Listening to my body

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Gillian

I have hard time with listening to my body sometimes.  I never want to stop and wait for something to heal.  My phylosophy is always to run through the pain, get it treated and move on. 

Lately, I’ve been having terrible hamstring and glute pain.  What is this?  Well they are so tight that my legs actually ache just sitting down.   I have had this treated in the past by my  ART guy Dr. Dylan Drynan over at Activebody. www.activebodychiro.com  I have actually been in a relationship with him longer than any other man!  So I’ve been a couple of times for the hammies and have had a couple of massages in the last few weeks to try and alleviate the problem.  I have been stretching and rolling as much as I can.  It wasn’t until I talked to the massage therapist at the pleasant prairie triathlon this weekend (race report to follow) that I realized what it was.  She asked if I’d been doing speed work.  YES! duh! of course I had just started with the track workouts in the last few weeks.   

If it was just the hammies/glutes I wouldn’t mind but I am still plagued by the plantar fasciitis – it just plain hurts.  Not an 8 more like a 4 but enough to be annoying and enough that my running gate is off.  I have been rolling my foot with a lacrosse ball at work and icing it but to be honest I have not been doing any specific exercises to aleviate the problem. According to Dr. D I have a little nodule in my heal which must be causing the pain. He is working on breaking it up with his Graston tools.  Which for those of you who don’t know is a very unpleasant scraping of my heal using a knife like instrument.  Yes, it is about as painful as it sounds. Here is a link to a  description:

http://www.yogoer.com/classes/o-graston-my-graston/

My running just feels labored and tight.  Not fun, SO to that end I am listnening to my body and it is telling me to give it a break (and to be better about doing some self treatment!).  So here is my plan:

1. skip track this week and swim instead.

2. do more ART/massage

3. per the advice of my massage therapist at FFC, I will be doing some cold/heat treatment… pool / whirlpool and apply wet heat during other times.

4.still run with my group on Saturday (which is generally at a slower pace anyway)

5.self treat as often as possible (which I will track on a calendar)

I will do this for the next week with hopes that things will loosen up. I will see how I feel next Tuesday and make a decision on the track then. 

Tonight I get to help coach some newbie triathletes down at the lake so no computraining.  Can’t wait! 

Have a great day! 🙂

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The dreaded track, a chicago gem and don’t ground me mr. dentist

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Gillian

First things first, I made it to the track again this morning! Yay me! 🙂  two weeks in a row.  I still had to talk myself into it, which took way too long in the morning which made me late again.  But I’m allowing that right now until the momentum builds and it becomes a habit to get up at the butt crack of dawn to do something that is so painful and dreadful that I’d rather have needles in my eye (okay that is a little dramatic but you get the point).  So I woke up at 5 am and it took a half hour to convince myself to get up.  Its now 5:30, I put on my running clothes immediately because if I don’t it will be too easy to go back to bed.  I told myself the night before that I’ll just get up grab my stuff and go… easy peasy.  Instead I made coffee and ate a banana with almond butter.  I tested at 250 but didn’t bolus because I was about to exercise immediately afterwards. Its now 6 am and I am supposed to be at a track at 6:15 that is at least 20 minutes by bike (heavy/panier loaded bike that is).  I head out and of course there is a massive head wind.  It is the windy city afterall.  And my legs hurt from the computrainer threshold testing the night before.  Double whammy! I get to the track stretch a bit, drink some water then get started with the next interval #5 I heard them say. 5 of what I have no idea.  Last week they did miles.  So I ran based on thinking that I was going to run a mile.  Well, it ended up to be only 400’s this week.  Luckily my plantar fasciitis didn’t act up so I got in 8 400’s at a decent pace (they had done 12).  Then I tested – BG 385 oops!  Silly me, it had been a good 9 months since i’d been to the track and I forgot that the fast paced/adrenaline pumping runs actually caused my BG to go up.  Apparently the ride there didn’t do anything.  I quickly gave myself 2.5 units to fix it.

