Diabetes and running

I'm going to share my blood sugar readings, nutrition before, during, and after my runs and try to make sense of the numbers.

Here are my results for the first week of training:

Tuesday I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and my morning reading was 127, I ate a Cliff Bar and waited around the house for 30 minutes and left the door for my run at 5:00 a.m. at which point I was 114. This is a little concerning because I ate, didn't take insulin, and my blood sugar dropped. I had a 15 gram Level Foods packet and headed out. I tested during my run and at 5:20 I was going back up and hit 127 again, at the end of the run I climbed up to 156. 

Tuesday doesn't make any sense, if I bolus for the 56g Carb I would bolus almost 8 units of insulin. When I got home I took a bolus for 4 units because after I usually spike and with a correction ratio of 1 - 25 I knew I was trending back up and I should take a little more to anticipate the increase. An hour later I was 243 and had to correct again for another 3 units. 

In review the food would have required me to dose 7.85 and I took 7. The hard part with this decision making process is that when I have active insulin, I tend to drop FAST, and want to avoid this. 

Wednesday I woke up at a similar time, this time I woke up at 65 with no feelings of being hypo. I ate a banana and a 15 g packet of Level again. Nearly 40 minutes after eating those items I left the house at 101. I also set a temp basal for 2 hours at 50% to see what different results I would have. I brought a mix with my water and that had 30 g Carb in it. 20 minutes into my run I had made it to 140 but another 15 minutes I was down to 120. Walking into the house I was 114 and felt GREAT. Another spike in my blood sugar though, an hour after my run I hit 257 and an hour later I was 45. 

What is my plan for Thursday going to be, what should I do? It will depend on my blood sugar at the time but I plan to have a banana again but hopefully an hour earlier than I leave. When I leave the house I'm going to bolus 2 units so the insulin is fresh and the run will help kick it into high gear. I am hopeful I'll make my 3 miles in 36 minutes and walk in the door within range. I plan to try and not consume anything because its a short run.

Wish me luck! 

I'll try and be back Saturday to share my 8 mile experience. 

Training, Twin Cities Marathon & Ragnar

I've come to the realization that I need to put in a solid training effort for Twin Cities Marathon this year. My first marathon I did almost all my training runs and while it was incredibly difficult and I had to take breaks, but the work got done. From October 2011 to June 2012 I improved my marathon time by about 45 minutes and this was because I put in all the effort. 

Of the seven marathon's I've done, I am not proud of Twin Cities 2014 or Fargo 2015. Both of these runs I finished but it was a lack of commitment to get it done. Sure I can use work or school, or even a personal life as an excuse but in all reality I didn't make the time to get it done. 

This year I am doing a Ragnar, Ragnar is a team event that I'm signed up through JDRF MinnDakota's. We have two teams and we start in Winona MN and head 201ish miles up to Minneapolis. I can give up on myself and finish slow on my own personal races but I can't let my team down. 

So many people have different training programs available, it is difficult to decide which plan to use. In the end Hal Higdon's plans have never failed me so I'm going to use him again. He runs 18 week training programs for people who are new to running as well as folks that are seasoned vets. For this event the goal is to finish, and not let my team down. Ragnar falls on Week 11 of training and 18 miles that day. Ragnar will require me to run 15.4 total in three legs. Leg 1 is 6.2 miles, Leg 2 4.4, and Leg 3 is 4.8 miles. 

Don't cross your figures in hopes of another blog post before the next 18 weeks is up, I'll consider logging my training and keeping people in the loop.