Sweet Victory

When speaking to diabetic athletes new to training, or more common, parents of diabetic kids in sports, a common question is how to handle a high blood sugar during an event. Common sense would tell you to skip your nutrition and let the exercise bring down the blood sugar. In practice for me, this works, albeit slowly and at risk to performance in the given event. So staring at my 351, I took about 65% of the insulin I normally would when that high, and still loaded up at food at the aid station and headed out for my second 10 mile loop. Another diabetic complication soon followed. When CGMs and blood sugar readings are as far apart as these 2 were, it’s not uncommon for the CGM to ask for another calibration test. Because I just left the aid station, I didn’t have time to give it one. Soon after, the CGM stopped reading until I would provide it with that test. Despite the diabetic issues, the run was going well at this point and the second loop progressed uneventfully. I came i...

Note: I've never written a multi-post race report. Until now. “Don't forget the joy this weekend, Marcus. It likes to go hiding in the dark hours of the night but it's still there if you look for it.” Those lines appeared on my Facebook wall as I was packing for my trip to the NJ Ultra Fest and my first attempt at the 100 mile distance. They were written by Leon Lutz , a local runner known as much for the length of his beard as for the length of his runs. Leon was speaking from experience, both from his own successful hundred mile race last year as well from his hectic lifestyle which often sends him on his regular runs when the sun is gone. Very well, Leon, I thought. I’ll look for the joy. I won’t use this post to recap my training, though I recognize that the runners who stumble upon it will be particularly interested in it. That being the case, let’s just link to my public running log here . You’ll see a lot of long runs beginning ninety days prior to the race,...

48 hours from now, the NJ Ultra Fest will be underway. It will be my 6th race greater than a marathon, though of course that doesn't include all of the training runs that have been longer. My longest race to date has been 55 miles. This is nearly twice that. I'm scared, but then again, that is kind of the point: to see if I can accomplish what I haven't. And I can't say I'm any more terrified than I was before my first 50 and that day was a dream come true. For most 100 mile races, a third or more of the field don't finish. That's a sobering number. When I'm feeling cocky, I tell myself that those people were probably undertrained, but when you think about it, most people going into a hundred mile race, including me, probably are. As far as my health goes, I'm fairly close to 100%. I've been battling foot tendinitis, but have cut my miles so much this week that it currently feels perfect. Still, I'm not betting it will stay quiet for t...

Last week I resigned from my position on the running team at Team Novo Nordisk, ending a more than two-year relationship including being named the Amateur Athlete of the Year in 2011 for Team Type 1 – to this day perhaps the award I cherish most. There has been a lot of Internet chatter about the changes that have occurred since TT1 became TNN. From what I saw, some of the comments were right, and some of them were wrong. And as far down the chain of command as I was, it’s probably fair to say I’m not the best judge of what all was true. Here’s what I can say: Novo Nordisk shares Phil Southerland’s dream of putting a professional cycling team into the Tour de France. That’s what makes the partnership perfect for both of them - a common goal. Novo Nordisk is a pharmaceutical company. As such, they are governed by a lot of rules and anyone who works for them (or represents them, in my case) has to agree to play by those rules. My decision to leave the team isn’t based on what I thi...

Just like that, I'm now tapering for my first 100 mile race on March 23. Insert your favorite phrase: The hay is in the barn. The cords of wood are stacked. Whatever. For better or for worse, this is what I have. Research into 100 mile plans varies so much that I think it's really impossible to know if I'm ready. Broadly speaking, what I've done is taken what worked well for me in a 50 mile race build and added as much as I could. Here are some stats: Running up to my first 50 mile build (which I'm using for comparison since it was the same time of year): 1. I had 6 weeks 50+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I had 8 of those and will likely have a 9th this week. 2. I had 4 weeks 60+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I had 5 of those. 3. I had 0 weeks of 70+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I've had 3. 4. I had 3 long runs of 30+ miles with the longest of 35 miles. For this 100 mile build, I had 5, maxing out at 39.4 miles. I also ...