Seems that these days, owning the domain name diabeticrunner.com is unfair. But then again, diabetic.com is already taken, even though that’s all I’ve been lately.

Charlie, my online friend left a comment on my last post, and I thought to leave a comment back, but opted to post a new entry here instead… here’s what I wrote:

YIKES…. I guess taking the summer off in a off-the-running kind of way… BUT I SHOULD BE RUNNING….

I’ve lost my mojo and then some - need to get back in the swing of things. Life seems to have gotten in the way, and I can’t seem to remember how to do the running/blogging thing.

Need some motivation - and since Charlie has my respect, and dropped a line today, I’m going to make a point to lace ‘em up tonight!

Thanks!

Any other ideas for motivation? What drives you all?,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

P.S. Emily, I got your email (inspiring), and am planning to respond when I have a second or two. Thanks for writing!

BADR = Born Again Diabetic Runner
GOODER = BADR English

So many ways I’ve thought of to present my lack of running the past few weeks…. I couldn’t decide which to post….

1). Keeping with the 10% rule, I was right on track…. see the goal is to never increase your weelky mileage more than 10%, or never increase your long run by more than 10%… Why was I on track? because after the first week off (for ITBS injury), the following week, I increased both weekly mileage and long run by 10% 0 * 1.1 = 0 (exactly what I ran week 2) and long run of 0 * 1.1 = 0 (again, exactly what I ran). Ah, you could even say I was conservative too…. because I really only increased by 5 % see: 0 * 1.05 = 0 (in both cases, again exactly what I ran). BUT - you will clearly see that I also overdid it a bit… How’s this possible having not run at all? 0 * 2 = 0 : again what I ran, but you see I doubled my weekly distance and long run…. Okay, that was lame - never trust a “mathmagician.” Any way you slice it, I am coming up short for my 1000 mile challenge….

2). I’ve done an experiment… I’ve successfully mastered being a diabetic-non-runner… that was the easy part, now on to the hard part, becoming a non-diabetic-runner. Just move the words around a bit, and all my problems would be solved.

3). Treating ITBS can lead to unwanted side effect, PRS (AKA: Illiotibial Band Syndrome —-> Procratinating Runner Syndrome)

4). After looking at my BG’s for the 6 weeks I haven’t run, I simply couldn’t NOT run any more… the numbers have gone up without my routine exercise.

Anyway, the bottom line is, I’ve overcome both my ITBS and PRS and have run twice in the last 3 days - so I think I’m gearing up to continue being Jamie, The Diabetic Runner.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

Just an update since it’s been so long….

I have taken the past month off of running to let my ITBand issue clear up, and anticipate running again soon… and OUCH! does this put me behind in my 1000 mile challenge. ( I did however make an exception for the Bay to Breakers - and ran it )

I have been working on my new web service for merging workout data and CGMS - I’ve got some really cool things going, but am not quite finished… use Nike+ and Carelink (Minimed CGMS)? Want to help test, let me know.

I hit a wall, and felt burned out with everything Diabetes related, so while I stopped running, I also took a break from posting here, and at D365. Back to posting here now, and will have to catch up by uploading all the photos I’ve been taking for D365 - all in good time.

Also been a bit sidetracked with writing a personal site for displaying our home videos - rebuilding a YouTube like site for just us.

On top of this, we WENT GREEN and bought a Prius, so you can imagine that I’ve been tinkering with all the new gadgetry in the car too. Last tank we pulled 52 MPG over 500 miles! Woo Hoo!

That about sums it up - thanks for being patient with me, and hopefully you can look forward to regular posts again, as I’m getting over my burnout! Thanks for the poke, Charlie - I needed someone to remind me to get back to blogging!

Re-entering the D-Scene,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

Following up the last post, I have GOOD news!!!

1). This time when I popped the USB device in the computer, it remembered my login info, and put the runs right into my nike+ account… GOOD!!!!!

2). This time calibrating, I ran .3 actual miles and stopped the SportBand at that point (.28) and calibrated to .3 in the software. (last time I ran .3 on the SportBand and wanted to set it to the .32 actual and couldn’t). This looks promising, and we’ll see when I go for a 5 miler or so tonight… GOOD, I think.

