Sweet Victory

So I might have set a 5k PR last Monday. I have a rule with myself that the closer a race is to my house, the more I feel I need to do it. Currently, there's a 4 miler four miles from my house and a 5k three miles from my house - both of which I always hit. On Memorial Day, the Run for Literacy 5k debuted, just two miles from my driveway. How do you say no? Like most first year races, it was small, with only 102 finishers. I had a goal of 19:30, but felt it would take a great run to get there. When I hit the mile mark at 5:52, I knew it was either a great mile or a stupid start. The course was flat and fast and I went through the 2 mile mark at 12:20. Since the beginning I hadn't done much passing. I'd settled in at 10th place, well behind the lead pack, but well ahead of the main pack, which is pretty much where I always am. Around the 2.2 mile mark, though, I saw one of the high school kids in the main pack falling back and I made a move on him. I surged twice but he push...

No, not that one. That 16th anniversary is coming up and we're celebrating it by spending our first night without the kids. Yes, you heard that right: first night without the kids, ever. That's worthy of a blog post in and of, itself, but nevermind... Sometime last month (I truly don't know the date), I passed my 25th anniversary w/ diabetes. Twenty five years. The "silver" anniversary, if you will. Random thoughts: * 25 years without a complication, which is really all that matters. One spot on one eye, that went away by itself. That's it. * Five kinds of insulin, along the way: Pork Regular, NPH (was it beef?), Synthetic R, Synthetic N (after the others were discontinued --- I was on the piggie stuff 'til the end) and Humalog * I originally had one of the first Accu-Chek monitors (which I believe cost around $400 and took about three minutes to do a test), moved to a Diascan (sp?), which took 70 seconds. Then I think I went to my first OneTouch, which ...

As we head into week 2 of the Marathon Plan, things seem firmly back on track. Rather than a 3+rest+2 as planned last week, I did five days in a row, with no problems. This week, my schedule will probably require a 4+rest+1, which will be easier and the long run only goes to 11 miles. My pace is also fairly close to pre-injury speeds, too. More than anything, I'm comforted with a really light travel schedule over the next few months. I'm speaking on one panel in NYC, which will be a day trip, and aside from that, my only travels are for fun, not for business. Moreover, the kids will be out of school soon, too, so I start work earlier in the day and get every other Friday off for summer hours. All in all, I'm heading into a season with ample opportunity to get fit and fast. RE: Dexcom, hmmmmm, my first impression of the company isn't super ideal. When the rep took my info last week, he told me the next thing that would happen would be his assistant would contact me for m...

Using sex to sell diabetes meds? Frankly, I prefer that over Wilford Brimley.

When last before we were so rudely interrupted.... 1) My injury was followed by a week's worth of meetings and culminated in an overseas trip to France & the UK. Because this isn't a travel blog, I'll cut to the chase: my spring marathon season is officially over. Now mostly mended (aside from a nasty bug I picked up during an otherwise wonderful trip), I've just started Day 1, Week 1 of Hal Higdon Intermediate II, culminating in the Allentown Marathon in mid-September. Nothing says you're early in the marathon plan like a three mile run, which is what the plan had me do over lunch. 2) While in the UK, I was fortunate enough to do the London Tower Jog --- 10-12 (who's counting?) laps around the moat of the Tower of London. This being the UK (or being a jog?), they didn't count my laps, or my time or the people I beat. But I did get a t-shirt and a finisher's medal, so who am I to complain? 3) Thank you muchly for all of the CGM advice. I have decide...

The bad news: I've officially postponed plans for a Spring '09 marathon. While my shin has made dramatic improvements in the past three days, I missed more than a week of training, including two critical long runs. May 31 is a long time from now and there's no doubt I could run a decent marathon then, but I'm just not interested in running a "decent" marathon. I need to be fit, trained and tapered to have a shot at 3:15, and I just wouldn't be. The good news: is plenty enough to offset the bad news 1) My shin is mostly better. I've gotten many recommendations about pursuing ART treatments and massage and I'm not ruling it out at some point, but I'm also not doing it right now. I have a strong aversion to most medical things (aside from my diabetes I haven't seen a doctor in years). Moreover, I believe in the concepts of things like Chi running and believe that the answer isn't in repairing wrong running, but in running right. At least, ...

This hasn't been the week I expected. Less important: my cell-phone died. Necessities and contractual obligations I won't bore you with thrust me into the Blackberry age, via the Storm. I'm enjoying this muchly, though - like I said - a week ago I had no plans to have any smartphone, Blackberry or otherwise. Harry Kalas died. And like John Finger wrote , I have no idea how Phillies baseball sounds without him, and I'm not very eager to find out. It's kind of a bummer. And then - more specific to this blog - I am injured. My recurring shin problem flared up very much on a Saturday ten miler with Dave and then went full-bore on Monday, turning an anticipated 20 into a measly 9. And while I've cut back recovery runs to hold off injuries, this was the first long run I've had to bag since I don't know when. Tues. and Wed., the pain persisted. I'd hoped to bike but it rained to beat the band those days. Today it's gorgeous, but I still have the pain, s...

