HAPPENS. 2x DAYS ARE OK!
Crossfit starting in March 2x/week for a month in the evenings should shed fat from the surface and build strength that will help this whole process
Get weekly mileage climbing upwards; figure on doing more weekend and after work runs in addition to quick morning runs
1 bike ride a week as cross-training (not hard to do with the JDRF Ride Season quickly approaching)
Food: stop snacking after dinner. Probably where I pick up the worst of my excess eating (how abnormal of me)
Start working on some good tunes for the iPod

Thoughts

Do I want to stay on the OmniPod for this? Or get agressive in using Lantus+OmniPod? Or back to Lantus-only? Probably OmniPod+Lantus.
The reduction of my 4 mile pace has a lot to do with loosing the 5% body weight; since it’s harder to run fast with a lot of weight. So I guess we will see how ‘a’ changes ‘b’.
I’m not big in to diets, I just eat whatever I want. Just need to be conscious about quantity and place limits.

Sep 24

Running Performance YTD

By Cary diabetes, exercise, Running No Comments »

Not great times — but I truly have not put any time in to actual training this year. Everything needs to start changing quickly — two marathons in November. And then in 2012 I will actually train and attempt to put down a legitimate attempt at the marathon.

Race Date	Distance (miles)	Net Time	Pace/Mile	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place
17-Sep-11	4	0:32:09	8:03	978	978	167
21-May-11	13.1	2:00:58	9:14	3228	2075	460
17-May-11	3	23:12	7:44	1042	861	177
10-Apr-11	6.2	53:47:00	8:40	3774	2790	514
26-Feb-11	4	37:05:00	9:16	2362	1582	303

Sep 06

Running Road Races

By Cary diabetes, Running No Comments »

I am in the process of building a marathon training plan for myself given 10+ weeks to the Brooklyn Marathon where I will be going for a true first marathon time (pre-emtive goal of sub 4 hours). In building a training calendar it has actually been rather difficult to fit training in around sailing and cycling. My schedule is still in the works.

Current road race schedule for the rest of 2011:

Sept 17 – 4 miler
Oct 30 – 5 miler
Nov 6 – NYC Marathon – 26.2 miles (potentially running as an Achilles International Guide)
Nov 20 – Brooklyn Marathon 26.2 miles
Dec 17 – 15K

Aug 31

2011 Vineyard Race

By Cary diabetes, sailing No Comments »

Watch live starting Friday at Noon eastern. I will be racing on the J/120 Eagle. This is a 238-mile distance sailing race.

My first distance race of the year - should be back ashore Sunday mid-day. Going back over some of my old notes on packing. I may work on a new packing list if I find any changes need to be made.

http://kws.kattack.com/kattacklive/offshore.aspx?FeedID=509

Sail fast.

May 23

Weekend Fun (bklyn half; nyack ride)

By Cary cycling, diabetes, exercise, food No Comments »

Saturday was the Brooklyn Half-Marathon where I clocked a 2:00:58 – my goal time being sub 2 hours. Almost made it. Lessons for the road – waking up with a 270 BG at 5am is going to cause problems for a 7am race. Miles 7-9 were difficult as I was battling to keep a BG over 60 (Gatorade and Gu made me rather “full” while my BG inched up slowly). Once I hit mile 9 and finished dogging it, my pace picked up and I was able to finish off the race down the boardwalk without incident. Next half marathon the goal pace will be Sub-1:55 possibly sub-1:50. I should try and get some more longer training runs in – more than the 4 miles I usually stop with. This was also my first long run with my Nike Free 3.0 shoes. I’m really enjoying them – far better performance than many other traditional running shoes.

After passing out at 8pm I awoke early Sunday morning for a bike ride. A nice 60 mile ride to Nyackand back. Hill climbing was interesting to say the least as I rode strong, but the hills were painful as my overall leg flexibility was far less than normal. BGs were stable, although my insulin was highly sensitive and I used great care in bolusing.

I figure after a weekend like this I should be a little sore and beaten up (which I am); however, my right foot has some strange pain that I am slightly concerned about. I’m trying to rest it and see how it feels before putting more miles on it since the last time I pushed hard on an injury I ended up in an air-cast for 10 days.

