Change is Coming.........

Just wanted to let you know that change is coming both to this blog and professionally as well.

A couple of quick updates:

• On the Type 1 Diabetes front, my most recent A1C on September 1st that I was punishing myself to achieve a better reading came in at a very good 7.1%!! In looking back over my numbers over the past 10 years, including the years I was on my Insulin pump, it matched my lowest A1C ever!! I don't need to tell you, but hard work and persistence always pays off in the end.

• With regards to the 5K Buddy Run in Wake Forest that I participated in back on September 16th, I set a goal of completing the race in under 25:00. We were fortunate to have caught a bluebird in that they weather was perfect for the race, only 60 degrees and dry, after a scorching week of temperatures and thunderstorms leading up to race day. I started out with a good pace and maintained it throughout the middle of the race, and only really struggled right at the end due to the nearly quarter mile hill at the very end. But as the finish line came in clear sight with the electronic timer above, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was going to eclipse my goal by more than a minute. I crossed the line in 23:49 and can honestly say that I was pleased with my results. There's something about running with/against other people that always gets my competitive juices flowing. After more than 25 years since my last race, I can assure you that my next race will come considerably sooner than that!!

• More updates and changes coming soon, I'll keep you posted.
  

September 1, 2011 A1C

Well gang, tomorrow is another one of those judgment days.

You know, those quarterly appointments when you go to your Endocrinologist and get your A1C checked to see how you've been doing with your blood sugar readings over the last three months.

You always wonder if you've done enough with your monitoring, diet and exercise to lower your A1C to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Type 1 recommended number of below 7%.

The following list is my last five A1C's by date and the corresponding average blood glucose number.

• 4-19-2010 7.3% and 165
• 7-21-2010 7.5% and 172
• 10-11-2010 7.2% and 162
• 3-3-2011 7.5% and 172
• 6-1-2011 7.4% and 168

I could give you a longer history with my A1C's, but you get the picture of where I've been for roughly the last year and a half while attempting to gain better control of it.

Kind of like life, the last year and a half of Diabetic control has had its ups and downs. Fortunately for me, the peaks and valleys with these A1C's have been moderate to say the least in comparison to A1C's of years gone by. But over that time period I've recently become more vigilant with attempting to lower my A1C to the ADA recommended level of below 7.0%. One of the main reasons for my vigilance has been the Diabetic Online Community (DOC). Reading and following what so many of you go through each and every day has inspired me to do a better job with taking better care of myself. I know I've never been in this battle of control alone, but it sure makes it easier to read a blog or a tweet and say "Yes, I've been there and I can do this too!!" Another reason for my vigilance has been my family. As you get older with this disease, and I'm now one month shy of a full 26 years with Type 1, it becomes increasingly difficult to get out of bed or up from the couch to exercise or put the fork down when something mouth watering appears before you on the breakfast, lunch or dinner table. But I want to be around a lot longer for my family whether they want me or not!! I say that jokingly despite how it may read!!

So what have I done in the past 92 days since my last A1C? Well, I've exercised on 68 of those 92 days or roughly 73.91% of the time. I've also put the fork down at large meals and I've done better with making choices of eating healthier meals and or snacks which at the end of the day has always been my great undoing. Not surprisingly, I've lost nearly 10 pounds of just hanging around weight. And on top of all that I've monitored more often which should result in a better A1C tomorrow right?

Time will tell. But I do have a lot of people in the DOC to thank for pushing me and I have my loving family to thank for their never ending support.

Tomorrow will give me a number I can work on for the next three months!!

Week In Review 7-21-11 Through 7-27-11

Well over the course of the last seven calendar days I only took one day off from doing anything athletic wise, and that was this past Monday as I was in nearly complete body shutdown. More on that in a bit. I was able to get in four runs, one day of Wiffle Ball (don't look at me like that!!), and one evening of a half court basketball tournament.

The runs will be documented below, but I wanted to specifically get into the wiffle ball and the basketball activities which took place over the weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, this wiffle ball tournament that I participated in started off on Saturday morning and finished up early in the afternoon. Now normally, this would be a good thing in North Carolina in July as it doesn't usually get hot until the mid to late afternoon portion of the day. But being as this was the fourth of five consecutive days with the mercury climbing above the 100 degree barrier, there would have been no real good time to start anything outside as it never cools down when it gets that hot and again more specifically, humid. The good news is that we all survived the heat and humidity. Our team actually made it out of pool play for the first time in three years but the best news of all is that $1,500 will be donated to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke. And at the end of the day, raising money for a great cause is what its all about. For those of you interested in what it is that we did on Saturday, I encourage you to visit the site angelsamongus.org

Now the basketball event was held the next night at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church as a sort of recruiting tool/alumni game for guys who have fallen out of favor by playing basketball on Sunday night's with us for whatever reason. All I can say is thank the good Lord upstairs that these two events were scheduled on different days on the same weekend, unlike last year!! It was all I could do to play half court basketball for two hours with as much pain as I was in after pitching four complete games of wiffle ball the day before. My left leg, and specifically my left butt check, hurt sooooooo much from pitching that it was indescribable!! My right arm also felt like jello after throwing a wiffle ball as hard as you can for literally like 150 pitches!! Not only did I feel horrible, but our gym at the church had blown its AC unit on Thursday thus leaving it feeling only slightly cooler inside than the real feel temperature outside!! Someway, somehow, 22 guys out of the anticipated 24 that we "recruited" showed up and had a good time reminiscing about our very own "Glory Days". Since we were short two guys, two of the teams had only three players and they had to pick different players from whomever was sitting out when it was their turn to play. I had the good fortune of being chosen to play on one of the teams that was in the finals, and we ended up winning the championship. Now and also like to brag and say that I had a LOT to do with the final game, but that would not be very Christian of me!! This team just happened to have the best player of all 22 guys in the gym, an 18 year old with unlimited range on his jump shot and tremendous driving ability, and we let him (read: forced him because we were all exhausted) score 5 of the 7 points needed to win the game!! All in all, we got some great positive feedback from the night and we'll look to do more of this as some of the guys seemed to like the half court environment.

Now, what did all of this mean as far as my Blood Sugar readings were concerned. Amazingly enough, I ran slightly high on Saturday playing wiffle ball despite loosing a lot of water weight. Sunday evening was a train wreck though. I had an unbelievable low of 32 five minutes before we were to start playing!! Way to stay on top of things when you're helping co-organize an event!! Needless to say, I got through everything thanks to the juice I had on hand but it's always a difficult proposition when you take your eyes of Type 1 Diabetes for even a little while.

Results of my exercise:

• 7-21-11: 3.30 Miles in 30:09

• 7-22-11: 3.26 Miles in 31:15

• 7-23-11: Wiffle Ball

• 7-24-11: Basketball Tournament
  

• 7-25-11: Rest (very much needed!!)

• 7-26-11: 3.45 Miles in 31:01

• 7-27-11: 3.56 Miles in 33:15

Results for the running week: 13.57 Miles in 2+ hours.

I'm back on the bike riding road again tonight with my first trip out on Goose II, can't wait!!

Week in Review 7-13-11 through 7-20-11

Hey, summer's here!!!!!!!!!!

In case you didn't know, it's hot outside. Not only is it hot, but that other nasty "H" word has crept its way into every weather sentence issued locally as well, Humid!!

