PHIL SOUTHERLAND

Phil talks to Cycling news

2011-12-04T20:56:00.001-05:00

Rwanda: Year 2

2011-11-17T14:46:00.001-05:00

“We’ve packed up 200 blood glucose meters, 100,000 donated test strips and more than 10,000 lancing devices to bring with us into Kigali, and we’re committed to seeing that every one of the 650 kids in Rwanda with type 1 diabetes gets enough supplies to manage and control his or her disease for a year,” Team Type 1 –Sanofi CEO Phil Southerland said.

More information can be found at Team Type 1 website.

2011-10-19T18:49:00.001-04:00

Honored to be mentioned by Riva Greenberg in Huffington Post some weeks ago. Ms. Greenberg also honored my mother, Joanna Southerland.

In Italy

2011-06-19T08:14:00.001-04:00

Team Type 1 make Italian news. Watch here!

2011-05-10T12:24:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends, Fans, Supporters:

I would just like to say a big thank you for being a part of my story, and my life. Today is a very special day, in that my life's memoir, Not Dead Yet, hits the book shelves. This is one of my proudest days, and I am hoping just a spring board to allow Team Type 1 to continue to help people around the world with their diabetes, while also working to make change on a broad scale level. It would mean the world to me if you would grab a copy for yourself, and share with your friends, family, colleagues who may benefit from this story.

I have included a few links to reviews that were written, and also links to purchase. Again, I can't thank you enough for your support, and for helping me to change the way the world views diabetes. If you grab a copy, it would be fantastic if you could let your Facebook friends and followers know, as I know all will get something out of Not Dead Yet.

Thank you again, and have a GREAT day.

Phil

Take a look at the following reviews:
Diabetes Mine
Diabeteshealth

Hope Warshaw

You can purchase at any of the following including Kindle or IPad Version.

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Borders

Rwanda

2011-04-16T09:43:00.003-04:00

Phil traveled to Rwanda

Children with type 1 diabetes in Rwanda will live longer, healthier and happier lives thanks in part to a program set up by Team Type 1, a professional cycling squad based in the United States, and a partnership of international government and academic health organizations.

Team Type 1's CEO and founder Phil Southerland returned to Kigali in February and brought together representatives from Rwanda's Ministry of Health, the Rwanda Diabetes Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Embassy in Rwanda and the University of Pittsburgh to set up a project aimed at educating local doctors and patients about diabetes detection and access to information and donated supplies. (MORE)

1) Medical Supplies

2) The second part of our work in Rwanda is training doctors and nurses from 500 health care clinics to diagnose and detect diabetes, and then providing information to patients about free access to the donated supplies, Southerland said.

Speak Italian? Italian TV and News

2011-03-29T10:09:00.001-04:00

Phil on National Public Radio's "Only a Game"

2011-03-05T15:07:00.002-05:00

from Boston - listen here or download Podcast LINK

Or DOWNLOAD Podcast of the 3/5/11 show.

Phil, Team Type 1, Type 1 Research

2011-03-01T09:10:00.002-05:00

> Phil talks about Team Type 1's partnering to research on the impact of exercise on diabetes.

World Diabetes Day Tallahassee

2010-11-14T08:11:00.001-05:00

TALLAHASSEE
Today - Come Anytime between 10 & 5 (details below)
INDOOR CYCLING at Sweat Therapy Fitness
1122 Thomasville Road Unit 10
Tallahassee, FL 32303 850 222-1781

TWO: Eat @ Tijuana Flats - mention diabetes - Mahan or Pensacola Streets.

THREE: Take part in BLUE lighting ceremony @ Chez Pierre, Thomasville Road and post-ride stretch.

SUNDAY DETAILS: Sweat Therapy, begins at 10 A.M. and ends at 5 P.M
Simply sit in a bike, pedal, and help kids with diabetes!
TMH Diabetes Center - Diabetes Risk Assessment
Water, Food, CupCakes, HoneyTree, next to Finnegan's Wake
Bike a thon. Donations to ride accepted at door OR Click and Join one of our Teams or Donate
Your donation: 50% Goes to LOCAL diabetic children to attend diabetes camp through TMH Diabetes Center AND 50% Goes through Rotary to Team Type 1 to donate insulin and diabetic supplies to children with diabetes in Rwanda. Team Type 1 is racing in Rwanda.

EAT SUNDAY NOV 14, 2010:
Tijuana Flats MENTIONING "DIABETES"IS NECESSARY
3111 Mahan Dr.
Tallahassee, FL 32308
850-597-7001
2020 W Pensacola St.
Tallahassee, FL 32304
850-574-4689

My Hometown Team UP for Diabetes November

2010-11-04T22:22:00.001-04:00

TEAM UP FOR DIABETES
PROVIDE DIABETES EDUCATION AND DIABETIC SUPPLIES FOR KIDS

You can have your cake and eat it too, EXERCISE if you do! Ask for blue cupcakes at THE CAKE SHOP.

Sweat Therapy Fitness 11.14.10
Indoor Cycling
1122 Thomasville Road Unit 10
Tallahassee, FL 32303 850 222-1781

SUNDAY, 11.14. 2010 - Beginning at 10 A.M. and ending at 5 P.M
Simply sit in a bike, pedal, and help kids with diabetes!
TMH Diabetes Center - Diabetes Risk Assessment
Water, Food, CupCakes, HoneyTree, next to Finnegan's Wake
Bike a thon. Donations to ride accepted at door. Click Join one of our Teams or Donate
50% Goes to LOCAL diabetic children to attend diabetes camp through TMH Diabetes Center

50% Goes through Rotary to Team Type 1 to donate insulin and diabetic supplies to children with diabetes in Rwanda. Team Type 1 is racing in Rwanda.

Calendar to see "what's happening for diabetes awareness."

Email: joanna@teamtype1.org or call 850.443.0152 to get involved.

ONGOING: BUY Cupcakes with BLUE icing at The Cake Shop 1908 Capital Cr. NE Tallahassee any day through Nov. 14 and around Tallahassee. Funds go to Team Up for Diabetes!

ONGOING: Buy special vitamins and food at Honey Tree Natural Foods Portiona of proceeds donated to Team Up for Diabetes!

MONDAY, NOV 8th: FSU CYCLING TEAM Spins at Integration Statue with BLUE icing cupcakes for donation to the cause at Florida State University to support World Diabetes Day. Funds go to Team Up for Diabetes.
Tuesday NOV. 9th - Alpha Phi Omega RHO Chapter - selling blue cupcakes around Ogelsby Union (donations go to above cause)

SUNDAY, NOV 14, 2010: WORLD DIABETES DAY! Come to Sweat Therapy Fitness after 10 A.M to 5 P.M and be part of any "relay" team pedaling to "fight diabetes." Riders only have to be 48" tall and be able to pedal.
Join one of our Teams or Donate

SUNDAY NOV 14, 2010:Tijuana Flats MENTION DIABETES IS NECESSARY
3111 Mahan Dr.
Tallahassee, FL 32308
850-597-7001
2020 W Pensacola St.
Tallahassee, FL 32304
850-574-4689

FOLLOWING WEEK
SATURDAY Nov, 20th, 2010: Premier Health SUPER CLASS (donations accepted for the Blue Cupcakes funds go to Team Up for Diabetes!

SUNDAY Nov 21 2010: Go to Fermentation Lounge, buy BLUE Beer, and BLUE cupcakes - we are about eating and drinking responsibly. Portions of proceeds donated to Team Up for Diabetes!
TUESDAY, November 23, 2010: Eat at Red Elephant Restaurants in Tallahssee, Florida. Portions of proceeds dontated to Team Up for Diabetes!

910 Kerry Forest Pkwy C3, Tallahassee - (850) 668-7492 1872 Thomasville Rd, Tallahassee - (850) 222-7492

World Diabetes Day Nov. 14, 2010

2010-08-20T21:41:00.001-04:00

Posted last year "World Diabetes Day:

I hope everyone is rocking, and thanks for the comments. Things have been hectic as always, and I have been running my mouth with a new focus. The way the world works for me, is when I get a vision, and enough people tell me it is crazy, or I can't do it, then I feel the need to prove them wrong, especially if it benefits the people.

When I was in Vienna for EASD, I found out the the cost to provide insulin for all 70,000 people who will die early deaths if not received is $10million/year. With all the money going out there to save banks, pay A-Rod's salary (that is somehow now justified) I figured this project is doable. Thanks to the major success of Team Type 1, I have been able to get meetings with the people necessary to make this possible, and it is now a realistic goal, where as for the past 5 years, it has just been a dream. I heard the # in Vienna, and for my entire vacation, this was all that went through my mind. Is it pressure? Yes. Do I like this pressure? Definitely! So we now have a 2-pronged attack. Getting the team, and a rider with diabetes into the Tour is the goal, and by doing so I think the visibility garnered for diabetes will warrant support to pay for supplies to give the less privileged with diabetes a chance for success in life.

RACE ACROSS AMERICA

2010-08-11T10:29:00.000-04:00

Phil for JDRF Fundraiser in Atlanta Georgia

2010-08-11T10:25:00.001-04:00

We Are The Champions - Phil Southerland and Team Type 1 from Kris Bagwell on Vimeo.

Tour of California

2010-08-11T10:24:00.001-04:00

VSP

2010-08-11T10:23:00.001-04:00

Phil with VSP - sponsor of Team Type 1.

A Versus TV Interview

2010-05-25T12:45:00.003-04:00

Team Type 1 was recently featured in a segment on Versus, a sports focused cable network, during their coverage of the Amgen Tour of California.

The segment highlights us talking about our hopes and dreams and our motivation. Everyone on Team Type 1 hopes their actions inspire others living with diabetes to dream big. Check out Team Type 1’s interview with Versus.

The Diabetes Game or The Fitness Game: Ouch!

2009-11-25T09:11:00.002-05:00

Howdy from Atlanta!

I hope everyone is doing well, and excited about a great day of turkey. I am just back from partaking in "El Tour de Tucson," which I did on behalf of JDRF. I got in Wednesday night, so that I could go around and visit doctors offices, hospitals, and was amazed at the fact that everyone knew about "the race." There were 9,000 +/- people signed up and ready to rock for the 109 mile venture through the desert. Sometime Thursday night, I came down with a stomach bug, which knocked me dead. By Friday mid afternoon, I had decided I was not going to do the race. No sense in trying to ride 110 miles if you can't hold food down, and haven't been training at all, right?

But then I get the pediatric ward of the UMC Hospital. I got to go around and visit with kids who were in renal failure, cancer patients, hit by a car, depression, and a few others. I see all these kids locked to their beds, but with the best attitudes. I got to compare surgery scars with this one girl, and hers were WAYYY cooler than mine. They all wished me luck on the ride, and I knew I had to do it. That night I gave a brief talk at the JDRF kick off dinner, and it was great to connect with old friends, and meet new ones there. I went straight to bed after, having eaten a total of 100 calories for the day.

Wake up 5:30, BS of 71, and go to breakfast with a sick stomach. I managed to eat some oatmeal with fruit, and drink 1/2 a cup of coffee, but it was enough to tell get the arrow on my FreeStyle Navigator going straight up. Head out the door, and ride 7 miles down to the ride with my buddy John Murphy, and at the start line 15 minutes pre, I was 169 trending down. Not good before a ride that long, right? Wrong! I eat a banana, and then we set off in an all out race for the first few miles. Felt ok sitting in, but when I hit the wind it was like a sack of bricks nailing me.

