February 2013 Training Wrap-Up

Hard to believe that another month has gone by!  The month of February was a great month for me training wise.  I got a bit more running and swimming in and also managed some quality time (for me) on the bike.  I have increased my resistance during spinning and am starting to feel the results.  My legs are getting much stronger and my running form and speed is improving.  I have actually enjoyed the strength work I have been doing. As a bonus I have dropped 3 pounds and don't have much more to go now to get to my ideal weight.

Hours of training = 36.5 hours

Spin x 12 = 250.5 km's

Run x 6 = 76.3 km's

Swim x 3 = 8,250m

Row x 6 = 18.3 km's

Weights/tabbatta/kinesis/kickboxing/core= 10.5 hours

Rest days = 4

The month of March started off well today with a 10.9km run.  I hope to get more running in now that the weather is starting to turn while still getting good mileage on the bike and in the pool.  I am almost done my kinesis class and to be honest won't be sad when it is over.  The class has too many people in it therefore we end up doing more cardio than strength and strength is the reason I signed up in the first place. 

I also registered for Melissa's in September in Banff.  I am doing the 22km race and am excited already!  This is one of my favorite races to do.  I hope to get a half marathon under my belt before then.  Looking back to where I was this time last year I have come a long way and could not be more pleased!

The First Five

I have always associated the number five with some of the things I find are the hardest.  This list includes:

The first 5 km's of a run.

The first 5 km's of a spin on the bike.

The first 5 laps in the pool.

The 5 minutes between me waking and having glorious coffee in my hand.

I now have another one to add to the list.  The first 5 minutes of a low blood sugar once I have treated it. It usually takes me at least this amount of time to start to feel the effects of the life saving glucose to hit my bloodstream.  The first 5 minutes usually include flickering eyesight, cold sweat, shaking, the feeling that my insides are shuddering, increased heart-rate and decreased thought process, the nearly uncontrollable urge to eat everything in site and just plain fear.  Just like the other things in my list, after 5 minutes things usually start to improve (not always but that is a whole other post in itself).

Tug of War

Every day living with Type 1 diabetes is like a tug of war.  D pulling on one end and I on the other.  I would say that the majority of the time I am able to keep D in check and pull it over to my side of the line.  However once and awhile D surprises me and abruptly jerks me over to its side planting my face in the mud.  Yesterday was one of those days.

All day I had been battling high blood sugars.  I woke up with a high BS and over the course of the next nine hours I did my best to try and bring it down.  Despite administering correction boluses left right and centre and eating low carb all day, they would not budge.  They hovered between 13 and 16 despite my efforts.  It made me feel like garbage.  On Monday nights I go to a high intensity boxing/cardio class and hoped that some good exercise would help to bring my numbers into range.  By the time I was ready to leave for the gym I had a headache and felt slightly nauseous due to the high sugars all day.  I tested right before the workout and was at 12.9.  Usually I would have given myself a bit more insulin as this is higher than I would like to start a workout with.  Something in my gut told me to leave it alone and in hindsight I am glad that I did.  

We started the class with some light running and then some sprint repeats.  After this came 5 minutes of skipping followed by a series of burpies and work on the bench (i.e. straddle jumps etc).  After half an hour I was sweating and feeling fine.  We started doing some kicks and all of a sudden my world went fuzzy.  I felt weak and started to shiver.  I knew it was bad and before I could do anything about it my legs buckled from under me.  Lucky for me I always stand at the front of the class.  I don't do this to show off but due to the fact that I have terrible coordination and having someone in front of me is very distracting.  I knew I was on the verge of passing out and literally crawled from my place on the floor to my bag of glucose tablets about five feet away.  I stuff five of them in my mouth and drank them down with some water.  A quick check and I was at 2.0.  The instructor rushed over to me to see if I needed assistance and I am so grateful that I was able to somewhat communicate with her as she asked if I needed a shot of insulin!  I shook my head at her violently and just pointed at my glucose.  Not sure if she understood but she said she would come check on me again in a few minutes.  After about five minutes had passed I started to come around, however cold sweat was pouring off my body.  Fifteen minutes later and I was only at 3.2.  I took two more tabs and knew that I would have to call it a day.  When the instructor returned I explained that I had suffered a bad low blood sugar and that the worst thing for me would have been a shot of insulin.  I think she got the message.  At this point I was starting to feel a bit emotional and let her know I would be going home.  I gathered my stuff and slowly walked to my car.

