Brick

The term "Brick" has had a lot of influence on my life. Billy used to call me that. My car was named the brick-mobile (thanks again Bill). My dad (and I in the summers) worked for a Brick plant. Now it means "a way to be uncomfortable for long periods of time". I took a day off after the marathon and then did a 50 mile ride with Dave. My knee still bothered me some, so I took 2 days off and then did the long brick with dave. Supposedly in the athletic world lingo, "brick" means "bike-run"? We did the 5 hour bike followed by the 2 hour run. I got up at 3am and ate breakfast then went back to sleep. Got up at 5:00 and was out at Moses Cone Park (on the Blue Ridge parkway) by 6 and we were off. We did loops up to Grandfather mountain and back, stopping each time to weigh ourselves (yes, we brought a scale) to try to figure out sweat rates. It was cool that day so it was easy to stay hydrated... but it still took more than I would have thought. The whole time we were concentrating on keeping heartrate low and salt, water, and blood sugar good...which justifies why we were slow! My blood sugar was between 70 and 130 the whole time and I was able to eat much more than usual because I took a regular lantus (12u) the night before. I have been the king of blood sugar lately. When we started running I thought my knee wasn't going to last - but after 3 miles or so, everything started to loosen up. There was still pain, but it didn't overshadow the pain of fatigue too much. We did 9.5 miles in just under 2 hours - by the end I was in some odd zone - just looking down at the ground and not saying much. I wasn't feeling much - good or bad. Dave was in a zone, too - but it was a good zone. At the end of 7 hours he was cracking jokes. The dude is becoming a machine. He is riding 100 miles right now to Asheville where his wife will pick him up on their way to the beach. Tomorrow I am going to follow suit and do a century... I'll swim today, I guess. 50 days to go.

Popular posts from this blog

1st Marathon...done

Image
Here's the lowdown on my Grandfather Mountain Marathon. I cut my lantus down to 8 units the night before and didn't take anything in the morning. I woke up and ate breakfast at 3am so I could take a full bolus. My blood sugars that day were between 140 and 100 the whole day until the night when they rose a bit. So success on the glucose front. I then woke up at 5:30 and headed over to the marathon. It was a bit unnerving as everyone I talked to seemed to be pretty experienced and when I mentioned that this was my first one, the comment was always a variation of "well, you sure picked a hard one to start with" or "well, this is the hardest road marathon in North America"... I mean, come on - that is a little discouraging. So we go down through town and pass the mall - and there is Dave. I didn't know whether he would be there but suddenly there was company. So we went along and headed uphill. Somewhere in the first 5 miles, Dave says (in typical Dave fas...
Read more

Wake or sleep

I’ve often wondered how paralysis works In my sleep. How can my soul fly And my body be dead? Infinitely better however  Than when I wake  And the two Trade  Places 
Read more

It hasn't even started yet?

I agreed to this in August of 07 and I signed up for it in September. I've been running, swimming, and biking... I'm sore and sleepy quite a lot and I am just realizing that I have not really begun to train yet... I guess I should set the stage. My name is Steve and I am a Type 1 Diabetic and have been since I was 10 (so 25 years). I've kept pretty good control (just lucky on that front - not due to excess effort) and I was always kind of active - so when my neighbor moved in (also a Type 1) and somehow talked me into being part of a group (now called Triabetes - see www.triabetes.org ) of Type 1 Diabetics that will train for and complete in the 2008 Ironman Wisonsin. I wasn't a runner, I was a terrible swimmer, and I was slow on the bike.... so I figured, "why not?" This blog will be a record of my path through this process. More to come.... as I figure out what a blog is....
Read more