Tag Archives: exercise

Champion Athlete With Diabetes: Couch to 5K, 10K, Tri, and beyond.

March 19, 2014 – 9:39 am

Can you believe we’ve handed out nine medals to Champion Athletes With Diabetes?

Inspirational stories have come from everywhere. By telling them, I hope I’m letting you know that you are capable of achieving more than you ever imagined too. Today’s story is exactly that.

KelleyKentMedal

Kelley Kent lives in the Richmond area with her husband Chris. On her blog, Below-Seven, she describes herself as an accountant by day, blogger by night, an MBA soon to be CPA, and a Type 1 diabetic. For the record, she’s one heck of an athlete. I’ll let Kelley tell the story from here:
 
 
I got married in May 2011. By November 2012, I realized that I had gained thirty pounds and was my heaviest ever. It was a combo of enjoying the first year of marriage and also transitioning from an office job to a job where I work from home-the kitchen became way too close to where I was working! I decided that something needed to change and my sister, who is really into fitness (she’s done half marathons, Olympic triathlons, ragnar races, etc.), suggested I try a Couch to 5k program.

In November of 2012, I started the Couch to 5k program. I’ve always been pretty athletic (playing basketball, softball, flag football, etc. growing up) but I’ve never been in very great shape. The first day of the C25K was rough. I couldn’t even run for one minute! But that’s why the program works so well; it starts off slowly and you build up quickly but not too quickly. I remember texting my sister when I first started that I couldn’t imagine week five where I had to run for five full minutes!

By January (2013), I was running close to a 5k (30 minutes!) and feeling great about my progress. My sister was signing up for the Monument 10k, a race in Richmond in April, and suggested I sign up as well since I had been doing well with the C25k. My husband, who was also doing the C25k with me, and I decided to sign up for the 10k training group and registered for the race. I was scared at first because 6 miles seemed impossible! But April 13th rolled around and I did it! I ran the entire race.

I’m a person very motivated by goals. After the 10k, I didn’t have any races that I was signed up for so my running slacked a little. I was so happy with my new hobby that I didn’t want laziness to take over. So I decided to sign up for an 8k in June, then a 5k in July and then a triathlon in August. The triathlon came about randomly. My sister was competing in an Olympic triathlon in June and I went to cheer her on. I didn’t know much about triathlons at the time but it ended up being a lot of fun to watch. While I was spectating, I thought to myself, I can swim, I can bike, and I have just gotten the running under my belt, I bet I could do a triathlon too! After watching my sister’s race, I decided to sign up for a sprint triathlon. A triathlon is a completely different beast than just running a race. For a triathlon, you have to figure out what to do with your pump during the swim portion; you have to deal with three different activities that all affect your blood sugar different; you have to test your blood sugar during the transitions, causing your transition time to be higher than non-diabetics. I was able to figure out and overcome those obstacles and I had a lot of fun while doing it! I’m debating doing another one this year (maybe even an Olympic).

Feeling pretty confident after completing the triathlon, I decided to get a little crazier and I signed up for a half marathon in November. Then I went one step further and signed up for another half marathon in January. I started running in November 2012 and one year later, I completed a half marathon. It’s pretty remarkable what the human body and mind can accomplish. I NEVER thought I would run a half marathon in my life! Somehow I have transformed into thinking a 5k is a short run! I started running because I wanted to shed a few pounds and I lost about 25 pounds (close to my 30 pound gain!) In addition to the weight loss, running included an even better benefit, getting my A1C below seven, a goal I have been working towards for years! Running is now a part of my life and something I hope to do for the rest of my life.
 
 
I think the interesting thing about Kelley’s story is that here she was, living her life, diabetes in hand, and she just woke up one day and said “I want to do this”. And she made it happen.

Maybe you’re feeling like you’ll never be the kind of athlete that Kelley is. So what? I won’t either. What’s important is to get moving, and to persevere through whatever might try to stop you. Despite all the things that could have gone wrong, Kelley handled it all in a way that was surprising even to her. You know what? Even if surprising to you is walking around the block every day for a week, I’m know you’re capable of the same kind of determination.

That’s what makes these stories so inspirational, and so worthy of recognition by all of us. Not the actual accomplishments. It’s the strength that comes from knowing we turned fear and loathing into courage and fortitude. That’s where champions are made.

