So it’s been raining since Saturday morning and the forecast is rain and thunderstorms through Wednesday. Obviously things can change any minute, but this makes planning, with aiming for ZB and all of that, more difficult. How do I handle this?? It’s not raining, it’s monsooning. The only “break” I see is basically right now, but my blood sugar is way too low to even think about it…
While I sit here, starting at the downpour, I figured I’d tell you why I know I don’t have “feet hit the ground”, if that’s what it’s called, phenomenon. Since having started on the 670G, and specifically auto mode, I started having crazy high blood sugars in the morning. It took me a while to figure out what was happening with the insulin delivery over night and finally realized I was getting drastically reduced rates. It irritated me to no end to hear Medtronic tell people that auto mode might not be able to handle their “dawn phenomenon”, and it wasn’t auto mode’s fault what was happening in the morning. Since I hadn’t had any of these problems prior to starting auto, I started doing experiments. Long story short (I’m trying, I am), I would march to a 250-300 in auto mode, and in manual mode I would move along a slow but steady descent. All of these experiments were done fasting. Not “feet on the floor” phenomenon and NOT “uncontrollable dawn phenomenon that poor auto mode can’t keep up with” thank you very much, medtronic. Case closed. But maybe whatever is in the coffee… and maybe deceptive eggs…
Are you serious?
But all of my electronics…
All you really need is a sugar source. Leave your pump at home.
Before leaving, check your BG a few times - every 15 minutes or so - until you see which way you are going. If you are on ZB, you don’t need to have a pump.
When you are low when you are running, do you feel them? If you feel low, take some sugar. I don’t think you need all of that other stuff.
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I’m heading home and heading out. If I get swept away in the monsoon, feel bad. 
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If you are low when you are running, do you feel it?
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You want the long answer or the truth?
Sometimes. I have my jar of sugar yams.
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Let’s start working on that.
Before every glance at your CGM and before every BG check, try to interpret how you feel and see if you can start to feel if you are low or not.
When running, lows are often accompanied by tiredness, weakness, or not running in straight line. If the pace feels more difficult than it should, or if there is a little more of a meandering left and right instead of a straight line.
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Okay. I love how clearly you broke it down. I have felt all of those things in all of my workouts and have come to learn them to be signs of going low.
That one in particular… especially if I’ve been feeling good and then find it changing. So, yes.
Yes, running (or walking) while hypoglycemic. WWH. Like DWI. Only legal. Less frowned upon.
I know these things. When I say sometimes it’s because I only SOMETIMES get these symptoms early enough to realize I’m beginning to drop. Sometimes I don’t realize until I’m already low. I don’t know why I am the way I am with these feelings, but they’re spotty. I can feel like I’m crashing hard at a 70 and surprised that I’m low at a 25. If you have ideas on streamlining this, I’m all ears. In cold weather, I actually think it becomes dangerous.
Will do.
I’ve worn this pump BASICALLY non-stop for a year. Boy, did I enjoy having it off. I’ll have to remember to do this tomorrow. And every other run possible.
I think I’ve got my calibration factor up and running again. (
) So even though I was winging it today with no 60 min ZB and a conservative, but not negligible, amount of IOB, I DID know I was leaving at a 102 with a high calibration factor (6.9)… that felt good enough to go on since there was a banana behind it… I returned at 86. What does it say about me when winging it works better than careful planning EVERY SINGLE TIME?
Okay, I ran 5 miles in 45 minutes. Because of the rain, I decided to do some loops that kept near to the house in case it opened up. I thought my regular route had really bad hills, which is does, but this one has even worse. So much for an “easy” run. If keeping “easy” means slowing WAY down on hills, does that mess up the goal of trying to maintain an even pace? My overall RPE was 7ish. Hills were tough.
Hips are pretty jacked up. They’re not too bad during the runs, but I can feel them, and slightly more concerning, I am aware of them during the day with walking around. I’m not complaining… just keeping you up to date.
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On easy days, the goals is just time spent with an elevated heart rate and muscular endurance. Pace is less important than time spent running. You should slow down to keep your RPE 3-5.
Work hard Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, go easy the other days.
I am much more interested in your pace and distance on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Pace is important for tempo runs and intervals and speedwork.
Today you were on the faster side of the pace scale for this run (8:57-9:55 pace), but the hills makes it harder.
Let’s see how you feel on Tuesday.
Did you eat a banana right before you left? I have been wanting you to eat some carbs right before. That will really help you out.
You should make a wrist BG test holder. This will help you a lot. Get skilled with it and you can test without stopping.
how-to-make-an-exercise-bg-meter-holder
This is something to have looked at professionally. I can only offer suggestions on core exercise and stretches, but you really should go to a physical therapist and have it evaluated in person. Go to somebody that specializes in running and see what they tell you. I would make this a priority.
I did and I know you have. Not a coincidence, and I did hold steady.
I have. 
I’ve done hip MRIs and x-rays and have ruled out thigh stress fractures and other possibilities. Hips, legs, feet, and bladder. These are the problems. I have cysts on my tailbone, neuropathy, and some impingement on my spine. I have been seeing the Tarlov cyst specialist, and he’s doing nerve blocks on the 30th. It actually would be better to go into it with pain, and it looks like I’m gonna be able to do that 
I’ll keep feeding weeks to you as long as running is not going to make it any worse.
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And I’m going to keep doing them until I can’t.
But that’s not the way this is going. I just need to get in for my tests.
So I’m reading Eric’s Wikis on Sports & Exercise right now and just realized that “stability shoes” just refer to overpronation. For some reason, I envisioned @Nickyghaleb out there running 7 miles of hills in nurse’s clogs. That’s what came to mind when I envisioned what my brain thought “stability shoes” meant. I knew that couldn’t be right…but when I find something funny I have a hard time getting away from it.
Glad you’re not running in nurse’s stability clogs, @Nickyghaleb!
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Didn’t know I wasn’t. Glad to hear it, too.
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So great news on today’s run… as far as pain goes. I’m crashing now and can’t gwt my mind right enough to tell you, but I’ll be back to. I see the cardiologist tomorrow… could I get you to remind me what I need to ask??
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Ask what your max heart rate should be. There are formulas based on resting heart rate and age, but with your exercise-induced tachycardia, those formulas don’t work for you. See what he thinks your max safe heart rate is. Make sure he knows what HR you get from a few miles at an easy pace.
Ask if your body responds to your higher HR with a cortisol induced liver glycogen BG spike. For most people, it takes an elevated stress level to induce a cortisol response. Ask if he thinks your higher HR would cause a spike at an easier pace. Whether it is relative to your HR or the intensity (in other words, do you have a BG spike from an easy mile, just because of your heart rate).
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Attempting to fix my sleep post…
Wanted to introduce you to my new treadmill. 
I’m awake now so I’ll see if I can’t write a more coherent post.
I did my workout on the treadmill yesterday, and it felt pretty easy. RPE of 6?? I don’t think it was coincidence with my being on the treadmill though and just being able to set the pace and go. Unless I wasn’t doing it at the right pace… 
please tell me 8 mph on the treadmill is 7.5 min per mile… cuz that’s what i did. Oh, and being on the treadmill does bring up new questions like what should i do with recoveries? For instance I just made it a 10 minute mile pace yesterday out of fear of what was coming, but looking back I didn’t need to go so slow? And at the end of the workout, I was really just enjoying the cool down and the music and everything and would’ve like to have jogged longer… but I also didn’t want to ruin the workout in any way or affect upcoming ones. IF that ever happens again, and it might not, can I keep jogging? Or cut myself off?
Left at a BG of 162 and finished at 59. Felt nothing getting off of the treadmill… no symptoms of low. And… today’s my day off.
Barely more coherent. Still waiting on my coffee. Is there anything I forgot?