While I really don't mind either one for long stretches of time when I'm outside doing something, my Type 1 Diabetes sure does seem to mind. I always seem to be in a good zone Blood Sugar wise prior to leaving the house for exercise, but when I return I seem to have more crazy lows than when the weather is in a more comfortable range. Can the hot weather really affect you that much more than when it's nice out?

Anyway, my four results from last week are as follows:

• 7-14-11: 3.46 miles in 32:06

• 7-16-11: 4.03 miles in 37:00

• 7-17-11: 2 hours of full court hoops

• 7-19-11: 3.12 miles in 28:30

The good news is I ran 10.61 miles in a little more than 1 1/2 hours and played basketball for two hours. The other good news is that I'm still not experiencing any pain in my left knee which makes running all the more tolerable.

The bad news is that I still need to go and get Goose repaired. He just sits in the garage and stares at me every time I take the trash out!! Well I'm going this Saturday afternoon to the Sears repair store and get him fixed after I play in the Greater Raleigh Wiffle Ball World Series. It should be a blast all the way around and I'm really looking forward to helping out a great cause at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.

Stay cool and have a great weekend!!

Week in Review (Good news, Bad news)

In my last post I mentioned how Larry Bird paid me a visit at the end of my run last Tuesday evening with a Blood Sugar reading of 33. Random thought, I actually met him one time when the Boston Celtics were using UNCG as a training facility before the start of an NBA season back in the mid-1990's, and he was doing some advising for them before he got fully involved with the Indiana Pacers organization. Needless to say, he was much cooler to meet in person as opposed to meeting his rather famous jersey number at the end of a short workout!!

Results of workouts now coming mid-week:

Wednesday 7-6: Rode for 10.1 miles in a very relaxed 51:48.

Thursday 7-7: Rode for 6.25 miles in 34:34 then ran 2.2 miles in 20:56

Friday 7-8: Rest (Friday Night Lights 2nd to last show and all!!)

Saturday 7-9: Ran 4.0 miles in 45:00 at 6:00 AM!! Then played soccer, lacrosse and wiffle ball with Kendra, Ryan and Dylan for one hour over at the WRAL soccer center.

Sunday 7-10: Played 2 hours of full court basketball at WFPC.

Monday 7-11: Rest (much needed after being forced to take three weeks off from basketball)

Tuesday 7-12: 3.15 mile run in 29:20.

So the good news in all of this is I've now run four times in the last eight days. The really good news is that my left knee has felt great and I'm not experiencing any pain whatsoever. All of the biking I've done since April 3rd has strengthened my knee back to normal functionality, which is sort of a miracle in my eyes.

The bad news in all of this is that I'm indeed RUNNING more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You see back on Thursday, July 7th, Goose apparently got my prior knee pain transferred to his chain because something is seriously wrong when I stop peddling, and just attempt to coast. I'm not the type of guy who's mechanically inclined to fix anything when things go wrong. Some guys grow up fixing things that break, I grew up playing sports and occasionally reading a book or two!!!

So I've contacted Sears, where I purchased him a few months ago, and I'm now being told I need to call a 1-800 number to determine what I need to do next based on my warranty. I'm ever hopeful that what is probably a quick fix is covered and that I can get back to riding again shortly, because up until this point, it's been a blast.

Working out alone on a bike is so much cooler than running alone because you can take short breaks here and there if need be, but you can still really punish yourself on hills which can be exhilarating.

So my mid-week to mid-week totals are 16.25 miles of riding, 9.35 miles of running, 2 hours of hoops and one hour of soccer, lax and wiffle ball with the family which isn't all that bad!

Start to July

I got off to a good start in July on Goose largely due to the fact that July 4th was on a Monday, thus allowing for three days of riding during the day.

So after taking off the first day of the month, Friday, July 1st, I busted my butt on three very hot days covering the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Mileage totals for those first three rides of the month were 13.04 miles on the 2nd, 15.75 miles on the 3rd and 13.56 miles on the 4th. Riding times were 62:48 for the 2nd, 73:22 for the 3rs and 67:23 for the 4th. All in all, three very good rides considering they were all done in the middle of three days that had the mercury in the mid 90's.

I was going to take yesterday the 5th off but I decided to mix up my routine and test out my knee. I haven't run in nearly two weeks, so I went out with the threat of thunderstorms all around us. My plan was an easy three miler at a leisurely pace as to not put too much strain on my left knee.

Well, the weather held off, my knee felt fantastic, but the evil that is Type I Diabetes reared its ugly head yet again. I felt funny out there with my steps at the end of the run, and once I got back in the house I tested and saw my Blood Sugar was Larry Bird. I nice number for a great basketball player, but one that you never want to see peering back at you on your meter, 33.

Epic fail after leaving the house with my number at a very comfortable 100.

Glad I wasn't out on my bike for a long ride or that could have ended very badly.

The good news is I'm still here, the better news is my knee is getting stronger with all of the bike riding, a few miles short of 600 for my first three months on Goose.

But my monitoring has got to improve on runs/rides if I'm going to maintain an active lifestyle, which at the end of the day is the goal.

June Totals

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but there's been too much stuff going on.

Just wanted to give an update on my mileage totals for the month of June and the overall totals for the first three months with Goose.

The bad news for June is that I got out fewer times than expected, 17, but my mileage per time out increased greatly to nearly 12 miles per outing.

June totals : 202.35 Miles

May totals : 225.34 Miles

April totals : 170.24 Miles

Three month total = 597.93 Miles

If you had told me the day before I bought my bike that I'd have nearly 600 miles ridden in the first three months after purchase, I would have thought you were crazy!!

But after only lowering my A1C from 7.5% to 7.4% at my last Endo appointment on June 1st, I've got a lot of work left to do to see that number get below 7%.

Great Holiday weekend coming up. Everyone enjoy the 4th of July wherever you are and whoever you're with.

Choices

10:07 AM and 10:15 AM.

Note the time of both of those above.

The first is the most recent time I checked my blood sugar, a nice 51 mg/dl. The second is the time I started writing this not so coherent post about choices.

While my blood sugar slowly rises to a normal range, the latest of many choices in my morning due to Type I Diabetes, I chose the thrill of a Kit-Kat extra crispy wafer as the raising of my blood sugar of choice as opposed to something quicker like juice, mainly because I don't have any juice with me right now and the thought of drinking a soda out of the vending machine nearly made me puke.

With that being said, I've got to make better choices about what it is that I reach for when I go low. For many years I've always reached for candy, and more specifically milk chocolate, when trying to treat a low. But I know the consequences of that milk chocolaty goodness on the other side leaves me reaching for the syringe and Novolog to correct the ensuing high that will surely follow.

Apple juice, in small amounts, is always the best answer for me when trying to treat a low.

Again, the best answer is apple juice. So why is it so difficult to always have a small bottle laying around the house, office or gym? I mean seriously, I'm 44 years old, I actually have a college degree, a wife, two kids, a cat and a job. But asking me whether or not I have an apple juice with me IF things were to spiral downward in a hurry and I turn into Raymond Babbit in "Rain Man".

"Yeah, I'm an excellent (driver) Diabetic" "10 minutes to (Wapner) recovery".

Anyway, slowly but surely, I need to make certain I'm making better choices with how I treat my low Blood Sugar readings.

