Running in snow

This morning I awakened to 4-5 inches of snow (still snowing, by the way), air temp of 17 degrees fahrenheit, winds northeast 5-10 miles per hour for a windchill of 10 degrees. For the first time ever, I added Yak Trax Pros to my running shoes. They worked great! I ran 9 miles slow (ppm 10:13) which is what my training schedule called for today, for a weekly total of 21 miles. Blood sugar was 66 pre-run, so I ate 6 Dex-4 tablets, plus 1/3 of a Snicker's marathon bar. Post-run blood sugar was 107, and I used a temp basal rate of 50% for ninety minutes. It seemed to work well. Because it was so cold and snowy, I had a few issues with glasses fogging up, and my eyelashes icing over. Forgot to wear my heart rate monitor today, which would have been good to have the added data during my run (keeping at an average aerobic heart rate of 136). It was a good and adventurous run. Happy snow everybody!

Weird blood sugars and what to do

I got up this morning at 5AM for a 4.5 miler with (5X25 sec. 5K pace) hill fartleks included. My blood sugar at 5:05 was 212, not exactly ideal, but it must have been elevated because last night I had consecutive blood sugars of 66 and 61 at 9PM and 9:15PM respectively. I treated the first one with a pack of sport beans (25 grams of carbs) and 15 minutes later my blood sugar was 61. I then pulled out the heavy artillery and swallowed a tube of glutose (15 grams of fast-acting carb). I felt better, did some reading, fell asleep and did not check it again until this morning.

I gave myself 1 unit of insulin via my pump at 5:05 (in retrospect, I probably did not need it) and reduced my basal rate to 50% for 30 minutes during my run. Great run by the way, but my blood sugar was 70 when I returned at 6:20AM.

Lessons learned: 1) I do not need to bolus if my blood sugar is 150-250 before a run; 2) I will continue to reduce my basal rate for runs of 40 minutes or longer, track the results and learn from experience what works best.

Happy running, and check those sugars!

Chia seeds: Fad or real?

For anyone who has read "Born To Run" by Christopher McDougall, there are a number of interesting and enticing takeaways. One takeaway is the apparent benefits of eating Chia seeds. Not much has been researched on their effectiveness, but what the heck: I bought some anyway. I have been mixing ground Chia seeds (Chia Fresh brand from Whole Foods) with other foods for about 3 weeks, and they are good. I feel livelier in my runs, and they work wonders on keeping "regular." My left knee has also been feeling better, but that is probably the result of something else I am doing (new running shoes, calcium supplements, 30/20 shortened stride, etc.). Give them a try. FYI: They're expensive, but very good mixed in Greek yogurt or apple juice.

My blood sugars have also been very good but, again, hard to know if the "slower absorption rate" the seeds produce is the explanation. If you take prescription medicines that are "time released," check with your doctor first about adding Chia seeds to your diet--because you do not want the seeds to interfere with early stages of pill absorption in the stomach (such as thyroxine).

An intro to running with diabetes

Hello friends. Well, this is my first foray into blogging about running with diabetes. A bit about myself: I have type-1 diabetes, now for 36 years, and am in good control. I started running seriously about four years ago to initially lose a few pounds, but now find I am hooked. I will attempt to reveal some secrets and tips about how to run safely with diabetes, and use running as a way to stay healthy, keep your diabetes in check, and feel better along the way. Cheers!