Monthly Update

Okay.. I have figured out my 2009 New Year's Resolution.. update my blog more than once every 5 weeks! I really should share more about training and management because lately I have had a lot of inquires about how I do it.

What's been going on...
Well I just returned from 8 days of warm & sunny training in Southern California. Oh boy was I spoiled being able to ride in that weather! I stayed 25 miles Northeast of San Diego in Poway, CA. A little town in the mountains. Only about 50 min ride to the coast & 5 min's from some climbs.

Two of Team Type 1's sponsors were nice enough to put me up for the duration in exchange for a little bit of work. No a bad deal! Dex 4, rapid acting glucose that raises your bloodsugar quickly & Sanofi Aventis, the makers of Apidra & Lantus insulin's were really great out there! For Sanofi, I did an afternoon program at the Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, CA where I met with physicians and patients and told them about TT1 & being an athlete with Type 1. For Dex 4, I went to the Take Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD) in San Diego, CA where it was a big expo & conference for physicians & patients about being more proactive in diabetes management. It was mostly Type 2 diabetics (not a surprise since of the 24 million Americans with Diabetes, 3 million have Type 1 & the rest Type 2/Gestational) that I met. It was a great time and hopefully inspired some Type 2's to get out and be more active.

I just finished off my first block of base and enjoyed an easy week of training for the Thanksgiving Holiday. It's good to be back training lots again. I am always so surprised by how much easier management is. And it's always surprising how much quicker & better insulin works once you get the metabolism running.

My mom came up to Atlanta and hung out for a few days. We went to the Ritz on Thanksgiving evening for dinner. The meal was fantastic and it was a great way to spend the night! We went out on "black Friday" and did a bit of shopping. It actually wasn't too bad crowd wise. I got a new digital camera that I have been doing my best to put to work. That afternoon we drove to Athens to check out a place I am renting starting at the end of December and to attend a wedding. It was fun & I was happy to be able to show my mom Athens & get her approval.. mother's know best. Then Saturday we went to the Atlanta Symphony for a great program where they combined the symphony & cirque du soleil. It was so cool! I love having my mom in town to go do things like that with.

Yeah so I didn't last long in Atlanta. It was fun for the off season & when I wasn't really training. But now that I am getting back on the boat, it's not really my scene. Some people don't mind always having a car driving by every minute & always hearing a car engine in the distance, but I do. One thing I miss about Tallahassee is the fact that I could be out on some quite road in 20 minutes and not hear or see a car for hours. I also miss the plethora of dirt roads all over North Florida/ Southern Georgia. I am the kind of person that likes the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere and you feel as if you are exploring roads no one has ever seen. Every time I go out for a training ride it takes like 50 min to get out onto a somewhat quite road and all the drivers are psycho here. I've decided to give Athens a go. It reminds me more of Tallahassee and the training will be more my deal I think. It's also close enough to Atlanta so that if I want to come into the city, (for something like the Symphony again!) it's an hour and 15 min away. Only thing that's gonna suck is having to make the drive to the airport.. eh I figure it'll be worth the trade off for some quite riding.


Well y'all, it's been real. Hope to report good things from Athens soon!!

Hey-o

So it's the time of year for me when motivation is hard to come by. I have been enjoying the time away from the bike greatly. So much so I was starting to get nervous whether or not I would be able to find motivation to start training properly for 2009. The last few days though I have been starting to get a little more anxious, thinking about training & racing next year. Not thinking about it enough to really give me that jolt to get on the bike and pull out a 24 HR week or anything, but enough to start wrapping my head around preparing for the 2009 season.

This morning I however received this...

http://web.diabetes.org/video/ADA_Patton_Working_SequenceAC_10_13_08.mov




It is a video the ADA Tour de Cure did on me a few months back. At the time when I did this interview, training & racing were going really well. I was hungry to be on the bike & work my butt off. I watched the video this morning, remembering how motivated I was at this time & it really gave me a good bit of motivation for next season.

The ADA informed me that they plan to make tons of copies of the DVD & send it to children's camps & endos... good stuff, yall!

2008.. great or hate?

Well I am gonna go ahead and write a reflection of the 2008 racing season for me...