So I want to get my bloodwork done this AM... Fasting bloodwork, which means I'm hungry, which equals grumpy. They told me the wait would be an hour. AN HOUR. I was like, no way, and they were like, yes way, so I scheduled an appointment to come back on Friday. This Friday. Good Friday. Otherwise known as the first day I was going to sleep in since like... before my marathon plan started about a million years ago. And then... driving in to work, my 2008 Scion XB check engine light came on AGAIN. For the third time... Good news: I'm a grumpy enough customer that the dealership KNOWS I'll be getting a loaner at this point. Bad news: I got better things to do w/ my time then give my car to the dealership every few weeks so they can look under the hood and go, Huh? And while I'm being grumpy: Accu-Chek is now giving users FREE skins . Why does this piss me off? Because Minimed charges ten bucks for the same thing ? (Albeit for a different device.) Which reminds me: I haven...

Though my overall mileage isn't much higher this time around than my last marathon, my 25:12 four miler has me feeling great about BQ-ing in May. Why is that? Thanks to Hal Higdon, my miles have been shuffled quite a bit. Here's three ways I'm training differently: 1) Not being afraid of the long run. In the old days, I was scared enough of my long runs that I'd rest the day before and after them. Hal's got me running 8-10 miles the day before the 17-20's, and many of those mid-long runs are at marathon pace. While I don't like running both days on the weekend, there's no denying it's made a big difference. I will say, though, that Hal wants me to cross-train on Monday's, and I'm making a slight concession to my age there and resting, instead. 2) The mid-week, mid-long run. I've always felt this was lacking in my plan. For previous marathons, I rarely went beyond six miles during the week, but Hal has me going 8-10 every Wednesday. Thou...

The Triabetics were at camp last week. This group seems like a lot of fun, though I have little interest in hopping in the pool or on the bike at present. Running running running seems to be working the best for me right now. At any rate, one of the non's (non-diabetic counselor) wrote a good story about the experience. Check it out here . If doing an Ironman is a little insane, here's something that's off the charts insane. I received an e-mail last week about Søren Lilleøre, a Danish man with type 1 diabetes who is competing in the Marathon Des Sables - a six day ultra-marathon across the Sahara Desert , which sound a little warm. At any rate, the race was supposed to start yesterday, but massive storm delayed it until today. You can keep up at Søren's website . And finally, regarding this diabetic athlete, I'm looking forward to Friday, when I switch endocrinologists about nearly ten years. I'd chosen my current group out of sheer laziness -- the office is ...

In other words, a post that's about so many things, it's about nothing. 1) For the first time in a long time, I'm sick... slight fever, head stuffy sick. I would've taken the day off but I had a conference call an hour ago. However, I will be going home this afternoon and crawling under eight blankets in the darkened basement. I am a remarkably healthy person - coming down with stuff once every year or two, partially due to the fact that I am a Zicam freak. However, this bug was un-Zicam-able and I'm on the ropes. And the problem - I think - with being a healthy person is that when you get something, you've forgotten how bad sick can be. 2) Before all of this, running-wise I was hanging on splendidly. In fact, just 24 hours ago I ran 17 miles @ 7:57 pace, and 24 hours before that did another 8 @ 7:47 pace. 3) In last week's Run4Luck, I beat my PR by 45 seconds, giving myself a VDOT of nearly 52 , my highest in years, so I'm in good shape. 4) In shape for...

There are many ways to log your workouts online and though I've played around , I've been a RunningAHEAD guy for some time. RunningAHEAD works for me but - until now - I've never pushed it because we all have our quirks. Members of RunningAHEAD have been whining about Garmin integration for - seemingly - years, and I've never joined the bandwagon, simply because EVERY Garmin upload tool I've seen (including Garmin's) sucks. They've been pitifully slow. So slow I stopped using them. Keep in mind, I NEVER run without my Garmin, but it was just easier and simpler to upload the workouts manually. Meanwhile over at RA, people have been asking for it forever, and even though there were a few posts about beta tests, I didn't pay them any attention. Wow - sometimes I love being wrong. RunningAHEAD now has Garmin integration. It's seamless, simple and as fast as you'd expect it to be (I uploaded my last three workouts in about five seconds). If you have ...

Erika lets the cat out of the bag on a not so well kept secret: diabetics don't get used to needles. Jerry explains with visual aids . As for me, I've got two thoughts on needles: 1. I fear the ones I don't do myself, meaning the A1C bloodwork. I stare at the clock on the wall or the guy getting stuck in the next chair. I never look at my own arm. 2. RE: all the self-inflicted pricks, I've come to the conclusion that if you hit a nerve it hurts. If you don't, it doesn't. Problem is, there's no way to know without doing it. So I just ask myself one question, ala Dirty Harry, "Do I feel lucky today?" Well do you, punk?

