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!