Week in Review 5-3-11 through 6--5-11

Holy cow, what a riding week!!

More miles than ever this week thanks to a number of circumstances. We were down one kid the entire week as Ryan was at New Life Camp from Sunday through Friday. We had Memorial Day on Monday and Kendra took Tuesday off so I was able to ride not once, but twice in one day which was awesome!!

All in all, the most miles yet in the nearly two months that I've had Goose!! Results of the week:

• Monday 5-30: 10.56 miles in 48:37

• Tuesday 5-31: 10.46 miles in 48:33
• 10.62 miles in 50:00

• Wednesday 6-1: 10.81 miles in 49:09

• Thursday 6-2: Rest day

• Friday 6-3: 7.21 miles in 31:13

• Saturday 6-4: 16.28 miles in 78:22

• Sunday 6-5: 8.04 miles in a very casual 46:39

Totals for the week 73.98 miles in slightly more than 6 hours!!!!!!!

Throw in an hour of 3 on 3 half court basketball Sunday night and it was an active week to say the least.

All of which leads me to the physical condition I'm in right now. Sick!!

As a Type 1 Diabetic, I can't stand getting sick. It ruins so many things with everyday life that I just feel like everything I've done trying to get healthy is lost in the few days in which I'm recovering from whatever illness has decided to crawl into my body. Did I push myself to hard last week workout wise? Potentially. Did I shake one too many hands at Dylan's pre-school graduation on Thursday night that and didn't properly wash off all of the germs from a variety of five year olds? Possibly.

Who knows why I'm sick right now, but all I can tell you is right now I'm pissed and there's nothing worse than a debilitating head cold in early June!!

Week in Review 5-23-11 through 5-29-11 and May Totals

Well the beginning of this last full week of May got off to a less than stellar start with an epic fail on my part. After riding for seven straight days and playing basketball this past Sunday night for two hours, my body gave out on Monday after work and I was left with a low blood sugar after dinner that was not correctable in time to ride.

Then there was the issue with the police situation in our neighborhood on Wednesday night. I'm still not sure why they were swarming, and I use that term literally, around our neighborhood. But they were actively pursuing either someone or a group of individuals because there were more than 10 vehicles of both the city of Raleigh and State Police traveling at high rates of speeds on our rather pedestrian streets. Needless to say, I got a little spooked not only dodging these guys but calling Kendra to let her know what was going on and having her tell me there's an officer sitting in front of our house. By the time I got back to the house he was gone and probably continuing to look for the bad guys. But by then I was done, both mentally and physically, having done only half of my intended route for the evening. The moral of the story is I may never know what was going on that evening, but my internal radar has been elevated for future incidents as we move into the fun summer months as far as mischief and crime go.

One other thing that interrupts workouts, especially bike workouts, is family travel. We left for both Hickory and Charlotte on Thursday and got back into Raleigh on Saturday. The good news is that I was able to get in a workout Thursday morning before work and Saturday afternoon after we got back in town earlier than anticipated. So I only missed Friday down in Charlotte which was not so bad.

Results for the week and the month of May totals:

• Tuesday 5-24-11 - 10.60 miles in 47:48

• Wednesday 5-25-11 - 5 miles in 25:00

• Thursday 5-26-11 - 10.08 miles in 47:00

• Saturday 5-28-11 - 11.15 miles in 56:00

• Sunday 5-29-11 - 10.03 miles in 71:00 (Bike ride with Ryan before he left for a week of camp)

So totals for an abbreviated week of riding were 46.86 miles in slightly more than 4 hours. Also, there was no basketball this week due to the Memorial Day holiday. So all in all, not bad considering I only got out five times and one of those was cut in half.

Now the impressive totals, at least for me, for the month of May were 225.34 miles!!

I increased my mileage from April (170) to May (225.34) be more than 55 miles!!

If I don't see results tomorrow with a much improved A1C at my quarterly Endo appointment over at Duke, I'm going to be pissed!! Honestly though, I'm fairly confident that my number will have dropped to a more comfortable level based on the numbers I've been seeing on my meter for the past two months since I've started riding. I only wished I'd gotten a bike sooner!!

The month of June, and continued persistence on the bike, starts tomorrow.

Week in Review: 5-16-11 through 5-22-11

Wow!! What a workout week!!

Starting on Monday this week I told myself that I was not going to let the two main monsters in my life, Low Blood Sugar and Laziness, ruin a perfect week of going seven for seven on Goose. Well I got seven rides in this week, but Tuesday's ride was compromised greatly by the two main monster's diabolical first cousin, weather. I thought I was in the clear on Tuesday night when, after getting the kids down to bed and getting other things organized, I checked the radar only to find a small window of opportunity in which to ride. Well one thing led to another and by the time I got out, the rain was pelting the south side of my neighborhood at a good clip and showed no sign of ending. I made it out for all of five minutes and rode for a whopping 1.11 miles on a very rain slicked road. Not much fun at all!! But I'm glad to say that I kept the other two monsters at bay the other nights of the week and put up some impressive totals for a full week despite Tuesday's performance. Results from the week:

• Monday 5-16: 10.41 miles in 50 minutes

• Tuesday 5-17: 1.11 miles in 5 minutes

• Wednesday 5-18: 10.41 miles in 49:30 minutes

• Thursday 5-19: 8.15 miles in 39:33 minutes

• Friday 5-20: 9.18 miles in 40:25 minutes

• Saturday 5-21: 14.3 miles in 66 minutes

• Sunday 5-22: 10.01 miles in 61 easy minutes

Amazing totals for me for the week were 63.57 miles in nearly 5 hours and 15 minutes!!!!!!!!!

On top of all of that, I actually got out last night and played two hours of full court basketball up at the church with the guys!! So slightly more than 7 hours of exercise for the entire 7 days of the week!!

I've got one week and two days before my next Endo appointment over at Duke on June 1st. Again, the goal is to have a much reduced A1C number than my last appointment which came in at 7.2%. With proper maintenance of my workout schedule and a better eating plan, I know I'm headed in the right direction.

Week in Review: 5-9-11 through 5-15-11

Well, the first four work days of the week got off to a great start. But then the identical twins, Low and High Blood Sugar, did me in for what would have been a seventh consecutive day of riding early Friday morning. After my ride Thursday night I got the craving for food and juice after experiencing a post ride low. Well as you can probably guess, I over did it. Shocking I know!! So the resulting low led me to over treat, and I woke up Friday morning with a number that I hadn't seen in quite some time. Now I'm doing my best to really lower my A1C before my next Endo appointment on June 1st, but I had been pretty good with only treating lows in a good kind of way by not over doing it. But Thursday night I completely fell off the wagon. I really wanted to get five rides in during the work week because I knew I wasn't going to be able to get in my "long" ride of the week due to the fact that I was going down to the beach for 24 hours, leaving Friday night and coming back home Saturday night. So anyway, I was moderately pissed at myself for letting temptation get the best of me this past Thursday night. So without any further ado, my results from an active week.

• Mon. - 5-9: 10.47 miles in 47 minutes
• Tue. - 5-10: 10.50 miles in 47 minutes
• Wed. - 5-11: 6.36 miles in 27 minutes. This was my speed workout of the week done over lunchtime under very humid conditions
• Thur. - 5-12: 10.01 miles in 46.30 minutes
• Sun. - 5-14: 8.75 miles in 44 minutes. Took it relatively easy after two days off and because I was going to play basketball at night which I did.