My plan was to head to the gym to shower then go to my dentist appointment for 8am.  Well, I got to the gym and searched my bag for my bike lock but of course it wasn’t there.  In my rush this morning I forgot it, I also forgot my cell phone.  No shower for me!   Not only that what was I going to do with my bike at the dentist!  At this point I didn’t have time to go to the office, even if i did I would need to leave it out unlocked… no good.  So I decided to go to Millenium park where I was sure they still had a bike valet, where people who commute by bike can leave their bike in a secure area.  After riding around a bit I finally found it (its now 7:45).  It is actually called the McDonald’s cycle center and IT IS AMAZING.  They have lockers, showers, bike repairs AND ta da!  bike locks you can rent!  Woohoo for $5 I got to go where I wanted to go with my bike.  Here is the link –  http://www.chicagobikestation.com/  Again, this place is genius and it was busy! A true gem in the city.

I made it to my 8am dentist appointment in the nick of time albeit a little sweaty, smelly and still wearing my workout gear.  I’m sure I looked like Dennis the Menace with my hair flying everywhere, sweat and dirt stains on my legs! I get taken in and the hygienist asks her usual questions.  Then the diabetes questions-  How is your blood sugar, are you under control?(are we ever under control?) After my soso response – Do you visit your doctor regularly?(No, I just right my own prescription for insulin!)What was your last reading?(Here we go) Me – 385 . Her – That’s really high  (No shit sherlock), how do you feel?  Me – fine (lets get on with the teeth cleaning).  So she disappears and in walks the dentist.  He is literally looking at me like I’m his teenaged daughter who has just been caught smoking. Dentist – Whats going on with your blood sugar? (what I have a high reading and its the end of the world) Me – yeah it was high this morning Dentist – Did you eat breakfast? (What’d the hell does that have to do with anything) Me – yes at 5:30am, I ran trak this morning and I forgot that it drives my blood glucose up. Dentist – interesting (yeah I bet).

And that was the end of that.  Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the concern.  But I was in NO mood for the third degree!!! FYI – I was a nice 98 by the time I got to the office – take that!

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Its not always the diabetes

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Gillian

I woke up this morning and felt like I had been run over by a train.  My immediate thought was oh,oh my BG must be through the roof.  My body hurt I was drowsy despite getting a decent amount of sleep.  It  had to be.

My first order of duty though was not my bg but the plantar fasciitis.  After slowly getting up, I took the boot off and did some downward dogs and general slow stretching and massaging the area.  I crawled down the stairs to put on the coffee and make some breakfast.  Finally, I check the sugar.  WTF! It was only 214… not anything that should make me feel like the pile of crap that I do.  Well, I guess if it wasn’t the BG it could have been the run in the heat yesterday or the wine I drank last night.  Not everything can be blamed on the diabetes!  Some days you just wake up and never shake that dragged out hit by a train feeling.

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Doable goals and inventory of pain

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Gillian

This week I planned to get back into certain workouts that have been neglected post-ironman (May 19th).  It had been four weeks so I decided that if I could at the very least get to the workout regardless of how i performed that was a step in the right direction.  So I made it to my Tuesday night VQ computrainer class and my Thursday night swim class.  I also added something new which I had been eyeing for a while.  A Wednesday morning track work out.  This is the one I feared the most and the one I was most likely to bail on since it starts at 6:15am. I told myself that if I at least made it to the track I didn’t have to actually do the speed work I could just run some laps.  These are the mind games I play with myself to get there.  I did end up going, I was late, I ran a mile to warm up and I ran a slow 1 mile repeat with the group who were finishing up their 3x 1 mile repeats then I ran a few laps to cool down.  Mission accomplished!   The coach said that I should start to feel “fresh” again in a couple of weeks.  I hope so because that was not pretty.

One of my other plans for the week as part of my marathon training was to do a run on my own.  So far I have just run with the group I coach and haven’t been able to run at my usual pace.  My plan was to run  2 miles to warm up then 4 miles at a sub 8 pace then 2 miles to cool down.  I also wanted to take inventory of any aches and pains.  It was Sunday I admit I slept in a bit.  I finally got up and tested my sugar which was at 190 – not too bad! Already off to a good start.  I made my coffee and had a piece of toast with almond butter and a banana and bolused at 30G then reduced it by 2/3 so ended up taking 1 unit of insulin.  Unfortunately I puttered a little too long so probably could have taken a little more so by the time I left I was at 252. I couldn’t have had too much insulin on board since I had only taken 1 unit. I carried a 4 oz bottle with gatorade and 2 chocolate gu’s.  I started off and felt great trying to keep smooth and not let anything disturb my gate. About a mile and half in I felt hungry not necessarily low, just hungry so I ate a gel (20g carb).  I sipped on the gatorade sporadically throughout the run and of course drank the fountain water.  I managed to run miles 3,4,5,6 in under 8’s (barely) as I planned although it felt extremely difficult. Normally that pace should be fairly easy.  It was extremely hot (considering it was midday already!)  The temperature was above 90.  The hair on my arms felt a little prickly a sign that I was a little dehydrated.  All the time I was taking inventory of what was hurting.  My right glute was extra tight and the plantar fasciitis started hurting around mile 6.  If this doesn’t get fixed it’ll make for a long season! I ran the last 2 miles pretty slow and even took a couple of walking breaks.  I ended up at 9 miles for the day and a bg of 75 thank goodness I ate that gel!  I drank a g2 gatorade and a protein/fruit/milk shake while submerging my feet in ice water.  Of course I didn’t bolus for it so my bg shot back up to 190.  I tried to do some stretching but with my late start I just had a few minutes before I had to take a quick shower then off to do daddy’s day duties. Unfortunately while in the car my left leg started to ache, most likely from my tight glutes and hammies…. its time to head back for some more active release (ART) and maybe a massage and of course more foam rolling! Still in all it felt great to be out there running along the lake!

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Chance meeting

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Gillian

There is one thing about having diabetes that I do like.  There are a lot of negative things to say about it of course but the one thing I like is that I get to meet some amazing people through sharing the bond of having diabetes.

It is very similar to the bond that triathletes have with one another although this group of people (triathlete diabetics) is a minute subset of this larger group which makes it even more special.

Today, I walked into Element Multisport to register for a triathlon next weekend (look for a new race report next weekend!).  I overheard one of our coaches Ed, who works there, in the bike fitting area. There is no mistaking that booming voice.  So I pop my head in to say hello.  He is in the middle of fitting a girl for her new bike.  Well this is not just any girl, this is a girl with type 1 diabetes who also does triathlons!  What are the chances of that!  So we chatted for a while talking about our pumps, the dexcom, swimming and running.  As it turns out the diabetic triathlete world is small, she knew of my team wild friends Lyndsay, Lorrie and Susie!   I knew right then that I had met a new friend. We exchange numbers she went back to bike fitting and I went to register for my race.  I left the store a richer person, loving that the ‘betes has allowed me to meet such great people. How lucky am i?!

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Insulindependence Symposium

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Gillian

Great opportunity for diabetics planning on doing the Chicago Triathlon! Or any other triathlon!  See link below.

Insulindependence-2.Chicago.Recruitment.Linked

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Protein Pancake and Bolus nirvana

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Gillian

Ever since I tried to go Paleo I have fallen in love with my protein pancake.  It is my favorite part of the day.  The morning with my coffee, my protein pancake with almond butter and blueberries on top.  It is the reason why I dilly dally in the morning and essentially takes me forever leave the house and why I find it hard to workout in the morning.  I look forward to that time SO much. Although it takes a bit of time to make I am addicted.  It has however been a love/hate relationship because I loved the flavor I loved how it filled me up, I loved how it wasn’t over carby, however  I could never figure out how to bolus for it.  In my mind the only carby thing was the banana and the fruit and I think the word “protein” totally threw me off. Proper bolusing and also proper reduction for my commute to work seemed to be impossible.   Today I am pleased to announce that not only did I perfect the pancake (see picture below) but I perfected my bolusing!   I bolused for 45g carb then reduced it by 1/3 rd.  I was 165 when I left my house and 101  by 10am.  Yay!  I finally figured out how not to come crashing down at work. Now if I can just repeat these exact conditions at the same time every day  I should be good!  Ha!

Here it is!

