Category Archives: Running

The Post Where I Talk Myself out of Seasonal Affective Disorder

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Jeff Mather

Winter does funny things to me.

Starting around Christmas time I start to feel a bit overwhelmed. New prezzies (usually) means new books to add to my reading list. Extra time off work means more opportunities to clean up the detritus of the previous year (or longer). That’s a mixed blessing: freeing up space in my brain to concentrate on the right things without actually getting to spend the time doing those things. I’m being much more ruthless about just chucking stuff this year than in the past, and I think I’ll be done soon.

Almost being done is very good, because I have goals. (I don’t go in for New Year’s resolutions. Anything worth doing is worth starting at any point in the year. Why wait for a particular date to have a clean slate?) I tend to keep my goals to myself, but I’m willing to say that one of them involves trying to pimp-slap my out-of-control bookshelf by reading a certain number of pages each week. I figure that even an incredibly slow reader such as myself should be able to average 15 pages/day.

This goal-thinking was (is?) getting me a little down this year. So much of what I want to do in 2012 involves feats of athletic prowess, but my feet were threatening to get in the way of those feats. Lisa, the awesome exercise psychologist of my dreams, is (slowly) helping me see that I am more than my goals and accomplishments, but I still missed running because I really like it.

The week before my injury, I had a wonderful 12+ mile run that took me to the end of one branch of our local rail-trail and then past it into the exurban farmland and acreages of the neighboring towns before picking up the start of the other branch of the trail and following it home. I am eager to get back to that.

For sure, I was was also stressing that not doing these long training runs might leave me ill-prepared for the Around the Bay 30K in late March . . . or possibly incapable of running it at all. Eventually I told myself that I had to stop worrying about whether or not I would be able to do ATB—or the NYC Tri in July or the half-Ironman in August—and just concentrate on getting well. I could still ride my shiny new bike in the basement, there’s always plenty of swimming to do, and on the last day of work in 2011 I got a personalized weight-training program, which I started last week.

Sometimes I need to be reminded to look at the “big picture.”

By the middle of last week my foot didn’t really hurt very much, although I noticed twinges now and again, especially when I moved my foot in particular ways. It kinda sounded like plantar fasciitis, and it kinda didn’t. Everyone I talked to about it had horror stories about how PF messed up a fellow runner for months or years on end, so I was determined to find out what was actually wrong with me before doing anything stupid. I also wanted to find out the right way to start back up when the time was right. I didn’t want to rush into anything, but I could feel myself losing the exercise-every-day-after-work-and-go-to-the-pool-a-few-mornings-each-week habit that I had developed by the beginning of December.

On Friday, I went to my podiatrist, who said (again), “Boy, your feet are eff’ed the fuck up . .  all loosey-goosey and flat and shit.” And then he went on to say, “You don’t have plantar fasciitis, but you’ve gone and slightly fucked up the long tendon that connects your calf to your big toe via your heel. It’s amazing you’ve been able to get way without this kind of shit for so long. You need expensive orthotic shoe-inserts to keep this from happening again. Now, let me teach you some calf stretches and recovery techniques. You should start popping Aleve like a fiend, too. I’ll tape up your foot, and you can go running tonight if you want. But don’t go for any PRs or bullshit like that for a little while.” (I’m paraphrasing just a wee bit here.)

So I’m quite relieved. I’ve gone running twice since visiting my not-at-all-potty-mouthed podiatrist. Each run felt good, foot-wise. The left one isn’t 100% in the hours afterward, but it’s 10x better than the days after I injured myself. The runs also felt shorter and more difficult than I remember them being a month ago. Even so, these short, difficult runs were awesome.

Speaking of amazing things. I’ve been out on my road bike twice this new year already, and each time I wore shorts. New Years Day was the first time I’d been out since early October, and the lingering chill on the thawing roads couldn’t bring me down. Saturday morning’s sunny, 50°F, 25-mile ride had no chill at all. By way of contrast, at this point last year we had more than 30 inches of snow on the ground, and we were in for 60 more.

So I guess there’s that, too.

Oh, and there’s swimming! The Friday before Christmas I got up super-early despite not needing to go to the office. The pool was open, and I had the chance to get a full hour-and-a-half swim, instead of my typical 40-or-so minutes. The last time I had this opportunity, I swam two miles, and I wanted to give it another go, testing my blood glucose along the way. The results were very much like last time—better actually. My BG stayed almost constant; my 250-yard split times were fairly consistent throughout; and I swam a quarter mile farther in the same amount of time.