Overall riding results for the week: 46.09 miles ridden in 3 1/2 hours. Plus an additional two hours of full court basketball Sunday evening at church. All in all a good workout week. Very thankful for having the ability to spend 24 hours down in Emerald Isle with my men's bible study group from WFPC where we conducted our year end study and got a chance to play 18 holes of golf with a fun group of guys.

As always, Type 1 Diabetes has been my main focus on this new found exercise regiment. I'm slowly but surely getting a better sense of how my body reacts after some intense workouts and in the end, this will help lower my A1C number to a more normal level/percentage.

10 Things I Hate About You, Diabetes

This is the one day this year that I'm going to completely bitch about this damn disease I've been dealing with for nearly 57.6% of my life. WARNING: Curse words may be included in items #9 and 10!!

1. I hate that slightly more than 25 1/2 years ago, I was robbed of a great freshman year of college because of my diagnosis with you.
2. I hate that for nearly 10 years after my diagnosis with you, I did not properly monitor you and that I will dearly pay for that later in life with the people that mean the most to me.
3. I hate the still occasional feeling of guilt that comes with treating a low because I was told "You can't eat/drink that" so many times by medical professionals back in the mid 1980's.
4. I hate being asked if I'm going to shave during a business meeting when I pull out my rather large bag that contains my Type 1 testing paraphernalia.
5. I hate that one single test strip to an uninsured individual cost nearly $1 to tell them if they're OK at that particular moment in time.
6. I hate putting too little blood on said test strip and getting the all too often Err symbol and wasting a perfectly good $1.
7. I hate not being able to do anything fun on a whim.
8. I hate thinking I've done everything properly to prepare for a workout routine only to be told by my machine that I'm either too high or to low.
9. I hate not being able to look my two sons, ages nine and five, directly in the eyes and tell them they are NOT going to have to deal personally with this fucking disease at some point in the future.
10. I hate looking in the mirror each day I wake up because of the events that transpired in late April of 1992. You see Diabetes, that is when you physically changed the appearance of my face when you thought it would be OK to let me get behind the wheel of my car after a very long day of both school and work. The Reader's Digest condensed version of the story is that I totaled my Volvo on that evening more than 19 years ago in Greensboro, NC as I hit an embankment when I ran through an intersection at more than 35 miles per hour because I was driving around in a Diabetic coma. My face hit the steering wheel between the top of my nose and my forehead shattering every bone around my eye sockets to where the doctors, who operated on me three days after the accident due to the extreme swelling, had to literally stitch them back together. So needless to say my physical facial appearance was altered somewhat and for that Type 1 Diabetes, I fucking hate you very much!

Now the funny thing about all of this is that most people will tell you that I'm an extremely positive person when it comes to 99.99% of things. But when I saw this topic today, I just couldn't resist and felt it would be a good way to vent/rant/bitch/complain.

There are many things in life I'm very thankful for, with the love and support of my immediate family being first and foremost. But as many have said before, and will continue to do so in the future, this disease is mind numbingly brutal each and every day that we endure it. It's how we endure it as an active online community that makes each one of us special in our own way.

Week in Review 5-2-11 through 5-8-11

This week did not start off as I had anticipated due to a few variables that I was unable to overcome. First off, I wanted to get out on Monday but the low Blood Sugar monster reared its ugly head and left me completely incapacitated. Then weather and laziness, the low Blood Sugar's evil first cousins, did me in collectively on Thursday and Friday. So I'm not going to complain or offer excuses. I'm going to be honest and say I've got to do better about controlling two out of the three problems listed above. Because you really can't control the weather. With that being said, here's my rundown from this past week:

• Tuesday, May 3rd - I got out late and felt good despite taking the day off yesterday. I got around my loops for a total of 9.1 miles in 42 minutes.

• Wednesday, May 4th - Tonight I got out early, as in it was still light out when I left and for nearly all of the three loops I went around the neighborhood. This going forward is the answer both time wise and length wise as I've needed to increase both since I've now had a month on the bike and I need to have longer rides for greater distances during my night rides. Totals for the night were 10.55 miles in 49 minutes.

• Saturday, May 7th - The big ride of the week. This took place because of two things. Anger at myself for having missed both riding days on Thursday and Friday, and stress/anger issues coming from my house. There's nothing better than being able to get on a bike and push you limits because of stress. It was a great ride for both mileage and time. Totals were 14.03 miles in a brisk 65 minutes.

• Sunday, May 8th - Ryan and I got out on Mother's Day and rode to places we'd never been to before on our bikes. It's always fun to go out and see things you only ever pass by in a car. It's also pretty funny how often you don't realize how the grade in the road changes when you're actually doing the work and not your car!! We rode for 8.5 miles in right around 60 minutes.

Totals for the abbreviated week: 42.18 miles in a little more than 3 1/2 hours.

Also, there was no basketball played this week due to odds and ends around the house after our Mother's Day dinner festivities.

My plans this week are to ride every day during the work week as I'll be heading down to the beach on Friday night with my WFPC Bible Study Group and won't be home until Saturday night. This is going to force me to get up early and ride two mornings this week on both Wednesday and Friday. Keeping my Blood Sugar under control will be at a premium this week to accomplish my goals.

May 3, 1997

Fourteen years ago today I asked the Lord to get me out of a very compromising situation.

You see, I had been out drinking with two individuals and I didn't think we were going to make it back to our intended destination alive that evening due to the condition our driver was in. So I made a deal with the Almighty Father that if he would allow us, and more selfishly me, to make it back to where we were going that evening, I would never drink alcohol again.

Now back in the day I was known as a bit of a drinker. Working in the athletic department of a university most definitely had its advantages. As in there was always a worker on staff, or an athlete that was willing to go out and drink nearly every night of the week. Throw in the fact that Kendra and I were married yet we lived 90 miles apart from each other due to her job meant I had no responsibilities to come home to her after work was over. Now I'm not saying I was fooling around on her or anything, but I was given the opportunity to imbibe on nearly a nightly basis. Let me put it to you this way, in the slightly less than ten years I was legal to drink from December 9, 1987 until May 3, 1997 I probably consumed more alcohol in what two or three normal people would consume in their entire lives!!

Well amazingly enough we made it back to the hotel where we were staying that evening in one piece and it was now time to come through with my promise. I can't tell you how many people over the course of the next couple of days, weeks, months and years laughed in my face when I told them why I wasn't drinking and that I'd never make it. Kind of tells you what company I was keeping back then.

I think three things really helped me out in those first few years of giving up alcohol though:

• Kendra found a job back in Greensboro so I did have someone and a reason to come home.

• We moved to Raleigh in 1999 and both started new more lucrative jobs.

• The birth of Ryan in 2002 was just too important, and costly in a good way, to start drinking again.

But I think what really has gotten me to this point is the learning curve I've gone through as an active member of our church and the promise I made to God on that night 14 years ago. It's hard to understand unless you really put your trust in something that you can't see. He's provided so much for not only me, but my entire family that you can't put it into words. I truly believe he was watching over me on that night exactly 14 years ago today and I'm certain that he continues to watch over me and my family despite what minor inconveniences occur in our daily lives. And for that very reason, I'm thankful and blessed indeed.