We make it through the first dirt, I drank some HEED, and then had 3 cliff blocks, and decided to check at about mile 15. 240 with an arrow straight up... So I switch to water only. I should have done some insulin for breakfast, but without a guarantee of holding down food, I didn't. Drinking water, drinking water as the miles fly by, and then I am 296 straight up I flattened out by the time I hit 324 mile 40, but the cramps (combo of dehydration/high BS) kicked in. This was right after the 2nd creek crossing, and it was all out war for position there. I went in 5th, and cruised through, but when it went full gas out, I just went tempo for the next few miles. Settled into the 2nd group, and tried with Jedi mind power to "not cramp!!!" At about mile 60, I was dying, and ready to quit. The cramps were coming strong, and I was not prepared for a ride of this length. Mind you, this was my 3rd ride in 3 weeks, as had been on the road traveling a ton.
I kept drinking water, and I think my BS peaked out at 374. Then it started coming down. As the decent of BS happened, the legs felt better. There was one more long gradual climb that I started near the front, and drifted all the way off the back by the top, but was able to get back on. Then I saw BS dropping, got a lift and sat last wheel for a while. We hit mile 80 at 3hrs and 15 minutes, and I knew with only 30 miles to go, and a block head wind, life would be ok.

Speed picked up, and I stayed right at the back, meeting a few friends, having some good conversation. Misery loves company, and no one (in my area of the pack) was feeling exactly chipper at that point. So we trudged along for the last 30 miles, over one climb, and into Tucson. I was about ready to cry at any given point my legs hurts so bad, as did my butt, neck, knees....

Got to the finish in the 2nd group, in a time of around 4:25, which was fast enough for me. Moral (1) of my story here: If you are going to ride a bike for a prolonged period of time, it is highly recommended to actually ride your bike... I know with some fitness it could have been much more fun, but nevertheless, it was an extremely rewarding experience. Went to the pool right after, and managed to eat a few french fries, and a chicken finger, which was the extent of my recovery meal...

Moral (2:) When you are down (or way up) a few points in The Diabetes Game, it doesn't mean the end, it just means adjustments. Instead of putting down calories for the ride, I put down water. If I would have had a pump, I could have fixed it, but I didn't, so had to make due with water. There is always a way to improve the situation, which may not be ideal, but is doable.

At the dinner that night, I hear the lady who won the spirit award tell her story. It was her 2nd bike ride, and the first she did was 52 miles. She got her clipless 2 days prior to the ride, and she finished the 109 mile ride. After I heard her talk, I shut my mouth, as I may have only ridden 3 times in 3 weeks, but the legs of 150,000ish miles in them over the years, which is tough for the muscles to forget.

Next up is Turkey day with the family, which I am excited about, and then on Monday I head to NYC for Partnering for a Cure conference. This will be very cool, and I should get to hear some wonderful speakers, and sharpen my game, while at the same time, searching for partners in the "Cure death from diabetes" campaign which we will be rolling out. More news to come on that, but for the time being, let's all be thankful for what we have, and have a great day with family, friends, or both!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Phil
@philsoutherland

Diabetes Game: Game Changes...

2009-10-28T20:28:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

Yes, I said it, from Atlanta. These past few months have been nothing short of crazy, but awesome at the same time. I am in the middle of an 11 day stretch at home. Out of curiosity I took a look at the calendar, and prior to this stretch, I have only had 11 days at home since Aug 11, however I have got to take 32 different flights to who knows where. Lots of exciting trips, big planning, and hopes to make the team bigger, better, and stronger, and change the world at the same time.

So I last said my program for heading over seas. To do this I would take my basal insulin in 2 doses, and then do an increase of rapid. Out of laziness, it has taken some time to get back to my normal 1x day basal. For some reason or another my morning dose got to be bigger than my night dose. This was good for a while, but then sometime last week, I started going into the 160-180's at 4am. I had taken a break from Navigator, just to go to make sure I still had the talent via BS testing. Brutal reality is that I don't. I had more highs, and more lows than I have had in the last 4 months. It is just challenging to have full control when only seeing snap shots of where you are. The thing I like most about the CGM is that it is a movie, and it tells you a bit about the future, so that you can make these adjustments before there are issues. So I get back from Montreal and immediately put Navi back on. I see that it is 4am where the trend goes up. I try increase in basal, and no avail. My doc Bruce Bode told me I was having some growth hormone spikes in the night. No simple suggestions other than to get up and do a shot at that time. So on Sunday, I was slated to do the 100 mile Spin for Kids Ride. I backed my basal off by 3 units in the am to prep my body for the beating it was not prepared for. To make up for it that night, I did an increase of 3 units, and what do you know, perfect BG all night. Two possibilities here.
1. Bike riding is very good for blood sugar, and the increase in metabolism helped this happen.
2. Basal increase at night was the factor.

So to further this study, I took a few days off the bike, and kept the insulin constant to see. Granted, the metabolism stays hot for a few days after riding, but taking the time off should do the trick. So the next night, perfect BS again, and then the same again last night. So I am now working towards getting back to once a day. I will stay 2 days on this current dose, and then do a decrease in the am, and increase in pm. I should be back to once per day by Sunday, and I am hoping to get 2 good rides in this weekend.

I know I mentioned Montreal earlier, but I did not speak of the sense of accomplishment I got for getting there. In my world of not knowing where I am, I tend to forget some small things from time to time. This time, not so small. I get to the airport with 1hr 15 minutes to spare, which is plenty of time, only to realize I left my suits at home. I call Delta to learn that the next flight is in the am, which would mean missing some very important meetings with great people. So I begin the race home, grab my suit bag, and with 43 minutes before my flight (33 minutes before they close the door,) left buckhead to head to the airport (Mapquest says 25 minutes.) I somehow get parked, and get to the check in with 23 minutes pre-flight, get my ticket with 21 minutes to go, and take off in a sprint. I get to the long line at security, and pulled a Tommy-Boy yelling EXCUSE ME... The wonderful people in that line let me cut, I got through, and then a full sprint to A30. As I get to Gate A24, I cracked. I was winded, dead, and back was killing me from running with 3 bags. I dug real deep, and resumed the sprint seeing the door at A30 closing... So I scream from 100 yards away "Montreal, Montreal, Montreal!!!" only to see a hand come through and the door open, and I got on my flight. My buddy Christian of Dex4, put all bets against me, knowing I would never make it, so it was high fives all around. My door, to my seat on the plane in 33 minutes, which I believe is a world record that will never be seen in Guiness... I felt about as good as one could feel in that moment, and it really did set the tone for the entire week.

So back to that diabetes game. I think the lesson to be learned here, is that we are always going to change, and we always have to adapt. You have to try new things to get the control you want. It is important to look for the trends, and then find a way to get ahead of that trend. My problem was 4am, and it was either going to be play with my basal, or to get up at 3am and bolus. I am kind of partial to my sleep, so decided to play with the basal.

All in all, great to be home for a few days, and glad to be back on the bike. I really can't put into words the good feeling you get from spending a few hours out there with your buddies, and going into that hurt box. It may sound sadistic, but the pain on the bike turns into stories later, and a overall great feeling. So I am back on the bike, loving it, and will continue to ride for fun.

Have a great night, and thanks for reading!!

Phil
@philsoutherland

Diabetes Game and overseas...

2009-10-05T16:37:00.005-04:00

Howdy from Munich,

Past week has been pretty rocking. First was EASD in Vienna which gave some great promise to our Euro/World Wide expansion, but also to know that there is still much work to be done so that the diabetes world over here learns about Team Type 1. Had great meetings, hung out with my buddy Kyle Rose, Jay D. (who taught me of a few "Dunniganisms") and many others. It was a grand time for sure.

I read the comment by "jpnairn"
re: goal of sub 5 A1c for type 1 diabetic.
Reminds me of anorexia.
Sub 6, I'd give you an Attaboy. Sub-5, I can't encourage. Sure you can do it. You could probably go sub 4 if you really tried.
The goal should not be to get it as low as it can go. The goal should be to get it to a healthy level.

If I had a 4.8 with a lot of dangerous lows, then I would agree. But, I use "The Best" treatment and technology out there. I do not suggest anyone set their goal at sub 5, and if they did aim for that, to use the exact same stuff (FreeStyle Navigator, basal and fast acting insulin, Dex4) that I do. I am OCD, and I channel that OCD behavior towards my blood sugar. 69 is too low, 119 is too high. I check, and I correct. Some days things are smooth, and that means I do 5 shots. Some days (yesterday) things are tricky and I do 13 shots.
My 28 day average is 102, with 38 mg/dl standard deviation, 88% in target, 4% above target, and 8% below target.
I am trying to lower the standard deviation, and the time below target. My last Glycomark test, which measure the variability in your blood sugar was 11.1, and above 10 is considered excellent.

The motto of Team Type 1 is "A1C: Strive for 6.5" I stand by that. If you can get to 6.5 successfully and safely, then aim for 6.3, then 6.1. The fact of the matter is, that people without diabetes have A1C's between 4.0-6.0. If you can get to that range, then odds are you will have 0 complications just like they do.

Lastly, I am on my 9,900th day as a person with diabetes. I want to be the best I can be, and stay motivated. For me, motivation comes with goal setting, and working towards them. If I set an easy goal, then it is not really worth the effort to achieve it. Goals are meant to be challenging, meant to push, and it was no easy task to lower my A1C like that. It took work, and I am damn proud of the result for my efforts.

So about this travel thing: Flying for a 6 hour time difference can mess things up. Being on an Omni-Pod is easy, as the basal stays the same, or can be micro adjusted. Using basal insulin can be a bit more tricky. So after screwing up a few times, I decided to split dose my basal insulin. This started a week before the trip to get each dose to about even. And then on the night time dose on the plane, I did 1 extra unit to make up for the lack of activity. Then the morning dose was also 1 extra unit, which was too much of an increase, so I was correcting via food a lot...

A couple of runs the first 2 days, and jet lag was gone. Funny enough, my body is so not used to running so both times required a big bolus after even though I ate nothing during the run. I reckon as I get back in shape (long way to go) that this will stop eventually stop. So now the fun begins of trying new stuff, screwing up, adapting, and getting on track. Gotta do something to keep this diabetes game fresh and fun! In the end, I know that running will help all work well again, so really can't wait.

So whatever your A1C is, that is great cause that is where you are. But where you choose to be 1 month from now, a day from now, a year from now is all up to you. If your goal is to get from 10 to 8, that is great. From 8 to 7, congrats. I would say to set a goal that will push you to make the adjustments necessary to get there. Good luck!!

And Have a great day!!!

Phil

Long awaited update on the diabetes game

2009-09-26T23:07:00.004-04:00

Howdy from the air! (btwn Las Vegas and Atl)

So it has been about 2 years since I last wrote, and for that I apologize. Lots has been going on for TT1 and myself. From Winning the KOM jersey in Ireland, to Tour of Missouri, and wins at the Tour of Utah. All this coupled in with great meetings with our sponsors about the future. Then there was losing my insulin, trying to keep control with NO exercise, and the 22 different places I have stayed in September….

Losing the insulin was a bit of a problem. It had been about 34 hours straight of travel, and somehow or another, my fast acting insulin disappeared, and I had no back up (idiot!) but it happens. So we are in the team car (for 5hrs,) and I had just committed to not eating, but the metabolism shut down caused me to go from 71 to 220, event though I was injecting insulin like crazy. At the end of the race, the Race Doctor walked me to the pharmacy, I picked up a 5pack of insulin pens, and 20 minutes later the FreeStyle Navigator said I was back in business.