Now that I’ve written this, I’m reminded how fickle I can be. Yes, winter can be a cold, dark, lonely, depressing, snowy, stir-crazy-making time of the year. But it seems that all I need is a good report from the doctor, a run or two, an outdoor bike ride, a nice swim, and the constant loving support of Lisa for me to feel like a good spring is just around the corner.


p.s. I guess I should add that last night Lisa and I watched a documentary about U.S. athletes in the Beijing Olympics. It wasn’t the best thing ever, but it sure looked beautiful on our new high-def TV. I can barely wait to see this year’s games. Hurry summer don’t be late.

Posted in Cycling, Life Lessons, Reluctant Triathlete, Running, Swimming | 4 Comments

Progress Report

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Jeff Mather

I went for a run today on the treadmill. (I like watching “The Walking Dead” while I run and go nowhere. It seems appropriate for the brainlessness of the treadmill.) It was my first run since I felt the pain of plantar fasciitis appear six miles into my easy, seven mile, recovery-week run on Sunday. Even though I didn’t feel any pain this morning when I got out of bed (the time when it’s usually worst) I only ran three easy miles. I don’t want to push my recovery.

And tomorrow morning, I’m going back to the pool for the first time since last Friday. I had such a great swim a week ago that I planned to write that evening about how awesome it was. Except, by the time the evening rolled around, I couldn’t raise my left arm high enough without pain to use the computer. After five days off, I probably could have gone back yesterday, but I didn’t want to push that either.

Being injured was hard. Being doubly injured was ten times worse. I’m so happy to be well enough to get back to training. *touch wood*

(I’m not a superstitious or magical-thinking thinking kind of person, though I am known to indulge in two things. When things are going really well, I don’t like to talk about it. Everything could suddenly change. Why? Hubris, of course. It’s best to just keep going quietly as long as things are going well, all the while expecting that bad things could happen at any moment. . . . I also throw salt over my shoulder when I spill some, because throwing salt is fun.)

Friends, I am not good at being injured. The first few days were the most difficult. On Monday, I definitely had my cranky pants on. I tend to arrive at the worst possible conclusions: I’ll be injured for a long time; I won’t be able to do the events that I’ve signed up for; I won’t be able to achieve my goals; I won’t be able to be who I want to be. I’m a very goal-oriented person, and I derive a lot of my self-worth from setting and meeting them. (Lisa and I debate whether or not this is not a good way of thinking. At any rate, I need to remember to take the long view.)

I’m trying to be better at handling the occasional injury, and I feel grateful that each of my recent issues were very minor in the great scheme of things. And I need to start working on my injury prevention.


So what was I going to write on Friday? Given that I already injured myself, there’s no fate to tempt by talking about how great my swim on Friday was.

I’m not very fast yet, but I’m consistent during my workouts. I also think I’m improving my technique: I have started to feel my catch more, and I’m starting to see how to generate power during my stroke. Despite these improvements—which may or may not have caused my shoulder problem—I was starting to wonder whether I was actually getting faster or not. After all, the whole point of working on technique is to reduce my times, and I was much faster in the open-water over the summer than I ever have been at the pool. But what about my times just at the pool?

I went back to the historical record (a.k.a., mapmyrun.com). Turns out, I am swimming faster—and not just a little. Last Friday, I swam a bit over a mile at 36:12/mile pace. That’s two minutes faster than on Halloween and more than three minutes faster than just before my first triathlon. At this time last year, I swam at a 43:00/mile pace . . . and I wasn’t even going a full mile. This is a great trend, and I hope to keep it going. (And for the record, the first time I went to the pool, I swam six lengths in twenty-five minutes. That’s 277 minutes per mile.)

See you at the pool!

Posted in General, Historical Record, Life Lessons, Reluctant Triathlete, Running, Swimming | 1 Comment

What (Kinda) Works Now

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Chris sent me a message saying that someone might ask me about running with type-1 diabetes. I haven’t yet heard from him/her, but it got me thinking about what I’m doing now and how it’s going. It’s not perfect, of course, but I’m actually in a pretty good place.

Let’s start with the big disclaimers. First, this is what (kinda) works for me. Your diabetes may vary; it likely will. Second, this has only recently started working for me; it could all change tomorrow. Third, it assumes that you use an insulin pump and that your basal and bolus rates are correct-ish; mine are getting there. Finally, I can’t consistently reproduce what I do in training when I’m racing; something always seems to happen.

Remember, three big things impact BGs during exercise: insulin, food, and intensity. (There are other things, but these are the big ones that you can control.)

Active Insulin: I tend to workout when I have no (or, at least, minimal) insulin on board. For example, I swim and do my long running/cycling first thing in the morning before any boluses. And when I workout in the afternoon, it’s been 4-5 hours since my lunch bolus. This means that there’s very little extra insulin to bring down my blood sugar. When I do have rather high BGs (but no ketones) because I misjudged a meal, for example, I will sometimes give myself a little insulin. I’m really conservative doing this, though, since it usually brings me down more than I think it will.

Basal Insulin: I am starting to think that changing my basal insulin has less of an effect (for me) than I had originally suspected. This might be because my basal rates are fairly low now, or it could be that my body is better at using fat and carbs together than it was in the past. Who knows? Anyway, when I run or ride my bike, I set a 30% reduction 1-2 hours before I start. Usually longer in the afternoon and shorter in the morning, since I like sleeping. When I swim, I set a 0% basal rate (i.e., no insulin) starting 45-or-so minutes before I hop in the water. There are three reasons: (1) I’m skittish when it comes to insulin and water, (2) it’s similar to what happens during triathlons, where I need to detach from my pump to leave it in transition before hopping in the water, and (3) it seems to work.

Food Before: Food is not the best part of the three for me. I want to eat more before I train, because food is fuel, and I hate running out of steam. (We’re remarkably like people without diabetes in this respect.) Food normally means insulin, which violates that whole “minimal insulin on board” thing. But I’m working on getting myself in a mindset where I can experiment with small amounts of insulin to cover pre-athletic carbs. High glycemic foods still spike my BGs when I’m working out, often more than I would like. Lower glycemic things do better, but quantity counts; 20g of carbs from Greek yoghurt about 10 minutes before I did a two-hour run worked well yesterday, the first time I tried it. Be careful here.

Food During: I tend to eat like I don’t have diabetes when I bike or run. It’s just how it works for me. I eat an energy gel every 45 minutes to keep up my energy. I also carry a full tube of glucose tablets with me, just in case. And I drink water. Water is important.

Food and Insulin After: I find that I always need to give myself insulin after I’m done exercising. I haven’t yet figured out how much to give, but I usually bolus the full amount of any correction I would need (or enough to bring me down 25 mg/dL [1.5 mmol] if my BGs are in range). After really hard workouts, I like a protein-rich snack with carbs. (Odwalla’s Chocolate Protein Monster is my favorite.) These carbs and protein are important for recovery, and I find it necessary to bolus the full amount for this snack, even though I will eventually be more insulin sensitive for the next 24 hours after big workouts.

Frequency: It helps to have a regular frequency, usually three or four times per week (or more). If I workout at least this often—although I can’t remember the last time I did less—my insulin sensitivity stays much more “normal” than if I don’t. Consistency is key.

Supplies: I bring these things with me on my workouts.

  • A full tube of glucose tablets
  • My pump (enclosed in a Zip-Lock bag to keep perspiration from killing it)
  • My BG meter when I go on longer runs or when I’m curious about what’s happening on shorter outings. I use the OneTouch Ultra Mini just for exercise.
  • Energy gels. I’m not very brand-loyal; I like vanilla and chocolate Gu and Clif Shots and just about any Hammer Gel flavor.
  • Water (in a FuelBelt Sprint Palm Holder)
  • I also carry about $10-15 with me in case I need to buy some extra food.

There are some other things I like, but they don’t have anything to do with diabetes preparedness. I have a Petzl Tikka headlamp, which is great for running on these dark afternoon; I’ve never had a jacket as nice as my Asics one; and I need shorts and pants with pockets . . . and a drawstring. (Without the drawstring, all of the extra stuff in my pockets makes ‘em fall right off.)

Good luck! And just remember, do whatever works; there’s no single right way.

Posted in Cycling, Diabetes, General, Life Lessons, Reluctant Triathlete, Running, Swimming | 7 Comments

Titration

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Jeff Mather

titration: (noun) the process of gradually adjusting the dose of a medication until optimal results are reached.

I remember doing titration in high school chemistry class and not really enjoying it. You wait and wait and wait for something to happen while adding more and more and more reagent to a flask in the hopes that it will turn a pretty color. Or rather, after a game of rock-paper-scissors, your lab partner adds the reagent to the flask while you write down measurements and try to stay awake. Even though I loved learning about chemical reactions and trying to recreate some of them at home—how did I not burn the house down playing with purloined magnesium tape?—I think the titration lab was the one where I realized higher-level studies in chemistry weren’t for me.

It feels so similar now as I try to titrate the correct dosage of insulin to give when I exercise. It’s still the process of running multiple experiments involving adding a known amount of chemicals—in this case food and insulin—coupled with a lot of record-keeping. The big differences of course being that (a) I’m the flask to which the chemicals are added, (b) I have to wait a week between experiments, and (c) there are reagent strips I use with my blood glucose meter that together tell me the values and keep track of them for me. And, of course, the really big difference: If I mess up the experiment too badly I can’t just poor the contents of the flask down the lab desk’s drain.

After all this time, I still don’t really like titrating—it’s scarier to mess with insulin than it is to burn magnesium tape—but I also don’t like these other things when I’m training:

  • being hungry
  • running out of energy
  • experiencing hypoglycemia
  • having high blood glucose
  • not knowing what’s going to happen

Unfortunately, in this lab experiment, each apparatus person with diabetes is different. Otherwise I would just ask my awesome internet friends. Even I probably won’t give the same results from one week to the next. That being said, last week’s experience of going way up during the first 45 minutes of my long run and then holding steady for the next 45 minutes (eating beforehand and along the way) was the same as today’s.

Next long run (in two weeks) I’m going to add some bolus insulin and see what happens. I’m going to start minutely small and go from there. I have about sixteen weeks until Around the Bay, and I don’t feel any particular need to approach the problem via bisection. I’ll just use the normal titration method, starting small and gradually adding more until I find the “right answer. . .” or something near it.

Today’s run was actually quite good, elevated BGs notwithstanding. The weather was beautiful in the Bay State this weekend, and I got up early enough that I didn’t feel rushed to get home before we went to see the film “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” (It’s good, but bleak. Wicked bleak. “Winter’s Bone” bleak. Life lesson: stay away from John Hawkes.) I picked the 10-mile loop with three mile-or-longer hills, and I threw about fifteen minutes of tempo running into the middle of it. I figure I’ll gradually keep adding longer stretches of high intensity as I add more distance.

And Tuesday I’m going to see a guy about a bike.

Posted in Data-betes, Diabetes, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2011, Running | 1 Comment

Just Do It

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Jeff Mather

“There’s no secret to it. It’s just a lot of years and a lot of getting up, putting on the shoes and getting out the door on those days when it doesn’t feel good and when it’s not all that fun and still putting in the work.”

I read this Jenny Barringer Simpson quotation from Running Times early this morning before going to the pool. You might remember Barringer Simpson from that awesome photo of her winning the 1500m. It’s kind of what I needed to help getting me going today.

Posted in Life Lessons, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2011, Running | Leave a comment

On My Way to Around the Bay

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Several weeks ago, I expressed some interest in possibly running the Around the Bay 30K race in Hamilton, Ontario, in late March. It was between the New Bedford Half Marathon and Around the Bay, which are on subsequent weekends. The decision depended on the dates of our trip to Barcelona. We booked our tickets to Spain over the weekend, and I moved on to picking a race.

I talked it over with Lisa and Scully (friend and future Team Type 1 women’s cycling team rider) and Céline (friend and possible future multisport athlete). The decision: I’m going to run Around the Bay.

It will be my longest race ever. I’m sure I can do the distance, but I’m still working through how I want to approach it. I love running, and I love racing, but they’re often at odds. When I race, I expect to go as hard as I can, but I’m not a masochist. I expect that running a 30K (18.6 miles) is much more like running a marathon—which I’ve never expressed any interest in doing—than running 5K or 10K races, which I like because they’re short enough that I can go all out the whole time.

The ironic thing is that, despite not planning to run a marathon anytime in the foreseeable future, I’ve started a marathon training plan. (I know you’re saying it’s just a matter of time. La la la . . . I can’t hear you.) It looks doable, peaking at 20-mile long runs instead of the 14-milers of the half-marathon plan I was using. It only has three days of running each week, which leaves me plenty of time for my other tri training, but I wonder if that’s enough volume to help me get faster at the longer distances.

I showed my plan to 2:22 Marathon Man, my awesome coworker. (He’s a fantastic guy. We’ve worked on some great features together that I can’t tell you about yet. We also had a lot of fun in San Diego and the Imperial County backcountry some years ago before a medical imaging conference. He’s also a wicked fast runner and very generous with training advice.) His assessment was that it was pretty good, but that if I want to run a consistently fast pace for longer periods of time, I need to run longer tempo runs, possibly as part of my weekly long runs. This will also, he noted, give me a chance to work on practicing my race-day nutrition plan and diabetes management. That was already on my list of off-season goals, and this will (I hope) expand my chances of success.

Tonight I put on my bright yellow shirt, strapped on my headlamp, and went for the first tempo run using my new training plan this evening. In the dark. In the sleet. On the completely uncrowded rail trail. It was great!

Posted in NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2011, Running | 4 Comments

No Sour Notes

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Jeff Mather

I’m having a pretty good weekend so far.

And different in so many ways from last weekend! I did not go into the office to work. It is not snowing. Etc.

We had lunch with a friend and her daughter today. I can’t believe how long it had been since we saw Gillian. Years. Long enough that I felt obliged to make the visit an item on my 101 in 1001 list. It certainly was wonderful seeing her; we should do it again . . . sooner.

This evening, Lisa and I went to hear the opening concert of the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra’s 2011-2012 season with a friend from Lisa’s choral group. They’re a local symphony, and I’ll admit that I was expecting a fair amount of pitchy notes, missed cues, and amateurism. Over the years, many people have said that they’re very good; then again, many people say that Applebees is really good. (You can feel free to call me a snob if you want to.) I was so pleased to be wrong. They’re quite accomplished! Life in the suburbs isn’t quite so unrefined as you might think.

Tomorrow I’m going for a long run . . . on snow-free roads. Yay! While I’m out, I’ll be thinking about Caroline, my twin-in-awesomeness who is running the NYC Marathon tomorrow morning.

Posted in 101 in 1001, General, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2011, Running | Leave a comment

3600 Yards

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Here’s a quick update about yesterday’s race: I’m a bit sore.

Was it the lack of arch support in my spikes? The dehydration? Maybe the exertion of running three miles before digging deep to find a kick that helped me pass five or six people in the last tenth of a mile? (I forgot to put that into my “Snap out of it! You should feel good about your race” calculus last night.) Who knows for sure? Not me. Whatever the cause, it’s here—slight, but here.

When I got out of bed today, my first thought was (as always) “OMG, it’s early!” The second was that I’m glad today is a swimming day instead of a running day. There was the aforementioned (mild) soreness, and also I knew I wasn’t going to run after work, since we have a customer visiting from 6:15 to 8:15.

When I realized on Friday that I was going to work later, I decided that I would also go to work later. This presented me with an opportunity: swim extra long. Most Monday, Wednesday, and/or Friday mornings, I swim for about thirty to forty minutes, starting at 5:45. Despite my early departure, the pool is open until 7:15. The longest that I had ever swam before was back when Lisa and I would swim for an hour on Saturday afternoons, but that was a while ago. I decided to see how far I could swim in an hour and a half.

Actually, my goal was to see if I could swim two miles. I had swam about 1.25 miles before, but most of my swims are about a mile. One day at the reservoir, somebody sprang the idea of swimming an extra mile, doubling our normal route. I really wanted to take them up on the offer, but I wasn’t ready. Physically I knew I could probably do it, but I was worried about the diabetes part. I didn’t have extra snacks with me—though I usually carry a gel or two in the ankle of my wetsuit—and I didn’t know what my blood sugar was going to do on a swim that long. I declined; September came around; it got colder, darker, and rainier; and I thought my chances were gone until next summer. Then today came along!

I was also going to use this swim to see what happens to my blood sugar on long swims. I brought a small chamois towel to dry my hands and my “exercise” meter with me onto the pool deck, along with a bottle of water. (Swimming is thirsty business.) A half hour earlier I had turned my pump down to 0% and eaten an obscenely large banana. At the time, my BG was 121. (Yay!) Half an hour in, Lisa had to leave to go to work. I took a break, gave her a goodbye smooch, drank some water, and tested: 161. (Yay!) Another half hour later, at around 1.25 miles, I tested again: 115. (A bit of a drop, but . . . Yay!) Finally, at 7:15 I stopped, looked around, saw that I was the last person in the pool, and tested: 120. (Woo-fucking-hoo!) When you take out the time when I was testing, I swam 2 miles in 1:21. And I did it all while rocking the happy BGs.

What a difference a day makes!

I’m still not a very graceful or efficient swimmer. I’ve swallowed my pride and started doing a few drills from the Total Immersion system, and I can start to feel a few changes coming on. In particular, I’m trying to be more of a “front quadrant” swimmer. Instead of being a whirligig-like wind-up swimmer with windmilling arms, I should try to keep one hand out in front of me longer. Lengthening out my body should help keep me streamlined and tilted correctly in the water, and I can already feel it starting to change where my power is coming from, as it moves from just my shoulders to include my core. It’s slow going, making these changes. I’m glad I have the rest of the winter to work on my form.


p.s. — My Internet-friend—hopefully one day my have-met-in-real-life-friend—Céline has been swimming a lot lately. It’s fun to watch someone have many of the same experiences that I’ve had.

Posted in Data-betes, Diabetes, Life Lessons, Running, Swimming | 3 Comments

There Will Be Mud

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Lisa is my sports psychologist. While she’s not a licensed mental health practitioner, she’s a good listener, asks probing questions, knows me pretty well, and has a basic philosophy I can get down with: “Snap out of it!”

So I kinda knew where the conversation was headed just after I started it while we were making dinner this evening.

“I need to talk to you about how I can feel better about my time today.” I ran a 22:57 at the Mayor’s Cup 5K race in Franklin Park, Boston.

“Well, it’s only about a minute off your best, right?” It’s true. I set my (most recent ten years) PR of 21:48 in Holliston over Memorial Day.

“And you weren’t that far behind your most recent race.” It’s true, in September I did 22:26. Of course, it’s on local roads that I’ve covered (easily) a hundred times, where I know each crack in the sidewalk, not to mention every uphill and downhill. But . . .

“But I know you feel like your times are going the wrong way.” It’s true. That’s part of it for sure.

“Today was a cross-country race, right?” Yeah. There was grass and mud and short, steep uphills and downhills to bomb and tight turns. It was glorious! At one point, a runner started to squeeze me toward a mud hole to keep her feet dry; a little (I mean tiny) shove from my arm kept everybody where they needed to be. I had forgotten how much I love the click-click-click sound of running spikes as they cross a road or cart path. But all that grass, mud, uphill/downhill, and turning certainly counts for a little time.

“It’s the diabetes, huh?” Yes. I couldn’t seem to bring my blood glucose down below 200 mg/dL (11 mmol) overnight, and it totally messed up my race-day plan. The plan was to lower my basal when I left home, eat a banana when I started to warm up, and run with happy BGs during the race. Instead, I left the house in the low-200s, got to the event in the mid-200s, and started the race at 318 (17.6). I ended up eating and bolusing for something small just before the start, but I was hungry and also a bit dehydrated from all the peeing that I’m sure was related to the highs.

“It’s tough, but you’ll get it figured out soon.” That’s my goal for this off-season. I want to learn how to run while eating and shooting insulin, but (honestly) it scares the bejeezus out of me. But nothing ventured, nothing gained; I’m just going to have to suck it up, eat something like what I hope to eat before a race or triathlon, and then go for a run. If I can’t really race over the winter, I can pretend.

“You’re too hard on yourself.” It’s so true. We all are in our little house. Well, maybe not the cat. He thinks he’s perfect.

Here are some pictures from my race today. As always, there are captions that you can see by clicking on an image, which also makes the pictures bigger. So why not start by clicking on the first and going through ‘em?

Posted in Diabetes, I am Rembrandt, Life Lessons, Photography, Running | 2 Comments

My New Favorite Running Picture

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Jeff Mather


This photograph of Jenny Barringer Simpson winning the women’s 1500m world championship in Daegu, South Korea, is my new, all-time favorite. I’m going to cut it out and put it next to the treadmill. Maybe it will help me get through another long winter in the basement.

Lisa suspects that my previous favorite was a photo of Paula Radcliffe (like this one maybe) or steeplechase—I do love the steeplechase. Although, it’s still tough to beat the picture in Sports Illustrated from the late 80s of the guy on crutches running the NYC marathon while a bunch of young sisters stare at his awesomeness. I couldn’t find it online. Sorry.

Posted in OPP, Running | Leave a comment

Hmm…

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Jeff Mather

I was thinking about my athletic goals for 2012, which I will discuss in another post soon, when I—well, let’s just show a bunch of “random” facts.

  • A few months ago, we started planning a trip to Barcelona in March 2012.
  • We’re absolutely, positively going to Barcelona in March. No question about it: It’s going to be Lisa and me in Barcelona in March of 2012.
  • Last year I ran the New Bedford Half Marathon (21km) and got pwned by my blood sugar.
  • I swore I would make New Bedford my bitch.
  • Next year’s NBHM is March 18.
  • Over the last year I’ve met some of my diabetes peeps in NYC, Boston, DC, and Kansas City.
  • This month we met a bunch of my online peeps because of Simonpalooza.
  • I like meeting my online peeps in person.
  • Several of my Canadian peeps are planning on running the Around the Bay Road Race (30km).
  • Next year’s Around the Bay is March 25.
  • I’ve never seen Niagara Falls.
  • Visiting Toronto again and seeing Niagara Falls are on my “101 things to do in 1001 days” list.
  • Around the Bay is in Hamilton, ON, which is halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls, an hour in each direction.

Like I said, totally random facts.

Wait a minute! Maybe I should run the Around the Bay Road Race at some point, whether that’s 2012 or 2013. Brilliant!

Let the negotiations (about New Bedford or Ontario, but not about Barcelona) begin.

Posted in 101 in 1001, Diabetes, General, Running, Travel | 4 Comments

Où vas-tu?

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Jeff Mather

You know, when you point Google Maps at where the gendarme put out his arm to hit me in the chest and stop me cold in my tracks while running on Tuesday, it looks pretty obvious that I should have known it was coming. But—in my defense—it didn’t look exactly like this a few days ago; I don’t remember any of those concrete barriers being there, and the fence was not across the sidewalk.


View Larger Map

At any rate, there was no need for the officer to tutoyer me: “Où vas-tu?” I mean, asking me where I’m going like that is rather rude. We’re both adults here.

Crazy city running encounters with les flics notwithstanding, I had a great trip. Now I’m home and hoping to steer clear of the man. More photos and bons mots about the trip to follow this weekend.

Posted in City of Light, Running, Travel | 2 Comments

Homeward Bound

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Mom and I are at Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting for our flight back to Boston. It’s been a good trip, full of excitement and adventure and good food and things that you can’t get at home. In my mind that’s the ideal reason to travel.

We accidentally got in the wrong line at immigration—the one reserved for EU residents. Oops! Somehow we managed to get in the same queue as a group going to Montreal, and it wasn’t until we were all the way near the front that I realized that the travelers I was talking to were going there to visit and not to return home. So we had to cut in line when we got to the head of the queue. Ironically, it was right in front of the Chinese tour group that had cut in line in front of us at check-in. What goes around comes around, I guess.

We had a good time in Paris. Saw lots of highlights. Ate plenty of food. And, of course, wandered into some delightful situations that you so frequently find in Paris.

I went running a couple of times. Paris is not the easiest city to run in. Although if you stay close to the Seine it all works out. Today I went more inland on the right bank, and I got stopped by the gendarmerie twice as I ran past the Palais d’Élysées—once rather forcefully. I guess Szarko must have been at home.

But now I’m almost home. I’m so happy to see Lisa, the love of my life, again. It’s been the longest we’ve been apart in fourteen years.

We’ll see how much of my book I can read.

20110927-065150.jpg

Posted in City of Light, Running, Travel | Leave a comment

Two Races

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Jeff Mather

If triathlon and racing have done anything this summer, it has been to get me out of bed at an early hour. On many weekdays, I left the house at 5:30 to get to the lake by 5:45. And on too many weekend mornings, I was up before 7:00 to go for a long bike ride, compete in a triathlon, or run a race. The consensus around the reservoir on Labor Day, when we all met at our normal 6:00 time, was that we needed to get our heads examined. I’m not complaining; life is choices after all. I’m happy with mine, though I am a bit tired.

Yesterday morning I got up just a little early—7:30—to run a 5K . . . in my own town! I’ve never been able to walk to the start of a race before. It was great! I hadn’t been running much over the last 5-6 weeks, so I wasn’t expecting to be anywhere near my PR of 21:47. My goal was simply to find out what my paces should be as I develop a new training plan. In the end, I finished 18th of 118 in 22:26, which made me quite happy. (If I’d run my old PR yesterday, I would have finished—get this!— 17th. Of course, I would have also won a prize for being third in my age group.)

I'm #108, the guy in the blue singlet.

Today, I got up a bit earlier to drive one town over and watch my coworker compete in her first triathlon: the women’s only Title 9 Tri. It was a beautiful morning, and she did really, really well. (Second in her age group and well within the top 25%.) Way to go, Loren!

Here are some photos I took this morning.

Posted in I am Rembrandt, Reluctant Triathlete, Running | Leave a comment

Sharon Triathlon

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Jeff Mather

Today I competed in the Sharon Triathlon and am very happy with my top 1/3 result. It’s hard for me to believe that just over three months ago I did my first triathlon, when I compare how that first one went and this one. While that other one wasn’t awful, it was much different than I had expected. This one, by contrast, was even more awesome than I had expected.

Here I am. Lisa got up very, very early with me to get there very, very early. She’s a peach.


Since the previous triathlon—where I swam a quarter-mile in 12:30—I’ve really worked at improving my open-water swimming skills. It occurred to me this morning while waiting for the start that I probably should have signed up as a normal “age grouper” instead of as a newbie. But I signed up back in the day when I wasn’t quite so comfortable, and what’s done is done. The swim was actually quite good: 17:00-or-so for a half-mile. Well, okay . . . it was difficult. Unlike my open-water swim practice, the water this morning was rather choppy. Was that because of the breeze over the lake or the dozens of other swimmers around me? At any rate, it was difficult because I still need better technique to go with the confidence and speed that I’ve been developing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed catching swimmers who started five, ten, and even fifteen minutes before me.

After my good-enough swim there was the first of the two parts I was actually dreading: transition. I actually contemplated calling this post “Lost in Transition,” but I didn’t want you to think (incorrectly) that I was displeased with my race before you even got to the first paragraph. My transition times—well, there’s nothing to do but be blunt—sucked. Somewhere between flopping about in the shallow water while taking off my wetsuit, actually getting lost on the way back to my bike, having trouble with my blood glucose meter, and trying to put on my shoes without getting sand in my socks, I frittered away about seven or eight minutes of time to everyone else’s three or four. Clearly, that’s something to work on.

The bike was really good. Like last time, I did all of the passing. (Well, technically I did get passed by two riders who were drafting off each other, but they turned left when the course turned right, so I say that doesn’t count.) The course was quite flat, and I was hoping to average around 20 mph. With the roads wet from the light drizzle that had been falling all morning, I was very happy with the fact that I almost made it.

And finally, the run. Unlike my first tri, I wasn’t coming off training for a half-marathon. In fact, I had kinda let my running slip a bit over the last couple months, and I was starting to notice it in the trouble I’d had hitting my times during my quality workouts. Plus, I had also been cramping a bit at the end of a couple swims, which I chalked up to the fact that the back of my body from my lower-back to my calves had been really tight the last week, almost to the point of pain a couple days. So I was a little nervous about pushing a hard run after an hour of swimming and biking, but it went well. I never really get the typical “brick” legs after switching from the bike to the run (*touch wood*) and today they felt good, too. My goal was to find a mildly uncomfortable pace and go with that; which I did. 7:53/mile isn’t much to write home about, but it was good enough today.

So there we have it. Swim=good. Bike=good. Run=good. Transitions=room for improvement. I’m digging this whole triathlon thing, and I want to do more of it. I have thoughts about where I want to go with it, but I’m keeping my cards close to my vest because I don’t know how much time I can actually devote and how I can balance it with everything else in my life. We’ll see.

Of course, there’s still that issue of diabetes. I had hoped that I could cobble together the things that were individually working for me in the morning. The swim that starts near 150 mg/dL and ends at 100. The bike ride that starts at 120 and ends in the same vicinity. And the run that starts at 150 and ends slightly higher. But enough was different that when I started around 150 before the swim, I ended it near 350. Ugh. And then I went up a bit more during the bike. As a result, my ability to take on extra carbs was severely limited, so I pretty much did the whole tri after only eating a pre-swim granola bar and a banana. Next time. Next time.

And there will be a next time, because I feel like I can keep getting better, and I’m having a lot of fun.

Posted in Cycling, Diabetes, Reluctant Triathlete, Running, Swimming | 5 Comments