Week of 4-25-11 through 5-1-11 & April Totals

Well, I can honestly say that purchasing my bike a little less than one month ago has to date been the best form of exercise I could have ever imagined. My injured left knee shows no real sign of strain due to the rides and I've actually lost some weight associated with getting out nearly five times a week, what a concept.

Results from my last weeks worth of rides:

• Monday, 4-25-11 - 8.53 miles in 40:03.

• Wednesday, 4-27-11 - 8.36 miles in 40:14.

• Thursday, 4-28-11 - 9.05 miles in 42:03.

• Friday, 4-29-11 - 9.07 miles in 42:00.

• Saturday, 4-30-11 - 11.03 miles in 49:00.

• Sunday, 5-1-11 - 5.62 miles in 39:00.

For the week, that's 51.66 miles in 4 hours and 20 minutes on the bike plus two hours of 3 on 3 half court basketball last evening.

Totals miles for the month of April (plus yesterday's ride with Ryan on May 1st) equals 170.24!! At 21 times on the bike that averages out to 8.1 miles per ride.

I've got to keep pushing myself to longer rides both mileage and time wise as I go back to my Endocrinologist on June 1st which is four weeks from this coming Wednesday. I'd love to be able to go in there and have an A1C of less than 7% for the first time.

I've got to keep testing my Blood Sugar, eat a balanced healthier diet, and keep myself positive when things don't go the way the "plan" is laid out.

All in all though it's been a great first month with Goose, and I'm hopeful they'll be many more!!

Results of week 4-18-11 through 4-24-11

Tour de France 2011 here I come!!

Well I've got to tell you, I impressed myself this past week. From Monday to Sunday I was able to get out on Goose six times, with only Tuesday being the day I took off due to an episode with my Type 1 Diabetes. But six workouts of varying degrees, or five in reality but more on that later, was just an outstanding week. Having an extra "day" to workout, as in having Good Friday off, really did help out. There truly is nothing like a bike workout in the day to increase both mileage and time when all of your senses are working in cohesion. I've already talked about my rides from Monday and Wednesday in my last two posts, but I'll include them below only in a very small recap as I'd like to include greater details on my rides from Thursday through Sunday. So without any further hesitation, the epic week that was:

• Monday: 4-18-11 - 8.2 miles ridden in 44 minutes.

• Wednesday: 4-20-11 - 7.8 miles ridden in 40:22.

• Thursday: 4-21-11 - I got out later than anticipated, but I knew I was going to have to keep it relatively short as I wanted to push it hard on my day off from work on Friday. I covered 7.01 miles in 36:15 and was happy just to have gotten out.

• Friday: 4-22-11 - I rode for the longest time possible in ideal conditions. It was unseasonably cool which was just outstanding as I got out in the early afternoon. I rode for 12.55 miles in 62 minutes which eclipsed both time and mileage records to date. All in all I felt great and was glad that I pushed myself over the hour barrier.

• Saturday: 4-23-11 - Ryan wanted to go out with me so I figured I'd at least get out on the bike and keep my legs loose while not exerting to much wear and tear on them after yesterday's rather lengthy ride. Well we rode for 10.04 miles over 72 minutes. He really wanted to see if he could ride for 10 miles so I was only happy to help him accomplish his goal.

• Sunday: 4-24-11 - Easter Sunday had us getting up at 5:15 AM for the Sunrise service at our church which was really cool. The only problem with that is it throws off everything you normally do schedule wise. Throw in an Easter feast at my parents house at high noon and I was really questioning my ride for later in the afternoon especially since we canceled basketball at the church due to the Easter holiday. Well I finally got out at 4:30 PM and it was the hottest it's been for any ride to date. I made it around my loops for 11.75 miles in right at 55 minutes.
  

When you add up my mileage and time on the bike for the week, it boggles my mind:

Six rides totaling 57.38 miles in 5 hours and nine minutes!!!!!!!!

If I'm able to keep this pace up, I'll wonder why I didn't get a bike sooner!!

Things I still need to work on however are my diet and how all of this new found exercise affects my swings from high Blood Sugars to low Blood Sugars. The ever delicate balance of exercise and Type 1 Diabetes continues tonight with a relatively short ride

Muggy morning but yet a great ride

I had every intention of going out for a nice ride Tuesday night but low and behold, the Type 1 Diabetes low Blood Sugar monster reared its ugly head as soon as we got the boys down for bed at 8:00 PM. I felt a little sluggish so I told Kendra I was just going to shut my eyes for a bit and rest with the feeling that a quick cat nap would revive my spirits. Well one hour later and she came downstairs to find me in a semi coma and asked me to check my Blood Sugar. I said I'd be alright and fell back asleep until slightly after 10:00 PM. I finally checked my Blood Sugar and sure enough I was hovering in the low 50's. So I downed an apple juice and started feeling my senses coming back to me but quickly realized that exercise on a bike in the dark would probably not be a wise choose at this late hour. So I started beating myself up over the realization that if I wanted to continue my current riding pattern, I'd have to get up early the next morning and get a workout in.

Did I mention that I detest doing anything before the crack of dawn. There's no real good reason to get out of a comfortable bed when it's still dark outside. Anyway, I set my alarm for 5:30 AM with the caveat that if my Blood Sugar was out of whack, either too high or too low, that I was calling it a day before the day officially started. Well damn if that thing wasn't sitting there all pretty at a very nice 119 at 5:34 AM. So I got dressed, took two sips of juice just in case I was heading lower, and got out of the house. The first thing I noticed about this morning was the mugginess in the air as I left the house. Unlike my other previous rides to date with crisp clean air, this was what North Carolina is all about as Spring quickly turns into Summer. Now I know I'll probably have a few more rides in the coming weeks with nice refreshing air, but this was just the appetizer to what plans on being a long, hot, humid Summer in the Mid-Atlantic. Results of the ride:

• Time on bike - 40:22

• Miles ridden - 7.83

• No kids going to their collective bus stops to taunt me since they're on Spring Break this week!!
  

All in all a good start to the day as my legs felt pushed due to my pace this morning, but grateful that I took off last night. Until tomorrow night.......

Monday Night Update

I got after it last night on my bike workout. After riding casually over the weekend with Ryan, and playing hoops for two hours on Sunday night, I was curious to see how my legs were going to respond if I really pushed them.

I was pleasantly surprised that they were fine throughout the entire time I was on the bike. Multiple factors may have been in play last night for feeling the way I did:

• A light dinner of chicken over salad served brilliantly by my wife.

• Perfect weather. If only I could bottle this stuff up and save it for the next five months I'd be all set. As in anyone can workout when it's in the low 60's or 70's with no humidity but once it's in the upper 80's with 65-70% humidity at night, that's when I'm really going to be put to the test.
  

• A Blood Sugar reading of right around 100 as I started out.

• No idiot cars, or dogs to contend with on the ride.

All in all it was a great night out and I'm hopeful to get one more in later tonight as I'll probably take Wednesday off as a rest day and also because of the threat of approaching storms after work.

Results of the ride:

• Total time on bike - 44 minutes

• Total miles ridden - 8.2

The only thing that's depressing about the above time and mileage is this. The guy that won the Boston Marathon yesterday ran 26.2 miles in 2:03:02!! If you multiple my time out to his time, I'm still well short of 26.2 miles!! It's phenomenal to think about that especially when I think I'm going sooooo fast on my bike!!