Just like any Type 1 diabetic I suffer with lows. It is not unusual and I know what to do to treat them.  They suck big time but most of the time I get on with it, not letting on how crappy they can make me feel.  Something about what happened last night, maybe it is because I was in public and doing something I love to do, opened the flood gates.  I sat in my car and bawled my face off.  At first feeling sorry for myself (which I rarely allow myself to do) and then feeling extreme anger at this damn disease.  I cried, yelled, swore and pummelled my fists against the steering wheel.  The realization that this is my reality hit me hard and I let loose.  After I got it all out I calmed down, drove home and cuddled with my dogs expressing my frustration to them.  They don't judge and just sat with me their heads on my lap. 

Today I feel much better, albeit still a bit wiped out.  I did not sleep that great and am nervous about my ninety minute scheduled workout this evening.  I cannot understand what happened and why I crashed so badly.  It was like all the insulin I had taken over the day had stored up and unleashed at once. Yesterday diabetes won the tug of war but be damned if it will today!

January 2013 Training Wrap-Up

I thought using my blog to keep track of my monthly training would be a good way to see how I am progressing and to make sure I am reaching the goals I set for myself.  Also I find that when I publish my workouts it gives me the drive to continue pushing. 

January was a good month and I am pleased with the results.  I am not training for anything specific at the moment, just working on getting back in good shape and creating a base to hopefully participate in some races this year.  I did not suffer with any injuries which I am pleased about.  My sciatic and IT band cooperated through the month and I think a lot of this is due to spending more time stretching after workouts.  I invested in a pair of bike shoes mid month and they are making the world of difference for me on the bike.  I did not run as much as I would like, but sometimes that is the way it goes with this Alberta weather.  I also only hit the pool once which is not like me at all, but I made up for it in other areas.  Ryan and I also took off for four days to Las Vegas and I did not do any training then.  However walking around Vegas in high heels was a workout of its own!  Lets break it down:

Hours of training = 25 hours

Spin x 9 = 206.5 km's

Run x 6 = 62.4 km's

Swim x 1 = 3,250m

Row x 5 = 15 km's

Weights/tabbatta/kinesis/kickboxing/core= 7 hours 45 mins

Rest days = 8 (including 4 days in Vegas)

For the month of February my goal is to get some more running and swimming in.  I am loving the bike and can definitely tell my legs are getting stronger.  I am learning to push myself out of my comfort zone once again and I love it :)

Curious Case of the Gluten Disaster

Be warned, this post will most definitely contain poop talk that may border on too much information.  If this makes you queasy (or you are remotely attracted to me, lol) do not read any further!

I was diagnosed with celiac disease in May, 2012, approximately eight months after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine.  When people with celiac eat foods that contain gluten, it results in an immune-mediated toxin that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed.  The smallest amounts of gluten can affect people with celiac and cause health issues.  There is no cure for celiac and the only form of treatment is to avoid all gluten.  For those who don't know, gluten is the common name for the protein in specific grains.  These proteins are found in all wheat as well as related grains such as rye and barley.

Statistics show that approximately one in ten Type 1 diabetics end up celiac as well (yay us). Before I was diagnosed I suffered with all of the classic symptoms such as stomach cramping, gas, bloating in my stomach (sometimes I could look 6 months pregnant), chronic diarrhea, constant nausea, fatigue etc.  A biopsy of my small intestine confirmed the diagnosis and since then I have been avoiding gluten to the best of my ability.  At first it was a challenge as I had to read the ingredients on every single thing I bought.  I was amazed at the things that contain gluten and found that my already healthy diet became much healthier.  As I have to count my carbs to dose my insulin, I find that I often stay away from the gluten free breads and pastas as they are quite high carb. The majority of my diet consists of fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, lean meats, brown rice and quinoa.  Ryan bought me a bread maker and I have found some good recipes to make my own bread, which I like to eat on the weekends for breakfasts before my workouts.