Moments of hate in 2008 include: Screwing up bloodsugars before races. Starting the season not having a pre & post race routine for managing my diabetes well. Doing 5 hr training rides in July & August because I was trying to train through issues instead of dealing with them, therefore completely trashing myself for the rest of the year. I started a bad habit of training a bunch when I am stressed, which just makes things worse. Being a baby & pouting over riding like crap. Getting dropped from races. Breaking my collar bones 3 times. Knocking out my teeth. Getting a scar on my face. Going hypo at the start of the NVGP road race therefore dropping out with in 20 minutes of the start because I couldn't pedal straight. Doing almost 40 athlete days, some of which were fun while others were just tiring.

Moments of great in 2008 include: Going to my first training camp in California & having a blast. Getting to train in Santa Barbara and doing my first "real" climb (maybe that should be under the hate list...) Hanging with my team mates at races. Making friends at races. Upgrading to a cat 2. Doing my first NRC race. Getting on the podium with Monique at Kelly Cup. Doing Speed Week. Getting to ride with a team mate and actually making a bit of money! Getting to ride & race my bike all over the USA. Getting a bunch of cool tools to manage my diabetes (woo, NAVIGATOR!). Learning how to better manage my bloodsugars pre & post racing and training. Getting a bunch of cool stuff from sponsors that make me look good (IE oakley sunglasses, tall socks, zipp wheels). Getting my a1c to 6.3. Being able to inspire other type 1's to manage the disease proactively & overcome any challenges they may face. Not dying after I was hit by a car & still able to race this year. Moving to Atlanta where the training is better & more folks ride. Getting a king sized bed (okay that really doesn't have much to do with training/racing/ or diabetes.. but it's for sure a highlight of the year thus far!)

Overall this year was pretty good. Tough, but good. Looking forward to next year and improving on managing my diabetes & racing stronger. Can't give up too much information at the moment but let's just say that TT1 is expanding for 2009 & it will include a women's pro squad :D...

Catch yall later!

YEAH TECHNO!!!!!!

It is official: it has been exactly 6 weeks since my wreck, I am healed! Today when I woke up, and drew and "X" through Saturday on my calendar, (BTW, TT1 has a Calendar, and I am Miss March...) I noticed a little asterisk with a big ole' 6 next to it, and thought,"sweet! I am healed, I can race!" In reality the whole wait 6 weeks thing didn't really mean much. I have been back training ever since I got back from Boulder. I started cracking hard when I was out in Colorado, I even went for a run one day. Didn't work out so well though with the whole altitude thing. I was just getting restless, thinking about the amount of calories I was not burning versus the amount I was consuming, basically feeling like a sloth. So I reckon I am going to head to Atlanta for my first race back. There is a road race and a criterium next weekend and figured it would be a good way to get back to it, and get to visit a few people up that way. It's a little sad that I will be doing a race in GA over being able to go to U23 Nationals in California, but hey.. maybe next year? BTW, Good luck Jackie!!!!!!!!!! I'll be rootin' for ya.
Well sure hope I am able to at least get a few more decent races in before the seasons over. Training over the last few weeks has been going alright, nothing spectacular, starting to not be too motivated when doing the local bunch rides in Tallahassee and thinking waking up for an 8AM ride doesn't sound quite as fun as sleep. But hopefully I'll be motivated once I am back out racing if not, I am done for the year and partying until the end of November when it's time to start base!!!!

Coldplay's new CD is pretty alright, I'd say

I am currently sitting in the airport in Austin, TX waiting for my flight to Denver, CO. I am off for a few days to check out the city of Boulder! Hope it's good fun.

So I was in Austin to races a few crits and do 2 athlete days. Only ended up racing 1 crit and doing 1 athlete day because I decided to throw myself on the ground and re break my right collar bone. Literally in the middle of the crit course on one of the straights was a stop sign in the road with hay bales at the base. Every lap, chicks would go to the left and right of it. I figured the race was going to come down to a bunch sprint by the way the sprinters teams were riding. So I decided to just sit in the whole time, conserve energy. As I am sitting in toward the back (dumb), we come around the 2nd corner and a chick in front of me heads straight for the stop sign. At the last moment she jumps to the left, where my front wheel is and wipes me out. I crash hard on my right side re breaking my collar bone & bustin up my helmet. Wreck right in front of a bar where tons of people are sitting around drinking & watching the races. It bet for the intoxicated spectators it was a good show. Some nice woman from the bar helps me get untangled from the bike and get situated. After a short stay in the ER, end up leaving the hospital with my arm in a sling, a piece of paper with saying 4-6 weeks healing time, and a big bottle of Viccodine ES (extra strength... yeahhhhhh, not muckin around here!)

Well I reckon it was about time for a break anyway, so I am not too worried about the time off. I needed about 2 weeks off to rest & regroup. So I just plan on hopping on the trainer for a few weeks and gettin' back to it. Honestly this time is way better than when I broke both my collar bones a few months back. At least this time I have 1 good arm! And it's way less painful this time because the break was not as bad.

Austin, TX.. I don't hate it! It was actually a pretty cool city. Tons of young people living and working here. Great food and the riding was pretty spiffy. The host house we stayed at was awesome, the guy was really good about showing us around the town. Most host housing I have experienced is a bit like business, typically the people show us our room, give us towels, give us a spare key & say, "if you need anything else let us know" and that's that. This guy, Chris who rides for a local race team in Austin, Velossimo, was super cool and took us out on the town, hung around with us when we weren't training or racing, and even took us out to a local bunch ride. Good times, I have decided to add Austin to the list of places I want to live.

The next month for me looks pretty dull which I am not complaining about. It's gettin' too hot to train anyhow! I'll be back in Tallahassee next week and look forward to trips to the springs & seeing friends. If you want to hang out and do things that don't involve moving your arms much, I am game. This means pretty much all my other hobbies like roller-coaster rides, going to sporting events & doing "the wave", hand stand competitions, and bench pressing contests are out of the question as of now...

Nature Valley Grand Bust

So if you have not figured this out, my blog is a place where I like to complain about my life that's really not bad, but I like to pretend things are a lot worse than they really are and bitch about them on the internet... so let my complaining commence!

The lesson I have learned is that sitting at races & watching, is way less fun than actually racing them. One of my least favorite feelings is feeling like I am the weakest link. Well that is exactly the way I feel right about now.. I was given an awesome opportunity to ride with a women's team for Nature Valley & just completely f-ed it up. The first day was a crit that was a total crash fest because of the poor weather, tight turns, man-hole covers galore, and the 140+ field of women squeezed on to the course. I managed to stay upright. But by the 10th lap of the 30 lap crit, I sat up because I seriously had trouble distinguishing the front of the field from the back as Kristen Armstrong lapped the field, crashes in every corner, and chicks just getting popped left & right. Luckily no one on Advil got hurt, the race promoters decided to not count this race as a stage, and I had another opportunity to grow some.

Next day, 65 mile road race with a finish that consisted of a 5 lap, 2 mile circuit. So line up on the 2nd line of the start (thinking sweet position today! I started about 3/4 the way back the day before which sucked pretty much) At 5:30PM, we're off! Until 20 seconds later when the lead car forgets to turn. The whole field turns around, now I am at the back. It's a bit of a chase to get back into the field. Once I am settled a bit, I check my Navigator and it's 110 arrow pointing straight down and the projected low is alarming at me. I think to my self, are you effing kidding me??? At the start of the race, I was 150, arrow pointing straight across. I start eating dex4 glucose tabs and drink gatorade. Ugh, the feeling of no power and like I am about to pass out starts to take over. After about 15 min I am totally dunzo... out! I get into the team car chug a coca-cola and feel like a total failure.

Pretty much this week sucks. What makes it even worse is I still have to stay with Advil until Monday when I fly out to Texas and I just feel like a waste of space that can't pedal a bike. I totally flew all the way to Minnesota to do maybe 30 min of racing total and now get to sit around for 3 days watching the chicks race and feeling like a dumbass. Yeahhhh, bike racin & diabetes!

Well folks, off to TX on Monday for some athlete days & racin, maybe I can redeem myself or I'll do something stupid again.. either way I'll be hangin with illegal immigrants and Lance in Austin! yeah!

From Worst to Best; ha.. life's amusing

Back in Tallahassee, aka the southern south according to Monique, until tomorrow. Heading to Jacksonville for an athlete day on Friday and the Tour de Cure ride on Saturday and Sunday. Just got back last night from racing Kelly Cup & Tour of Somerville. After the previous race weekend, last week I really dialed in my insulin dosages, started doing lantus 2x/day (basal) and wearing the omnipod to bolus for meals. I decided that lantus as my basal insulin would work best for me. It acts as a "safety net" so that no matter what, I always have a bit of insulin in my system so that if an omnipod falls off again right before the start of a race, I will have more of a chance of being able to ride decently. The trick with lantus is you have to really think about what you've been doing the 24 hrs before your injection. I learned that lesson Sunday morning. After racing Saturday afternoon, did 9 units lantus before bed. Sunday morning woke up, was 80. A bit lower than I would have liked. Ate breakfast bolused 75% of what I normally would have, and did 8 units lantus. Monique & I ended up doing a ride with all the guys on the team that were also doing the crits. The whole ride, I could not get my BG up over 70. I was just dying! I ate like 4 gu's and a clifbar for our 2.5 hr gander. Whenever my BG is going low on the bike, I ride like such a sketch ball and can not focus on anything. I am pretty sure everyone on the ride thinks I ride like a squirrel now. For the last hr of the ride, I just ended up sitting on the back because I didn't want to deck anyone, hah. So lesson learned, gotta really cut back the lantus after riding hard...

Before we ended up in Baltimore for Kelly Cup, Monique and I did an athlete day in Pittsburg, went alright. The highlight of Pittsburg was when I decided to take Monique to Outback Steakhouse for her birthday, I had a sense she was homesick so I decided to take her for some authentic Aussie food. Some good ole' bloomin onions & Fosters! For dessert, we had A CHOCOLATE THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER!!!!!!!



Kelly Cup- an awesome experience! This was Monique and I's second time racing crits together, each set of races gets better and better. I am excited to see how we develop over the rest of the season. I really have some of the best 'teachers' this year to help me learn more about racing. The crit was a mile long course that had a tight little chicane, a long uphill drag to the finish, and a good bit of wind. About 1/3 into the race, I go for a prime to test the legs, end up winning a watch which I later gave to my good friend Emile as a token of our friendship, hah. After the prime I can tell the BG is dropping. I then decide to eat 2 GU's and sit in and focus on recovering. While I am not doing much, just crusing in the pack, monique is making the others girl work, attacking tons, and also winning a prime.. a pair of sunnies that fold up real crazy like. With 6 laps to go, Monique and I find each other. She asks me multiple times if I am alright, she knew something was up when I disappeared into the bunch after winning the prime. I told her that I was alright, I just had to eat some food and recover but I was ready to go. She then tells me to stick on her wheel and she'll get me to the front. I stuck on her wheel like my life depended on it. We ended up just hanging on the back of the Colavita train which worked out well for us! We ended up going 2nd & 3rd behind Shontell Gothier from Colavita. It was awesome to be standing on the podium with my teammate. Here are some photos off of cyclingnews & velonews.


here we are on the back of the colavita train

coming 2nd & 3rd
Monique, Shontell Gothier, Me

Monday, Tour of Somerville- So we went into this crit with the game plan that it was going to end in a field sprint so we just need to focus on the finish. The course was 2 km long, 4 corners, with 2 really long drags. It was pretty windy, so sitting in the bunch was pretty nice. Not much happened during the race, it was too windy for anything to get away and Colavita & Cheerwine were obviously wanting a bunch sprint. With 5 laps to go, they call a prime for $100, I am on this chicks wheel, she starts to go for it, so I hang on her wheel and at the last second try to swing around her and grab the prime, didn't succeed. Ended up just pulling a stupid move, and wasting a bit of energy. After that, I find Monique and once again am stuck to her wheel like my life depends on it for the 4 remaining laps. The pace started to pick up with 3 to go by Colavita & Cheerwine. We once again jump on to the back of the Colavita train. Time for the sprint, Monique launches a bit early but it had to be done, then I go jump onto a Tibco chick try to swing around her on the right, back off so I don't end up getting pinched up against the fence, finishing 6th. The team director was pleased with the way we rode because the competition at Somerville was a good bunch and there are only 2 of us. Being able to race with Monique really taught me how much racing is a team effort, without her I would have come no where near the results I managed this weekend.


