February 2018 Running Challenge

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  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,817 Member
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    Is it weird that I'm kinda excited that my lunch run will probably be in the rain? I don't think that's weird :D

    Yes, but it is okay, even good, to be weird at times. :)

    I'm a nerd/geek so being kinda weird, at least in the eyes of some unfortunate people, is pretty much my ground state of existence, lol. I just tend to not believe in the existence of 'normal', lol

    Hear hear! :smile:
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    @iofred you must have amazing powers against jetlag to cope with all that travelling!!! ;)
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
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    @PastorVincent If losing weight improved things and you have been able to last years without insulin, then you are almost certainly type 2. Some type 2's confuse the difference between insulin usage and insulin production. Some of the symptoms may be similar, but the pathways to the diseases are very different.

    Type 1's will always need to take insulin. I would become ill within hours of no longer getting insulin and would be dead within a few days. That 938 mg/dl I said was my highest was after 2 days without insulin. It's a surprise that I even survived. It was when I was a teenager and was just at a point where I didn't want to live with it anymore.

    For type 1's who are in what's known as the "honeymoon stage" (this is the time during which your pancreas still has some functioning cells left because the immune system isn't yet done killing all beta cells, there is some variation as to how long it takes. Usually, younger patients have shorter honeymoons. Adults can have honeymoons that last years, and a term LADA is used to describe adult-onset type 1. If you have type 1 / LADA, you should be monitoring very closely so you know when you need to start taking insulin. There is nothing you can do to prevent it in this case, as it is just a matter of when a significant enough number of pancreatic beta cells are killed. You will need to start taking insulin before all are gone, and the dose will then be adjusted as more and more are lost.

    I made many many drastic changes at once, but I ASSUME losing weight helped. I used to spike/crash all the time, now I go weeks. Still though, probably Type 2 based on your thoughts, though the doc seemed to think I COULD progress to a non-functional pancreas in time, but said it was too early to know and that I might just limp along like I am for a long time.

    Really hope I can. I mean, sure I have not had birthday cake in years, but that seems a small price to pay.

    Probably should go to a new doc and find out, but since there is nothing I can really do to prevent it (doctor said the same, it will happen, or not, nothing I could really do) I do not feel like I need to rush over.

    I don't get the impression that your dr. understands what is happening, or perhaps does not understand the differences between type 1 and type 2. If he thought you were type 1 / LADA, he should have referred you to an endocrinologist and you should be monitoring frequently.

    Did you have a gad or c-peptide test?

    It was an Endo and I am sure he understood it far better than I. For a while, I was testing constantly (picking all the fingers!) and logging and reporting in and he was taking blood for his own testing. The core of the problem was the pancreas is releasing insulin way late. So gonna make this up as it has been years since I looked at the numbers...

    A normal person eats, and their sugar may spike up some, but comes down pretty quickly by itself and is happy in that 70-120 range most of the time.
    A diabetic eats, sugar spikes up, and does not come back down without medical intervention (pumps, injections, pills, etc)

    I am neither :)

    Again, making these numbers up for sake of clarity. So I eat something normal-ish and not real sugary. If I track my numbers I get something like at 1 hour BG is like 300, at 2 hour BG is like 70, at 3 hour BG is like 170, at 4 hour BG is 20. I assume have gone lower than 20, given I have collapsed, but something in the low 20s is the lowest I have successfully recorded. I really try not get down there anymore. It is really not a fun place to be.

    Doc explained that my pancreas is releasing the insulin too late, and then releasing too much, and then cutting off before doing it again. He said it might stay that way, or it might eventually fail. There was no way to know.

    I have learned to treat it by eating ahead of the downswing, staying away from simple carbs and making sure I have fat and/or protein in every meal. I was supposed to keep going to see him every 6 months, but I fell off that bandwagon, and then moved.

    Also running LOTS of miles to stay ahead of the calories. :loL:

    So that might be way too much information but might make it clearer. I do not know if it is officially recorded as 1 or 2 or something else, I just know I pretty much have to act like a diabetic when I eat.