The one thing I have found difficulty with is cross contamination.  I don't buy anything from the deli as it is a breeding ground for cross contamination.  I am careful to read and examine every gluten free menu as often there is fine print advising that cross contamination could be possible.  An example of this would be pizza from Panago or Pizza 73.  They do have gluten free crust, however it is prepared in the same place where regular crust is prepared.  I can't eat it.  To give you an idea of how sensitive I am to gluten, one day at work without thinking I toasted a piece of gluten free bread. I must have gotten a crumb of regular bread on my toast as I was so sick after.  As I said, I do my best to avoid cross contamination but it does occur.  Sometimes the results are quite mild and sometimes they are severe.  Sunday night my friends was severe!!

For supper I had prepared 1/4 cup brown rice, roast veggies and a grilled chicken breast.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  I looked in my fridge and came upon a little bottle of hot sauce I had forgotten about.  I read all of the ingredients and cross referenced them with my gluten bible.  Nothing suspicious at all so I sprinkled a little bit on my chicken and veggies.  This was at approximately 8:00pm.  I went to bed feeling fine.  

At 11:30pm I woke up in extreme pain and discomfort.  I had been glutened and it was bad, I had not felt this way for a long time.  In fear of crapping myself on the way to the bathroom, I crawled there slowly and carefully.  And so it began.  I spent the majority of the next six hours in the bathroom.  Now let me tell you something.  I have had diarrhea from things like the flu or eating something that is off.  None of that compares to what I call the "glutes".  It is violent and nasty and smelly and disgusting.  Like really disgusting.  It even looks different (google it if you dare) and is all oily.  And it hurts a lot and burns (see I told you it may be too much information).  By about 5:30am most of it had cleared its way through my system and I was able to fall asleep.  Needless to say when my alarm went off at 7:00am to go to work I shut it off and called it a day.  Not only was I exhausted from the bathroom Olympics my stomach and every muscle surrounding it hurt.

I am pretty sure I got the glutes from the hot sauce but cannot say for sure.  All I know is that I don't want to repeat that again anytime soon - that stuff went straight in the garbage!

48 Things

Today over at the DSMA they have suggested that the DOC get to know each other better by answering the following 48 questions.  Inspired by Meri at OurDiabetic Life, I thought I would share my answers here on my blog to let you all know a bit about me.  Feel free to re-post on your own blog or twitter!

1.           WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

No.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Last Thursday during a long and stressful day.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?

I used to like my handwriting when I was in High School, when we wrote instead of used computers.  Ever since computers have taken over my handwriting has gone downhill.  I print most of the time so I can read my own writing. It is shameful.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?

Roasted chicken or genova salami (or both together)

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

No human children, just two adorable fuzzy Westies called Basil and Kasper.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

I am pretty sure I would be.  I am pretty easy going and like to have fun.  Also everyone needs to have at least one friend that is a ginger…right?

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

Not a lot, but enough.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?

I do and wish I did not.  For years they put me through torture.  Apparently not enough torture to have them  removed.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?

Not a chance.  I would consider sky diving for some reason though, tandem of course.  The thought of tossing myself off a platform head first only to be whipped back into the air does not fill me with joy, it fills me with terror.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?

It used to be Cheerios or Shreddies (loved both the same amount).  Unfortunately since being diagnosed Type 1 diabetic and celiac I cannot eat the stuff.  I have tried all sort of gluten free cereals and no matter what my blood sugar spikes.  So I gave up.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?

Always!  This is one of the things my Dad drove into my head. 

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?

I know I am.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?

I don’t eat ice cream much anymore as it also plays havoc with the blood sugars, but I always loved plain old chocolate ice cream.  Also ice cream cake.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Eyes.

15. RED OR PINK?

Red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?

My teeth.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?

My cousins and aunt in England

18. WHAT IS THE TECHNIQUE THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE MOST?

Speaking my mind more and learning to say no.

19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?

Black dress shoes.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?

A pear.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?

My workmate’s ipod and office noises.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?

Green

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?

The smell right before it rains

24. HOW IMPORTANT ARE YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS TO YOU?

Not that important.

25. MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY OR BEACH HOUSE?

Cannot decide – beach house in a mountain range

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Football, English Football and Baseball

27. HAIR COLOR?

Red

28. EYE COLOR?

Green/Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?

Not anymore, had cataract surgery in both eyes last year after being diagnosed.  Must wear reading glasses though.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?

Just one?  I love food! Peanut butter, cheese, popcorn, apples, carrots, spinach.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Happy Endings.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?

Moonrise Kingdom – loved it!

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?

Green shirt.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?

Summer

35. FAVORITE DESSERT?

Chocolate

36. STRENGTH TRAINING OR CARDIO?

I am a cardio junkie

37. COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?

Computer I guess….

38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

Just finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed last night.  Not sure what is next, I have a million books to read.

39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?

No mouse pad, just my desk

40. FAVORITE SOUND?

My nieces and nephews laughing or my dogs snoring

41. FAVORITE GENRE OF MUSIC?

I a rock n’ roll, alternative punk fan

42. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?

Australia

43. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?

No.

44. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Edmonton, Alberta

45. WHERE ARE YOU LIVING NOW?

St. Albert, Alberta

46. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR HOUSE?

Brown

47. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR CAR?

Silver

48. DO YOU LIKE ANSWERING 48 QUESTIONS?

I do!

2013 - Getting in Touch with my Inner Athlete Once More

I am not one to make New Years Resolutions.  I don't particularly have anything against them and I do understand why people make them, however I know myself too well and know that they would set me up for failure. I do however like to make some goals to strive for during the year.  Last year my main goal was to survive the pain in my feet and to be able to return to work.  I accomplished that goal and more.  This year while my list of goals is a bit longer, my main goal is to get back in touch with my inner athlete and stay in touch for good.

Before I started to get sick, and then went undiagnosed for a long period of time, I felt like an athlete.  Sure I had a full-time job and did not get paid for my athletic pursuits, but I really and truly felt like an athlete. I may have not been the fastest or strongest, but I was at my fittest and strongest. I had ran my best marathon to date, 3:48:22 in Winnipeg, and was in the best shape I had ever been.  I was running a lot of races and had dabbled in triathlons (which I loved).  I felt content and was able to deal with the problems life inevitably threw my way.  And then I got sick.  As time went on my weight and energy levels dropped.  Where before I woke up most days looking forward to my training ahead, exercise became a huge effort.  I was exhausted and forced myself to keep going.  More time passed and I stopped my spin classes and I ran once a week at most.  My time at the pool was pathetic.  I felt so frustrated, I remember crying and being so angry.  I did not understand.  Of course once I found out I had Type 1 Diabetes and learnt what could happen before diagnosis it all made sense.  My inner athlete had not disappeared, she had just gone into hiding for a while.

I spent the first six months after being diagnosed dealing with all of the complications I was bombarded with, the main one being the issues with my nerves and feet.  By February of 2012 I returned to work and was able to swim again, albeit slow and not very far.  I remember the first run I did and the elation I felt.  I had only run 5km, most of which had been done on feet that felt like I was running on rocks, but I had done it.  I knew then that I could do it however was unsure if I could ever get back to my past self. 

Since September 2012 I have been able to ramp up my workouts and December 2012 was a stellar month for me.  I have been swimming consistently and feel that I am back to where I was in that aspect.  I am running at least three times a week as well as spinning, boxing and doing some weights (I am not and never have been a fan of the weight room!).  In the two weeks before Christmas I attended boot camps and worked out hard, like really hard!  I  pushed myself past my comfort levels into levels of discomfort and it went well.  I feel great.  Besides some blood sugar issues here and there, which are to be expected, I feel like I can get back to where I was and surpass that.  The muscles in my legs are returning and I am getting stronger.  My drive to compete is showing its face again and man am I happy to say that out loud! I am starting to dream again of road races, trail races, half marathons, marathons, ultra-marathons and triathlons.  My inner athlete is starting to come out of the shadows, it is great to see her and start to get reacquainted with her.

(this photo was taken at the 35km mark of the Winnipeg Marathon 2009)