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Surviving the Winter Blahs
Posted By MissyFoy
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
I’m surviving winter in NC. It’s been a lot colder than normal for us here this winter and we even had a snowfall before Christmas. The last couple weeks have been cold and windy and I am already counting the days until Spring! The older I get, the more of a fair-weather runner I become.
Despite the cold temps, I managed to run 100 miles last week. I’m not sure where that came from since I did it on one run per day instead of doing any doubles. By Saturday evening (I count my week as Monday to Sunday because that’s the way my coach always did it) I realized that if I ran 11 instead of 10 miles on Sunday morning, I would have 100 miles for the week. Of course, there was only one thing to do: run 11 miles on Sunday! I guess it sounds a bit absurd, though, to say that I got to Saturday and didn’t realize I had run so many miles during the week. Um … I don’t have any explanation for that.
As I’m writing this post, I have a runner that I’m working with in the other room doing a workout on the elliptical. He’s had a string of seasons now where he’s gotten in shape and then ended up injured before he could get all the way through. So, we’re doing his “long runs” partly on the elliptical for now. So, he heads out for some actual running miles and then comes back in to do a long workout on the elliptical. I have a slew of elliptical workouts from the two times that I’ve been injured. Michael (that’s my runneree) is doing the 10 sets of 2 on/3 off workout. So, he warmed up at 84-85 rpm for 5 minutes, then he does 10 sets of 2 minutes at 90-100 rpm and 3 minutes of about 84 or 85 rpm. Then he cools down for 5 minutes. So, that’s an hour of “running” at a hot/cold tempo after a shorter real run. It’s a pretty decent long run for right now. Oh, and I’m listening to ESPN ala Michael’s workout. So, I thought this would be a good time to update the blog.
I have an interesting blood sugar, running, and cold weather story. On Monday, I thought I would get my long run in early for the week. I usually do that on Wednesday. It was something like 17 or 18 degrees out when I got started. Even with my thick running mittens, my hands were getting pretty cold. So, at about 6 miles, I checked my blood sugar and it read 49. I was really surprised because I felt pretty good for 49 (that should have been my first clue). Plus, I was usually about 150 at that point (that should have been my second clue). So, I gobbled down a whole pack of Gu and headed out to do the 10K loop again so that I could check on that blood sugar. You know, some days it just drops like that and I thought it could be due to the cold.
I started feeling a bit puky on the second 10K loop, so I gobbled down another pack of Gu. When I got back, I pulled out my meter, which I had inside my shirt so it would stay warm. I double baggie it when I decide to carry one with me so that sweat doesn’t ruin it or the strips. So, I pull out the other test strip (I only carried two with me as I don’t usually test that often for running because I have it figured out pretty well by now). I get the blood on there, wait, error code. Darn. Well, now I’m going to have to go inside to test - that 49 still had me a little freaked out and I was feeling puky. When I got inside I had to run my hands under warm water because I couldn’t get any blood out of my fingers. Well, I finally got some blood out of my arm - yikes! The meter read about 400!
So, what happened? Well, the meter I had taken with me was actually probably not the culprit. A friend of mine, Jimmy Dodson, is an ice climber and I remember Jimmy once talking about the problem of his fingers getting so cold that the glucose concentration wasn’t correct. Hmmm. I think that’s what happened to me on Monday. So, all the Gu (oh, and the Gu chew cubes too) that I had taken in made my blood sugar sky-rocket.
After all the drama with the blood sugar problem on Monday, I decided that maybe in light of the 100 mile week last week, which also included three and a half hours on the elliptical too, I should take it easy this week. So, wow, 100 miles running and 3.5 hours on the elliptical. That was a lot even for me!
Well, the Global Giving campaign is still going on. I wouldn’t keep pestering everyone about this, but my heart goes out to children and their families when they have to deal with diabetes. Getting the opportunity to go to a conference like Children With Diabetes is such a wonderful experience and those who can’t afford it should still get the chance anyway. So, that’s my plea.
This is the direct link to the page for Diabetes Scholars Foundation’s Global Giving contribution page: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/diabeteseducationscholarships/ and this is the direct link to what they are calling the “leader board” for the global giving campaign: http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/athletes-for-hope?showAll=true.
Well, after a balmy 37 degrees today, maybe the trails won’t be quite as crunchy tomorrow morning. Really, in some places it looks like stalagmites growing up in the middle of the trail right now! We might get snow tomorrow and then another blast of arctic air. I’m ready for Spring.
Happy trails,
Missy
Jan 6th, 2010
I have been using my Pearl Izumi Amfib gloves for really cold weather. I used them for snow skiing, cycling, and running in single digit weather. I have never had cold hands or fingers while using them. Congrats on the 100 mi by the way. That is a big accomplishment in foul weather.
I have another comment from other posts. I was thinking about diabetes and athletes handling low blood glucose levels. My thoughts were triggered while reading Jeff Browning’s blog last week. He was talking about a new approach to training for ultra’s by using minimal carbohydrates during training runs over 3 hours. I think the approach forces a rapid “carb loading” effect. I will fast forward. I was thinking that diabetic athletes handle low glucose levels better because they teach their bodies to respond more readily with releasing glycogen stores from the liver and skeletal muscles. So the diabetic athlete can possibly handle lower glucose levels coherently and possibly more frequently. Any thoughts?
Hi David. Sorry for the delay in your comment posting but there’s a new spam filter and so I’m having to approve comments and I was pretty much off-line for yesterday and today. I’ll have to check out those gloves. I think I have to agree with you that diabetic endurance athletes handle low blood sugars better than many “normal” athletes. I think we are more sensitive to feeling them and since we HAVE to pay attention to our carb intake, we probably end up with an optimal intake for increasing out glycogen stores. Whereas the non-diabetic athlete is pretty much guessing at whether he/she is taking in the optimal amount, we KNOW because we can see the numbers right there on the meter - we can work it out through practice to balance insulin and carbs exactly.
Missy
I really hadn’t thought about glycogen uptake being indicated by my glucose readings in such a formal manner. That brings other thought in mind when considering high blood glucose readings and low glucose readings with respect to glycogen. I may have to think about that one a little more. My thoughts were reflecting back to the “Random Things about Low Blood Sugars” post a few months back. There was a conversation about diabetic athletes handling lows better than diabetic non athletes. I was considering the fact that the athlete is more trained to access, and has a larger supply of glycogen than the non-athlete. These two factors combine to help the diabetic athlete handle lower blood glucose levels coherently and also more frequently. I apologize of for confusing the topics. Any thoughts?
oh, you weren’t confusing the topics - I was just adding some more random thoughts! Yeah, definitely, I believe we “handle” lows better and that we are more sensitive to knowing what our level is at any given time. That’s a great benefit of training! We have bigger stores, too - another plus! But, since our bodies don’t just take care of things by auto-pilot (we actually have to make a decision and inject the determined amount of insulin or eat the determined amount of carbs, etc) and we can see what is happening by checking our blood sugar (which would just read “normal” for someone who was not relying on injected insulin), we can tinker with the balance until we find an optimal formula. Someone without diabetes can try different things but they can’t be certain about what’s going on inside. I figure: if I have to live with this, I’m going use it to my advantage as much as possible.