Sweet Victory

Someone recently asked me if I'd registered for my 100 mile race, yet, and I commented that I was waiting to get through these 3 critical weeks of training. Armed with confidence, I felt, I would be thrilled to enter. Instead, this past weekend I missed my first scheduled long run since I don't know when, and still entered the race today. The missed long run was just that. A head cold that came on around Thursday, didn't effect my Thursday or Friday runs, but peaked on Sunday morning when I'd planned to run for 6 hours. I got up after 11 hours of sleep, got dressed to run, got the paper, and went back to sleep for 6 more hours. Got up. Ate breakfast. Slept for 2 more hours. Yesterday I was off work and slithered through 8 miles, and did another 7 today in the freezing rain. The headcold is going away, but slowly, and in its place is the divot left from a key missed workout. It's not entirely bad, of course. When I went through a similar build in 2011, I had ...

So I did something different last weekend. For all of my previous ultras, I've done 1 single long run on the weekends. The core of what makes a long run for me seems to be about 5 hours or 30-31 miles, though I've done a few at 5.5 hours and as long as 35 miles. The other school of thought is to do back long runs, but have them be shorter. Until this past weekend, I'd never done that. I can't say going into it, I had a great reason for doing it, either, other than training plans for 50 milers don't look much different than training plans for 100 milers, and that just scares me, so I decided different might be good. On the other hand, many runners say that the risk of injury is greater on back to backs, and hey, I'm not getting any younger here, so injury is a concern. To recap, last weekend, I did 31.1 miles in 4:55 of total running. For some reason, even though I'm a stickler about running time for ultras, I focused on miles for my btob. On Sa...

Warning: not about diabetes or running. Just a rant because I feel like it. Enough already. Enough with your Second Amendment rights being taken away, for a couple reasons. The first is the idea that limiting magazine sizes is a slippery slope to losing handguns. I don’t buy it. There are speed limits on our highways. By and large, they keep us safe on our way to work. At the very least, they send a message all drivers can understand, so that we can work together to get to the office in one piece. There are also limits to how much beer I can buy at the store. Make no mistake: I like beer. But these limits don’t keep me in bed at night clutching a cold bottle of Yuengling for fear the government will take it from me. Oh and by the way, those limits are plenty high enough for me and most people to catch a decent buzz or get through a Sunday’s worth of football. Moreover, I suspect the government likes the tax revenue generated by alcohol sales, just as they do the tax revenue gen...

Just like that, January is half-way gone. Quick update on my shoulder: after an unsuccessful month of PT and a clear MRI, one well placed cortisone shot did the trick. Granted, it also put my blood sugars through the roof for a week, but now I'm sleeping through the night again. Speaking of blood sugars, I also received my latest A1c, which was 6.1. That's pretty darn good. I think I may have had a 6.1 1 or 2 other times, but that's close to my best ever. Meanwhile, the miles add up, with 102.3 in the books for January and it's only the 14th. I expected to miss some time last week when I was in NYC, and while a few runs went a little short, I actually didn't miss a single day, which was nice. Last weekend, I did my 2nd 5 hour run of this build, reaching up to 31.1 miles in 4:55, which was a nice tick faster than the last one. While the weather was a little better, I attribute much of the improvement to my new Hoka One One's . If you're not familiar...

If you're not a diabetic endurance athlete, this likely won't matter to you, but history was made yesterday! My teammate Tommy Neal finished the Houston Marathon in 2:30:36, good for 16th place among men out of a projected 13,000ish starters. To the best of my knowledge, this is the fastest marathon ever run by a Type 1 diabetic. Missy Foy commented to me on Twitter that she believes it broke Bill Carlson's diabetic record of 2:38. Perhaps most impressive? Tommy was disappointed in his time, which happened in a rain-soaked race. As the owner of a 65:00 half marathon, he's got 2:15 speed , so it's just a matter of putting together the right race on the race day. And as far as mastering diabetes? Consider this: Tommy tweeted that his BG was 153 at the start and 83 at the end . I'd say he's well on his way.