Are you achieving athletic goals while living with Type 1, Type 2, or another flavor of diabetes? Send me your story, and I’ll send you a medal just like Kelley’s. Click here to find out how to get yours.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Also tagged , | Comments (3)

Looks can be deceiving.

March 17, 2014 – 9:40 am

I had a wierd high and a strange low in the past four days. Neither fit the stereotypical low or high.
 
 
Thursday night at about 3:00 a.m., I found myself with a very dry throat and an overwhelming urge to use the bathroom. When I came back, I did a quick BG test to find a 53 mg/dL staring me in the face. Not a common occurrence.
 
 
Sunday, the tables were turned. I had completed a hard hour-plus workout at the gym. I spent extra time to recover and drink lots of water to rehydrate my muscles. Apparently, it wasn’t enough, because when I got back into my truck, a quick test revealed 260 mg/dL as the result. Probably too low of a temp basal during the workout, and I was still dehydrated.
 
 
Moral of the story: Things are not always what they may seem. And test, test, test.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Diabetes | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Keep on truckin’.

January 15, 2014 – 9:11 am

Piggybacking on last Friday’s post, I was happily able to tweet this on Saturday evening:

Tweet

Pretty encouraging, right? But that tweet hides a lot. To be honest, completing that workout was extremely difficult. Man, I’m out of shape.

This was my first real workout in a long time. There are a number of reasons for that. To begin with, my schedule at work changed in the fall. After 15-plus years, I’m now required to be there half an hour extra every day. I decided to add that extra half hour at the beginning of my workday. And since my workouts during the week were always in the morning before work, I wasn’t able to do that anymore. Also, to be honest, after my final long bike ride last year, I didn’t have the same motivation to get to the gym that I had earlier in the year. Add in participation in a clinical trial and a couple of other things that came up, and it meant I wasn’t getting to the gym on the weekends either. In fact, I hadn’t been to the gym since early November.

So I’ve started my training, but it’ll be slow going for a while. On the bright side, I’ve seen a noticeable difference in my glucose after just working out Saturday and Sunday. Really good differences, which I definitely need, because those numbers have been creeping up a bit for the last month or so. For the first time in a long time, I’m worried about disappointing my endocrinologist when I go in for my appointment Thursday. That’s how I look at it too. She works hard and has done a great job with my care for a while now, so if I’m less than stellar with my A1c, I’ll feel a bit like I let her down. Oh well… one concern at a time.

The one thing I’ll try to remember through all of this is to keep on trying. Never give up. Yesterday is yesterday. Just a reference point. I can’t do everything, but I can try to do everything I can to make things better in the future. I hope you look at your diabetes the same way.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Exercise | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Way off in the distance…

January 10, 2014 – 9:48 am

…I see a long bike ride, and a triathlon. Please bear with me as I spill out some thoughts today.

I made the commitment again this year to ride in the American Diabetes Association’s Chesapeake Bay Tour de Cure on May 17th.

TourdeCure14

Last year’s event was fantastic, and I’m looking forward to this year’s edition. This is not the closest Tour de Cure for me, but this ride has a few things that work well for an old guy like myself. Mostly, timing and location.

Mid-May should be late enough in the year that any chance of super-cold weather would be minimal. Then all we have to do is cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t rain. Also, the location is flat, on Maryland’s eastern shore (east of the Chesapeake Bay), mostly on roads that are lightly traveled. Last year, the ride was well staffed with volunteers and there was plenty of moral support from other riders and residents along the route.

If you’re in this region, or if you’d like to travel for a fun ride benefitting a good cause, I want to encourage you to consider the Chesapeake Bay Tour de Cure.

Now, about that triathlon…

I have a triathlon in mind, a repeat of the first one I completed three years ago. Registration isn’t open for this event yet, so I don’t want to mention it here except to say that it usually happens on Father’s Day in June. It’s a sprint triathlon, which means the distances are much shorter than those ironman events you hear about. In this case, it involves a 400 meter swim, followed by a 15 mile bike, then a 5K run. If I’m lucky and I train hard, I think I can still complete this in under two hours.

The triathlon is the real tough goal for me. I’m having trouble just mentally preparing for it right now. Even though the distances aren’t that lengthy, and I know I can do it, I also know that I can only do it if I train hard, for months, before the actual event. And I have to stay healthy. Over the next five months, many things could happen to sidetrack me. I had planned to do this one last year but had to withdraw because I encountered a series of illnesses over November, December, January, February, and March. They weren’t serious illnesses, but they sidetracked me enough that I couldn’t get my training ramped up to where I felt I could finish, or finish well. After that 100 mile bike ride back in June 2012, I’m very sensitive and a little scared about pushing myself.

