Well, the past week and a half of running again has been going well! I probably came out of the gate a little fast, as I’m feeling some laziness in my legs these days, but happy to be running again. Now the heat! It is DAMN hot here in California this week. Even staying inside for the treadmill is hot. Like others have noticed, you sometimes forget how nice you have it until something changes - for me it’s the heat… It’s usually so perfect heat/humidity wise here that I forget what it’s like to SWEAT LIKE A PIG… Man, all you Florida runners… you have my respect now for sure… if you train in the weather we are having now you are hard-core!

Been running without any devices the last few runs (on a treadmill for mileage recording) and it is LIBERATING, though I noticed something funny. I created XML files for Nike+ (since it’s kind of my all-encompassing repository of run data), and uploaded them to track the runs… My total mileage then had an asterisk after it (*). Man I felt so “Barry Bonds” that I decided to delete the runs from there since they weren’t actually recorded with the device. I suppose they do this to keep people from cheating in challenges, but it made me feel like a cheater even though I HAD done the runs. Haven’t gone back to see if my * disappeared after deleting the runs yet - or to see if I’m branded for life. Aw, like I always say - “if you cheat running, you’re only cheating yourself.” So life goes on.

SENSOR AND BG UPDATE: anyone that actually looks at my BG data will notice a recent absence of data…. I have been without sensors for a while, and am hoping that UPS showed up today with another batch. I feel naked without them.

Naked and still sweating,

Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

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

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

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

Like most of you diabetic runners, I am in a constant state of learning and refining my protocol for good blood sugars during my runs. I’ve gotten much better at it, even realizing that sometimes you have to trust your gut instinct, since no two day are the same leading up to a run. Occasionally I have a bad run, and occasionally I have a perfect run - most fall somewhere in the middle, but boy, oh boy, last Wednesday night I had a really well controlled (from a BG standpoint) run that I wanted to share…. It looks something like this:

My BG stayed between 80 and 120 during the entire run, and by bolusing 2U towards the end of the run, I avoided my usual post run bump up. Lately, I’ve added a bolus at the end of my run nearly every time - though again, sometimes the gut instinct overrules. Feeling pretty good about this run - and have an upcoming post specifically about the post run bumps - so stay tuned…

Endorphins not BGs make a runner high,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

After a rather slow week in the workout department two weeks ago because of my flu, I’m happy to say that this week (sorta like last week, but better: I WILL HIT MY 20 MILES THIS WEEK) is shaping up to be much better. I made it to the gym over lunch yesterday for some weight training, and then I made a late night trip to the treadmill around 9:15. I managed a 10.4 mile run on the thing… quite a feat if you know just how boring running on a treadmill can be. BUT, with time so scarce, sometimes we do what we must, and in the end I felt good about getting back on track. I give credit to the challenges I’m involved in for helping motivate me last night, otherwise I may have just called it an early night.

Game on,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

P.S. Did anyone notice the St. Patrick’s Day themed DR-Challenge banners this past weekend?

Well, here’s something new for me this year. Running in the dark of night. As winter crept in, finding time to run while there was some sunlight became a challenge. I could always hit the treadmill, and still find myself doing this more often than running outside because of my winter habits. However, I’m more excited about running in the great outdoors. So what’s a guy to do?

I tried an early morning run in the middle of winter but found it SCARY actually. I set out at 6 AM on a path near the bay I know well, but once I made my away from the city street lights and onto the path next to the open San Francisco Bay, I found it almost impossible to see where I was going. Luckily this morning there was a fairly significant moon still present to at least outline the sides of the path (keeping me out of the bay!). Four interesting things happened… First as I was running in the darkest section I suddenly had a man appear out of nowhere… YIKES! He was dressed in all black and walking the path next to the bay. I have no idea why he was there, perhaps he was out for some exercise as I was, perhaps he had just robbed a house and was making his getaway in all black in the thick of the night, or perhaps he was there to mug me, but I was too speedy (wishfull thinking). It scared me though - the area is very peaceful, with little crime, but still… Next as I made my way into mile 4 of the run, I suddenly saw two lights on the path ahead of me bobbing up and down, and headed my direction. It turns out it was 2 other runners - they had lights strapped to their chests and they bobbed as they ran, but they could see where they were going - a novel idea I thought! Next interesting thing was the sudden quack of a duck that nearly filled my pants. I kept my iPod volume VERY low to help make myself more aware as I ran so when I neared the water and this one wanted to make its presence known, it did so at my expense. Running in the early morning was incredibly quiet, so much so that even this quack sounded like an explosion to me - or someone yelling, or something equally startling. It took a second to figure out what it was, and then I had myself a good laugh. On the way back, the sun started to come up, and as I passed the same group of ducks in the water I was smiling as they once again greeted me with their quacks. Finally the fouth interesting bit to come of this run was me getting a headlamp for Christmas. I figured I would need it for these morning runs, but alas I am not a morning person.

But I am still deprived of time to run, what with a full time job, family and all… So lately I’ve been taking advantage of my new “GEEKDOM” and wearing this for late night runs by the bay. I’ve grown a little more comfortable running at night. Sometimes I see folks out walking their dogs on the bayshore trail, owner with flashlight in hand, and dog with glowstick or blinking light on collar. Sometimes a bicycle comes by with lights, occasionally a dark walker or runner, and once a SKUNK (from which I ran away from quickly). But it has afforded me some spare time to run - when the kids are asleep, and I have a few moments to myself. I still frequent the treadmill - mostly for the basketball games I’m able to watch while running, but it really is nice to get outside during the week, and frankly running in such a different environment brings some excitement to a trail I’ve run a hundred times before.

Enlightened,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

So yesterday I went for a run after work. I planned to do about 5 miles on the treadmill while watching some hoops on TV. Over the past few weeks, my mileage has been down and frequency down too, and as a result my annoying groin strain seems to have disappeared. It’s been pestering me for a few months, not to the degree that it did last year when I had to take 4 full weeks off to recover, but enough that after my runs I kept thinking how nice it would be to start and finish without this nagging feeling of “I hurt a little, and if I go further will I really reinjure it?” Well yesterday’s run was PERFECT, no sign of ANY nagging injury feelings. So as I passed the 5 mile mark feeling great I decided “it’s my 34th birthday, so I think I’ll run and hour and 34 minutes and see where I end up.” I did with no problems in the groin, and ended up at 10.47 miles. A great run.

BUT, I FORGOT SOMETHING…. on runs over an hour I usually slap on some Bodyglide on the thighs and under arms. I didn’t for this run, and as a result, my pits have some chafing from my singlet rubbing them for such an extended period of time… I didn’t notice the rubbing, or chafing until I hit the shower, and WHAM, you know that feeling when the salt water pours into a wound….YEEEOOOOW!

Not to sound like your mother, but wear clean underwear, and don’t forget to lube!

Elbows out today,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner

Since my last post on the DR Challenge Rockstars, 10, count ‘em TEN new challengers have signed up! THANKS!

Rockin’ New Challengers:

Brittany Lemmons
Katie I.
Ray Campbell
Maddy
Janene Christman
Lesley Looper
Tomasinyo
Vijay
JohnnyVail
Ryan Nichols

I’m pumped that this many people have risen to the occasion, and taken on this challenge. It really means a lot to me!

Also, I’ve been following the blogs of everyone, and some of you are noting your January accomplishments… WAY TO GO! Looks like we’re off to a great start! If you want to send me your monthly mileage, please do at DiabeticRunner@gmail.com and I’ll include it in a shout out to all the challengers here on the blog.

Keep up the good work, you are all inspiring me to keep going the distance!

In inspring company,
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner