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I can't think of one, so you might as well do it for me - suggestions on a postcard in best Radio 2 fashion please.

This time of year my full mental faculties, such as they are, are being spent on one of the busiest work periods of the year and then the other part goes into the mental fortitude to keep training though the darkest, dismal part of the year.

And this year has been more dismal, and more dark than usual.  It's been a real struggle at times just to get that first foot out the door with the wind, rain and cold.  February has to be my least favourite month of the year; having got over Christmas and the relaxation into January, you're into the cold and dark, with a long way to go to spring.  While we've been flood free so far in the Fens thanks to pumps and well kept ditches, they're filling up, and the disaster area of the rest of the country doesn't look like going away soon. 

So, what do I do?  Make the most of the calm, clear days and get out when I can, revert back to the indoor trainers when it's really crappy outside.  With no spring events to train for, this is my base building period and I'm not losing anything with cross training.  That's given the rower and static bike a bit of use so far and I've also got myself a new 29"er MTB which has had a couple of good runs so far.

With this basebuilding period, the intent is that everything is done in an easy aerobic HR, in my case anything less than 148.  This is the third year now that I've taken this approach, with a two month easy period after new year, then start training for an early summer race. One thing I've noticed, and it's the same again this year is that there comes a point at which things start to change.  You go from trotting along at an easy pace and easy HR, to a sudden increase in pace that still feels easy but just kicks the HR up over the limit.  I've just hit that point again with a 15s/km gain in pace from around 5:00-5:10/km to 4:45-4:55, but then struggling to keep the HR down.  Another couple of weeks and the HR will catch up again.

The one thing that's not been hampering me too much is the diabetes, apart from the frustration of needing to eat where I never needed to in the past.  Typically anything less than an hour really shouldn't need to take on any extra carbs at all, but depending how close to a meal I go, and how much insulin on board, I can really chew through the blood sugar quicker than the liver can replenish it.  When a hypo is anything less than 3.5, seeing 2.9 on your meter midway through a run is a bit of a shock, especially with no symptoms because the exercise is masking it.

On the long stuff I've got my dose reduction worked out pretty well, but still playing around with the shorter stuff.  Today, for instance, I beefed up my breakfast porridge from 30g carbs to 50g, but did a 35% dose reduction.  I could still do more.

Blood glucose went from 5.1 before breakfast to 7.9 an hour later (not really high enough knowing I still have fast acting insulin on board).  5km into the run it was down to 3.9, far too low for another 7km.  7-10g carbs taken, and 5km later measured at 4.4, still a bit too low, so another 7-10g dose.  2km later up to 5.6 at the end of the run, but I'll expect that to have dropped by lunch as the glycogen replacement into the muscles takes place.

I'm making a bit of a new year's resolution here as well, once a month is really not enough here, I need to be getting this a bit more regular. I think 500 words a week should be easy enough really, and will be a good look back at progression as I pick up the workload a bit.

And please, don't forget to sponsor me http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/athletic_diabetic

Race 1 of 5 done, page ready

well that was bloody nasty. The traditional new year's eve 10k race starting and finishing in my village and doing a loop round the local fens. Only trouble is this time of year you're taking a real chance with the weather. If we'd run it two days earlier that would have been perfect; dry, cool no winds.

 

Instead we got 20-25mph wind down the back straight from about 5.5km to 9km, on a roughly triangular course. 

I'm also going to get my excuses in early here.  Although the trainin had been going very well in the run up to the event, with the speed sessions showing good promise at paces quicker than the race plan, it all went to pot before Christmas. 

I had a very busy run up to Christmas, ending up in Norway the week before, which in iteself was OK, but I could have doen with some time at home to catch up on things.  Anyway, toward the back of that week I went down with what turned ouot to be a vicious head cold, affecting both my sinuses and blood sugar control in a bad way.  Luckily the sick day rules from the DAFNE course worked, adn increasing my basal doses made a difference, but I was still running at  9-10 rather than 5-7mmol/l, which makes for additional lethargy and generally feeling crap in addition to the cold. 

I also learned that sudafed is contra-indictaed for diabetics, it's an adrenaline mimic so puts blood sugars up even further - Doh!

 

As a result of all that lot, I had to miss my Christmas Eve and boxing day runs and curtail the last few runs leading up to the event.

And then came the plan; I had a nice progressive plan laid out which would have seen me accelerating nicely into the finish, bit it was clear that was never going to work in the circumstances.  I threw the plan out the window and decided to just make up as much time as possible with a favourable wind at the start. 

 

At the end of the 6th km I was 14 secs ahead of target, at the end of the 7th I was even, I then lost 50s in km 8-9 into the wind, even with shelter from the runners in front, and by the time I got to the last km where I normally have a strong finish, the legs were dead and I could only claw back 7 more secs. 

Result 44:22, 124th overall, 109th male. HR was above 165 for 7.5 km, maxed at 175. With better conditions, my 43:50 PB would have fallen.

 

 about 500m from the start

 

about 1500m from the finish

 

In terms of blood sugar control, morning of the race, I dosed up with sudafed again as well as the natural adrenaline, and walked over to the village hall with a blood sugar of 11.9, dropping to 9.1 after the warm up, adn 7.0 after the race. A quick gel to stave off the post race dip and it was quickly back up high again at 10.6.  After a very good lunch, dosed appropriately, it had fallen back down to 4.3.  Without that gel, a hypo would definitely have been on the cards.   The post exercise response is still something that's taking a bit of geting used to.

 

And finally, my fundraising page is up adn running, here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/athletic_diabetic please take a loot and donate as much as you can comfortably afford.  We all know there are loads of good causes out there, and this is another good one.

Since then I've taken my usual hiatus from running, but where it lasted a month last year, this year it was only about ten days.  Between now and March the plan is to go back to steady base building miles with most sessions capped at HR of 148.  March starts the long runs again building up to the Yomp in June and April will see the speed endurance sessions start to come back.  Even for endurance runs, you can't ignore the speed work, it makes a big difference to still be able to work hard on tired legs.