    Oh I see... it sounds like atypical reactive hypoglycemia. LCHF definitely is a good tool, but there is also the super starch that was developed for people who have glycogen storage disease... and then was discovered it could help type 1's who have lots of hypos. Since then, it was commercialized and many fat adapted athletes use it for an extra boost during competition or other high intensity endurance events (typically 2+ hrs.). It has an extremely high molecular weight, so it absorbs very slowly and provides glucose over time without a BG spike. It's been commercialized (like I said, it is now used by a lot of fat adapted athletes for special events) and can be found as Generation UCAN.

    As to hypos, I've been 20 mg/dl and lower without much for symptoms, and yet I've been unresponsive with paramedics called in the 40's. It seems to be that the most recent time I ate has an impact. If I go low overnight / early morning, it doesn't have to be terribly low to go unconscious. If I eat something and over-estimate carbs (and therefore take too much insulin), go low 1 or 2 hrs. later, I tend to be able to handle it better even when much lower. Now that I don't eat carbs, the chance of a low due to over-counting carbs is less likely... just like when you eat lower carb, the odds that your body will release too much insulin (even if it takes time before it does so) should be lower.

    I am not numerically LCHF - I mean I have done that. Spent a couple years on less the 60 carbs a day, and many weeks on less than 20 carbs per day. It really helped reset my diet and get my health back on track. Before that swap, I was essentially ONLY eating carbs. Talking pasta every night with garlic bread, and oh my YUM. Nowadays, I eat carbs, I just pay attention to how my BG responds. So birthday cake is out, but a bowl of cheerios is fine.

    Still, my carbs have been inching up lately, and I need to pull them back down to something more reasonable. Carbs are sneaky little buggers.

    I just don't eat carbs at all - maybe a few grams on some days, but 0g on a lot of days. I do plan to experiment with UCan later this year, though.
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
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    I just don't eat carbs at all - maybe a few grams on some days, but 0g on a lot of days. I do plan to experiment with UCan later this year, though.


    Would love to hear how that UCan works for you. Never heard of it before you mentioned it. I need to read up on it some.
  • polskagirl01
    polskagirl01 Posts: 2,014 Member
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    exercise.png


    It worked! My monthly HM streak is secure. The main challenge was mental, as I hate being cold. Everything was covered in snow, but fortunately it wasn't slippery. By the end of the run, my phone was acting funny (I use it for music), and my outer layers (buff, jacket, etc) were freezing solid, but I felt okay myself, so my clothing choices must have been alright overall. I don't have time for this cold weather, though. Can't wait for Spring!

    Yay! Congrats!

    Also keeping your phone close to your body instead of outside your close will help it handle the cold much better.

    It was zipped in my jacket pocket, with the headphone wires going inside my shirt. It was strange to me that the jacket front froze the way it did, as it was only -8 C and I wasn't feeling dangerously cold. Even my feet were fine (in 2 pairs of socks with a sandwich bag in-between). I do have a warmer ski jacket that I wear in colder temperatures, and today was kind of borderline as to which one I put on.
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    Ha! I am in "get free stuff" mode. Any New Balance fans out there?

    I just signed up to be a shoe wear tester. Free shoes! Maybe... I have not been chosen to wear test yet. I requested to try a pair of 860V9. We will see...

    https://product.testing.newbalance.com/

    For those who like other brands....

    Whoo! Thanks! I saved the info. I already signed up on the NB. I'll hit these up later!
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
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    exercise.png


    It worked! My monthly HM streak is secure. The main challenge was mental, as I hate being cold. Everything was covered in snow, but fortunately it wasn't slippery. By the end of the run, my phone was acting funny (I use it for music), and my outer layers (buff, jacket, etc) were freezing solid, but I felt okay myself, so my clothing choices must have been alright overall. I don't have time for this cold weather, though. Can't wait for Spring!

    Yay! Congrats!

    Also keeping your phone close to your body instead of outside your close will help it handle the cold much better.