I did get to take a day to myself in Dublin. Went to see my favorite spot: The Guinness St. James Brewery. Who knew that Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease on the property. Needless to say, The Stout is hear to stay. It was cool, as when I told the bartender I was hear for the Tour of Ireland, and we won the KOM, my 1 free pint turned into 3 free ones. This was about the 4^th week now that I was walking around with every step being agony. I had seen a good handful of docs, all of who didn’t really think I could have broken my Fibula. But getting back from Ireland, and in one place for 3 days, I was able to get the confirmation… So then a space boot to keep it stabilized and help with repair. It was around this time, that I re-committed to “tight control.”

When I was running 5-6 days a week, control was a breeze. The only pain was when sometimes I was too sensitive to my insulin, and had to eat a lot more. No exercise, big adjustments. I had to change my diet, eat less carbs, and just be really watchful of what I put into my body. My 28 day avg on Navigator had gotten up to 118, which is not within “my goal.” Now if that is your goal, and you get there, that is awesome! My goals would often be viewed as too aggressive, but I have the best tools in the business, so can work towards them, and do it safely. At the beginning of the summer, when my buddies Kevin and KR beat me in the A1C competition, I got pissed. (please note: neither Kevin or KR have diabetes) Still, I beat them last year, and wanted it again. Mine was 5.9 in June, and getting beat spurred me to set a new goal, and a new focus. I had never had an A1C less than 5, so committed to doing it! Running made it easy to get on track, but the fracture set me back. Then it became a lifestyle adjustment to do it. 2 months later, at the ADA I had an A1C of 5.0. I was PUMPED, but still not to goal. This is right when the fracture happened, so I just went into super diet mode. Focused, and ate wisely, and then 2 weeks ago at the Diabetes Research Institute, I got 17 vials of blood drawn for a study about diabetes and exercise long term. 5 days later the results are back: A1C: 4.8! How bout dem apples. If I had set my goal at 6.5, and got there, it would have been the same level of satisfaction. So what are your goals? What can you do differently to achieve them?

I would say first and foremost is exercise. It is SOOOO much easier when doing some sort of activity. I think the last month proves that it can be done no matter the lifestyle. Right now my A1C is better than I would have ever thought 2 years ago. I kid you not, I didn’t think sub 5 was possible, until I did this June. Then it was working to make the impossible possible. I do use a FreeStyle Navigator, and I probably press the button to check my BS 100 times per day. I am always looking for the trend, and trying to be ahead of the trend with my fast acting insulin and my Dex4. A blood sugar of 120 is no longer satisfactory, and I am ALWAYS thinking about where my blood sugar is going. This may or may not be healthy. I would say odds are, that it is not. Too much stress, to much pressure to be on all the time.

Now it is time to focus on the rest of health. I fly to Vienna on Monday for EASD, where I get to meet with Global Leaders in Diabetes. I have plans to change the world, and I need the help of some people there to achieve it.

Life goal: Everyone in the world has insulin and test strips

Sporting Goals: 2011 Giro d’Itallia, and 2012 Tour de France

Diabetes Goals: Lower standard deviation

After Vienna, I get a 2 week vacation traveling around Europe by myself and reading a lot of books. I plan to eat well, sleep well, and come back strong. Lots going on with our current partners, future partners, and operations for the Team. Between TT1, TT2, we now have 80 people in the organization, and it will be run out of Atlanta.

I believe I have gone on too long now, but like to leave with this: Whatever diabetes goal you want to set, do it with the help of your doctor, and your friend. I would highly recommend some goal around the A1C: It is the goal, that gives you a reason to check, to correct, to skip desert, or to make time for exercise. Set that goal, and take the steps to get there. Have fun in the process tooJ

Thanks so much for reading, and for all of your support for Team Type 1 and Team Type 2!!!

Have a great day.

Phil

P.S. Team Clothing still available on www.teamtype1.org

Thanks for the support!!!

More Milwaukee Phil

2009-09-23T15:43:00.001-04:00

Taking Control of Diabetes Conference

Interview in Milwaukee

2009-09-18T17:21:00.002-04:00

Milwaukee WMYX-FM host Tony Loreno talks to me about the teams. I am attending a TCOYD (that is Take Control of Your Diabetes) Conference in Milwaukee. Everyone is great. We have the same goal.

Diabetes Game: Victory Running Game: Ouch

2009-08-09T11:40:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta (yes it is living up to its name)

A1C: 5.0! That is my personal best, and I am thrilled to death with it. How was it done? Slight adjustments, pushing the envelope, exercise, insulin, FreeStyle Navigator, Dex4 Glucose. I have had close to two years now of using the Navigator, and have learned how to use it to get better. I am not content with a blood sugar of 130 if it is there for more than 20 minutes. If I see 130, and then 131, then 132 I know I am trending up, and will give a slight correction with fast acting insulin. I would rather hover at 70, than at 130. Then again, if I saw 77, then 76, then 72 all in a 10 minute span I would pop some Dex4 tabs to try and bring it up. I use the tools that I have, and I may just be a little OCD about it. I am curious to know how many times a day I actually press the button that shows my blood sugar.
My guess would be about 125. Some days maybe more, some maybe less, but to get a blood sugar, and a trend 100+ times a day gives me a big edge in always being 1 step ahead of the curve. If I have insulin going in before I have a chance to get high, then I don't get high blood sugars. If sugar is going in before I have a chance to get low, then no hypos. I will say that the running has helped, eating well has helped. My schedule is never the same 2 days in a row. It is on a plane, in a car, on the phone, on the computer, so seeing the trend is invaluable to me.
Right now my 28 day average is 100, with 91% in target, 4 above, and 5 below. So I can still get better. I have had some hard times before. I spent Christmas when I was 9 years old in the hospital because of the flu, which turned into ketones. In 8th grade I went in a movie theatre with my mom to see Twister, and woke up in the hospital, but it is those life lessons that drive me to have the best control I can possibly have. When it comes down to it, this is The ONE thing in life I own 100%, the ONE thing I know I can control. My reward is getting to talk about, getting to try and help people.

So this past week I got a few special experiences. First was Camp Kudzu, which rocked. It is great to have a few days where I can talk to kids, talk to people with diabetes, dance, play, and get dirty. I had one young lady come up to me and make my week. She was 18 years old, and about to be a freshman in college, and is now a CIT at camp. She said, I just want you to know you inspired me to take control. She heard my talk 3 years ago at camp, and after that began to check 5-6 more times per day, exercise a bit more, and that her last 3 A1C's have all been 5.9. Awesome, eh? So I got to have a lot of these conversations, and then cap it off with a talk to the teenagers Tuesday night. Then it was the most painful part of the week in leaving camp. It really killed me that I had to leave. Next up was AADE, which I also love. I got to see 10 others on Team Type 1, and Team Type 2 (Nathan, Joe, Kyle, Laura, Saul, John, Jeff, Adam, Tom,) and connect with friends who are Educators, doctors, industry, and a lot of others with diabetes (TJ!!) It is really cool to see so many people who have a passion for making a difference. It was awesome to reconnect with so many who say they use us as an example to all their patients.

Now how about the running: Injured. This has been frustrating, as I was just starting to really feel good out there. Running finally felt natural, and I was getting stronger, getting faster, and enjoying it. I strained something, which I hope to get fixed tomorrow, but it has now been 7 days with no running. By the end of the week it got frustrating, so I decided yesterday to ride. I got 2 days of riding in, and have never felt so awkward on a bike... Recap on this, which I just have to laugh about: Ride lots, get injured, start to run, which is very awkward. Then get injured on run, get out and ride, which now feels very awkward. I feel like a ping pong... I hope to be back on my feet speeding away here soon.

I am still on track for NY Marathon Nov 1. I will do a half marathon in Munich to warm up for it on Oct 11. I have never been to Germany. This is part work, part vacation, and I can't wait. Last year was solo for most of it. This time I hope to hook up with friends while over there. I guess I have rambled on long enough, and would not like to ask a favor if you made it this far.

If you have gotten any help from this blog, any take aways that have helped you manage your diabetes better, or live a better life, then I ask to please pay it forward. Use your skills, and your knowledge to help somebody else do it better. It may be as simple as forwarding this on, as bold as talking to a local support group. Let's be the domino's that change the big D!

One last time, and then I will quit bragging: My A1C was 5.0. What is yours, and where do you want it to be? The past is the past, but the future you control.

Off to Santa Barbara Tuesday for some athlete days, and R+R.

Thanks for reading, and for all your support.
Have a great day.

Phil

Team Clothing is going fast: Get it while it's hot at TeamType1.org
follow me on twitter: @philsoutherland
Ciao!

The Diabetes Game: Time Zones...

2009-07-28T14:51:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Tally,

Back to the original home for a few days. A lot has gone on since I last wrote, and I last wrote so long ago, cause lots has been going on.
I have been in a few different spots: Boise, Atlanta, Seattle, Atlanta, Tallahassee, and maybe some others too. Boise was AWESOME! Had a great time with Tim Schaub of Sanofi-Aventis, and then it was crit time. It was good to see the guys, the crew, and the fans.
I was talking to Joe right before the race about the Blood sugar. 200 30 minutes prior, and 200 10 minutes, so a level trend. He was good to go, and the race proved it. All the guys (Ken, Aldo, Creed, Holt, and Joe) were super aggressive. It seemed like every lap we had a guy in a move, until the critical point. 8 laps to go, 2 guys had 20 seconds. 5 to go, they had 17, 4 to go 22, then TT1 went to the front. Creed got the gap down to 17 seconds in 1 lap, then Joe came through like a freight train for a 1 lap effort that got it down to 10 seconds. Dan brought it down to 5, and then the guys got jumped. Ken and Aldo just so happened to be fresh, and ready so jumped on, and proceeded to blow it out taking 1-2 by about 20 bike lengths. It was great to watch, and I was soooo pumped for everyone, Joe in particular. In all his years on the bike, this was by far the BEST I have ever witnessed him ride. It just goes to show that with hard work, sacrifice, and time, anything is possible. Sure to see him on the top step of the podium very soon.

So yeah, this running thing... Here is what I have learned as of late:
If I give any rapid acting insulin within 2.5 hours of a run, I will drop rapidly.
If no rapid acting insulin within 2.5-3.5 hours I stay steady.

Is this important info: For me, yes. I know if I do give insulin to close, then I need to prepare for the run by bringing extra food, and also taking blood sugar higher before the start. The extra food is only in case of the crash. If I timed the insulin right, it is all about the slow rise within 30 minutes before the start. Getting it up to 150-175, and then taking Dex4 tabs as needed. I have been getting longer runs in, and faster ones in. It is starting to get to the point where I can push myself, suffer, and for some reason or another I like that. Pain is good, pain is addicting. Last week on my tempo run I left at 165 trending up, finished at 208 with 6 Dex4 tabs in there. It was a 6 mile run, with 4 tempo miles, and I did one of em at a 5:40ish pace...
At this point my metabolism was FLYING. Not sure what the deal is, but I was doing less than 25 units and eating a good bit. 2 units covered 90 grams of carbs one morning.
This took some adjusting to, but I have it down now, kind of...

So about 1 month ago I made some crazy diabetes goals. I was looking at my 1,3,7,14,21, and 28 day averages on my Navigator and saw in the 110-125 range, and decided: I can be better, or at least have better numbers. I made it a goal to get all of my averages into the 90's, and do so without HYPO, which is no small feat. So it has taken work, in constantly looking at the number, and the trend. Always trying to be 1 step ahead of my blood sugar. Learning what food, and what the activity will do. Progress came. Bit by bit I have been able to get better. I have gotten to where my 21 day average is at 99, with 3% below 60, 95% between 60-170, and 2% above 170. I would like to compare with a non-diabetic and see where we stand. I think with these #'s I should be able to have an A1C less than 5.0. I have another 10 days until the A1C test, and I hope to have achieved the number with the 28 day avg by then.