3). The jitter effect… well it looks like it shows because of the limited amount of data present for such a short walk… I walked with the iPod for .3 miles and saw the same thing… so I suppose with longer runs there is more data and this gets smoothed out. GOOD.

4). BONUS TEST - it seems you can use iPod and SportBand AT THE SAME TIME WITH ONE SHOE TRANSMITTER…… Crap, now we have to worry about people cheating the Nike+ challenges one more way, getting double mileage for each actual run…. Guess this again goes back to honesty… after all, we all know you are only cheating yourself! Now, off to delete all my LAB RUNS…. Surely don’t want all these short crappy runs in my log…

Hope this clears things up, and sets your mind at ease… (Charlie).

Giving the SportBand a (lancet-thrashed) thumbs up,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

So, the SportBand arrived, and I’ve run with it one time (pushing my Daughter in a running stroller, so that may have affected the accuracy) for real, and done a walk and run for calibration. Here’s what I’ve noticed. The band is slim, and the bump where the USB device is, is not that bad… WAYYYY better than the Garmin 305 for sure, and actually (size-wise) wearable as a watch. It was SO much easier to prepare for my run without worrying about running headphone cable, wrapping iPod in baggie to waterproof, and get the armband attached… Snapped on the SportBand, and was ready to go. Pairing it with my old Nike+ transmitter was cake, starting stopping runs was the same. Downloading/installing software was easy - everything was pretty straight forward, but there are 3 concerns I have.

1. Annoyingly, when I plug it in, click the (i) button to set up prefs, and then log in, the software doesn’t remember my login information, it just sits in a “Pending….” state. So, each time I plug it in to sync, it uploads my data like in some Guest mode, and then in the browser, I have to sign in to get it added to my N+ account. Minor annoyance - but with iTunes, it always sent it right to my account. Plus, and I haven’t tried this yet, but what if I close the window to the web browser.. do I lose my run? Unlike the iPod, the device can’t be viewed in disk mode, so I’m not sure the data is still on the band at that point… It seems like it’s erased when uploaded… so then where is my run? (I’ll try this tonight to see what happens and report back) Here’s the photo of the software causing headache #1.

2. Calibration… after my first run, I noticed that the Nike+ was reporting my mileage a bit short compared to the GPS I was also wearing. Ah, so I need to calibrate… I figured I would anyway, but here’s the second bummer I ran into. The calibration page uses you last run or walk (provided it was a steady pace), and lets you adjust the distance to calibrate… but only in .1 mile increments…. I needed to adjust by .02 for a .3 mile calibration run, and couldn’t…. SO I’ll have to run a 1.5 mile run to get it calibrated accurately. Good thing that kind of mileage is easy for me, but damn… I guess I could just run .28 miles and set it as .3 miles in the calibration page and see if that helps… (will test that as well….)

3. My calibration run & walk appear quite “jittery” despite running very consistently, almost like their software is creating the little bumps every so often… maybe this is normal, and longer runs don’t show this effect and thus I’ve not seen it before… I’ll have to test that too with the iPod to see what happens, but in the mean time check out the image below of what I’m talking about.

Otherwise it’s good… I hope my tests resolve some of these issues for me, and I can report back good news, because I’d really like to start using this rather than the iPod because it’s so easy to strap on and get going.

Technology, supposed to make our lives easier, yet I find it creating more work for me today,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

Wow, and the gadgets just keep coming… From the minimed site:

Great news! U.S. customers who currently own a MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time System (522 or 722 insulin pump models) or a Guardian® REAL-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring System can expect to automatically receive a OneTouch® UltraLink™ Meter at no charge before June 30, 2008.

So here it is, the new meter option for Paradigm Pump users:

So cool that it’s going to be free to existing users - these guys are really getting it right with their Carelink USB, and now meter. Plus, I already use the OneTouch UltraSmart, so the strips I already have will work with this new meter…. Two great companies here doing something really great for us - now if they could just stop treating the disease and CURE IT!