    It was zipped in my jacket pocket, with the headphone wires going inside my shirt. It was strange to me that the jacket front froze the way it did, as it was only -8 C and I wasn't feeling dangerously cold. Even my feet were fine (in 2 pairs of socks with a sandwich bag in-between). I do have a warmer ski jacket that I wear in colder temperatures, and today was kind of borderline as to which one I put on.

    Jacket pockets are not warm. They keep warm in. So if you put your hand in it, your hand generates heat and the pocket keeps the warmth in (somewhat). So without a heat source, the phone was pretty much out in the cold. It cools down slower than it would out in the air, but still cools down. If you kept the phone closer to your body, the heat from your body would keep it warm enough. Or you could stick a hand warmer in your pocket.

    Just a thought. :)

  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    Jennifer did you make a Strava request???
  • MobyCarp
    MobyCarp Posts: 2,927 Member
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    Skimmed 100+ posts. Lots of chatter about diabetes and blood donation. Don't know much about managing diabetes.

    @PastorVincent - Anecdata re: blood donation. I had been giving blood like clockwork, every 8 weeks, when I became a runner. For a while, no problem. Then I got serious about racing. One year (2015? 2014?) I donated on a Monday before Thanksgiving, and ran the 10K on Thanksgiving Day. It was not a good race, and I blamed many different things; but in hindsight, the fact that I had donated blood 3 days earlier was probably the biggest thing.

    I didn't see it making any difference in easy runs, and it didn't make enough difference to grab my attention before I started watching race times for PRs and doing well. Later, my regular doctor (not a sports doc) told me to back off to donating 4 times a year, and not within 2 weeks of a race. Other stuff in my medical history may have been relevant to this, and you have stuff going on that I don't which is probably relevant to what's right for you.

    The postscript: Last time I went in to donate, my iron was too low in the Red Cross test for them to take a donation. This was after years of being borderline low, close to the limit every time. I haven't been back; I think I may have saved enough lives before I got to that point.
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
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    MobyCarp wrote: »
    It. Felt. Great. Running was just the joy of running, no nag from the leg. Yeah, there was some traffic; it was manageable for running. Yeah, a shower started when I was running; no big deal. I got started with no precipitation, it was warm, the wind wasn't a factor, and I can deal with it. Took an option to finish up through residential streets, and managed a stride on the end to my driveway.
    @MobyCarp That sounds like a perfect run! Glad to hear your leg is feeling well. Even if it didn't like running 3 days in a row, it sounds like it's on the way to healing :smile:

    @kat_ontherun Running outside is so much more fun than running on the treadmill! Even if it's cold or raining or windy, that's usually much easier for me than just running in place.

    @skippygirlsmom I'm really sorry you were so sick! I hope you will recover really quickly now.

    @noblsheep Happy new year! Will it be your first half marathon next month? (sorry if you already wrote it, this thread is so long it's hard to remember/look up what was posted before)

    @lporter229 I hope the skiing weather is better than the forecast! I'm planning to go skiing tomorrow too, hope for better weather than last weekend (which was still hundred times better than the dreadful foggy icy day the week before). I bought my own skis earlier this month because I got tired of waiting in line at the rental place, so now I have to go every weekend to justify spending the money :wink:

    @juliet3455 Cool triathlon! Although skiing in the dark sounds really scary. I spent an afternoon skiing in dense fog with almost no visibility earlier this month, and didn't like it one bit. Especially since I just started and don't know any of the slopes well, and only finding out at the last moment if I had to go left or right or if it will suddenly be steep was not fun.

    @amymoreorless Great pictures! As long as the mud is only on the outside of the shoes, who cares? Most of it might fall off during your next run when it has dried. If it really bothers you, you can always put the shoes inside the washing machine at some gentle cycle.

    @sarahthes That is a very pretty sunset!

    @JessicaMcB Wow, that race conditions sound insane. You are absolutely amazing for running that distance in snow like that after a leg injury!!!