I was pretty excited for my run tonight. It’s been a week since I last ran with my girls, and I was in desperate need of some good girly running chatter. The iPod just doesn’t always cut it. And I was also excited because one of my favourite gals (we’ll just call her Bianchi Girl … jealous!) returned to the pavement after what seemed like centuries of her being away, but was in all actuality just 10 days.
I LOVE REUNIONS!
And I love freebies!
The Running Room held its annual 20-minute challenge, a free event that is meant to encourage people to get off their arses and into a more physically fit state of mind. And what better way to get people out than freebies, right.
All participants were given a free, technical running hat – which I was in desperate need of. I missed last year’s challenge as I was held up in the condo with a nasty cold, so there was no way I was missing this year. I wanted that hat. And given that the challenge was held on one of my regular run nights, it was pretty much a given I would be there … although, our run was way longer than 20 minutes. In fact, it was more like 60 minutes, which technically means we should have gotten three hats!
However, after seeing that hat, I really didn’t want that hat no more. It may have been technical, but it wasn’t pretty. Oh no. No matter how much I tightened that sucker, it still was like three times too big for my head – and I don’t exactly have a small head! I contemplated running with it, I really did (okay maybe I didn’t really think about, but it sounds good saying that I did) but it was like I had tunnel vision with the duckbill hovering right above my eyes. And seriously, the trucker style was like sooo 2002! So yeah, a bit of lunch bag letdown on the hat situation, but the 15 per cent coupon that was tacked on to it somewhat made up for it … maybe I’ll use that coupon to buy me a pretty technical hat.
TONIGHT’S RUN
- 6:30 p.m. BG before: 6.6 (2 sugar tablets)
- Temp basal -50 per cent
- Distance: 8.51 km (was supposed to be 10, but because it was hot and muggy, we cut it down a bit)
- Average pace: 6:29 (tempo)
- Time: 55:13
- 8 p.m. BG after: 5.1
As excited as I was for the run tonight, I felt somewhat off, like I couldn’t find my natural stride. I don’t know what was going on, but I was having a hard time keeping up, I felt like I was knocking my knees and kicking my calves and just not putting my feet where they should have been going, like, I don’t know, in front of me. And my outfit was really kind of bugging me too. I wore a new shirt tonight that fit great (and looked awesome!) but as soon as I started running, the shirt started riding up showing off my white, white belly. Oh joy. So I pretty much spent the entire run yanking the shirt down. My pump was also irritating the hell out of me, rubbing – and chafing – against my waist. Ugh.
It wasn’t just the run, though, I was kind of feeling off all day. I was in major zombie mode right from the get-go. And I was hungry, and it didn’t matter if I had snacks or drank mondo amounts of water or donated to the Starbucks fund, nothing filled me up. And then later in the day, about an hour and a half before the run, my blood sugars were being really odd. They were 7.7, and I was trying to figure out whether to have a Larabar (which had 22 grams of sugar) or a Kind Bar (which only had 11 grams of sugar and which I kind of like more). I didn’t want to give myself any bolus insulin, just in case my BG decided to plummet, but I also didn’t want them to skyrocket from too much sugar. So I waited 15 minutes and tested them again. They were down to 6.8, so I went for the Larabar, which got them up to 7.1 But then right before the run, they were back down to 6.6, which doesn’t seem like a huge difference, and is actually an almost perfect number for when I’m not running. But normally, when running, my BG will drop anywhere from 2 to 6 mmols, sometimes more, which is potential for diabetic disaster. The two sugar tablets I chomped on, though, thankfully did the trick.
How do you get yourself through a funky run?
I must say I was rather excited to see you as well! The 10 days did seem rather long! We used our coupons last night and it did make our trucker hat experience worth it!
Oh Katie, you are so cute. Love the picture. I am always interested in reading your struggle with your blood sugar, always makes my “oh my God it’s too hot too run” seem pretty insignificant.