Diabetic barefoot ultra (or not) minimalist etc running thread

Just a thread for anyone affected by, running with, expert in, curious about diabetes and how it affects our running.

Minimalist or not, type 1, type 2 whatever. I'm sure there's more than just me out there and I'd be glad to hear from you all and how you manage your condition.

For me, so far, my first run tonight since diagnosis. Careful to check my sugar before and after, starting the process of understanding how the artificial insulin, sugar and exercise interact. Only a 4 mile run but pace was OK and HR in the right area.

Need to think about a snack before running and/or cutting the insulin the meal before. That's for tomorrow.
 
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Slight hypoglycaemic situation this morning blood sugar at 3.9mmol/l, 4.0 is the technical defiinition of hypo. Very hungry and slightly light headed, so jelly babies as a pre-breakfast snack, sorted it out very well.

Not the right morning to experiment with a carb-free breakfast, so added a big slice of toast to my eggs, sausage and mushrooms.

Have a good father's day everyone.
 
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I am a 51 year old type 2 diabetic, running in minimalist shoes. Not so difficult to manage as a type 1 insulin dependant, but still presents it's own problems.

I am currently trying to build milage again after a three month layoff due to achilees tendonitis. Trying hard to resist the temptation not to go too far, too fast, too soon.
 
Great to hear from you Derbian and good luck getting back to it. Let those tendons get into it slowly.

I'm looking for about a 10k today.
 
First TT on insulin tonight. I haven't felt this good on the bike all season.

Slightly overcompensated for a lower than desired blood sugar pre-race, and with that and liver glycogen dunping into my system with the high intensity went a bit too high, but that's what I'm here to learn.

Result, 26:30, PB for that course 26:01, so not back to my best yet, but this is a running year.
 
First two hour lomg run post diagnosis at the weekend.

2 hrs 5 min / 21.1km / 5:55 average / AHR 135.

Usual strategy of carbs little and often, worked a treat. Blood sugar stable all the way.

A great booster ahead of the 70-miler in August, may go for three hours next week and then start to steady back, don't want to go and get injured after all this effort.
 
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I've had type 1 diabetes for more than 28 years, but it certainly doesn't make me an expert on everything. Best advice maybe I have for the threadstarter is that it's good to see that you're taking an active approach towards handling the situation. Test a lot to help you learn how your body reacts to different variables. Since you seem to like to do ultra-distances, I think it could be a great idea to see about getting an insulin pump, it'll give you greater flexibility, if you don't have a pump already. I say that even though I manage things with a long-acting basal injection and fast-acting insulin for boluses, but if I were ever in the mind of doing super long distances, I'd probably want a pump.

Good luck. It's a freaking pain in the arse sometimes, no getting around that, but it can be managed.
 
Thanks Scratch, glad to see you are still positive after 28 years of it. There are too many people on the diabetes forums with the "why me?" attitude to my mind. Perhaps diabetic mental health needs more work. The pump is definitely on my agenda next time I meet with my consultant. Just finished reading Think Like a Pancreas - superb, The Diabetic Athletes Handbook - not so good, now reading The ADA's Handbook of Exercise in Diabetes

As you say, still learning and I think the biggest lesson so far will be in about ten days, when I toe the line for the Grim Reaper 70, in what has been one of our hottest summers on record so far.

And to add to it all, here's my lastest blog

http://diary-of-a-barefoot-wannabee.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/grim-reaper-catch-me-if-you-can.html
 
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I actually have both Think Like a Pancreas and The Diabetic Athlete's Handbook, and pretty much agree with your assessment. Think Like a Pancreas is a great howto manual that I used when I stopped doing the old way and learned about the principles of basal and bolus insulin. The latter book was interesting enough, but didn't really teach me anything. I suppose the big thing is that each of us is an experiment of one, you can look at general population trends to get ideas of how to begin, but you have to end up accumulating your own personal data set to figure out what to do with you. And be aware that what is you today may not be you farther down the road.

Truthfully, I don't know if I'm positive about it. I have grumpy days about it, but I just try to deal with it somewhat clinically and realistically. I believe sometimes that the loss of something so integral to everyday life causes a certain measure of grief in anyone, and some people deal with grief better than others, and some are equipped to handle it better than others. I've long had a good knack for bouncing numbers around in my head, but it gets annoying sometimes to have the numbers regarding blood sugars and insulin doses bouncing around in there. I imagine that for those who don't have such a knack might find that more difficult and annoying.

Good luck at your race. Be safe and even if it doesn't turn out exactly in the ways you might hope, use it, like everything, as a learning opportunity.
 
Just picked up a copy of Trail Running magazine & there's a short piece about a guy who was diagnosed with Type 1 at 43 & has just done the 190 miles of Wainwright's coast to coast (not minimalist, but thought you may still be interested).