wasting energy

Finish-Tina Pic taking names

Coming up next is the ADA Conference in San Francisco, CA. Me and the entire RAAM team will be there. Then the guys and Monique will be off the do RAAM in San Diego. I wish them all the best. I will be off to MN to race Nature Valley with Advil-Chapstick, exciting!

Later on

Another lesson learned

I am going to go ahead and call my weekend, "The Worst Race Weekend, Ever".

To recap...

Drove down to Orlando to meet up with Janine from Abbott so she could hook me up on the Freestyle Navigator continuous glucose monitor. The resort she was staying at ended up being located in the depths of Disney World. Disney World was ridiculously hard to navigate your way through because all the roads are really windy, they fork a million times and all lead to places like, "magical fantasy land!" and "princess park!".. after cursing up a storm in my car, driving circles, and trying to get my iPhone to give me directions, I made it to her room. Only about 1 hr and 20 min late. After 2 hrs of Navi training, finally got hooked up! I seriously have been so excited about getting the Navigator for months and was really glad to finally have the dang thing to help me manage the diabeetus a bit better.

After gettin' Navi'ed up, I ended up meeting up with Phil and Joe who were down there at the AACE conference and we went to dinner with the folks from Abbott. I got a steak, it was awesome.

Friday, slept in and ended up going for a 2 hr ride. By the time I woke up, the Navigator was ready to be calibrated, and I was able to use it on my ride. LET ME TELL YOU, it was epic! It was awesome to be able to see finally what exactly is going on with the BG while out training. On a side note, another bad thing about Orlando is it's so big and sprawling, you never feel like you leave the city, I felt like I was always in a congested area and having to stop every 1/4 mile for a traffic light.

Alright, Saturday was a criterium in Lakeland. Things with the Navi were going great, it was accurate and my fingers were glad to have a break from being poked all the time. The weather here in FL has been getting real hot & humid and that combo did not really agree with the Navi's sticky-ness. 20min before the start I am sitting at 140, solid! go roll around a bit, and 10 min before the start I get an arrow pointing straight down, so I eat 2 GU's. At the start line the arrow is still pointing straight down, so I drink a dex 4 liquid thing. 20 min into the crit I am kinda feeling crummy and my legs feel real nasty. Check the Navi and the arrow is point down at a 45 degree angle, eat another GU. 30 min into the crit I am just dying and feel like I am going to yak on everyone in the race. I drop out. Check the navi it says 160 arrow straight across. :/ Roll over to the car and grab the Omnipod and check, it just says "High"..over 500... fantastic! Upset because I just dropped out of another race because of poor management and I am 500, I rip off the sensor and throw it into a dumpster by registration. Basically I learned that if the Navi is not stuck on real well and is able to jiggle about it doesn't work out so well. The lesson also learned is that I shouldn't rely completely on technology. I should have realized that when I started feeling like my legs were real achey 20 min into the crit, that it was because my BG was heading up yonder. If I have to, I can race at 300, but not 500.

After the race, drove the 50 min back to Orlando thinking about how I really need to use some more common sense when it comes to managing my diabetes and headed to my friend's condo. We headed out to dinner to this really crazy western bar/restaurant and got to walk by Club Paris Hilton, no joke! It was also really crazy looking. Before bed, I decide I am going to put on another sensor and just strap that sucker down with duct tape. Only problem is, I chucked out the transmitter that was attached to the sensor back in Lakeland. Just wasted $300 and now I am back to managing my diabetes old school.