I thought these were crazy at first, but now it is doable. My question to you: What is your diabetes goal? If it is an average of 155, that is great, if 130, that is great. Having a goal in mind in regard to the every day #'s gives purpose to diabetes. It makes you learn, adjust, and adapt.

Home for 1 more day. About to go run with my buddy Andy Roberts, and then a few days in Atlanta before 3 days at Camp Kudzu, and then AADE, then Cali, DC, Ireland, and who knows where...

Thanks for reading, and I hope that I can get back more soon. Lots of exciting things going for Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 for the future. Thanks for being a part of it!!

Phil

P.S. TJ: No, not cozy in the 60's. Anytime I get into the 60's I try to eat just a little so that I can bring it back to the 80's and 90's. Sometimes gotta push the envelope though...
Later!

Diabetes Game: Hypo Trails

2009-07-12T20:45:00.004-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta,

How goes it? This has been a really great week!! Lots of work done at home on Mon-Tues, then headed down to Orlando for the CWD conference. This thing really rocks! This was my 4th year there, and it may have been the best. Got to see a lot of old friends, and make some new ones. Morgan, Simon, Fabio, and I were in the sanofi-aventis where we thought we had a never ending supply of Calendars and Posters to sign and give out for the kids. But the posters went like hot-cakes. Joe and Kyle were at Omni-Pod, and Matt Brooks and Tom Kingery were rocking at the Abbott Booth. Our goal there was to get the kids excited about good control, and let the parents know that their kids can achieve dreams, and using the best tools will help them do it. My new buddy Frank is going to get a car from dad if he gets his A1C to 6.5. I was glad to help broker that deal...

Big thanks to Jeff and Laura for all the hard work to put it on. It really was top notch.

Then Sat it was back home, and to the Quenton Colby art show. Colby has now begun to do cycling paintings, and they really were sharp. I was lucky enough to win the raffle, and now have my 3rd Q.C painting in my house. Pumped on that one.

So I had gotten a system down for running. It seemed to get to the point where I don't need a whole lot of food for runs, if any, so long as I start at the right level. I think the caveat here is not giving insulin within 2.5 hours of the run. Today was my longest run to date, an 11 mile jaunt. My massage therapist Collette told me I needed to run on trails, as I was starting to turn my body different ways from the roads. So I hit up the trails in Chattahoochee. I woke up at 90, had a slight trend up to 141, where I gave 2units of rapid acting insulin, waited 30 minutes until I was trending down slightly, then ate 50gms of carbs from oatmeal. I began to trend back up, and was 175 when I hit the trail. My Nike mile counter thing was not working, so I had to guess the mileage. I did not want to go short, so I figured 9 minute miles or 100 minutes. I took the usual tube of Dex 4 tabs, which gives me 40gms of carbs. I had planned to get back to the car for a refill if needed.
Low and behold, I get lost. I am in the woods, cruising away, and then BS begins to drop. I see 165 on the Navigator which is a 10 pt drop. So I take in 2 tabs, then see 154, to take 3 more. Then the arrow is going down. Most of the time, when I stop running, my BS rises. I decided I would trick my blood sugar into going up, and stop and stretch. I took my time hoping to get the arrow to flatten out, but after a few minutes I began to run again. Up, down, left, right until I really have no idea where I am, or where to go. Also, the maps were not the best, so it was just guess time. At one point I was on the creek bed wondering if I was even on a trail... By this point I am at 75 trending down, and have 0 tabs left. I was wondering when it was going to bottom out. I was beginning to stress a bit, as I had no idea where I was, and no extra food. My back up here was that it was a nice day, and lots of people were picnicking, so I could just ask for a coke. The blood sugar bottomed out at 51, and I was not feeling so hot. It wasn't until I was 1:25 minutes in that I figured out where I was, and that seemed to be all I needed. Next I checked I was 53, then 55, not feeling great on one level, but feeling real good that I was not in the 40's, and on my way home. I got to the flat part I knew, and did 2 more miles in the last 15 minutes to finish up.

What could I have done differently to avoid this stress:
1. Bolus/inject rapid acting insulin farther out before the run, so the tail is gone.
2. Bring more food. Just cause the body was efficient the last 3 runs, doesn't mean it will be today.
3. Know where you I am going, but then again, getting lost is fun, so I am going to scratch this one.
4.) Bring more food. When exercising like this, it is always best to be over prepped than under.

I got in the car, did 4 units of rapid and then drank 60gm carb 16gm protein from choc milk, then pasta 45 minutes after that. I was sitting right at 80-85 for a while, and next thing I knew was at 165 trending up, Did 3units of rapid, which didn't seem to be enough, so another 2, and that was the trick.

I have done either 16 or 17u of basal insulin each night this week. Last night was 16 on a rest, so I am thinking 15 tonight after the long run. Decision to come in the next 55 minuets...

As for my averages on the FreeStyle Navigator
1 day: 104
3day: 96
7day: 105
14day: 105
21day: 108
28day: 109

These are within goal. I have found that since I am just doing basic fitness now, not racing, control is much, much easier. I am still eating a very healthy diet (for the most part) exercising regularly, and watching my trend arrows on the Navigator like a hawk. I made it a goal 6 weeks ago to get all my averages under 110. Now I want under 105. I also am doing this with a target range of 60-170, and have between 90-94% in target in the above categories. Also, the Standard Deviation ranges from 28-36 on all these too. Trying not to have variability.

Could you do this??? Yes, if you wanted to. If you have made it this far, and if I may ask, what is your 14 day average on your meter? When I first started paying attention, mine were in the 140's. Then over time I was able to lower them, and get much much better.

Also, take into account that this is my life, and these are my goals. This is not a standard to set for yourself. But you can set your standard, set your bar. Maybe lowering the 14 day average by 10 points is a goal. Maybe 20 points?

Off to Boise Id on Wed for 5 days. Then back for 2 nights before heading to Seattle...
The game shall go on...

Have a great night, and thanks for reading!

Phil
www.teamtype1.org
@philsoutherland on Twitter

Diabetes Game for a 10km

2009-07-04T10:44:00.003-04:00

Howdy from the Finish line...

So this was my first real test for my progress. The goal was to do miles 1, 3, 5 easier and 2, 4, 6 hard, and then see what the time was. Personally, I wanted to do sub 40, which was a stretch since 4 weeks ago I did a 5km in 21:33 and it nearly killed me. With that being said, I am 4 weeks further into training, and feel a lot better on foot.

The plan going in:
Slight basal reduction last night. I had done 17u the night before on a rest day. Yesterday was also a rest day, but went for 16u of basal in anticipation of a hard race. So I woke up at 4am at 155, did 2u rapid acting, and at 5:45 (official wake up) I was 120, had 30gm carbs from Oatmeal, with Almond butter, and my standard two Americano's to get me going. I was 126 when I walked out the door, with a slight blood sugar 6 points higher then 5 minutes before. Then it was a 1.5 mile jog to the start. BS got up to 136 at the start. I managed to get to the front of my group, which was the 30-39,000 group. That's right, there were close to 55,000 people at this race, which is America's biggest 10km! I have NEVER competed in an event this big, with so many people.

For the first mile I had open road, and HR quickly got up to 170, which it wasn't supposed to. So I had to work on easing up a little, but not too much. Then I hit 1 mile, and picked it up, keeping my HR right around 170-173. When I finished this mile, I was starting to catch people from the group ahead. All I could see for miles ahead was runners. It was actually pretty cool to see so many people out exercising at 7am on a holiday weekend. So I tried to slow it down for mile 3, which was downhill, so I actually sped up. I also had 4 Dex4 tabs at tis time. I was dodging people left and right. Although the race was 10km, I must have done 12km with all the left and right. I have done bike races where it is a struggle to move up and get to the front. But usually with enough ducking, dodging, and pedaling, you can hit the front. This time: no chance. It was cool, but was tough as there was never a chance to relax. After the 4th mile, I was hurting, and had to dig. I forced myself to recover letting the HR drop to 163-165 for a few minutes, and then I saw the 5 mile marker (first marker I saw.) Put down a gel, and then it was go time!

At this point I was in pain, and wanted to walk. But I went back to old school days, and just turned the pain switch off. My goal was the finish line, and to get there as fast as possible. Note to self: know exactly where the finish is. Why? Well, I made the left hand turn which symbolized being close to the line. I am full on sprinting now, seeing cross eyed, but still passing people, and I see balloons, and think I am done!!! But wait, people are still running, and I hear someone yell "it's all downhill from here!" But wait, I'm not done??? Holy sweet mother... I am at 38 minutes at this point, and 40 is still in reach, so I throw down again. Dodging people, barely breathing, digging into a world of pain I had long forgotten about, and then I hear: ".1 mile to go, almost there!!" I was cracked like an egg dropped from far above, but had to push. One last dig, one last sprint, and hit the line, with a time of 40:13. Will bet official time is 40:13-40:25.

Never had I been so glad to be done. I was just trying to keep myself standing, satisfied for leaving it all out on the road, but kind of pissed for not having gone under 40. So I grab my Navigator, and look at it for the first time since the start. 159 it said. 5 minutes later 171 trending up... TIme to get home, get insulin and eat: How? Oh yeah, didn't plan that far. So I just started jogging... Funny enough ran into another type 1 out for a morning jog. I made it about 3 miles (with 3 to go) and I found a cab who got me home... All in all about 11 miles in today, with 6.2 of them really hard. Got home, with 125 arrow going straight down, which was a HUGE surprise to me that soon after the finish. Did 4u rapid, showered, stretched, foam rolled, and then ate a massive bowl of pasta.

Now I have a benchmark to go by. This was a test. If I had come in above a 7minute mile, it would have not been good for the marathon goal. But I managed to avg 6:30/mile, which is 27 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace, granted 20 miles shorter... No it is time to rest and celebrate a great day, and then get back on the program, trying to get faster, stronger, longer...

And please remember: these are my personal goals. I think some of the biggest awards should go out to the people who did the 10km in 1.5 hours. The people who push themselves to try something new. Everyone has a goal, and should not compare to the other. If I had been racing the winner's, I would have (and did) gotten killed. But the only person I was racing out there was me! And I won. What is your next race?

Happy 4th To ALL!!! Enjoy it!

Phil

P.S. Get your Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 kits on our site: www.teamtype1.org
Thanks for the support!

PPS: Congrats to Allison Powers for winning Fitchburg TT, Darren Lill and Jen McCrae for getting 2nd in the circut race. Go Team Go!!!

A record and a record

2009-07-03T11:48:00.005-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta,

How about last week? Pure craziness, but everything I could have ever dreamed of.

Team Type 1: 5 days 9hrs 5 Minutes: Avg spd of 23.41 which sets a new record for the Race Across America. What these guys went through to prepare for the race, do the race, win the race is unbelievable. The strength of this team: No weak links! Everyone had their moment to shine, and everyone had their low points, but they all persevered, and busted their butts to get that record.

Here is a great piece from Tara Parker Pope in the NY Times:
and also a great Q+A on how we do it:

Then I went back to the Diabetes and Exercise Association (DESA) conference, where everyone was so pumped to hear about the record. It was awesome seeing Tim, Andy, and Kyle spread the word about the team, and field the questions about TT1. I also got to spend some time with Tarin, Michael Riddel, and Kate Ackerman to name a few. Exciting research brain storming done, and next steps soon to follow.