But… I just need to put that in the memory banks and move on. I need to admit my fear, but push past it. My goal, I’m stating publicly here, is to complete that triathlon, perform well for a 50-something year old, or: Come as close as I possibly can to meeting this goal. Which would still be a big deal, even if it would leave me disappointed. The main thing I need to remember is one of the main tenets of living with diabetes:

Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.

So thanks for sticking with me here on this. Sometimes I just have to sit down and get all this off of my chest. As the training progresses, I’ll try to talk more about how exercise and my diabetes play with each other. Now that that’s out of the way… where did I leave that swimsuit?
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Exercise | Also tagged , , | Comments (10)

Athlete with diabetes? You deserve an award.

November 1, 2013 – 9:22 am

Welcome to November 1st, the first day of Diabetes Awareness Month, 2013. World Diabetes Day is once again scheduled for November 14th, which is a Thursday. There will be many happenings this month, which I will do my best to keep track of over the next few weeks.

You know, every year around this time, I see blog posts and Twitter conversations filled with “What are you going to do this year for Diabetes Awareness Month or World Diabetes Day?”. And to me, that question is always kind of intimidating. I mean yeah, it’s helpful to remember that one thing at a time is important, and small changes can have a big impact. But when I hear that question this time of year, I don’t hear “What are you doing?” as much as I’m hearing “What big, gargantuan thing are you doing that will wow the masses?”.

Well, I don’t know if this will wow the masses. But it’s an idea that came to me a few weeks ago, and I’m going to try it and see if it gets any traction. If it does, great. If not, no big deal.

What am I talking about? I’m glad you asked!

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I am constantly in awe of athletes with diabetes. Not just the ones that climb Everest or run the Sahara desert. I’m also in awe of those people who get up and make a commitment to exercise, and keep going, despite how our bodies initially respond to said exercise, and in some cases, what years of insulin, and diabetes in general, does to our bodies (raising my hand here). Seriously, as an athlete prior to and after my diagnosis, I can tell you that it is waaaay more difficult to start and maintain exercise as a Person With Diabetes. It can be both scary and exhilarating all at the same time.

Yet, competing in events and going to the gym generally means you’re competing for the fun of it. No prize money, no podiums, you get the idea. Very few events give out awards or medals to anything lower than the top three finishers, if they give out anything at all. But the efforts of all of us are worthy of recognition and support. If you finish your first 5K run, if you ride your bike 50 miles, if you get up and hit the trails for a week when you haven’t gone for years, you’re a champion in my book. And I want to give you a medal.

Your effort as an Athlete With Diabetes should be recognized and rewarded.

So I had this crazy idea to see how much it would cost to have medals produced. They aren’t Olympic medals, but they turned out nicer than I thought they would. And I thought the blue ribbon was a nice touch.

Maureen and I sat around this week and came up with a few simple rules for getting your medal. You are encouraged to send a request if you are an Athlete With Diabetes, a spouse or partner of an AWD (see what I did there?), or an awesome parent of a kid Athlete With Diabetes.

1. The athlete receiving the award must be living with diabetes.

2. The athletic event must have taken place in the last six months. For now, we’re going with a pretty loose interpretation of the word “event”. If you feel you’ve accomplished something important to you, that’s an event. ‘Nuf said.

3. Send me an e-mail at champswithdiabetes@gmail.com. Tell me your name, name of the athlete (it’s okay if it’s you), and your address (gotta know where to send the medal). Most important, tell me what athletic goal was accomplished, and when. Extra points if you tell me how you felt accomplishing the goal. Full disclosure: I reserve the right to use your testimonial here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. Let me know if you don’t want me to use any names.

4. When you receive your medal, you need to post a photo of it around the athlete’s neck. You can send a Tweet to @ChampsWithD (hashtag: #champdathletes) or post it on the Champion Athletes With Diabetes Facebook Page.

Those are the only rules so far, though I reserve the right to change them as this thing develops. Not to make it more restrictive. To make it more fun.

I have all of 24 medals to send out. If this idea takes off, I’ll order more. If not, we’ll all forget about it by December.

So instead of asking what big thing you’re doing this month, I’m asking: What big athletic goal did you complete? Send me your e-mail today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes, Exercise | Also tagged , , , | Comments (5)