Marathon des Sables

Entry for October 02, 2008

Here is an example of the difficulties of living with type 1 diabetes.

This morning was a normal day, so I had my normal dosage of medication this morning, minus 1 unit to allow for the walks to the station. However this morning at 11:30 I suddenly felt the sugar slipping. By 11:40 I was unable to think clearly, so reached for my emergency lollies.

15 minutes later I was recovering, but just like that my day was impacted and I was effectively out of action for 1/2 an hour.

That is the life of a type 1 diabetic.

Courtesy of Darbaroud - http://www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php

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Entry for October 04, 2008

It was a good walk this morning. I did a casual 31km in weather that was threatening to rain the whole time.

There was no grief from anything this morning, so I consider that I have progressed in my fitness.

The sugar was interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, the high sugar over the last few days meant that I was using the walk to gently bring it down. I managed this, bouncing gently on low with about 1km to go. Secondly, I started trying the dates this morning. They appear to do the job and are a very pleasant change from the apricots.

Training - 5 hours 50 minutes - 31km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 6 units in the morning and by 1 unit in the evening

Entry for October 10, 2008

The training session for this weekend is going to be a bit different from the normal.

I am going to the Walk for a Cure gathering at Albert Park lake on Sunday, where there is a chance that I'll be able to say a few words to the crowd. I'm turning this into a training walk by parking the car 11km away and walking there. After it is over I'll walk back to the car, so the training this weekend will be a lazy 25km or so.

I need to do this special activity as it will provide a great opportunity to get myself seen and heard.

You might be interested in going to my Facebook group I have created. You'll need a Facebook account. Click here to go there.

Entry for October 12, 2008

Today's walk was a little different. As mentioned above, I was at Albert Park Lake with about 10,000 other people. I turned it into a training walk by parking 11km from the place and then walking. Combined with the walk around the lake and the walk back, that made a training walk of about 26km.

Thinking of it purely as a training walk, the important aspect of today's walk was that it is the first in the sun and some heat. The temperature was 28C (85F for our US friends) with bright sunshine. Plus I also took my new training clothes for a walk to test them out. They performed well and felt good, so I think I now know what sort of clothes I need for the event. Further testing required obviously.

A brief presentation was made on the stage re my walk. The audience and the officials on stage were all impressed by the undertaking with a few "Ooh's and Ahh's" slipping out. So a few more people now know about what I'm doing.

I'm visiting the Diabetes Nutrition person on Thursday, so that will begin the next stage of learning. Next weekend I'm expecting to get back to a more normal training routine. I'm thinking of low 20's for distance.

Entry for October 15, 2008

I should hear once and for all if I've been given a spot in the event some time in the next 7 days. I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

There are a lot of media outlets that I'm going to approach as soon as hear that I'm in. Also I can start seriously approaching large corporations. It all hangs on being chosen in the lottery.

The numbers for my Facebook group are slowly growing, but I need stacks more. So don't forget to tell all of your friends, family, associates, colleagues and neighbours about it, which you'll find ..... here. :-)

Entry for October 16, 2008

There was some good news today. It looks like 60 Minutes (Australia) might be interested in doing an item with me later next year. Yes, it's a long way away. But at least they are showing interest.

Food

Entry for October 17, 2008

Today I learned a lot about food. I still have a long way to go. You can see what I'm learning here.

Entry for October 18, 2008

Today was pretty much a standard walk. The weather was meant to be perfect, with a sunny 29C. But instead it was lightly overcast, so I didn't get the heat or the sun. I need this as part of my training and I'm sure I'll get heaps during summer.

A farmer stopped his car as he was turning into his property, wound down his window and yelled to me "You look like you're in the Sahara". We had a chat and he was fascinated by what I'm doing. His wife is type 2 diabetic, so he some understanding of the difficulties.

His comment made me smile and feel confident that if nothing else, at least I'll look the part. :-)

The subject of food was on my thoughts as I walked. My appointment with the sports dietitian will be very important and interesting.

