The eagle-eyed amongst you have probably spotted that I've been naming most of my recent blog posts after 'appropriate' song lyrics so this title should come as little surprise.
This is the penultimate post of 2011 so I'll be firmly on topic for today. Next week's will be a bit of a mix of training progress and a 2011 review/2012 preview.
I'm a bit sketchy on my dates this week (blame the impending chaos of Christmas) but I think I've run twice since I last updated this - 6 miles in total. I had a mostly very pleasant 2.5 mile jog round Centre Parcs (Sherwood Forest) on Saturday morning. It would have been completely pleasant had I not accidentally run through a bush at the side of the road and cut my face. Whilst this is apparently amusing, I didn't see the funny side at the time.
Tonight I've done 3.5 miles (a new best distance) in 39 minutes which is just inside a 12 minute mile time. Here's the route:
I managed my most sustained period of running to date as well which was pleasing. I managed all the way from the start marker (above) to practically the Crown & Cushion pub. It's not that far (just over a mile) but it represents a lot to me which is good. Being able to take that impact without needing a break is good and hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to improve on that.
I've got 3 runs left before January and I'm hoping I can get a decent 4 mile run in before New Year. My fundraising page tells me I've got 123 days to go before the marathon. I truly believe that if I keep chipping away at it, I'll get there no problem!
Being diabetic this week has been....challenging. As you probably know we had a long weekend at Centre Parcs this weekend. That basically involved eating out for 3 meals a day for the better part of 4 days. It also meant more indulgences that a) I'm used to and b) should have. I roughly managed my blood sugar OK. By that I mean I probably did as best I could given how difficult it was to find time to test my blood and make an educated guess about what I was eating. I managed a horrifying 20mmol on the Saturday morning, and swung the other way to 2.7mmol on Sunday night.
As I've probably mentioned a few times, it can be quite frustrating when you're not exercising the amount of control you should be and that was certainly true this weekend. I also 'confirmed' something that I've suspected for a little while, which is that a bad diet, even for a short time, leads to migraines. I was in tears with pain on Sunday night which is probably the worst I've been for a long time. I also know that once it's started, it's a good 3 or 4 days before it subsides properly. It's just even more of an incentive to eat properly I guess. Apologies for that segue...
I shall sign off there for this week. To summarise, running - good, diabetes - OK, diet - causes migraines.
Thanks ever so much for all your support and kind words since I started this blog, you're all incredible and I truly thank you for all your encouragement. Hopefully I'll do you all proud next year. Remember you can donate (or invite others to) at the fundraising link above. I know the charities don't affect a lot of you personally and I wouldn't dream of asking you to support something you didn't want to. But if you know anyone who might like to then please feel free to share the link to the blog.
I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and a good break from work if you're taking one.
Merry Christmas
Andy
Good morning
Like most people, I'm mourning the passing of our very brief summer and looking at the long nights and short days with a fair amount of contempt. But secretly I'm also quite pleased.
Autumn is my favourite time of year to run - it's cool but not too cold and I prefer to run when it's dark rather than during the day. I also quite like running in the rain. Don't ask me to rationalise it because I can't. The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps I feel like I've worked a bit harder, or it's a greater test of my dedication. But really I have no idea why I like it so much.
Whilst autumn brings my favourite running conditions it also brings Christmas preparations and so more time gets filled up with seeing friends and family before we all take a well earned break from work. It just means being a bit more creative with fitting in some training.
Since my last post I've done two more runs - both over the 1.5 mile route I have round the town. I've had a bit more of an ache the following day each time but all in all I'm feeling pretty good. It feels good to be able to do two a week and not feel like I'm made of glass.
I'm in the process of planning out a 2 mile run for my next outing which will probably be Saturday morning. I feel a bit daft exulting a 1.5 or 2 mile run. Before my injury I wouldn't have considered going out for less than about 2.5 miles but things obviously change. I think I've got about another 6 weeks (or 12 runs) before I really have to start putting in a distance run once a week - I think that will be a real test of how capable my body is of holding out for the actual marathon.
With regards to diabetes, it's been another fairly successful week - I had one blip last night/this morning where I seemto have miscalculated m dosage on a piece of parkin but all should be back to normal by lunchtime.
Again, the run up to Christmas brings its own challenges for diabetes. More meals out with friends certainly means extra calories (which I don't particularly welcome) but it also means a lot of uncertainty about looking after yourself. It's quite easy to get carried away with it all and tell yourself it's only a treat. The problem is that it gets easier and easier to justify that to yourself and you slip out of good habits and back into bad ones.
Of course I'm not advocating some sort of horribly strict diet over Christmas - diabetes doesn't stop you being human. But it's not always the worst thing in the world to just go out and have a salad instead of a burger once in a while.
Whilst this may not be strictly true, the way I once had it explained to me was this:
Your diet as a diabetic should be as varied and balanced as everyone else's diet should be. It's just the consequences of it not being balanced are worse for you than they are for other people.
I think that's fairly sensible advice (although I'm happy to be challenged). Being diabetic won't get in the way of my customary Chocolate Orange at Christmas. It just means that it'll get eaten over a fortnight and not a couple of days.
One final point before I sign off, I had a quick medical review at the doctors last night which ended up with them weighing me. Aftera few weeks of not feeling quite right with myself, my weight was back to 88.5kg (or 195lbs in old money). Again, I know it's not something to be shouting about from the rooftops, but it's good to know I've lost about 18lbs and all in all, managed to pretty much keep it off.
I'm not sure if this has been a particularly good read or not but thanks for stopping by and sticking with it. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.
I can always be found lurking on twitter (@BroomOwl) or at the other end of broomowl@gmail.com if the comments pages are playing up again. I hope you have a good rest of your week and I'll post again soon.
Take care
Andy