For me, the true excitement of the week was Team Type 2. These guys are my hero's! They each have their own stories of the path they took to type 2, and then they each have their own stories about how they made major changes in their life, and the path to good health, and to the team.

After training camp in January, there were many, many doubters of these guys. A lot of people who said "Can they do it? Will they do it? Will they survive it?" But meeting them, knowing them, talking to them, I never had a doubt. They are the coolest, most down to earth people in the world, and they all have one vision: Show the world that it is NEVER too late to make change. If Bob Avritt can lose 140lb.s, bust his butt on the bike, get a good A1C, and lead a team of type 2's in a bike Race Across America, then anyone can do anything.
To me, the World Record of Team Type 2 began on the start line. It began when they set foot. Entering a race the caliber, and difficulty of RAAM was a record in of itself. But to cross the country, in 7 days, 7 hours, and 23 minutes, is absolutely unbelievable.

This is only the beginning, and I cannot wait to see the future of all type 2's with leaders such as these.

Now to the anonymous wonders of the blog world: I like the accusation of my team hiding things, and making it easier for people to dope in cycling. I laugh at that.

Team Type 1 has hired Paul Scott, and Michael Roshon to implement a strong internal anti-doping program. We will provide the # of test done in a few weeks when the mid-year report is finished. Team Type 1 is built on inspiration of working hard to achieve goals. Our fans ( and I am a fan) would rather see us finish dead last, so long as we do it clean, and with integrity, and that is what I push in my program.

Another questions as to what happened to Ricardo? He violated a team policy, and was let go. He is no longer part of our program.

Any other questions or comments Mr or Mrs. Anonymous? Happy to answer, but why don't you put a name to go along with your questions?

As for me: been doing the run thing. Up to 9 miles on Monday and it felt good. My body is adapting, and feet no longer hurt all the time. I have become more efficient on foot, and carb needs have decreased. It has taken me 6 weeks, but I am getting a system for pre, during, and post run down. Not quite as good as my bike system yet, but getting there, one mistake at a time. I am running the Peachtree Road Race, which is 10km tomorrow. Should be fun, and should suffer lots. I am hoping for a good time. My dad did a 32 minute time here some years ago, or a 5:22 mile average, which I am not hoping to break...yet

Thanks to everyone for all of your comments during RAAM, and thanks to everyone who pushed us to go faster, go strong, go longer, and win that bad boy!

Have a great day, and a Happy 4th.
Thanks for reading.

Phil

RAAM baby RAAM

2009-06-25T20:52:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Boston Airport!

About to board the 3rd flight for the week to head down to see the team. It is going to be 2am, and they are going to be dead from their efforts, but Wired from the thrill of being done. I want to reiterate how proud I am of these guys, and how grateful I am to the crew for making this happen. The have overcome fires, broken down RV's, missing bikes, and are as of right now on pace to set a new World Record, and they all are doing it because of diabetes!
If you have a moment, please visit the blog www.teamtype1.org and learn about these guys. They are not professional athletes, but they sure road like they were.

I am hoping that we can get some info from the riders soon about all the blood sugar data over the past 5 days.

Then we have Team Type 2!!! The world record was broken as soon as they started. To think that there are 8 type 2 diabetics even starting RAAM is unbelievable. To see them cross the country in 7 days, on bicycles is a whole other story.
They are all proving that it is never too late to make change. We are all where we are right now, and that is done. But what we do tomorrow, next week, next month is 100% in our control. The cards are dealt, but how you play the game determines how many chips you leave with.

In honor of both Team Type 1 + Team Type 2, what can you do to take control to the next level, to get that A1C you want? Is there something?

How about these airports. The miles are starting to pile up which is good. The year is half over, and I am halfway to Platinum.... In Boston now for the DESA conference. I had some good meetings with friends so far, and tomorrow get to take part in the conference, which is always fun. Got a 45 minute run in today with 2x10 minute intervals, and 5 Dex4 tabs. Afterwards the BS shot right up. I did 6 units of rapid acting insulin for a blood sugar of 228, and appx 1hr later was headed back to normal.

Hopeful for some sleep on the flight, as it is going to be a long night, and then a 9am flight back in the am... I love airports...

One last time: Go TEAM TYPE 1- race to the line, and cheers for Team Type 2!!!
and a big thanks to those who make this possible, cause without them, we would not be out there!!!
sanofi-aventis diabetes
www.abbottdiabetescare.com FreeStyle Lite and Navigator: All use it
http://www.orbea-usa.com/ Best bikes out there
www.myomnipod.com Insulin Pump that 6 of TT1 RAAM use
www.dex4.com for the hypo's we all use it.
and many, many more

AND to YOU, the fans who push us to go faster!
Have a great night, time to fly.

Phil

RACE ACROSS AMERICA

2009-06-19T21:22:00.003-04:00

Howdy From Oceanside,

It's been some crazy times lately. Not sure where I was last time, but have been some places as of late. I got the chance to get back into Yoga last week. First class about killed me, and was lucky enough to have Morgan Patton with me to suffer. We had a good weekend of hanging out, and after two rest days off of running, my metabolism shut down. I upped my basal rate to 18 units, and probably did another 30 units of rapid acting, and still not having successful blood sugars. One run in, and it was better, then another run in, and life was good again. Amazing how much easier the diabetes game is when I am active. Then it was off to NYC:
I got in, checked in, and set off to meet my author, John Hance, agent, Linda Konner, and Publisher, Pete Wolverton of St. Martins Press. Planning out ideas for the book, which is set to release in June 2011. Then John and I set off to run with Mike Keohone, who is handling my running program. I had some pasta and not much insulin at lunch, so started the run at 178. Ate half a power bar right before heading out. We did 2 miles easy, then a 6:40 mile, then 1 mile easy, then a 6:40 mile, then 1 cool down. All in all it was a tough day, and gave my 5 units right after shot back to hotel to grab Joe, and begin the BDay Celebration. Fun times in NYC!!! I guess the intensity of the run got my metabolism going again, as I ate a big meal, and just hovered at 60 all night, before going low, low the next morning. Started empty, and met my buddy Christian Strong (Dex4) for another run. We went out for 5 miles at a 7:30 pace, and it felt good. The two feet thing is much better with a friend to chat with. Finished my run at 101, expecting a jump in blood sugar (which is what has happened every run) so did 3 units. This time the jump only went to 108, before a sharp crash as I was walking to meet Matt for lunch. Matt is a super human runner, and just diagnosed last year at 37. Luckily I had my Dex4 tabs, so smashed 6 of those and a gatorade from street vendor to level off before I went hypo. Thanks Navigator. Media training, then a dinner which was awesome. The Euro folks really do it right.

I love that this game is never the same. As soon as I get my system of insulin right after run, then it changes, and I don't need it, or need more food quicker. Will be fun to document the changes. I have been running on the low side in the am at 16u of basal. I would typically cut it, but since today was a 6 hour travel day, I am gonna leave it at 16, and bet I wake up at 100 in the am...
Finished up NYC with a full day of interviews (24 to be exact;Joe and I rocked em together) then a photoshoot which was a good time. Had a Russian dinner with Vassili and Sergey, and hit the hay for the big day tomorrow... What's that: RAAM BABY!!!

For the 4th year now Team Type 1 has a team going for the World Record. For the 1st year, we have Team Type 2 aiming to finish this never ending race. For the 4th year, Dave Eldridge is playing a big role. This year he has taken charge of the 50 crew, in helping get them all prepped for the road. The organizational skills big Dave has are unparalleled. He has gone above and beyond all expectations and has the crew ready to rock, which is crucial to success. No offense to the riders, but the crew are as important, if not more important than the actual guys on bikes... So now we have 4 RV's, 6 mini-vans, 37 crew, and 16 riders. It is quite the operation. Seeing the growth from 4 years ago is awesome. I wish I had more energy right now to take it in, but frankly I am beat. Then I think about it, and the tired feeling I am having is nothing compared to what each and every person on the team will experience in the days to come. This race is brutal. It is a huge mental challenge, an enormous physical challenge, and everyone involved is going to have to go well beyond their limits to succeed. This may seem hard, but all the guys on TT1 and TT2 know that it is more than just the 7 other teammates, but 24 million in the US that are riding with us. They are riding for diabetes, riding to prove that with good control, no challenge too big. I could not be more proud of my guys out there, and more grateful for Big Dave, and his crew who all volunteered their time to make this happen.

So please, check em out, leave comments, show support on www.teamtype1.org. Check the blog. We got printouts of each and every comment over the years, and it really did a number on helping keep us motivated.

Thanks for reading, and for supporting us in our quest to tackle the Country!

Also, thanks to the 100's who have purchased jerseys, and who are going to wear this week! You rock!!!
Ciao for now!!

Phil
www.teamtype1.org (Team Kits available- wear yours this week to show support!) Thanks
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Diabetes and um... running (yes I said it)

2009-06-12T12:55:00.003-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta,

Great to be home! I have had a few days at home now, and thanks to my little bro, Jacko, I am finally somewhat organized back home. My life the past 3 weeks has been:
Go on trip with bags packed
Arrive home wash clothes (don't put away)- pack bags again
Next am: leave again
Arrive home- unpack- pack- leave etc... There were 22days straight I was gone, and somehow had 3 nights in the house, which was nice, but when I got home the last time, things were scattered... it is somewhat comical, and for those who know me well, know that I can (and often do) function in a state of mayhem... Last time I posted I was in Hollywood. It was cool to go on set of the Sony Studios, and meet with Doug Wick, and chat about diabetes, and the documentary. Then met with a friend that evening for dinner, before hitting the red-eye back to Atlanta. I got home, unpacked, took a nap, did some work, packed, and then set off for Camp Kudzu.

This was awesome. I had the 9-10 year old boys Cabin #24. Great group of kids. I got to witness some doing their first shot, some doing their first pump site change, carb counting, drawing insulin, the works. All of these kids were stepping outside of their normal comfort zone of diabetes, which I think is the reason to go to camp. Seeing kids upset at highs, or cranky from lows at 9 years old is a lot to take in. Seeing kids dance for the first time, or get the nerve up to ask a girl to the dance was all real special. I got 2 days there, and it was my best 2 days so far this year. Camp Kudzu has a few full time employees, but everyone else is strictly volunteer.
Hopefully we can raise enough $ to help make it a full time camp in the years to come, as the kids could really benefit. It was also cool to see the kids that were in my cabin 5 years ago, which was my first time volunteering. Most of them are now a foot taller than me, and are leading cool lives. Sadly I had to leave early, to get to New Orleans for the ADA, but I will be back at camp again later this summer!!

Get home late that afternoon, work for a while, unpack, wash clothes, repack... Chaos is an understatement. Then sleep. Wake up at 4am to finish packing, and get to the airport, which I did, with 2 minutes to spare!! YEE-HA! ADA was great as well. I really got to see how far reaching Team Type 1 and now TT2 has become. Our sponsors, sanofi-aventis diabetes, FreeStyle, Omni-Pod, and Dex 4 were all present at the show, and TT1 members at each booth. Early meeting everyday kept things in check, and it was good to brainstorm research ideas with some of the brighter docs in the world. Always good to see good people.