I should be hearing if I've been chosen in the lottery sometime in the next few days. Fingers crossed.

Training - 4 hours 50 minutes - 25km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 6 units in the morning

Entry for October 19, 2008

What a brilliant walk today! The most important aspect was that it means I've done 50km in 36 hours. And I felt better at the end of it than I did after 20km only a couple of months ago.

Today's walk was the same route as yesterday, only in the opposite direction. I started experimenting with a new type of food. I'm trying out fruit roll-ups. If you don't live in Australia, you may not know what I'm talking about. They are thin strips of solidified fruit pulp. I'm not describing them well, but they are quite popular here in Oz. The thing about these is that they are very high in carbohydrate, being almost 80%. Also they seem to be able to take the heat and tough conditions well. So I'm now experimenting with them as I've realised that the dried fruit is not enough for the walk.

So far they seem to be doing the job, but lots more practice and testing is required yet.

I still haven't heard the results of the lottery, so please keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed for me.

Training - 4 hours 50 minutes - 25km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 5 units in the morning

Entry for October 25, 2008

I have a few things to tell you about today. But first I'll tell you about today's training walk. It was great. I did 35km, starting at 5:30 this morning. The weather man was predicting a warm day with 30C, so I thought I had better do the most I could with it.

It turned out that it was freezing this morning, not warming up until almost half way through. But my gear got a reasonable warm-weather work out and it all proved to be working well. I love my hat, I have to say.

The biggest aspect of the walk today was the food. After experimenting a little, today was the first walk in which I ate nothing but the new fruit rollups. I've worked out the carbohydrate level (17 grams each) and calculated that I'd need one every 30 minutes. So now I have to go against my long held aversion to looking at my watch while I'm walking. I had the first one at the 1 hour mark, and then another each 30 minutes after that. I feel great now, so that was at least enough. Next walk I will make it one every 45 minutes and see how I feel at the end of that. The rollups are definitely a big step forward from the dried fruit. I need to do lots of testing yet to determine if they are good for the event.

The biggest news this week is that the organisers in the USA have posted another notice on their web site ( click here ), saying that the announcement of who is in the 2010 event will be delayed until mid-November. Groan. I was surprised by this turn of events, so sent an email to them. To be honest I wasn't happy. They must have sensed my concern in the email because I had an answer the next morning. In it the fellow explained a couple of very important points that I was unaware of beforehand.

1/ If, as I had suggested, they allocated spots in the same in order in which they received emails, then I would definitely have missed out on getting a spot, because they have been receiving enquiries since early 2007. Therefor by holding a lottery, they are actually doing me a favour.
2/ In previous years they have opened the book for bookings only 12 months before the event. But because they have been receiving so many enquiries about the 2010 event since early 2007, they decided to open the book 12 months early.

You may ask, what is so special about the 2010 event? That's a good question. Even though I couldn't care less, it turns out that by choosing to do the walk in 2010, I have chosen the 25th anniversary of the event. And every ultra marathon athlete on the planet wants to be involved in that. Talk about bad timing :-(

The members of the Facebook group are slowly growing. We're up to 94 now.

Training - 6 hours 30 minutes - 35km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 7 units in the morning

It's a long weekend in Melbourne, for the famous "Melbourne Cup" racing carnival. We have a busy weekend of activities, such as a wedding this afternoon, so I won't get a chance for a long training walk. Therefore my hope is to have a shorter walk on each of the 4 days. This morning I did 15km.

I believe I can now say that, so long as I maintain a regular training schedule, I have progressed past 15km being "a long walk". I am at home and feel almost like I just got out of bed. It was a pleasant walk, but could not be considered hard work. My hope is that my training will get me to the point of being able to, with 10 minutes of preparation, be able to go out for a 30km walk without hesitation.

I have now got to that point with 15km.