Sunday.. 2008 state criterium championships in downtown Lakeland. So once again the FL summers are starting to crank up, heat & humidity also don't mesh well with Omnipods. 20 min before the start it falls off. Luckily I have plenty of time to put another one on. Put the new one on, check I am 220, bolus .5 unit and roll around for about 10 min. Check at the start line, I am 240. bolus .75 unit. As the crit gets going my legs start feeling totally loaded up, and I know I am totally f-ed. I know racing when your BG is high, is totally mental to a point but once I get over 350, I am just done. As you may have guess, 2nd race in a row I have dropped out of. Check and I am 413.

This whole weekend just screwed with my head and cracked me a bit. Training & racing have been going pretty well and this weekend just shook up how positive things have been going. Going into this weekend I was totally excited about having a go at the state crit and really happy because I found out that I have guest spot on Advil-Chapstick for Nature Valley. After dropping out of 2 races and losing the Navigator that I had been wanting for sooo long, it was just plain crappy! It was all totally my fault too which made it all that worse.

Alright, my complaining is over! But basically, driving the 4 hrs home gave me a lot of time to think and I am going to turn this weekend into a learning experience and quit crying about how bad I did. Sometimes living, training, and racing with diabetes is like knocking your head into a brick wall and you want to throw your hands up into the air and say f- it! I definitely came close this weekend, but realized I was being a baby and need to get over it, everyone has issues they have to deal with.

Motivation

Just got back to Tallahassee from a 2 week trip around the southeast. Started out in Atlanta for a few days. I was able to watch the men on the team compete in the Tour de GA. It was surreal to see all the big teams and riders competing, I was in awe every time we would go to the stages to watch! I was so happy for the guys, they rode incredibly and really proved that the first year team is super strong.

After the few days in ATL where I did a bit of training and hit up a bunch ride, I headed to Athens Twilight with Joe, Tim, and Monique. Boy was that race a learning experience. Basically the 24 hrs before the start of the race, my stomach was in knots and I was psyching myself out. I had never done such a large race and was nervous about having people from the team there watching. When ever I get nervous, my blood sugars like to run high. So a few hours before the race I was hanging around 250 all afternoon. 45 minutes before the start check and I am around 230, looks like my bs is finally heading down! Set a temp basal of -50% and Monique and I go ride around to get the blood moving. Check about 20 minutes later, I am 280. GREAT! Check about 10 minutes later I am around 300, even better! (total sarcasm..!) Decide I am going to give myself 1 unit and run a temp basal of -25%. Basically, I have done this whole scenario a few times before and why I still have not learnt from it is beyond me..maybe i'll have learnt my lesson now that I have documented it on my blog... Back to Twilight, as you may have guessed by 30 minutes into the crit I have totally bonked and just have no power in my legs. As soon as I started to feel my bs dropping I tried to down a GU and glucose tabs, but it just did not work out. I dropped out and rolled over to the team van to check, I was at 80. It was a terrible feeling knowing that I had ridden so poorly especially in front of a lot of people from the team. All because I pulled a total amateur diabetic move..LAME!

Then on to some Speed Week crits. I definetly wanted to redeem myself after Twilight, although Twilight was the biggest race I had ever done, I was upset that I had dropped out and didn't finish all because of poor management. The 2nd race went a bit better, finished 20th, Monique was 23rd, and we both won primes. 3rd race was poor for me, I ended up just sitting in the whole time and not doing anything. I just was not feeling too spunky and being lazy. Finished around 25th (?) Monique was a few places behind but won a few primes. 4th races was an utter blast! Monique and I were both on and racing aggressively. Sadly I don't have much to show from that race since I didn't get us any primes and I completely lost it on the bell lap. It was still a great experience because I was committing and racing strong. After the 3rd race, I was a bit upset that I just sat in the whole time and really wanted to show that I am not one of those types of racers that just sits in and doesn't take risks. I definetly took some risks in the 4th race (NRC-Sunny King Crit in Anniston, AL), but should have backed off just a bit. In the few final laps the field had been split up into a few smaller groups because the pace was super high, I was in the front group of about 20 until we turned the 2nd corner of the 4 corner course on the final lap, and lost all momentum when a chick rode the corner funny, causing a gap and everyone jumping, I however did not have any legs at that moment to jump with everyone else :/ eh oh well... another lesson learned... Ended up rolling in, completely trashed, suffering and losing about 25 places..haha. The final race of the week was the NRC race in Roswell, GA. The 3 previous crits I had managed my diabetes really well and was feeling really happy about it until this race. Basically my bs ended up hitting 480 about 20 min before the start. I should have been checking more up until the race to realize that I was trending upward quickly. I felt like death right before the race. This time it was because my site went bad, not because I let my nerves get the best of me. Ended up doing 1 unit and setting a temp basal of -45%. About 15 min into the race I start feeling a bit better and and ended up winning a prime. 35 min into the race, with the fear of bonking again, I ate a GU. Felt alright the rest of the race and ended up 11th. Got back to the van after the race and I am 280. Not what I would like to be at, but much rather prefer that number over 80!