The title of this post is what running legend Bart Yasso inscribed in my copy of his book when I met him at yesterday's Ugly Mudder race in Reading. Ironically, where running had taken me yesterday was to that very race. I'd run the mudder in 2007 and was one of the people to run the abbreviated course in 2008. With last year's course mistake and what I thought was a particularly bad shirt, I'd planned on not running the Mudder again this year. And then on Friday an e-mail came saying that Bart Yasso would be signing free autographs at this year's race. I sent a quick e-mail to the race director confirming there were a couple extra shirts available and decided to make the Mudder my plan. Unlike other years, though, I wasn't even a little tapered for the race. I'd done a hard interval workout on Thursday and went out for a medium longish nine miles on Saturday. The plan called for a marathon pace-ish workout for Sunday and a good trail race can serve that p...

Titles like that really aren't very SEO friendly, but such is the buffet that is my life. Europe, Part II - I'm home. It was a great trip. Though London's a little different than a US city, and Manchester's more different, Edinburgh was very different enough to know I really went someplace I hadn't been before. The architecture of the castle coupled with the experience of running up Arthur's seat were very cool, indeed, and I was grateful for the opportunity to go. When you travel for business, there's always this nagging feeling: is what I'm doing worth the company dollar? Is the tradeshow worthwhile? Is there enough to learn and enough to teach? This time, I can easily say it was, so it was a success. Our UK team is doing a dynamite job and it's fun to watch them grow in experience. Running-wise, I managed 3 runs throughout the week, which isn't great. After getting back on US time, I did bang out a nice 14 miler, but - as I knew going into t...

It's a shame I'm a bad blogger, because I have a lot to say. In the past week, I've run up this mountain in Edinburgh and twice have run by Princess Di's house in London. I've learned that while London still doesn't thrill me, I'm a certified fan of Scotland. I bought a very touristy Scotland shirt and will wear it with pride. Alas, I'm not a millionaire playboy, so what that also means is that I'm traveling for business, which means: 1) I get up early in the mornings to run. 2) I work all day. This week, it's here . 3) The team and I visit awesome restaurants and rustic pubs all night. That's why it's 12:30am right now and I've got no time for this sort of thing. However, of all my trips to the UK, this has been my favorite and - for once - I've taken pictures. Here's hoping I have time to get them uploaded upon my return.

So 2.5 weeks ago, I started a marathon plan. I also set out on a plan to lose ten pounds to get myself to my peak marathon weight before the plan got too intense. I had a good first week and then lost five days of running due to a miserable bug. Here's what's up: Since the bug left, I've run seven days in a row. I've got two more scheduled before a rest day on Friday. Today's a short recovery run and tomorrow's an interval workout. Because I've been pretty good about going easy on the easy days, I'm feeling pretty fresh. Most surprising, I've already dropped eight of the ten pounds I wanted to lose. This is good, because pretty soon the miles are going to be piling up and dieting when you're running 50 miles a week really isn't a good idea. I'm no dietitian, but here's how I've managed to lose most of the weight: 1) Switched from cereal to oatmeal for breakfast. If I had to pick one thing, this is the big one, as I don't even ...

Why do I even attempt Spring marathons? Last year, I hurt myself after three weeks of training. This year, after a flawless first week, I got the sore throat from hell. It's only now beginning to abate and I haven't run a step in five days. It appears to be getting a little better so I'll try to resume tomorrow. I wouldn't say all hope's lost as the plan's pretty easy at this point, but nevertheless, hardcore training in this part of the country at this time of the year is difficult to say the least. But I'm going to try to be zen about it, remind myself that the marathon's a long way away and I won't even sign up for at least two months. At least, that's the idea. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Last year when the Medtronic Global Heroes program opened up for 2008, I had a lot to say on the subject . Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Medtronic vowed to allow old diabetics to apply. They've just opened up applications for 2009 and - true to their word - there's no line about older diabetics being ineligible. For the record, I've never applied to the program and am unsure if I'll apply this year. I think it's an awesome program, but I'm more concerned with qualifying for Boston. However, if you're a diabetic marathoner, I encourage you to do so.

Today starts my 18 week training program for the Delaware Marathon . This time around, I'm using the Hal Higdon Advanced Plan 1 . Various thoughts: * Most important, I think training in January and February is tough. Thus, I haven't registered for the marathon, and won't until deep into training. However, I'm in better shape than I was in this time last year, so I think it makes sense to go for it. * The biggest difference with this plan is two-fold: greater emphasis on middle-long runs and shorter short days. Previously, I was loyal to the long run, but never went further than six miles the other days. Hal has me doing lots of tens later in the training, which I think is a good thing. * However, this plan only has 3 20's (though there's also a 19, so frankly, you may as well call it 4). My last one had five. However, I do think I tapered a bit early last time out, soooo... * My travel schedule is so-so this spring. I've got a week long trip to the UK and an...