Oh yeah- so how about this running thing?? I have been doing it for 3-4 weeks now, and it is different. Cardio wise, muscle wise, I am good. But the beating on the body is new to me. Back in the day, I could go ride for 1 hour easy, come home, eat some food with no insulin. But go ride 1 hour very hard, come home, do some rapid or the BS would skyrocket. Why? What I gathered from docs (and I am just theorizing here) is that the body was reacting to the beating by releasing a hormones which caused BS to rise, along with the food that was taken in to perform, now is not needed by muscles, so it goes straight to the blood stream. Running is different, but the same. I can go out for a 4-5 mile run, take in 24-30gms of DEX4 glucose, come home, and then blood sugar sky rockets. So new system is that when I get back from a run, I do 3units of rapid right away. This has been good to level me off. If I want to eat after, I am taking the 3 units, plus an increased dose for the food. It has been a fun shift. I did get to run the 5km race in N.O. It was good to see about 600 people out for a 6:30am start time. I was out with my buddies Matt Vogel (starting BG of 223,) Nathan Bartels (starting at 334-technology set back) and I (starting BG of 194 trending up) The start was all I saw of those guys. I was running with my buddy Chris at a steady pace. Could of gone faster, but really wanted to slow down. Last right turn, went full gas, passed a bunch of people, and finished with a time of 21:33, which is a 6:58 avg pace. My goal was sub 7 minute miles, which was achieved...barely. After a 3 mile cool down, and then a lot of rapid, and off to eat. I hope to be doing longer runs here soon, and will keep posted on the new learning's.

There is no kink age when I run, and I had do get to doing something that is good for my head, and my body. I never thought I would have laced up running shoes for a month straight, but it feels good not to be fighting my body. I still have no answers on the surgical front, and am going to see still about fixing. Until then, Run Phil Run...

Next up NYC for 3 days, then San Diego for RAAM. Both Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 will line up for the start. It is going to be a HUGE challenge for both to meet their goals, and I can't wait to see these guys do it.

So next Saturday, please show your support for the Team's by getting your own TT1/TT2 gear on the site: www.teamtype1.org Wear it on your local ride, and see whose life you change by spreading the word about the team! Thanks in advance for your support!!!

Ciao For now!

Phil

Bike racing game-from the sidelines

2009-06-01T16:10:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Hollywood,

Jersey rocked! Had a great time up there and the whole team got to go to Sanofi Aventis to meet the people that make it happen for us. Then a bunch of races, and the guys did good. It was definitely interesting being a spectator. While up there I got a chance to see a doctor who was actually knowledgeable about my leg deal. I explained the symptoms, and he pulled out a book written by the guy who invented the surgery in the Netherlands. It was great to read through that to get a feeling for what could be going on. Apparently there are 4 ways the the iliac artery stops working.
1. Lesion in the artery.
2 Stenosis or narrowing due to a ligament coming down on it.
3. Iliac artery is too long, which causes kinking
4. just plain old kinking.

I also learned that cyclist normal ABI: (blood pressure in arm relative to leg) is .90 or above. Symptoms begin at .85 or below, and my left leg had an ABI of .66.
It really meant the world to talk to Dr. Silberman, and now I have copies of the book to take to all my docs in Atlanta to try and get this bad boy figured out.

In the meantime, I need a goal. Having a ride or race goal is out of the question right now, as I have no idea what the length of time for recovery/fixing is. But, a run goal is doable. So I signed up for the NY Marathon, and have begun training for that. Running has been ok so far, but I definitely miss getting lost in the middle of nowhere having the thoughts run free. Back to some bike racing:

I got to watch the " Tour of Somerville" from the sidelines. The boyz were rocking it, being in just about every move. Then at the end, they lined it out, and it was great to see the full TT1 train going for the W. Execution was perfect, but racing is racing, and Aldo got 3rd, which was a great result. I had never been so excited at a bike race before. I was biting my nails out there... We had a nice celebration that night, and then in the air on Tuesday. Delta rocked out for us. I guess I fly enough to get these 6 free upgrades, which I will never use. It just so happened Dan Holt was on the same flight, and the agents let us use a ticket to upgrade him, free bags and all. Sometimes they go out of their way to take care of us, and is much appreciated. Wed I flew to Laguna Beach so I could give a talk at the Mother's dream Guild for the "One Shot" Doc. We are trying to raise funds so they can be there every step of the way from now, till the tour. It was def cool being at the Pelican Hills Resort. I would be willing to caddy to get to walk that course on a regular basis...ha
Friday was an athlete day which was fun, and this time was extra special. I got to talk diabetes to a lot of docs, and finish up with Ramon and Andrew taking me to Millers Children Hospital. This put it all in perspective. I met kids with hemofelia, diabetes, leukemia, cancer, and all sorts of ailments that they can not control. It is 100% in the doctors hands. This made me feel lucky. Diabetes can be a challenge at times, but it is controllable, and that control is up to me. It was really cool to sit there and chat and put some smiles on their faces.

So how about that diabetes game?? Running has made it easy. 15u basal and every night... So far training has been easy, doing 4-5 mile runs at about an 8minute/mile pace. It is nice not having to stress about 1u more, or 1u less, but I am sure as the runs get longer this will come into play. It is interesting teaching the body to do something new. My feet have finally stopped aching, and I seem to be getting more efficient, meaning that I don't have to eat a lot. While out on the run, all I take is a tube of 10 Dex4 tabs. I typically eat about 5 -7 of them on the run, and have been finishing runs around 100. Thing is, right after the run, my BS spikes. So have got a new system to just do 3u rapid at the finish, and no food. Different than riding, but fun to learn.

Also: Big congrats to Shawn Milne for the W yesterday, and Aldo for his win on Wednesday. The boyz are rocking!!!

Today I am meeting back with the "One Shot" http://www.voxpopfilms.tv/oneshot/
crew to try and raise some dollars to make the film happen. The goal for Lisa/Guy (and me:) is to win an Oscar. Tonight will be the Red-eye, getting back to Atl at 6am, run a few errands, and then head to Camp Kudzu to spend a few days with kids. Can't wait! That is all for now.

Have a great day.

Phil
www.TeamType1.org Clothing is available!! Get it while it's hot!
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Old School- Finger Testing and Racin in the dirt...

2009-05-18T19:50:00.006-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta,

How goes it? Thanks everyone for the great comments, and showing of support. To Mr. Anonymous who likes to talk trash: I don't care. Post your name, then maybe I will take note.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. I haven't raced mountain bikes since, well, um... I have no idea. This race meant a lot more. This was one of the first times I got to go away from home with the boyz, and for a 14yr old, it was the coolest thing in the world. I also remember finishing one 7 mile lap, and being dead. Here we are, 12-13 years later, same camp ground (minus a few who bailed at the last moment...) I was there with RAAM Crew vets Chris Big Daddy Slaton, Daren, Ricky Silk, and Jim. I always new Rick was fast, but I did not know that if you named a song, he could immediately go into chorus, and sing the whole thing... Any song too...

Back to racing in a minute. The past 2 weeks of blood sugars have been pretty good. I was back to finger stick full time. Having run out of sensors, it was time to go old school. At first, I was high, then low, then high, then low, but after a few days I got my rhythm back, and #'s were solid, with 14day avg down to 108. Here is the thing though, with CGM, I could have 14day avg at 103, with 3-5%below target, and no blood sugars under 50. Now to get to 108, I had to drop way too low a few too many times. I woke up low one time, another low while on the phone with my literary agent, and once on the bike. What I found was in the transition period after CGM (Day 4-8,) I was only checking about 14 times a day, and I saw too many #'s that I did not like. So I went old school OCD, and began to check 20-22 times a day. Guess what: No more high BS, cause I caught them before getting there, and a lot less lows. Even without CGM, you can still simulate it... I found myself checking 2-3 times in a 20 minute window to get a real idea of my trend before making a correction. Although this method works, and with effort, it works very well, I still think that CGM is the way to go. I am back on it now (thanks to a study) and have hit the button to see my BS 47 times today, and that is in the last 8.5hrs, or checking an avg of 5 times/hour.

Then the bike race... So 2 weeks ago I got news my artery was healthy, yet I am still having blood flow problems to my left leg. So at a friend's (thanks Joe E. and Tim J) I decided to play with position. No dice. Tried riding mtb, and leg went numb. Pretty bummed out, and not that excited about racing, if one leg is not gonna work, but the thought of mountain bike racing, and doing it with my big bro Slaton brought a smile to my face. Ya see, when I first started riding, while everybody slaughtered me, and left me out in the woods, Mr. Slaton waited. Every Sunday I would make it farther and farther before he would have to stop for me, but every Sunday he waited until he didn't have to wait any longer. I am forever grateful to his Jimminy Cricket for telling him to wait for this punk kid so he would make it home alive.

So we have a good time dying on the pre-ride, camp out, get up and get ready to rock. We take off down the dirt road, and then up a climb. I was 2nd wheel into the woods, but no middle chain ring, as I was stuck in the big ring. This didn't work for this steep climb. So I got off, had a few guys pass me, then back on it, with only a middle ring. Then pass a few guys, blow up, get passed by a few, and settle in. I was 15 seconds back of this one guy for a long time, when it felt like my bike was not right. Sure enough, my crank (attaches to the pedal) was coming off. So I walk up the hill for about 10 minutes (wanting to quit) until a guy came by and let me borrow his wrench. I fixed the bike, and got going again. Passed 3-4 guys, and then at the start of the 2nd lap wanted to quit so bad. I was no longer racing for the win, not really competing, but decided to keep on going. I am thinking that my BS was a bit low at this point. I didn't get to eat too much on the first lap, and then only snacked a bit for the 2nd. I was pretty bad off at the start of the 3rd lap, and seriously thought about stopping. I waited for my BBray for a few to have someone to ride with. At this time, I ate a bunch of food, and had a gel. Then I passed BB, and took another gel, feeling better. I saw another guy and passed him, then had another gel, at which point I felt really good. I was flying the last lap, and I want to say that I had a great Blood sugar for the last 8 miles, where I put 10 minutes into a few people. Fueling, and having the right # is something we all strive for, and with the right technology, CGM, the playing field is close to level, and when we do the other stuff right (eat, insulin, timing...) then I think we have the edge. Over the past few weeks I have gotten to go old school in a few different categories, which I think is always good to put in in perspective. Rapper Rick Smith got 2nd, with Big daddy Slaton winning his, as did Darren. I won my division thanks to nobody else showing up, and had a great time doing it. The experience was priceless if for nothing other than getting the refresher: Finishing what you start is very important, and no matter the result or the pain in the process, always seems like fun. Can't wait till next time. Now is time to move forward with "The Tour of Somerville" coming up this week, and a lot of big events at Sanofi-Aventis this week.
Tomorrow I am off to Jersey, and will be there for a week. Then back, and off to Cali for 5 days, before getting back and then going to Camp Kudzu for a few days, before going to NO for 5 days. All in all, I think I have a run of 22 days away from home coming up. But I am back on CGM, and have weined off the 2-day basal and am now back to once per day. Messed up last night, and had to bolus a few times with rapid bed, so hope to have the right dose tonight.

Thanks for reading, and have a GREAT night!

Phil
P.S. TT1+TT2 jersey's are now available for sale!! http://teamtype1.myshopify.com/
Team Type 1
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Lessons Learned

2009-05-08T17:14:00.004-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta!

How is everyone doing? Thanks very much for the comments and posts. This has been a pretty interesting week. I have had some big developments in my new training tool, a shake up in the team, and decent news from the doc. But today after spending a week fixing all energy on the now, I began to stop and reflect a bit on the past. What is the old saying: "If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger?" I find this to be very true, and want to share a few experiences of the past which at the time sucked are now somewhat entertaining.