Update June 10: Foot pain subsided after a few days of rest. Currently considering an Ironman distance event in late 2012 on top of the NYC Marathon in Nov 2012. Still looking to do some more half-marathons this year and actually put some training miles in.

May 19

Milk

By Cary diabetes, exercise, food No Comments »

We had no refrigerator for almost two weeks (compressor died). I drank about a gallon of milk in the 36 hours after we got a temporary replacement. I am always interested in how different types of milk with their highly variable carb/sugar/protein combinations effect blood glucose. I have been drinking organic skim milk as of late and it is about 12g of carbs per serving. However, I really only bolus for about 3g of carbs and let my basal attack the slow stuff (protein, fats).

When I have the opportunity to drink whole or 2% milk, the entire math changes because it is far more fatty and more carb intensive.

I’m a huge fan of chocolate milk post workout. I completely agree with this “study” DCRainMaker did a few years back.

Tagged with: milk

Apr 01

Basal

By Cary diabetes, exercise, lifestyle No Comments »

After a week of waking up with low BG a pattern has emerged. On nights that I exercise I wake up below 60. Not ideal. I am starting slowly and reducing my 4-7am basal for the dawn phenomenon by a hair a mere .05u/hr and see what happens.

We shall reassess the situation in upcoming weeks.

Update 4/3: It’s working; but I am dropping my 4-7am another .05u/hr because I am still waking up too low.

Mar 31

Brooklyn Ride

By Cary cycling, diabetes, exercise No Comments »

A loop of Prospect Park followed by finding my way to the bike path alongside the belt parkway. Photo taken under the Verazzano bridge. Continued riding to Coney Island then back north on Ocean Ave.

Cool and windy in the 30s.

Feb 18

Pizza, Burgers & Carbs for Athletes

By Cary diabetes, food 2 Comments »

I was reading The Incurable Runner and the story about running into Chrissie Wellington at a local burger shop.

It got me thinking about writing down how I deal with burgers, fries and pizza as they are a staple food in high-fat/high-carb eating (and splurging). To me, diabetes is simply a complex math problem with mostly UNKNOWNS. So solving for X (a good blood sugar) involves quite a few variables that you can get wrong.

Cheese burger: 50g (medium size), 1u:10g, 85% upfront, 15% over 1.5 hours. More fat/cheese/bacon, we simply add a little more time and less insulin to the upfront. Add some fries with that burger? Simply add it to my upfront component. Fries alone? 95% upfront, and leave a small 5% trail over the next hour.

Regular cheese pizza slice: 40g, 1u:10g, 55% upfront, 45% over the next 2 hours. For eating more than one slice, I will sometimes actually use 1u:9g, 55% upfront, and 45% over 3 hours.

It’s easy to get in trouble with these types of foods. However, I feel there is no reason not to enjoy them (especially if you can control the outcome reasonably well).

Nb. This works for me. This math will probably will not work for you. With a large amount of exercise on board I need to be careful of the trails over 1+ hours, since when the body is working harder the insulin gets supercharged to an unknown degree (another joyful variable).

Jan 18

A1C Update

By Cary diabetes, OmniPod 1 Comment »

May 2010 – 6.3%
January 18 2011 – 6.0%

I’ll take my .3% drop; knowing that I still need to reduce variability. Reducing highs and lows are really the only improvement I can make to my numbers at this time. Going into my A1C check I knew I would clock in under 6.5% easily – just look at the numbers in the meter and it’s evident.

I put a huge order in for Rx’s – will be going back on my Lantus/OmniPod regimen – a modified version of the Un-Tethered Regimen that is more comfortable to workout with and suppresses my BG very well. For some reason I have a very difficult time running while on the OmniPod (it tends to bounce or feels like it is bouncing irregularly in certain spots).

In other news, I continue to be interviewing for my Diabetes Dream Team; Average Joe/Jane Endocrinologist need not apply. Only looking for those looking to push the envelope and try new things on my silly diet and lifestyle (and you have to be interesting me too). I’m fickle.