So with a 30.4 mile run including headwinds of 20mph and windchills in the teens, that pretty much does it for 2012. Without trying it, I discovered that my total mileage for the year came in around 2,270... just about 10 more than I accomplished in 2011. More immediately, though, the 230.5 for December was my second highest total of the year as well as second highest all-time... all of which is good as I aim for the NJ Ultra Fest in March. And because my long runs were technically 6 days apart, I just wrapped up an 81 mile week, my longest week ever, too. I still haven't officially signed up for the 100M in NJ. I need to make sure the calendar is clear and the training goes well, and even if it doesn't happen, 2013 is going to be a great year. But still, things are starting to line up that way, with the long runs now officially up to 5 hours with more than 10 weeks to go until race time. If I can confirm that Team Novo Nordisk Training Camp isn't that weekend, I'll...

After participating in Girls on the Run on Saturday, the wife and I decided to tackle the Jingle Bell 5k on Sunday, encouraged by some of her students, who were also participating in both. As this was also my weekend of no long run after 3 weeks in a row of being "up," it seemed like a good idea at the time. That said, the weather was fairly yucky, 40ish degrees and light rain. I would've considered it horrible, if it weren't for the fact that I remember doing this race in 35 degree HARD rain only a few years ago. Though not a hard course, this one can't be described as a PR course, either, and I've run this race 3 times somewhere between 19:40-19:50. Though I was hopeful to do that again, I've only had my mileage up for about a month, none of which has been speedwork. My blood sugar was high at the beginning; right around 180. I was nearly done with a 6 day pack of steroids, aimed at helping my rotator cuff. I'd kept my pump around 130% basals f...

Last year, I went to speak to at my wife's elementary school about goal setting, as it relates to me as a distance runner. I was walked to her classroom by a 5th grader who impressed me with her poise and conversation as we walked the halls. I told my wife if she had the chance to get the kid in her homeroom the falling year, I bet she'd love her. A year later, Maria is definitely one of my wife's favorites in a room full of great kids. Periodically, my wife likes to use my insanity as fodder for classroom material; the result of which is that the kids have a wide range of opinions about my foolishness on the roads and trails. But when Maria signed up for Girls on the Run , this year, she asked my wife if I'd be her run buddy, which is how I found myself at Clipper Stadium on Saturday morning. I'm no Girls on the Run expert. I only know it's about teaching girls how to have fun through running events. The 5ks skew more fun, less competitive, and those that d...

When last we left this blog, I was coming off my 3rd ultra in six weeks, looking for a month of downtime, prior to my next build. And that's pretty close to what's happened. The month of November was only about 160 miles of largely unstructured running. The early weeks were shorter, mostly due to some foot tendinitis that took a while to heal, but at the moment is completely gone. And last week I got in over 50 miles, including an easy 3.5 hours. All of this is because I'm hopeful that 2013 will be big. My tentative race schedule includes my first 100 miler in March and my first 24 hour race in July. I've done enough 50s now that they don't scare me, so I want to go bigger. And speaking of bigger, today brings with it news of Team Type 1's rebranding as Team Novo Nordisk . There's little I can say about it at this point other than to say I remain so grateful to be part of an organization that is doing amazing cool things. And, yet... there is a ...

Given the Hallmark sponsored world we live in, you might be aware that November is American Diabetes Month, so if you were going to buy me something, you're fresh out of shopping days. All of this culminates on World Diabetes Day on November 14 . As you might expect, there are a couple things you could do, if you're so inclined, to celebrate the festivities. I've listed a couple of these things below, with my own opinions as to how I feel about them, given my lifestyle as a Type 1 diabetic and my vocation as a marketing professional: 1) The Big Blue Test . The concept here is simple. Do a BG test, exercise for 20 minutes, and do another one. Upload your results. I'm a big fan of this one because it's primarily going to be done by diabetics (more on that in the next paragraph) and it's a concrete way to show the benefits of exercise. It's not foolproof - someone who doesn't understand how anaerobic exercise works might lift weights for 20 minute...