The week was great fun, and I feel like I learned a lot. It was really motivating and I can not wait until my next big race. It's always rewarding when you have been training and working hard and you get to pull some decent results for your first big race series. It was also really nice getting to hang out with my team mates and getting to know everyone a bit better.

Glad to be home for a bit, this week I'll take it a bit easy and am really excited to get to hang out with some friends that are home from school for a few months. Let the summer festivities commence!

On a side note, my new obsessions are Nuun, daft punk, and traveling around to find where I want to move next year.

Lata cuz!

The Entertaining Life of Morgan Rita Patton

This week I completed two athlete days for Sanofi in the Daytona Beach, FL area. Because I am entering the 5th day of my rest week, the rollercoaster of blood sugars is in full effect. So far with my experience, athlete days typically consist of Apidra reps bringing lots of food to doctors’ offices and then I provide the entertainment by telling about my life with diabetes. Post meals this week, while speaking with the physicians, I was doing a good bit of correction boluses and able to show the doctors that Apidra actually does work rapidly.. haha..

So after my 3rd day in the rest week, I officially switched to my 2nd basal program. After I spent half the previous day checking and doing correction boluses, I decided it was time to enable it. Every time I have to switch to my 2nd basal program, it makes me a bit anxious to get back to training. The thought that I am in need of more insulin and my control is pretty crappy, makes me cringe when I think of what it’s doing for my next a1c reading :( If I am going to dominate Phil in our a1c competition we've got going, I gotta make sure I'm running a tight ship! (for those who are unaware, Phil and I are going to get our a1c's checked in about a month and the winner gets an epic prize! if you want in, be prepared to be in the high 5's/low 6's)

To give you an example of an "into the 5th day of a rest week, crappy control, rollercoaster of blood sugars” typical day I will tell you about my Friday...

To begin the day, started out at 134 mg/dL. It was a bit higher then I like to start the day at, but whatever! Had breakfast, 4 egg whites, 2 pieces of wheat toast, coffee, and some O.J. I did 2.75 units of Apidra. I also set a temp basal of (-65%) because I was going to go for an easy ride about 1.5 hrs after breakfast. 1 hr after my meal, 243 mg/dL. That’s not good! Typically an hour after breakfast, while on a temp basal rate of (-65%), I am about 180-200 mg/dL. So I do a correction of 1 unit. About 30-45 minutes later as I am getting ready to head out the door for a few hours on the bike, I am 200mg/dL. Before I get to riding, I set a temp basal of (-70%) for the duration of my ride. If I run a temp basal of (-70%) I typically don't have to eat anything while I am out riding and I was only going out for 2 hrs. 30 minutes into the ride I check and I am 146 mg/dL, decide to eat 5 dex 4 glucose tabs and continue on my merry way. During the ride, I ended up hanging around the 150-180 mg/dL area which was solid! Basically post ride, for the rest of the afternoon, my blood sugars were pretty spot on just because I was able to go out earlier in the day and get the blood moving! In rest weeks, I typically alternate one day on the bike for a few hours going easy, and one day off the bike. The days completely off the bike are the days that like to really mess up the average blood sugar reading on the meter.

So the conclusion is everyone, especially diabetics, should buy a bicycle and ride (or just exercise a bit) because your blood sugars will be much better, you’ll probably win the lottery, and everyone will like you.



Catch y'all later!