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.