The recipe for those who want to try this is as follows:

Mix together the following: mashed banana, 1 scoop of protein powder (any flavor), 1 egg, 2 tbsp of almond milk, 2 tbsp of ground flax seed. Pour into frying pan and just like regular pancakes when it starts to bubble flip it.   Holy Yum! 🙂

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Confessions of a bad bike owner

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Gillian

Ok I’ll admit it right here and now.  I am a terrible bike owner.  I love bikes and the freedom they give me but when it comes down to taking care of them I suck!  Anything goes wrong and I run to my local bike shop.  Oh sure, if I tried I could probably fix my own bike but I don’t. In fact this very morning I packed up my Ortleib panniers (I ❤ my Ortleibs!) which might I add can get quite heavy what with my laptop, running stuff, lunch, other stuff I cart around with me, bike lock etc etc.  and took them down to the garage.  I started putting them on the commuter bike (2005 Specialized Sirrus) and noticed the squishyness of the tires from the weight.  Damn!  I remember thinking last time I put my bike back that I will need to pump up these tires.  However as I started to pull out the bike pump I remember, its bike to work week! This means there will be a pitstop on Wells near Village Cycle! No need to get my hands dirty when I know I can have someone do it for me! Yes, this is how sad I am.  So I ride down Clark (drafting behind some cyclist dude in spandex for most of the way) then hit wells and hit the pitstop.  The nice young man fills my tires no questions asked and I head out on my own merry way with fully inflated tires going twice the speed as I was earlier!  Win win! In my guilt I did confess my lazyness to the guy who just laughed :).

I LOVE bike to work week!

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Red Rider

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Gillian

The group – post ride!

Today I did the Chicago Tour de Cure ride for the American Diabetes Association.  I LOVE this ride for many reasons.  First and foremost what better reason to ride than to raise money for such a great cause.  Second, it is a well organized, well marked course which has several options for all types of riders (new, experienced). Lastly, I get to wear my red rider cycling jersey.  Every person that registers for the ride who has diabetes gets to wear one.  Sort of a call out to say “hey, i’m doing this and i’m diabetic”!  You get to also cheer on your fellow diabetics because they have the red rider shirt.  The back of the shirt says “I ride with diabetes”.  You basically get treated very special for that one day.  The red rider program was started by the woman who also started Team Wild (We inspire life with diabetes) Mari Ruddy.  She is an amazing woman who’s goal in life is to help people with diabetes live a wonderful healthy life which includes exercise!  You can read her story here:  Tour de Cure Red Riders – Mari Ruddy.  TeamWild is the group I did my first Ironman with.  I have forged many beautiful, long lasting relationships with some very special diabetic women.  Awesome!

The alarm went off at 4:45 and we were suppose to leave the house at 5:30.  Tom was riding 35 miles so he drove and came with us.  The rest of us planned to do 100KM or 100Miles.  I was doing the 100KM.  I’d had a rough night. I knew my BG was high during the night, having to get up to go to the bathroom several times.  However, I was exhausted and didn’t check.  Sure enough I woke up at 257.  I had a feeling that it was due to my insertion site which I think was going on to day 4 as I was getting the “low reservoir” warning.  So I changed the site and dosed for breakfast – banana, sandwich thins, and almond butter.  Approximately 35g carb (4.5 units).  We took a while to get ready and had trouble with the new bike rack but we finally made it out the house at 6am.  We picked up April and drove an hour to Wheaton.  The nice thing about today was that there was no pressure, it wasn’t  a race it was just a nice ride!  Tom and I started about half an hour after the 62 mile group left and shortly after, he split off to do his 35 miles.  I’m not sure if it was becase of the lack of pressure but I felt great.  I soon caught up to the rest of the crew.  I tested at the aid station (mile 35 or so) and was at 161.  I didn’t make any changes to my basil rates (0.75 units/hr)  nor did I bolus.  Until that point I  eaten about 4 clif blocks (30g), sipped on some diluted gatorade and had 2 small clif bars (10g carb?? each) .  This particular aid station was the “Country Garden Cuisine”  A cooking school.  They served quinoa , turkey wraps and delicious water melon.  So I had 1/2 cup of quinoa and 2 slices of juicy water melon.  I rode along with the group for a while then parted ways at the next aid station, where Katie’s family had cold drinks and freezy pops!.  I rode the remaining 24 miles pretty hard and felt good.  I consumed a few more clif blocks and another small clif bar. At the last aid station I wasn’t going to stop but decided to anyway…. I was glad I did because the volunteers all gave me kudos for being their first female red rider to pass thru!  I made it quick and finished the ride “chicking” a few fellas on the way.  A couple of them tried to pass me but they were no match for Paddy!  I finished the race at an awesome BG of  126.  I think I’ve found the magic combination – no stress and no swim = GREAT BG’s!  Winning combination.  We all met up and had a sandwich courtesy of the ADA and talked about our day I bolused 5.0 units for the sandwich since it was a pretty “bready” sandwich.  Then we headed to Two Brothers Brewery an awesome craft beer maker in the area for some cold beer and some nachos (post meal BG 98)!  Big Congrats to Katie for her first outdoor ride and completed all 62 miles!  And to Carol who is training for her first ironman rode 90 miles in the heat after a half marathon yesterday!  Way to go girls!   What a great day!

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Grazing and morning exercise

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Gillian

 

Last night I attended a charity event at Goose Island Brewery.  My CDE (certified diabetes educator) is the founder for the charity  Slamdunk Kids  for Diabetes Basketball Camp.  A wonderful charity that offers free basketball camps to kids with diabetes.  I left work and ran a couple of errands on the bike before the event I ‘d had a banana around 3pm and bolused for its 20g of carbs my basil went to its normal .45 units/hour at 3pm. As I got to my second stop I felt the low again (62!).  Lately i’ve been going low a lot.  I blame it on my new mantra of bolusing for everything.  Anyhow I got to the American Diabetes Association offices where I was picking up my ride packet for the tour de cure this sunday and consumed 3 clif blocks ( again eating to make up for my lack of carbs) grrrrrr!  I hopped back on my bike and headed to the event.   They had awesome finger foods out.. fish taco’s, pizza, pretzel rolls with cheesey jalapenos gooeyness in them.  I’m a sucker for bar food and good beer. Snacking or grazing is usually a diabetic nightmare to bolus for.  I bolused 2-3 units here and there but my BG still shot up to 290. Then there was the bowl of crispy/spicy/sugary chips at each table that I just couldn’t stop eating.  I am telling myself that this is ok because I’m giving myself a break after ironman.   After the event, I rode home (3 miles) in hopes that it might help with the high BG’s but alas those thick juicy simple carbs were a force to be reckoned with and I sat at a hefty 325 at 10 pm.  Which of course carried on into the morning even the 1.0 unit I gave myself at 2am in the morning didn’t make a dent in it, waking up at 200ish.

I am working at home today and my plan was to get up early to go for a bike ride however  it was too easy for me to skip that so my alternative was doing some drills on my treadmill.  I wanted to do something after last nights binge and my high bg in this morning. In my down time (i.e. when i’m not training for an ironman or eating bad bar food)  i’m trying to do exercises that will alleviate some of my tight hamstring and plantar fasciitis issues so that I can head into marathon training with a healthy body.  I’m notoriously bad at stretching or anything that doesn’t involve going balls to the walls feeling like i’ve really worked out :). I have a pair of vibrams that a friend (Lorrie – team wild)  gave me which I had yet to really try so I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get my little piggy’s into their appropriate little house. My baby toes curl in under the next toe so this is no easy task! I hopped on the treadmill and did some side steps and backwards running to get the heartrate going and to use some muscles around my feet and ankles that I might not normally use on an average run (total approx 15 minutes).  Then I walked while doing some arm strength training with a band followed by some 1 minute sets of sit ups, planks, down dogs, dynamic stretching etc.  Mornings are tough because I usually love to eat breakfast and drink my coffee right after I get up (its my relaxation hour), I need to break myself of this habit because in reality although the downtime is good for you there will be days when I need to get up and run or bike and I won’t necessarily have time to have a chillaxing breakie and coffee! So I need to figure out how to do that and still manage the diabetes.  That is, figure out what happens when I workout in the morning without eating or if I have a light snack etc.  This morning I skipped my usual breakfast of a protein pancake and fruit and snacked on half a banana pre-exercise (no bolus) then finished it up with other fruit and almond butter with coffee of course (bolus 3.5 units BG 260).  Pre-lunch I am sitting at 136 – yay!

Anyway, this went on way longer than I planned but  if you get a chance check out http://www.slamdunkkids.com

Have a great day!

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