(L-R) Ryan Jones, Matt Patrick, Marcus Grimm, Jon Obst, Tom Kingery, Benny Madrigal and Rhet Hulbert Nearly two weeks ago, I found myself at a cocktail party for a business expo. It was a good event with a lot of local business people. The cocktail party was sort of a pre-game for the expo, which was starting the following day, but not for me. Toward the end of the expo, I found myself in a conversation with three other people and learned that one of them was also a type 1 diabetic . She’d also had it 24 years, nearly as long as my own 28. In the course of the conversation, she dropped one of those sentence “bombs,” as I call them – words that can derail the entire conversation or at the very least change the attitude of all the people who hear them. “Let me tell you,” she said, mostly addressing the two non-diabetics in our foursome. “Diabetes is the worst.” Admittedly, I have trouble with such declarations. On one hand, I can’t deny someone their own feelings, gained hones...

This past weekend was the Tails 4 Trails 40 Mile Ultra in Hanover, PA. For me, it meant the 2nd of 3 ultras in a 6 week period. Going into this race, I wasn’t too sure of what to expect. I had never run in Codorus State Park, before. Moreover, the previous weekend had been my only failed workout of this build so far – a scheduled 5-6 hour long run that I pulled the plug on at 4 hours due to a head cold. And just to keep the mystery elevated, I elected to get my flu shot the day before the race. I’ve been getting them for years, and tend to respond fairly well to them, but sniffles and a little fatigue wouldn’t have been unexpected. But rather than stress about these unknowns, I opted to go into the race with a “Let’s just see what happens” approach. Either way, I had to run long this weekend, so why not make it a race? I woke up at 4am, with a perfect blood sugar of 112. I arrived at the race site an hour before the scheduled 7am start, which meant I got there in pitch blackness....

I had been interested in the 12 hour Labor Pain Endurance Trail Run ever since its first running in 2010 when my teammate, Ryan Jones had won it, but this was the first year I was able to fit it into my schedule. Unlike a fixed distance ultra, the concept for Labor Pain was different. The course consists of 5 miles of technical trail running over rocks and mud, the first half of which has 325 feet of vertical climbing before giving all of that elevation back on the last 2.5 miles. Runners could stop whenever they wanted, but awards were given for furthest distance traveled in 12 hours. Elapsed time only became a factor if you had run the same number of loops as other runners. Based on the results of the previous two years, I decided to set a stretch goal for myself of 60 miles. Fifteen minutes before the race, I tested my blood sugar and found myself at 48. Whoops! Fortunately, I had planned to take in carbs just prior to the race anyway, so I set out feeling fine. My plan con...

We are 1 week until the 12 hour Labor Pain Ultra. Man, do I hate the week before a big race. Of course, calling it a "big race" isn't exactly fair. Truth is, it's the first of 3 ultras on my calendar for the next 6 weeks and my training is structured in such a way that, results-wise, I'm probably not ready to do something awesome this weekend. Then again, who knows. I've done 3 runs greater than 5 hours so far in this build. Last time before my 50 miler I did 4. So I'm in pretty good shape and have plenty of time before my peak 50 miler on Oct. 13. But still, confidence is in a bit of short supply right now. I've noticed the paces for my 5 hour runs haven't quite been where they were on my last ultra build. I'm hopeful that it's due to the fact that these have been in August when the last time around was February, when it's easier to maintain a quicker pace. But the truth is, I won't really know for sure until the weather turn...

As always, it seems when I'm not blogging, that means I'm running. And if I'm really not blogging, well then I must be really running. The weekend long runs have now reached 5 hours. Last Saturday's topped 30 miles. My last 30 mile run 18 months ago was about half a mile further, but it was in January, and this was August, when the temp was close to 90 when I was done. All of which goes to say I think this build is going better, but it's hard to say. And of course all of this running isn't just to run, but to race. And over the next 2 months, I've got a pretty cool calendar planned: 1.) Labor Pain , September 2 - This 12 hour event will be my first timed race. I've had my eye on this one ever since it started 2 years ago, but we generally are out of town for Labor Day weekend. Not this year, and so this one is on the calendar. Ironically, the course record for this one is owned by my Team Type 1 teammate, Ryan Jones, who went 72.5 miles in 2010. Gi...