14 years old hanging out at Revolutions Cycles (in Tallahassee) when me and my buddies were too loud, and knocked some stuff over or scared a customer away, the owner (who shall for privacy reasons be called Kent Woodville) yelled at us all: "You can leave, or you can sit in this area (a duct tape square on the floor) for 30 minutes without saying a word. " My friends left, but me, wanting to fit in, and become welcome, and to learn from these guys who I looked up to, sat in the box for 30 minutes. Then we were cool.
-lesson learned

16 or 17 years old, first year racing on the road: Leaving a race in St. Pete Fl, and as tradition had it, we stopped at a gas station. I had won some money, and decided to GO BIG with a 64oz Diet Coke... I was told by Louis and Ray: We are not stopping until Ocala, so watch what you drink. 20 minutes later it was gone, and 10 minutes after I had to pee. "We told you," was the response I got. 1 hour later, I really had to go, but still no stop. Then for good measure, they went past Ocala, as I am nearly in tears. For 2.5hrs I sat squirming, screaming, begging to stop, and when we did it was the best thing in the world. They taught me a lesson. I could have gone home and cried to mom, but I wanted to race, and these guys were racers, so I took the lesson, and got a smaller drink next time.
-lesson learned

19 years old racing for UGA: Daytona weekend and racing bikes 20 minutes from Daytona. None of us reserve a hotel, and the only one we could find was a 29.99 dump, with 1 room available, 2 beds. It just so happened that 8 of us had to fit in there. I was the youngest, so got relegated to the floor, where I had roaches crawling all over me for the night. Waffle house the next day, and off to the races. I was broke, but should have made a reservation. We won the race the next day.
-Lesson learned

21 yrs old, racing for UGA: I was 3rd in the conference, and got told that I was not going to Nationals (my goal for the year) because I didn't do Volunteer hours required. I was upset, so won the race the next day, and then whined about it to the world. In hindsight, If I would have taken a little time out of my life, volunteered, I could have helped the team go for Gold that year. Instead, as they were racing crits, I did a 7 hour training ride by myself.
-Lesson learned, and who knew how great it feels to Volunteer.
***For anyone who wants, please visit CampKudzu.org, as they are in need of counselors for Summer Camp. It is a great week!!

How about diabetes:
6yrs old: Mom says "Don't do your shot, you will go blind." Result: I beg for my shot every day so I can keep my eyes.
- Lesson Learned
12 yrs old, I get my A1C of 8.2, and ask my doctor if that # will make me go blind. He didn't say yes, but didn't say no, so I asked if it should be better, and he said yes. I said what should I do: check more. So I checked more, and came back 3 months later to get an A1C of 7.1.
-lesson learned
17 years old: DQ Blizzard #1, 5 units- result BS of 300-
1 week later: DQ Blizzard #2, 7 units- result BS 51 (finish my friends blizzard)
1 week after that: DQ Blizzard #3, 6 units- Result BS of 105
-lesson learned
These were all very important times in my life. Some might seem like bad, or scary times, but in reality, Life is just like riding a bike, you fall down, and then you get back up and do it again. I am grateful to those who have taught me lessons, and showed me the way. I have had a lot of people I looked up to growing up who were very hard on me, and pushed me, but taught me. And then this past winter I get to do Team Training camp/media training, AKA (from the riders) Food Camp, as we were all over fed and under ridden for a few days, all in the name of the team.

As for the now: This week my docs told me my arteries are good. This is good because I don't need surgery, but this is bad because I have no idea what is causing the problem. Now it is back to the drawing board with my team of friends, to adjust position, do body work, and try and figure out what is going on.

As for the rest of our team: a kid quit, made up some stories, and now I wish him well.
I am very happy to report the average A1C of Team Type 1. We have 35 athletes with diabetes, 26 type 1, and 9 type 2. Our motto is A1C: Strive for 6.5, and it looks like the team did just that coming home with an avg of 6.41. The do this, because they all take advantage of FreeStyle, Omni-Pod, and Dex4 (not necessarily all of those) that they have access to thanks to the team. Of the 54 athletes on TT1/TT2, 26 are returning, and 28 are new.

We run a good ship here, and are always learning. I am sure in 5 years, I will look back and laugh at this week, as I have at just about every other one so far in life.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Phil

The Diabetes Game: The Sign and the Jinx

2009-05-01T15:41:00.004-04:00

Howdy from Emory Radiology Dept:

So the bike racin has not been all that great for me (but great for the team!!) Tuesday in Beaufort was a quick one for me. Before my leg quit working, I typically feel really good, and have no problem riding the front of a race. But once the left leg gives, there is no need to be there, as I just get in the way. Beaufort was a hard race, no doubt about it. Krazy Ken Hanson made the break, and those guys stayed away for most of the race. Got caught with a few laps to go, but he still managed a top 10. Then Wednesday was Walterboro, which is a good one. I like the course, and have ridden well there in the past. Spent 5 laps moving up, then cover a move, and then shut down. I slowly worked my backwards, and then off the back. 2 guys stayed away, and Aldo and Ken took 1-2 in the field sprint again for 3rd and 4th. It was a solid performance, and the team was starting to ride better together. Most of these days, we would ride in the morning, typically to a coffee shop, then back take a nap, and then get ready to race at night. The 2-a-days really boost the metabolism, and for me especially at night. I got the s-a pen, and it seems to be more potent than the vial, or my metabolism is just really flying. I haven't done a bolus over 4 units in a while now, and have been hovering at about 15u of basal a day. Back to 16 now with no racing. Weird though, as every night at 9, I would just need more and more carbs. I was taking in Dex4, and Gatorade at bed time, as that was when it was racing.

There was one night I thought I had it all good, but could not sleep. For me, not being able to fall asleep is a tell-tale sign that I need more food, or insulin. My body won't let me go to sleep having messed up. So sure enough, I check again, and am hovering at 60, got some more carbs in, and then 15 minutes later I was in dream land. Also, I think it is a guarantee that if I brush my teeth before that final check, then I am going to drop and need more food. This is a jinx that has proven itself time after time. Funny little intricacies of The Diabetes Game.

I was planning to stay with the team, and keep trying to race, but I got a call from the Radiology Dept at Emory, and Dr. Diego Martin ( a radiologist) was not happy with the first MRA. So in for another, which is supposedly 2x as powerful as your standard MRI. Diego also rides bikes, and wanted to take everything into account. He actually sat in while they did the MRA, to ensure they got every possible image. Now I get to play the waiting game for a while, and hope to hear something that will allow me to move forward. For some leisure reading on this condition,
I have a couple of links below, which are more descriptive of the condition I have.
http://www.velonews.com/article/13064
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/bicyclinginjuries/a/Arteriopathy.htm

Thanks for reading, and the Well Wishes!
Have a great weekend.

Philpott
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
TeamType1.org

Twilight Time!

2009-04-28T15:30:00.001-04:00

Howdy from Beaufurt, SC:

We are hanging out in the marshland these days, at a beautiful house compliments of Mr. Mike! Last check it was time for the crits. We cam in with a solid team, great staff, and motivated to get some results. First on the block for me was an MRA (MRI of the arteries) to see what is going on with my leg. I got that out of the way on Wednesday, then an easy cruise on Thursday, same on Friday in good ole Athens, GA! It really was great to be back, and good to see a lot of old friends in advance of Twilight.

Friday night we had dinner with the Team Type 1 ladies team, who were also motivated for some good results. Saturday am was an easy ride, and then some relaxation in prep for the race. The writer of my book (due out next June) John Hanc came into town to experience the race scene, and work on the outline so we can get the story straight. It was a pretty hectic day. With the race slated for 9pm, we went to get the last meal at 5:30, which was going to be my last shot of rapid until after the race. I did my 3 units for the All Star breakfast at Wafflehouse (usually 5) and was hoping to be sitting at 130 or so after the meal. Low (no pun intended) and behold I had a bit too much basal, and the metabolism was cooking, which kept me at about 90 after the meal. Then 2hrs before I made an attempt to get the blood sugar up, but no response. 45 minutes before I ate some more, and then at 8:30 I was sitting at 171 and flat lined on the FreeStyle Navigator. At 9pm I was sitting in the start house and adrenaline was pumping. If the race would have gone off at 9pm, or even 9:15, BS would have been between 200-220, but at 9:30 I was 225 going straight up. 260 on the start line. Did I eat too much? Was the adrenaline from 40,000 screaming fans and a front row start jacking me up? Who knows, and at that point who cares. All I could do was focus on the race, and know that I would not be going hypo. The gun went off, and it was madness. Full gas from the go, and I just stayed in the top 5, top 10 hoping to have a functional leg. The race began to get pretty hard, and the leg slowly died. About 10 laps in I was having trouble maintaining position, and jumping out of each turn with my right leg only. If the race would have eased up for a bit, I may have got through it, but that doesn’t happen at twilight, so I pulled the plug. I was pretty bummed, as this is practically a hometown race, and lots of friends were out watching, but that’s life. I got to see the end of the race, and 3 guys had snuck off the front. Ken Hanson and Aldo looked good, and came in 1-2 in the field sprint for 4th and 5th overall, which ain’t bad for Twilight. Followed this with a celebration on the town, and time to think about Roswell.

Also, big congrats to the Ladies, who animated the race with many attacks, and Jen McCrae who took 3rd place!!

Day 2, we did a quick ride in the morning, then drive home, and off to the race. John and I spent some time together, as did my mom and I. Then it was race time. Today, I had backed off the basal a bit, and got my meal about 3hrs in advance. 1hr before I was sitting at 90, but took a less drastic approach to raise the BS today. 20 minutes before I was at 170, and then on the start line I was 206 and flat, when the gun went off. Roswell is a completely different race. I knew to have a chance to help the team, I had to make it through the numbness. Vassili told me to chill for the first half, and then try to help. So for 40 minutes, I sat at or near the back, conserving as much as possible. Took in 1 gel 20 minutes in, and drank some sugar drink, and water. 40 minutes in there was a lull in the race, and I hopped up to the top 10, which was a tough run. It was much tougher to fight for position, and jump out of the turns on this one. I started losing power in my left leg, and began to go into survival mode. Ken and Aldo were flying out there, and Timmy Hargrave looked decent in a crit. So I drifted back to the back, and used the “Jason Snow” method to get through the race. With about 5 laps to go, I started to move up, and Vassili was telling us to try and win the sprint. There were 5 off the front, and with 2 to go, I snuck to the front, and thought I would give it a good drag for half a lap, to help Ken/Aldo, but then I ended up with a small gap. I went about as hard as I could for .5 a lap, and with .5 a lap to go got caught, and Mad Man Ken Hanson took over. He gave Aldo a leadout through the last turn, and Aldo blasted the sprint to take 6th.With the race over, I checked the Navigator, and was 170 headed straight down. Perfect BS for the race… The team is looking good, and if we can keep it together to the line, we have good shot at taking a W this week. Jen McCrae took 3rd again, and Monique and Morgan began to show the goods in the race. I did not get to see it, but I heard that the ladies kept the pressure on all day.
Out west Fabio spent many hours in the breaks, which helped to set up Darren Lill for the Win in Vuelta de Bisbee! Congrats guys!

I decided to come try and race this week, in hopes of lending a hand to the team. A big thanks to our Swanny: Sergey who makes everything off the bike perfect, and also to our mechanic Alex Banyay. He rocks the house, and our bikes have been flawless every time he touches em!
Bike racing and diabetes are very similar in that we are very dependent on our team around us to help make us succeed. If we have the right tools, we have a chance. Also, winning 2 race here will be a success, but that also means we will lose 5 races. After the defeats, if we learn, and do it better next time, then it was a lesson, not a loss… On the bike side we have Orbea bikes, Shimano parts/wheels, director, mechanic, souigneur which are all necessary for success. On the diabetes side we have sanofi-aventis, Navigator, Omni-Pod (for some,) dex4, endo, educator, and for each game we all depend on our family and friends to support us. When one is going good for me, the other typically is too.