Summary of week 4-11 through 4-17

Wow what a week!! I was able to get on the bike five times this week, with three being really worthwhile workouts and two going out with Ryan for short jaunts around the neighborhood. Here are the results in total from a great week workout wise:

• 4-11-11 - 7.51 miles in 41:21
• 4-13-11 - 8.9 miles in 45:28
• 4-14-11 - 7.77 miles in 43:08
• 4-16-11 - 4.5 miles
• 4-17-11 - 5.68 miles
• 4-17-11 - 2 hours of full court basketball

Total miles on the bike for the week : 34.36!!

Total time working out : 129 minutes of hard working out on bike, 105 minutes of casual riding with Ryan over the weekend and 120 minutes of full court hoops last night.

If I can keep this up, I should be down into the low 170's (Lbs.) in no time!!

On a serious note, my continuation from my intentions post will be short and less than sweet. When I was out last Thursday night I had an individual put a scare into me with him playing chicken with my biking etc. I then witnessed a car driving excessively fast around our neighborhood circle, one that I was 10 seconds from entering on my extended last loop, and jump a curb, nearly hit a man walking and then come to a stop with a blown right front tire. Now again it would almost be conceivable if these two incidents were related by it being the same car/driver. But they were very much two different cars and drivers. All I can say is that my internal radar has risen when I'm going to be out at night with these idiots in and around my immediate neighborhood.

The events that happened in North Carolina on Saturday, April 16, 2011 due to ferocious weather can only be described in one word: devastating. We had been told for days about the threat of severe weather on Saturday afternoon. But as is typically the case around here, everyone's heard it before about this warning and that warning. Well Saturday was one of those rare occurrences where the meteorologists in our area got it right. We actually saw live coverage of a tornado enter downtown Raleigh on TV before our power went out as the thing headed towards our neighborhood. All I can say is that by the grace of God, our neighborhood was spared significant damage. The same can not be said as just three miles East of our home it looks as if a bomb was dropped on a subdivision off of Forestville Road. Until you actually see what these things do to trees, houses, both mobile and single family, and everything else in its path, it's really hard to describe. There is so much randomness in a tornado's path where one house can be destroyed and the one right next to it almost completely untouched. As of this post, 22 people lost their lives on Saturday in what will go down as the deadliest day due to weather in North Carolina's history.

Intention (Part 1)

Merriam-Webster defines the word Intention as : a determination to act in a certain way.

So far in this blog that I scribe every once and a while, I've typically focused on three subjects and three subjects only.

1. Sports and Working Out.
2. Type 1 Diabetes.
3. My Family.

Other than work, those three items capture my entire day. Some obviously more than others, but still. I write more about my biking and working out because it helps keep me focused on the positive things I want to get out of life with my family and this disease I've been carrying around for more than 25 years.

I'm not a deep thinker, really I'm not. I don't know if I was at one point in my early life or if I ever can become one later in life. I'm not wired to think for long periods of time, and maybe that has a lot to do with my ability, or inability, to learn, but that's a potential post for another time on down the road. So what does all of this have to do with anyhting or specifically my bike ride last night? It goes back to the title of this post, the word Intention, and it's definition.

I got out on my bike on another fantastic early spring night, this time a little earlier than usual so that I could watch the end of the Flyers/Sabres 1st round playoff game. My first loop was just OK and it kind of felt like I was going through the motions a bit after yesterday's awesome daytime ride. But I got my head up and started riding harder at the start of the 2nd loop and my legs felt better. As I started down this one stretch between these townhouses in the middle of my 2nd loop in an adjoining neighborhood, I saw a car about 100 yards in front of me. Now maybe it's my inexperience of bike riding, but I don't concentrate on cars in front of me as much as when I see/hear cars coming up behind me.

All of a sudden though, this car got my attention. It started revving up it's engine, started blowing it's horn, and started veering over to where I was riding. For a split second I thought whoever was driving the car was trying to tell me something so I quickly looked behind me. There was nothing behind me. So as I turn back around, the car is picking up speed and still veering in my direction with the horn blaring. At this point I move off the street and come to a stop in the grass area on the side of the road as this idiot flies past me with their horn still blaring.

If the driver of that cars intention last night was to almost literally scare the shit out of me, it worked!! I'm ever hopeful that this was a kid that saw an opportunity to scare someone. I was once a kid with a car too and I did some pretty foolish things behind the wheel that will not be published here. What concerns me more if this individual was older and strung out on alcohol or drugs and they do this on a regular occasion. I'd like to say that I recovered nicely and finished up my ride strong. But this minor occurrence was but just the first of two incidents on Thursday night that has me rethinking about when and where I ride my bike. The second post will be coming much later tonight. Actual results of my efforts on the bike last night:

• Time ridden on bike: 43:08.

• Miles ridden on bike: 7.77
  

I lied

In my post from yesterday I mentioned that I would have no more excuses concerning my workout regiment. Well that pronouncement lasted approximately six hours. You see, I got home with Ryan from his basketball practice at 8:30 PM all good and ready to hop on my bike and ride like, or into, the wind. Being the good Type 1 Diabetic that I am, sarcasm follows for those that know me, I figured I should check my Blood Sugar prior to venturing out on what would still be considered our rain covered roads in the neighborhood. Did I also mention that it's still very dark in mid-April in Raleigh around 8:30 PM. So getting back to the checking, I apply the blood to my strip and in three, two, one with my head turned away a nice beeping sound comes from my meter. For those of you that don't know, glucose meters and beeping don't equate to nice things. As in my meter was showing a number below the old state mandated speed limits of the 1970's (55) of 51. So now I'm SOL as far as getting in a workout on the bike two nights in a row which I was really looking forward to. So I tried to convince myself I'd do the early morning thing on Wednesday. Well the low Blood Sugar incident took a toll on me as I again wiped out on the couch only to be woken up by the TV at 12:15 AM. Now I don't know about any of you, but when I have a low Blood Sugar episode and fall asleep it's not the same as falling asleep when my Blood Sugar is under better control. So I crawled up to bed and anticipated the eventual high rebound from stuffing my face with good old carby nothingness since we were out of anything juice related. So I of course wake up this morning to a Blood Sugar reading well north of 300 so working out was out of the question. Or at least working out in the morning was out of the question.

I decided that I'd be able to ride for 45 minutes at lunch if I really hurried and altered my lunch/work schedule. So I busted my hump to get to the house, change and get on the bike in near record time. Results for today's workout:

• Awesome weather conditions, bright and sunny, temperature in the upper 60's with only a slight breeze.

• Total time on bike - 45:28.

• Total miles ridden - 8.9

• Blood sugar reading before the ride - 221 and after the ride - 105!!
  

I'm not going to lie, I rode hard today for this being only my fifth bike workout. There's something about riding in daylight that makes it easier to ride harder. I only looked at my iPhone once to see my time and how much more I needed to do to get to 45 minutes. Had I known I was just .1 away from nine miles, I would have peddled for another 10-15 seconds. All in all, I'm glad I set PR's today for time and distance and I'm also glad that I was able to fit it in during the day.

Monday night workout after Dylan's birthday dinner

Yesterday was our youngest son's official 5th birthday. While we had Dylan's birthday party on Saturday for members of his preschool/daycare and a few other invited guests from the neighborhood, we had a special family dinner with my parents last evening and the unveiling of his presents from us as well.

