So I’ve gone and done something stupid.
I signed up for the Aviemore 10k. It’s in three months time.
In August 2017, back when I last ran a full 5k - and managing on daily injections - it had taken me nearly a year to a) manage to run that far and b) manage to adjust my daily insulin well enough to avoid hypos.
I can’t even run 2k at the moment. Did I mention the 10k is in three months?
I stopped running when I got my insulin pump. I’d been advised to stop exercising so we could work out my basal rates. That took a few months and I just never got back into my trainers.
I’d never run before - ever. I hate running. It makes you sweat and out of breath. But a year or so after my Type One diabetes diagnosis I clocked that exercise was a potential diabetes management tool. And I wanted a way to flatten out my blood sugars that didn’t involve a gym, or a pool: something you could just do!
(For those non-diabetics: there’s a whole science into why exercise helps you manage your diabetes, which I’m not going into right now. But in short the more you exercise the better blood sugars you have, if you can avoid post-exercise hypos, and the dreaded glucocoaster, where you start to yo-yo between highs and lows).
I started the NHS’s Couch 2 5k app - and after months and months of hard work (physically, mentally and emotionally!) I was, metaphorically and physically, up and running. Massive shout out to the Facebook Sporty T1 Diabetes group too without whom I’d never have managed.
I loved it. (Well, it was still always hard, so love-hate is more like it). I loved(hated) the freedom, and the peace, and the euphoric high afterwards. I loved that it was mine. And I missed all of that.
So I wanted to get back to running but then got achilles bursitis which has taken over a year to rehabilitate. A slow, painful year of recovery, lots of gym sessions, lots of hypos and highs, and lots of frustration. Until eventually a few months ago I decided I was ready - downloaded the C25k app again, donned my trainers, and hit the streets, with my new wireless headphones and ‘Eye of the Tiger’.
It was all going well until a few weeks ago when I hit Week 6 - and the hypos kicked in. I remembered from last time that it’s a significant point in muscle development and strength and that obviously has a massive impact on the whole insulin sensitivity/glycogen uptakes etc etc etc…suffice to say it’s a complicated process and it needed some thought, and recording what was happening, and thinking, and recording, and well, you know what…. life got in the way. We were going on holiday, I have two jobs, one child, blah, blah, blah… So I ditched it and went on holiday to drink wine and eat chips and ice cream (and then moan about how uncontroabale my diabetes was! “Well, that’s stacking for you,” says the little voice in my head!).
So, now we’re back and I keep thinking about how I did this stupid thing and how October REALLY isn’t that far away. So this is the start. Today it begins….the long road back to running. Today I’ve been back to Pilates. Today I’ve dug out my notepad, looked out my Animas Sports Weekend stuff, and the latest consensus statement on T1D and exercise. Today it begins. Between here and October half term lies a lot of hard work but I’m ready for it - mentally.
I’m not sure my body is though!
Wish me luck.