Sweet Victory

Today was my second time at the track this week. Fundamentally, I struggle with the concept of the hamster wheel known as the track - finishing where you started and all. I prefer to do speedwork on the roads whenever possible but neither Tuesday's workout nor today's were conducive to that. Today called for 10x300, at 62-63 per 300, which is approximately 5:32-5:36 pace. In the end, the workout went fine , though intervals this short and fast are always kind of strange for me, as I don't feel I have a gear that's much faster than this. On one hand, you'd think that would make the workout harder, but it almost doesn't. It's like I'm putting it on redline and hoping I can hold it for a minute. On the other hand, it wasn't lost on me that the pace I was doing these 300s at was right around my high school 2 mile PR pace twenty-three years ago. (I'm fairly certain I might hold the Pennsylvania high school record of most 11:01 two milers while n...

Yesterday was a Tuesday so well-disguised as a Monday I'm surprised nobody asked me how my weekend was. I've found that the beauty of horrible days is that they help you appreciate the good ones. Of course, that assumes you survive them and I did. The "highlight" of the day was arguably my hardest workout of my Boston build. While I've done workouts that looked more daunting on paper, this one snuck up on me and gave me a beating I wasn't expecting. Sandwiched in between a warm-up and a cool-down was this: 4 x 400 @ 88-90 seconds with 1 minute recovery after each 1 x 1600 @ 6:20 3 minute recovery Repeat The first 400 was the slowest... a 91. That's not uncommon for me as shaking off the rust is part and parcel of the process these days. The weather yesterday was about 65 and humid... it felt like we were pushing away thick clouds all the way around the track. After the 3rd 400, Mallory said, "I thought I was feeling fast today, but I thin...

Lancaster's Run 4 Luck is a unique distance - 4 miles through a flat suburb of the city. Since the first time I ran this race, it has swelled from about 200 runners to more than 800 at this year's race! In my case, I was using the race as a tune-up for the upcoming Boston Marathon. My previous PR at this distance was 25:13, but I was hopeful a good race could get me under 25. Because it was my season opener, I was a bit nervous and kept a close eye on my blood sugar to make certain the adrenaline wouldn't push me too high prior to the start. Thirty minutes prior to the race I was 124, but not wanting to chance things decided to take about 12 grams of carbs. One of my training partners and I had planned to go for 6:15 miles, together, but I had predicted this would be the race she finally beat me. If my Boston Marathon build could be called excellent, Mallory's could only be called amazing, and I expected this race to show that. Despite my plan to run 6:15 miles...

Disclosure #1: This post is rife with speculation. I have no evidence of my conclusion; only what I've learned in (gulp) nearly 20 years of professional marketing. Disclosure #2: I have a horse in this race and so my opinion likely isn't objective. Then again, I'm of the opinion that few opinions are. So the news this week is that the Team Type 1 professional cycling team has NOT been invited to this year's Tour de California, despite an impressive showing at that race and bigger races over the past several years. Here's a news article about that . Why do these things happen? Nobody knows, because races aren't required to say why they don't invite you. That said, one of the logical reasons being offered (and one I agree with) is that the news isn't really that Team Type 1 didn't get invited to the Tour de California, but that Team Type 1 - SANOFI did not get invited to the AMGEN Tour de California. You see, AMGEN and SANOFI happen to be majo...

I think the most common question I get from diabetics looking to get more serious about sports is how to manage blood sugars during workouts, particularly long workouts. The simple answer is: practice. Lots of practice with repetition. Doing the same things and tracking the results. Last week I did a 20 mile run, using a 50% basal rate and 15g of carbs (Team Type 1 Sponsor Chocolate #9 ) every 4 miles. I finished with a blood sugar of a perfect 100. So this week, I decided to do almost the same thing; the same fueling strategy though I hoped to push the distance to 22 miles. Though I'd hoped to be a bit faster this week, I pretty much ran the same splits on a windier day. How'd the blood sugars do? Watch the video to see. 21 Mile Run Before from marcus grimm on Vimeo . You can see the full splits from this week's workout here , and last week's workout here . With only 1 more very long run before Boston, this shows that I should be in good shape to go for a P...

Yesterday's post brought with it a variety of responses, both here and through social media, twitter, etc. I expected it; heck, I asked for it! I also will be upfront and say there is no right answer; the people who can automatically name something awesome about diabetes are no more correct and incorrect than those that say there is nothing. In the end, this isn't a question of right or wrong. However, I do think it's a question of framing. And, in my opinion, those who can find something "awesome" in the disease have the ability to use it to their advantage. For me, finding awesome things in this disease IS the ultimate survival weapon. After all, it's here forever. It's a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Once you accept that point, now you have a choice: one that involves embracing the situation or fighting it. I've chosen to embrace it and I think I'm a better man for it. Scott Strumello was kind enough to comment on yesterda...

So I'm excited to be a keynote speaker next month at a joint event by the JDRF and the Childrens' Hospital of Philadelphia . I got a small taste of what CHOP is about when I spoke at a parent support group last month and am very much looking forward to going back. But if you're a diabetic, I could use your help: In my presentation, I'm going to talk about aspects of diabetes that are awesome. At first blush, that's an odd topic, I know. It's counter-intuitive to how most people think. Terms have a way of defining themselves. When you hear about a lottery winner, you automatically fixate on the positives. And when you hear about a disease, the mind usually races to the negatives. But I've often said if I could register to vote as a contrarian, I would, and that's what I'm doing for this presentation: speaking about the positive aspects of diabetes. And you can help! I've posted the question, "What's the most awesome thing about being...