He was especially very fond of the hockey stick, balls/pucks, and net that his grandparents got him which made me very happy to see. We're obviously going to have to work on the stick handling because he's already excited every time he scores to see how high he can get his stick in the air. The last thing we need is any trips to the ER after celebrating a one-timer past his Dad when he spears his older brother in the spleen!!

Anyway, a good time was had by all and we got the boys down to bed shortly after 8:00 PM. Unfortunately for me and my anticipated Monday night workout, I ate too much dinner and cake. Now I did cover the cake with what I thought was the proper amount of Insulin, but I proved that I wasn't nearly as accurate with my SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guessing) Bolus for my consumption of food as I'd like to be prior to a workout so I took a couple more units prior to heading out on the bike. Now I thought that this workout was going to be off the charts bad, but boy was I surprised at how good I felt despite my poor eating choices a few hours earlier. Results of my efforts:

• Time on bike - 41:21. Miles ridden - 7.51.

• Blood Sugar prior to workout 229 (2 units of Novolog prior to going out)

• Again, felt absolutely great during the ride.

Anyone with Type 1 Diabetes, and who exercises regularly, envision where this post is headed? Well lets just say that after returning home safely and changing into my jammies, I passed out on the couch because of a low blood sugar reading. I woke up a little after 11:00 PM and checked my blood sugar to see a 55 starring back at me. After a random cup of apple juice, I crawled into bed and woke up this morning to a fun blood sugar reading of 295 at 6:30 AM.

Bottom line is this: Working out is great, but extreme highs and lows with my blood sugars is going to have to be removed or I'm not doing anything remotely positive to ensure a healthier lifestyle moving forward.

So it's simple, last night's excuse was Dylan's 5th birthday party and that delicious cake.

Tonight, there are no excuses!!

Workout Review

In my last post on Wednesday, I mentioned that I wanted to continue on with my next workout on Thursday. Well here is a very brief overview of that workout plus two more that take me up to last night.

• Thursday, April 7th: Biked really hard for 38 minutes starting at 9:00 PM and covered 7.5 miles. Legs felt great, temperature was nearly perfect with a slight breeze and no humidity to speak of.

• Friday, April 8th: Got up literally before the crack of dawn, at 5:30 AM, to check my blood sugar and stumble around the house for a couple of minutes. Headed out the door and got on the bike at 5:47 AM. What struck me at the beginning of my ride was exactly how many high school kids were heading to their respective bus stops prior to the 6:00 AM hour!! I mean seriously, how early do you need to get up, showered, dressed and fed if you're out of your house at 5:50 AM!! It's no wonder our kids suffer academically if they're getting up around 5:00 AM. Small rant for the day, back to the workout. After the workout the previous night, my legs were just OK and my butt hurt more with the limited time in between workouts. I still went further than my two previous efforts and rode for 42 minutes and covered 7.75 miles.

• Sunday, April 10th: Ryan and I went out for a ride in the mid-afternoon as a fun thing to do and we rode for 45 easy minutes and covered 4.5 miles. Again, not a real workout but time spent on the bike nonetheless. I also played six games of basketball from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM. The thing I noticed immediately was that I was quicker, had better stamina and was just better off shape wise than I had been in about five months since I injured my knee.

• What I've noticed so far in the week that I've been riding is that my left knee does not hurt working out hard on the bike like it did when I would run so major advantage goes to the bike.

Overall, a good first week with three solid bike workouts, a casual father son ride, and a two hour hoops workout.

So totals for the week starting on 4-4-11 and ending on 4-10-11:

Miles on bike: 26.85

Total time working out: 4.05 hours

First Workout With The New Bike

OK, maybe it wasn't my first workout with the new bike, but it was the first one with any type of real physical exertion.

As I mentioned the other day, I spent 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon mapping out a course on which to ride that weaves through our subdivision. The loop starts and ends both going uphill which has its advantages, and current disadvantages by not being in any kind of biking shape, and also has a nice relaxing middle that's somewhat downhill. The entire loop is 3.25 miles, or roughly a 5K for those of you that run/think in metric terms. Completely off topic, but when I was in elementary school back in the 1970's they forced that stuff on us on a daily basis as in this was the way we were going to measure stuff for the rest of our lives in America. Does anybody know/remember why they were doing that to us? Anyway, I did one full loop on Sunday and thought to myself if I could do three workouts a week at one hour at a time I'd be off to a good start. Well....................

I took off last night around 8:45 PM on a brisk 50 degree evening that 2 months from now I'd kill to ride my bike in because of the impending heat and humidity. Starting off uphill is never a good thing to do if you're not warmed up so that was mistake #1. Easily into the first loop I also realized I'd be dead if I tried to do this for one hour right out of the box. So I immediately readjusted my own goals and said if I could get through two loops plus a little more, that would be a good opening act. The salient bullet points from last nights workout:

• I did not run into anything (people, cars, mailboxes or dogs, and that was the only real problem as an over energetic golden retriever tried to lick me to death after stopping me in the middle of the road during my first loop :)

• Total time on bike on bike 42 minutes and 2 seconds. Total miles ridden 7.09.

• Blood sugar before taking off on bike 141.

• Blood sugar before bedtime 246!! (Hey, guess who needs to do a better job with their caloric intake and insulin dosage prior to working out?!)

• All in all, a moderately successful workout time and mileage wise. Need to obviously do much better calibrating the food/insulin dynamic which continues to be an ongoing obstacle.
  

So with that we're off, or I'm off on a new journey to maintain a more consistent workout program. Day/night #2 starts on Thursday.

Mark Gottfried

And with the ninth pick of the 2011 N.C. State coaching search, Athletic Director Debbie Yow selects Mark Gottfried of ESPN to lead Wolfpack nation.

There might be a slight bit of sarcasm in today's blog.

The good news is that I can ride my bike for an hour tonight to ward off my frustration.

I honestly hope the guy can return our program to at least respectability, but I'm a little nervous over his firing/removal from Alabama a little more than two years ago.

Bike and Sunday night hoops

Just wanted to let everyone know that I purchased a bike on Saturday. Sort of a hybrid road/mountain bike. Took it for a spin for the first time on Sunday afternoon and found it to be exactly what I'm going to need for my workouts over the next few months. Here is my loosely defined workout plan on a weekly basis:

• Bike three times a week for one hour at a time.

• Play basketball on Sunday night for two hours.

If I can somehow manage to get three hours of biking in and two hours of hoops in on a weekly basis, I should be fine cardiovascular wise for the foreseeable future. Now the only question is when is the most opportune time to ride? You see, Diabetes and sleep always want to rear their collective ugly heads when it comes to me and exercise. In the past, a blood sugar that is either too high or too low has ruined many a run before they ever start. Likewise, I loathe losing sleep over exercise early in the morning. What's going to have to happen is I've got to better control my blood sugar 1-2 hours before I'm anticipating getting on my bike, especially if it's going to be at night. I'm just not going to allow myself to miss one hour rides because of blood sugar issues. Not with the money I just invested in said bike.