Still no automatic UPS notification, but can’t wait,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

P.S. I got the Nike+ SportBand on Friday and have tried it out…. still saving my opinion - but looks okay so far…

Got my latest test results back today, and my current A1c is….

Kinda bummed (well not that bummed really - 6.1 is still respectable), because I was hoping for a 6 or less, and it is UP from my last test, but I’ll take it. This number suggests an average BG of 123 over the past few months. While this is 0.1 higher than my Dr. & I want it to be, it’s still quite an accomplishment.

…and I still have low LDL cholesterol,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

No, not that kind of ITBS!!! It seems that I have recently experienced my first bout of Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS). (I’ve been dealing with the IT BS in the picture for years.) A few weeks ago on some of my longer runs, I noticed a “twinge” on the outside of my left knee. This is my “good” knee, as in not the one with a surgically repaired ACL. The few times it happened, I wrapped up my run at that point, stretched it out and called it a day - with no lingering effects (thankful that the few times it did happen, I was on a treadmill and could just stop without worrying about getting back home). Yesterday evening, I was near the end of a 10-miler, not on a treadmill, and it resurfaced. I stopped to walk, did a couple quick stretches, and resumed running. It would reappear shortly afterwards, so after trying the walk-run thing a few times, I caved in and walked the last .25 miles home - glad that it had waited until the end of this run when I was quite close to home.

This is a new one for me - and I’ve got a lot of learning to do to figure out how best to heal and prevent it from reoccuring, but I’ve found a TON of information on this since it appears to be one of the most common running injuries out there. So, why me, and why now. There are many thoughts on why this occurs, one of them being related to weight lifting, and muscle imbalance. Since I’ve been running for quite some time without suffering this sort of injury, I’m inclined to think that it has to do with my new strenght training - since the symptoms started around the same time as some of my new lower body workouts. Time now to talk with the trainers on some specific exercises and stretches, and talk with my Dr. that I am scheduled to see on the 29th anyway. The really good news is that I’ve caught this thing quite early, so I’m hopeful that I can deal with it without missing a ton of the training season. The bad news is that cycling isn’t recommended, so I may pass on the Tour de Cure this year - given my lack of training recently on the bike, it’s probably not a bad thing anyway. Will post when I have more info to share on this one.

So, the pump funny… Well, last Tuesday my sister was over, and as you know she uses the Paradigm Pump and CGMS just as I do. Usually one of our pumps will start the chirping, and we both reach to see who’s it is. This night I heard the beep beep beep of a Low Reservoir Alert, but instead of reaching for my pump I proclaimed, “Your pump speaks Texan!” You see, the pump doesn’t let you adjust volume for the beeps, just length, and my sister set hers to the medium length, where mine is set to the short length. So, while the chirps were recognizable, they seemed to come out with a bit of southern drawl to them. Anyway - I guess this joke is sort of like a VW commercial - “own one and you’ll understand.” But at least now we know who’s pump is lipping off!

Final thought - I haven’t abandoned the post-run BG spike topic - I’ve just been doing a bit more research, including adjusting my basals to test my theory. Hope to get back to that in the next week or so.

Full of IT, BS, and now ITBS,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

Kerri at SixUntilMe.com started something cool, the Raise Your Voice, Type I Diabetes Awareness Day. Be sure to stop by her blog and see what others are doing to raise their voices.

Over here, I am raising my voice, so listen up (and cover your kids’ ears, cause it’s about to get a little crazy in here):

I AM DIABETIC

They said I can’t eat sugar: 6 Krispy Kremes in 60 seconds, and still kicking
They said I can’t scuba dive: 100+ dives and not dead
They said I can’t run a marathon: Completed, and gearing up for a 70.3 triathlon
They said I can’t have a baby: errr, ummmm
They said I’ll go blind: I can see clearly that they were wrong
They said I’ll be impotent: Bob Dole can keep his pills
They said I’ll die of complications: BULLSHIT
They said a lot of things, and you know what, They were wrong!

I AM DIABETIC, AND BETTER FOR IT!

Irreverent rant over, but that was kind of fun,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner