There Goes The Fear

Good morning.

Thanks for stopping by to read.  Hopefully I didn't alienate too many of your with yesterday's off topic musical segue.  I'm firmly back on message today.

This week has been a big week for the training.  It's the first time I've done 3 runs in 7 days which is a major step forward for me (pardon the pun).  And it's removed a little bit of the fear that I had that I was setting myself up for an impossible task.

I did Wednesday, Friday and last night (Tuesday), running 2, 1.5 and 2.5 miles.  Still no great distance but something I feel very proud of given how I felt a year ago.  I'll admit that after the Friday run I was a bit on edge.  I had a fair amount of pain in my foot and needed to properly rest up and do some exercises the physio had given me to try and loosen it up.  Fortunately there were no after effects on Saturday and I even managed a 2 mile walk to meet a friend for a drink before football on Saturday.

It was good to get a new longer distance under my belt last night too (despite the initial cold - I need to find my running gloves!!).  I was tempted to go for 3 miles but it felt like too much too soon.  An extra half mile a week feels like the right thing to do at the moment.  I've got enough time to build up to longer runs but for now I need to maintain gradual progress and not force myself into an unnecessary set back.   I do need to keep an eye on the 'official' training plan though.  I don't want to fall behind, but equally may have to adapt it to suit my circumstances.

2.5 mile route

I was talking to my Dad (my original marathon inspriation) about this and we both agreed that getting round will be an achievement in itself and that's all I need to aim for.  That takes the pressure off in a way and I think that helps a lot too.

My new training strategy is hopefully going to focus on 5 runs in two weeks (Tue-Fri-Wed-Fri-Tue) which I think will give me enough to build up over the next few months.

Things are ticking over with regards my diabetes.  I succumbed to some Ben & Jerry's ice cream at the weekend but I'd decided that after 4 days of continuous headache I needed some sugar (note - this is not medically sound advice I'm giving myself) and as such I was skirting around a slightly higher blood sugar level than I would have normally been at.

I think this is another area where I have to be realistic.  I'd love to have the confidence to tell myself I neither need, nor want anything sweet but I know the fact is that's simply not true.  I've definitely cut down significantly from the bad diet I used to have when I started this blog but which is another victory for willpower.  But I know that I'm going to give in to temptation from time to time and the key to diabetes (as with any condition) is to be able to manage it accordingly.

Christmas is becoming an ever closer reality and I'm already starting to plan out all the things I need to cook.  I'm hoping my Christmas lunch will be fairly diabetic friendly and I'm desperately rooting through recipe books for reduced sugar desserts.  And through normal cookbooks for a chocolate yule log recipe for my wife.  I think Christmas has always been a time for dietary indulgence where I'm concerned and I plan to celebrate with reasonable moderation this year.  Although if the customary Chocolate Orange from my mother-in-law makes an appearance I may have to be extra restrained.


The difficult thing I've found is managing my blood sugar after running.  Normally I'll eat dinner at about 5:30pm (when my daughter eats) but when I'm running, it won't be until 8 ish.  As I often go to bed at around 10, I'm in a tricky situation.  My insulin acts over 5 hours but peaks after about 2, so a blood sugar reading just before bed can be unduly alarming.  Take last night - it was 13mmol before I went to bed but I took a chance and didn't correct it as my insulin still had time to act.  My blood was 6.6mmol this morning so I did the right thing in the end.  Getting used to things like that still feels quite new for me.

Once again, thanks for reading.  I do appreciate your feedback and the time you take to have a read.  Apologies for the length of this post (and for getting into the science a bit too much - I'm sure it's just jargon to a lot of you so I appreciate you sticking with it).


I hope you've all got your advent calendars ready for tomorrow.  If you fancy a chat, the usual channels of communication are open - @BroomOwl on Twitter or broomowl@gmail.com


Take care and I'll post again soon


Andy