Which brings me to last night and my episode with basketball. I had been running slightly above normal all day and took both sons out to run around and play soccer in the mid-afternoon sun. What I forgot is that while I was sitting waiting for Ryan to return from shopping with Kendra, I was inhaling a half of a small bag of carby nothingness. So the three of us go run for 45 minutes or so and then I give the new bike a test ride for 20 minutes and presto, a blood sugar reading of 305 right before dinner. I give myself 10 units for our dinner of steak, potatoes and green beans thinking it'll come down some before I head on out for hoops. Not only does it not come down before I leave, but it goes up to 308 so I give myself 5 units to correct whatever it is that I'm doing wrong. Well you probably can anticipate where this is heading. A stacking episode for the ages!!!!!!!! I get up to our church and play two games and feel fine. I play two more and decide to test exactly where I'm at and see a lovely 29 starring right back at me!! So I inhale an apple juice and a breakfast bar that I've been carrying around with me for the better part of two weeks and I test again and I've come all the way back to 44!!! I continue to play and feel fine the rest of the night but as always, Type 1 Diabetes has me by the shorties and I've got to do a much better job now that I'll be biking at night in the dark after long days of work etc.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Saturday Morning

Just wanted to let everyone know that after watching Ryan play his basketball game this morning, I came home and housed almost an entire bag of cheese puffs!!

Type 1 Diabetes epic fail of the day.

Internal Drive

Tomorrow will be Friday, April 1st.

As we in the Mid-Atlantic shift from an unusually long lasting winter to the four weeks of Spring before Summer starts on May 1st, I'd like to begin an exercise regiment that I can begin, continue and never end. In the past I've always been able to begin an exercise program, but it's the continuing/maintaining aspect that's been problematic. Whether it be weather, work, family or my Type 1 Diabetes, I've always had a ready made excuse available to quit doing the exercise program long before the desired outcome has been achieved. So I'll ask you, what do you do to keep the motivation factor going when you want to give up?

Here are a few bullet points to better describe what I enjoy and what I don't enjoy:

• I don't enjoy running just to run!! A lot of individuals say that running by yourself allows you to think about various subjects that invade your brain when you're on the road. The only subject I think about when running alone is when is it going to be over!! Running with another individual or with a group may be different because of the interaction factor, but now all of the sudden your exercise program has become a group exercise program and at the end of the day I don't want to have to rely on other people to get me in shape (see title of post!!)

• I very much enjoy running when there is a ball in play. I love to play basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, team handball etc. You get the idea. It doesn't ever feel like running when there's a purpose to it. The problems with the above mentioned activities are numerous. Multiple individuals working around varying schedules and available resources to just name a few. But again, I'm counting on all of these other entities for my workout benefit.

• I don't enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn to workout. I've never been a morning person and I don't know if I can ever become one.

• I do enjoy working out at night. That's probably because for the majority of my adult life that's always been when athletic activities have taken place due to everyone's schedules.

So as I've been writing this I can summarize by saying that I don't like to run by myself, I like playing with others, I can't stand working out early and I've always participated in sports that are played at night.

But my worry is that by relying on other individuals, read team sports as a middle aged male, I'm not owning my own workout program long term.

I'm thinking I really need to look into a bike of some sort. Less pounding and wear and tear on the knee joints and I can do it on my own for a long time. Now I will probably have to adjust my workout schedule somewhat because it's not entirely safe to constantly bike in the dark, but we've got a fairly safe rather large neighborhood that I could probably map out a nice little route to circumnavigate around a few times a week.

So that's the plan. I'm going to start looking for a bike and pray that my internal drive will keep me motivated to work out an exercise plan to help with the really important things in my life, my wife and two sons.

Look for posts in the coming weeks about what model I've chosen and how I'm currently doing.

Dudes Weekend in Virginia

I had an awesome time this past weekend in Mineral, VA on the banks of Lake Anna with four high school buddies. For the most part, I only get to see them once a year because of the usual suspects, geographic location, family and work. But this has become an annual event because John's wife Paula suggested we all get together for his 40th birthday five years ago to get his ass out of the house!! This was the 2nd straight year we've held it at Dave's awesome vacation/soon to be retirement home in rural VA. After enjoying a lunch with my nine year old son Ryan and my parents/his grandparents at school on Friday, it was time to start the 3 1/2 hour trek slightly northwest to Mineral. I arrived without any problems from the GPS and was greeted by the gang that had already arrived from central PA. I was also told that we'd be a man down because our one buddy, Chris, had to stay back home in NY to attend to his ailing wife and their three kids. It was definitely a good news/bad news situation. Good news = more beer and food for the rest of us. Bad news = missing his snarky comments and humor for the 36 hour weekend!!

Highlights of the weekend include:

• Getting out on Lake Anna on Saturday afternoon on Dave's boat. Despite the cool air temperatures, just an awesome time on the water with the guys taking in all the views.

• Tavern On The Rail restaurant in Fredericks Hall, VA. Don't know how these people do it, but they serve a great seafood dish appropriately named Frederick's Hall Casserole. I say I don't know how they do it because nobody lives near this place and they have great food. Well worth the trip to the place if you're in the area.

• Dave making an outstanding sausage chowder for lunch on Saturday.

• The smells coming from the basement due to the consumption of varying foods and alcohol. This can only be appreciated based on my vast experiences with these guys having known them for just slightly under 30 years to date.

Lowlights of the weekend:

• Waking up on Sunday morning to find two inches of new snow on the ground. In the immortal words of Greg Wallis, currently living in Syracuse, NY, "I came down here this weekend to get away from this shit!!"

• The smells coming from the basement. Some of you need to visit a doctor or two to see what in the hell is wrong with you in your old age!!

All in all, a great time was had by all and hopefully next year we can get the group weekend back up to a six pack.

March 2011 (con't)

Since it seems I have no common sense this evening when it comes to this blog, I'll just continue my wandering thoughts from earlier right now!!

• Ryan's teammates have all played before and some are very skilled. We're working individually with him on catching passes, dribbling and boxing out while not so much paying attention to the overall dynamics of the 1-3-1 half court trap!! Needless to say, it's a work in progress. The good news that I mentioned earlier is that he seems to enjoy it and that he's having fun.
• Dylan, our almost five year old, is a complete handful in every way. Not having any brothers or sisters growing up I never had the pleasure of experiencing what our two sons are going through right now. With that being said, he's not a bad kid by any stretch of the imagination. He worships his older brother who has the ability each and every day to play Jedi mind tricks with him which has a tendency to be a real problem. He also has some "friends" at his daycare who are a little on the rambunctious side and he's more than willing to participate. He loves sports; baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, hockey. He really takes after me in that he could play all day if given the chance.
  
• On the Type 1 Diabetes front, my most recent A1C level was right at 7.2%. I didn't do any better than my last reading in October but I also didn't do any worse considering a torn meniscus in my left knee which has kept me out of serious exercise for most of the first three months of 2011. I need to schedule my MRI and subsequent surgery soon so as to not completely blow off summer.
• Work is busy which is very good.
• Kendra and I need to get out on more date nights.

I promise to write more.

March 2011

As I continue to be a slacker on this blog, I do realize that at some point I will pay much more attention to it in the future than I have in the past. With that being said, I do have a few updates about what's been keeping me away from my writing responsibilities!!

• Our oldest son Ryan just turned nine years old a little less than two weeks ago. Hard to believe how fast he's growing up. He's also participating in his first team sport, basketball, and he really seems to enjoy it despite the fact that many of his teammates have considerable