From the diabetic angle, today was an interesting day. I have been suffering a chest infection, a head cold and heavy sinus for the past 5 days. This has meant that my sugar has been very high each day. If you are not aware, any sort of infection or virus can throw the sugar level way out. So today I couldn't follow my normal routine of reducing the dosage and it became a balancing act / guessing game of how much I would reduce my normal dosage by.

Being a short walk, I opted to take the standard dosage and carry extra food. All went OK without any complications, but it does show how life is never easy or simple with type 1 diabetes.

Training - 2 hours 50 minutes - 15km
Medication - maintained normal dosage

Entry for November 01, 2008

Well, today's walk was very interesting. For a start, it was the hardest walk I've done so far. It was almost equal to the longest distance at just under 35km and the weather was not very good, with wind, cold and rain.

However it was an excellent walk for other reasons. For a start, I felt great at the end of it. Of course my feet were a bit sore, but I felt quite fit and ready to go again. As far as managing adversity, today certainly provided that opportunity. It was threatening rain for the whole walk, and did rain for at least half of it. I loaded the pack a bit more than usual, so it was at about 10kg.

There was an elderly fellow walking his dog along the way and he was interested in what I was doing. I gave him the senior executive summary version and he was gobsmacked. He was so stunned that he struggled for words. I gave him my card and the best he could do was to tell me to be very careful and look after myself. His was the best reaction I've had so far, but everyone who I tell the story to is mighty impressed.

All-in-all, a good training walk. Still about 2 weeks to go until I hear if I'm in the event.

Training - 6 hours 40 minutes - 34km
Medication -reduced normal dosage by 6 units in the morning

Entry for November 03, 2008

Today was interesting walk, being the longest I have done yet at 37km. I left at 5am and was home at 12:10pm.

My pack included an extra 2kg of weight, as I slowly, slowly increase the weight towards the limit of 16kg. I'm guessing today's was about 9kg. I don't intend focussing on the weight until next year, but I have to at least have some weight in it.

I'm using the new fruit strips now instead of the dried apricots, and find them to be vastly better. I have increased the time between strips from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, but I believe that is too long. I felt the sugar going low after 4 hours, so next week I'll make the period between strips 40 minutes.

I have made a mistake this afternoon after getting home from the walk. I stayed active for most of the afternoon, until I sat down and relaxed at 4:30. Big mistake. I fell asleep for 20 minutes and woke feeling like a lump of meat. I considered the situation if I did that during the event and I don't think it would be good. The worst of it is that I usually wake feeling a bit confused. If that happened in the Sahara, I might have trouble keeping track of what is going on with the medication and the food, which would not be good. However Donna has pointed out that I used to be like that after 15km. Now I'm clear headed up to 30+km. So maybe this will improve with time and training.

Next week? I haven't decided yet. It will probablt be another long one, but I'll let you know.

Training - 7 hours 10 minutes - 37km
Medication -reduced normal dosage by 6 units in the morning

Entry for November 09, 2008

Today was great. It was a little different to the normal process because I didn't leave until a little later, which meant the walk spanned my normal lunch time.

I covered 32km today (20 miles for our North American friends). The weather was chilly and blustery to start with, but improved a little as the walk progressed. Because the distance was slightly down on the last walk, I boosted the weight in the pack by a kilogram, so it was at 11.6kg. I need to get the weight up to 16kg, so I'm going to do it very gradually and carefully. I don't want to strain anything unnecessarily.

The main difference caused by spanning my normal lunch time was that I needed to have a fruit strip every 30 minutes at that time, rather than the 40 minutes period I had set myself for the rest of the walk. So the standard period was 40 minutes, with 3 strips around midday spaced 30 minutes apart. It worked well.

The training is definitely having a positive affect. I felt totally human when I got home and really feel I could the same walk again tomorrow. I don't feel "spaced out" or flopping around with no energy. I do feel a little weary, but that's to be expected.

All-in-all a very good walk. Now I'm considering maybe doing a marathon distance for my next walk. We'll see.

Training - 6 hours - 32km
Medication -reduced normal dosage by 6 units in the morning

Entry for November 16, 2008

WELL AT LAST - I have confirmation that I am definitely in the event. A list of "the chosen" has been posted on the web. Now the real work begins.

The weather this weekend is going to be exceedingly appalling, but it's not going to matter too much. We have a busy weekend, so I'm going to be lucky to get a chance to do a short 15km on Sunday. I'll certainly be trying to achieve this.

I went to buy a new pack today and should pick it up next week. This is a serious pack, so I hope it suits the purpose. As with all of my other equipment, only time will tell.

I have made an appointment to see the sports dietician next week. That will be when I start to really get the food thing happening. I've got firm ideas in my head, but it's really just guessing until I discuss the subject with the dietician.

Entry for November 21, 2008

We have a busy weekend this weekend, so I've only been able to get time to do 15km.

What a great little walk this was. A few months ago a 15km walk would have been still a "serious" walk. Now it is really just a stroll with a pack on. So to make it more worthwhile I raised the pack weight a little more. I think it was up around approximately 12kg.

One of the challenges I have given myself is to take no more than 10 minutes to get ready from start to finish. Well, I blew that one today. It took about 20 minutes from when I started until I was walking out the door.

Next weekend I'm going to try to get up to 40km. I'm ready for it, but it's finding the time that is now the challenge.

Training - 2 hours 45 mins - 15km
Medication -reduced normal dosage by 1 unit in the morning

Entry for November 23, 2008

Today was an important day, because I went to see a sports dietician. This was a very successful visit.

The main thing I learned is that, according to the doctors and scientists who know about this stuff, I need to be eating more than twice as much food as I have been during my training so far. And of course that means I have to balance my insulin against the increased food, all of which is carbohydrate. So I'll be increasing my insulin a lot, but doing it very carefully and over a period of time.

Hopefully that will mean I stop losing weight.

I was amazed when the dietician, Vicky, told me about a formula they use to calculate how much energy you need, and therefore food you need to eat when undergoing extreme sports. This means that I need to eat a LOT of food every hour. BTW the amount of food required has nothing at all to do with the diabetes. Everybody needs this food when doing extreme activity apparantly. The diabetes simply means that I need to put in extra effort to balance the food with insulin so my blood glucose doesn't go too high or too low.

So now I'm out there investigating high carbohydrate food that is easy to carry, durable, light in weight, palatable and easily obtainable. The result is a form of gel that is almost pure carbohydrate. Who would have thought I'd be eating so much carbohydrate for 6 days straight. Certainly not me. :-)

Entry for November 25, 2008

The walk today was a first for a number of reasons.
1/   It was the first walk with the new backpack
2/   It was the first walk with the new food regime
3/   It was the first walk with the new insulin regime

First of all, the backpack is brilliant. I was silly and overloaded it with about 15kg, and it carried very well indeed.
The new food regime was interesting. It was as if I was constantly eating, but the effect was that I certainly had more energy. There was an interesting side effect of this though, in that I suffered from my first muscle spasms towards the end. I assume this is because I had more energy and was therefore pushing harder, and tired my muscles out more than previously.
The new insulin regime was also very interesting. I had increased it only by a couple of units, thinking that I would ease it up over time. However, judging by the way I feel now, I may have found the correct dosage purely by luck. I don't feel high and I don't feel low, but I expect to feel a little high tomorrow morning though.

All together, today's was a good walk of 37km and clarified a number of factors. There is still a lot of work to do with the food and the insulin, but I'm confident that I'm getting closer. I'll be visiting with the dietician again in about 3 weeks.

Next week I'll be aiming for another long walk.

Training - 7 hours 20 mins - 37km
Medication -increased normal dosage by 2 units in the morning

Entry for November 30, 2008