The first thing I got when I opened my car door at French Creek State Park yesterday was, "I should've brought bug spray." Within seconds, I was bombarded by gnats. The good news, however, was that the car beside me included 2 runners in the process of bathing themselves with OFF and were happy to share. Crisis #1 averted. Aside from the bugs, though, I felt ready for 18.6 miles of trail mayhem. My blood sugar was a very nice 121 thirty minutes prior to the race. 15 minutes prior to race time, I had a Clif bar. Rather than set my basal rates to 50%, I get them normal for this race, as I wasn't sure if the trails would allow for a full-out effort. Some of my recent trail training runs had left me a bit higher than I wanted and I didn't want that to happen here. Five minutes prior to the race, the thunder rolled in and at race time, the rain was coming down. For better or worse, however, the sun was out within 5 minutes. I had read online that the first 2 mile...

As mentioned previously, my first key race of the fall is the North Face Endurance Challenge, in October. That will be my 2nd 50 miler, but the first on a truly technical course. (My 2nd "key" race will be the Sacramento Marathon in Dec... a much different race) But being prepared for the Endurance Challenge means some interesting "challenges," along the way, the first of which is this weekend's Double Trouble. The reason for the name is simple. The Double Trouble consists of a 15k loop (9.3 miles). Once you run the first loop, your results are recorded for the 15k race. But then, you're welcome to continue for another loop. Hence the 30k and the name. Unlike any other race I've done, you don't even need to decide whether or not you're continuing until you finish the first loop. Thus, runners can (and do) finish up to 2 races, and are even eligible for awards in both. As for me, this will be my longest trail race in a couple of years, but...

I had 4 low blood sugars, yesterday. Or more specifically, I had 2 VERY low blood sugars yesterday; the kind where you have the type of snack that normally would swing you back to normal land but this time was merely like pumping the brakes on the sliding BG and required twice the amount of sugar to bring me back to the magic 100. The first one was late afternoon. The CGM alerted me about 5 minutes after I knew it was coming on. I had a pack of peanut butter cups (probably my favorite "diabetes doesn't have to suck" treat), but 15 minutes later, I knew that I was still falling, so I doubled down with somewhat healthier and almost as yummy Clif Mojo Bar. 43g of carbs later, I was 115 and level. And then just before bed, the same thing; a low that I just knew wouldn't be averted by a simple pack of fruit snacks. So I doubled down with a Kashi bar and some delicious chocolate babka. Again: twice the amount of carbs to bring me back to normal. The same snack that on...

The summer can be an interesting time for runners; particularly those of us who run year-round. The winter for me tends to be a build toward spring races. In this case, it was arguably my best build ever toward the Boston & Cleveland Marathons. Unfortunately, PR attempts were thwarted in both cases by global warming. In the end, all I had to show for it was a 5k PR. And as you hit late spring and the temperatures climb, the paces on your workouts do the same. You feel sluggish and look at the race calendar, knowing that if you race, the heat won't allow you a time you'd want to brag about. But summer running is extremely valuable for another reason: it is the build that leads into fall, and for that reason alone, it's critical. It doesn't matter so much exactly how fast your workouts are as it does that you are doing the workouts. It's funny - I tend to do the same thing every June. I run just as much, but I get less religious about keeping my running lo...

After running the Boston Marathon together last month, Ben Semeyn and I found ourselves together again, this time in Cleveland. As Ben moves his focus to triathlons, he was signed up for the half marathon. For my part, I decided to add another full to my resume. My plan for a PR in Boston had been derailed by record heat and though I knew I wasn't complely recovered, i hoped the marathon gods might smile on me a little in Ohio. Race day morning came early and I woke up with a blood sugar of 120, which i considered perfect since I wasn't planning on eating for some time. Ben was in the 60's, which was where he spent quite a bit of the weekend. In fact, we joked that he had given me some more of "his" diabetes because he tended to out-low me on every test through our time together. Ben, intent on putting together a fast half marathon did just that, finishing in 1:24, 4th place in his age group, and in the top 1% of his age group. The weather at Cleveland, howe...