Off to grab a nap, and get ready for the race tonight. Thanks for all the comments, and well wishes! Also, thanks TJ for making it out to watch!
Our schedule is on the blog off www.teamtype1.org so please come meet us if you can!

Have a great day, and thanks for reading

Phil

Diabetes Game: Walking the line...

2009-04-23T08:37:00.002-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta,

As always, it is great to be back home. We are heading into the crit series next, so I should have a steady influx of temp roommates in the house. First it was Daniel Holt, now Ken Hanson, but the guys are cool which makes it easy. Last I wrote, was after the test, and I was a bit down. Lots of work has been put in to getting faster, stronger, leaner to have a chance at success this year, and to find out the surgery was a failure really sucked. But, even with the semi-functional blood flow, I was still going ok, and the team was solid for Battenkill, so I went in ready to do my best for the team.

Saturday was a shorter race, at 80 miles. The weather was sketchy, in that it was nice and sunny at the start, but a good chance for rain. Normally I would have brought a rain jacket, and some arm warmers, but instead of having my bag go to Albany NY (on my flight) it went to Lafayette, LA. How this happened, I don't know, but Ken Hanson gave me a kit to race in. I was wearing Navigator, and 1 hour pre race was sitting at 150 flat line. Then there was a slight upward trend as we edged closer, and closer to the start. This is good, as typically at the beginning of a race is when the biggest drop happens for me. But apparently I either a) didn't have enough Lantus on board or b) ate too much before the start. But no way I am doing Apidra this close to the start. We started the race, and there was a solid climb at the start, and Dan and Ken made the break. They began to get more and more time on us, as the field rode a nice easy pace. There were tons of dirt roads on the course, and a lot of big rollers. It may be the coolest bike race course I have ever done. On the shorter hills, I am good, and was able to ride at/near the front. On some of the longer ones, the left leg would go numb, and I would have to gauge my effort very carefully as not to completely kill my leg. About 45 minutes into the race shortly after I ate a gel, I checked the Navigator and was 250ish. Then 30 minutes later 290, then 350... So it was water time. I quit eating food and gels, and just tried to stick to water. We then came up this 4km stair step climb. Steep at the bottom, then less steep, then more steep, for a while... 1km from the top I was unable to pedal with the left, so just went at a nice steady pace thinking my race was over. We made a left, and then down a long dirt descent. It was now raining, and I was freezing cold, so figured I would just pull out. Then I saw the group about a minute up the road, going slow, so I went a hard tempo to get back on. The blessing in disguise here was that we passed my buddy Johnny Sundt, who was just out riding, and he gave me his rain jacket. Thanks Johnny! Got back in the group, and we decided to pull the plug at the feed anyway. Dan had flatted out of the break, and Ken was trading attacks with the others up there, and ended up with a solid 3rd place. I got back and immediately gave a massive bolus, and after about 30-45 minutes started taking in calories again.
After that I was very sensitive to my Apidra, so was giving 3/4 boluses for food and snacks. Good BS's through the night, and after the high in race the day before, decided to stick with same basal instead of reducing. Mistake!

Day 2 was 200km (125 miles) on the same course, but with more teams in the race. It started pretty quick from the gun, and we had some good fights getting to the front for the dirt. Shawn Milne was our leader for the day, and we all felt good that we could rock it. I had a gel early, and then another, followed by some cliff blocks. I thought things were good, and made it through the tough parts of the course, gauging my efforts over the climbs carefully. As we got near the feedzone, I pulled out the Navigator, and saw 157 with an arrow Straight down, which gave me a quick alarm. So immediately, I downed 2 gels, more cliff blocks, and whatever sugar bottle they gave me. At the feed zone, I took 2 more bottles, downed another gel, and saw that I was 155 and flat. I thought I had avoided disaster, and was now 100% focused on the enxt dirt sections. Team Type 1 was well represented at the front, and we were constantly jostling for position on the dirt. We made it over a long gradual climb, and were bombing down the descent, when I heard the sound of air leaving my tire rapidly... Flat- happens all the time. I called Vassili on the radio, and started drifting through the line of 150 guys behind us. Alex gave me a quick wheel change, and was off chasing. So here I am chasing down the hill in the midst of a bike race induced dust storm. It reminded me of "Days of Thunder" and the cloud of smoke. I had a field to catch, so just closed my eyes (not really) and went for it, dodging cars, riders, and some rocks. It took about 20 minutes, but I got back on, dead from the chase, and at the base of a climb. Came off over the top, and then chased back again. It looked like it was slowing up, so I grabbed some bottles from the car to take to the guys. Then we began to go full tilt again. I was at the back, dying a slow death, but determined to get these bottles to the guys, as I could tell my race was coming to an early end. I managed to get Dan and Aldo feeds, just as my alarms began going crazy. I had already puked a bit of gel, and was sick to my stomach from the overload of carbs early, but still dropping. I guess the chase had me thinking of one thing and one thing only, which was to get back on. I should have been thinking get back on, well fueled, and help the guys. But for about 30 minutes of hard, hard riding, I forgot to eat a thing. When I saw 115 with an arrow going down, I knew I would have to take in about 75gms of carbs to have a chance, but couldn't even fathom a sip of gatorade. But, I got the bottles to the guys, and then Shawn went onto 4th place. He was nearly guaranteed 2nd, but a mis-timed flat ended our hopes of the podium. Scott Nydam (BMC) was off the front the entire day, and really deserved his win, and Karl-(10-Men)zies (Ouch) came in 2nd. All in all, it was a good day for the team. Our Orbea bikes were perfect for the fast stretches on the road, but also very good on the dirt.

What is the moral of the story here?? It isn't easy to nail the blood sugars every time. But knowing the # gives the power to deal with it accordingly. Had I not had Navigator on Saturday, I would have eated too much, and come home at 400, and on Sunday, I would not have been able to eat so much in advance of the low. Knowledge is power here, but no more so than off the bike. Check and correct, no matter where you are. It will help!

Then it was time to head home, and get ready for Twilight, and all the crits. I did my MRA, (which is an MRI of the arteries,) yesterday, and I will hopefully here from the surgeons at Emory as to what my options are. In the meantime, I have got some good advice from Tim Johnson, and a few others, so will continue to tweak things to make that leg work.

I really appreciate the support, and well wishes, and hope to see you at the crits. Please come say hey, and meet the team. Time to see big Joe turn on his speed, and Morgan Patton has a great chance at scoring her first NRC win this next week. I am real excited for the team.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day!

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
www.TeamType1.org

The good, the bad, the ugly (and unknown...)

2009-04-17T07:37:00.005-04:00

Howdy from the Atlanta airport,

I hope everyone is rocking. Lots has happened since last time here. Last week followed up the with some real good training. Mountains, a 4 hour tough day, and some racing. As the week wore on I started getting more and more sensitive to the insulin. I was down to 13u basal, and less than that of rapid. Life was good, and metabolism moving. Did most of my training with Daniel Holt, and until last Thursday he was practically forcing me to ride. Weather was bad, and motivation not so high, but as the sun came out, I started getting really stoked to ride.

The Good:
Saturday came around, and it was race time in the Big B (Birmingham.) Joe's home town, and on a real cool speedway, so we were motivated to win. Joe, Dan, and I lined up with 50 others for the race. We were aggressive all day, and covering a bunch of moves from Cleve... Joe said he was feeling good, so we banked on a sprint for him. I got in some move for a few laps, and looked like we might stay away. With about 2km''s to go, we got caught, and Dan went straight to the front with Joe in tow. I stayed on the big man's wheel, while Dan kept things in check. On the last little rise 2 guys attacked, and Joe was on them like white on rice. Then came the kick to the line, and My boy Joe lit that sprint up to win by close to 5 bike lengths. It was the first time we had raced together in a long time, so to pull it off was nice. Real stoked for Joe. He has been knocking on the door for the past few weeks, and is definitely riding better than he has ever gone before. Expecting some good stuff from him come Speedweek.

The Bad and the Ugly:
So all this riding has been good, and my form was coming around nicely, but all with a little hint of doubt. During my last day in Taiwan my leg went numb for the first time since surgery last May. I was a bit freaked, so took 8 days off the bike, then every time I went hard since it has repeated. So I go in to the Vascular lab at Emory to do an ABI, or blood pressure in arm, relative to leg. At rest I am normal, 3 minutes after exercise I am normal. BUT, immediately after intense riding I have 33% less blood flow to my left leg than I should. Functional ABI is anywhere from .85-1.00 during exercise. Before surgery last year I was at .68, and at retest I was at .66. I am much stronger than last year, but still at a big disadvantage. I go in for an MRI of the arteries next week, which will determine if the surgery is recommended again, at which point I am unsure of what I will do.

I am a firm believer in the old "everything happens for a reason," yet I am also not happy about this at all. I had a problem, had surgery and a pretty brutal climb back, only to be standing at the same ledge again. Screw it though! I can still pedal, and still like riding my bike, so I am gonna race. This weekend is the Tour of Battenkill which will be a brutal 200km race with 30miles or so of dirt. Should be a real slug fest, with some of the best in the country. To get through it will be tough, but we have some guys going really well, and I want to do as much as I can to help set up another W Team Type 1.

Also, a quick thanks to all those who drive on Johnson Ferry that read this last week ... Dan, Colby, and I rode to the crit again on Thurs, and only got honked at 2x by people who weren't happy about where they came from, or where they were going... Maybe a honk free ride next week? Is it possible??

Thanks for reading, and I hope to have some good news to report next week, on a multiple levels.

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
www.teamtype1.org

Diabetes Game: Rock Hill and Johnson Ferry Rd...

2009-04-08T08:34:00.004-04:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

Last I wrote, things had been a bit hectic in the airport, and I was trying oh so hard to relax. Went and hopped on the next flight, and had some really cool flight attendants, which makes all the difference in the world. So had a nice flight, got to Charlotte, and began to think about the bike race. Took about an hour to drive with Daniel Holt back to Joe McConkey's house to grab a ride. We went out for an hour, and I felt pretty crappy. Dan kept saying, we have to be aggressive and get in the early break, which was the last thing I was thinking with how I felt Saturday.

Sunday am, came. I woke up at 171 (decreased basal that night, and ran hot) gave a small rapid bolus, ate some oatmeal, and then a steak egg and cheese bagel 1 hour before the start. I was able to hit the start line at 191, which was Perfect!! So as the race went, I knew that one effort too hard, and I was going to see my McD's again. I sat dead last wheel, telling Dan "I am not making the early break!" About 7-9 miles in a small group got a gap, and had some strong riders in it. Dan lined it out down a hill, and when he came off I jumped across to the move. There were 4 of us working, and then another 6 came across, and that was the early break. After about 20 minutes off the front, and flying we had 2 minutes. Mark Hekman was flying and kept the break rolling fast. I was pretty close to losing breakfast multiple times, and after the hard effort to get established, I had a huge loss in power in my left leg, similar to pre-surgery last year. I wanted to puke so bad from these efforts, but knew I had to keep those calories in, so I avoided the quick fix. After getting the feeling back, the break started to attack each other. One guy got a minute gap, and then the 3 other strong guys in the move got close to him, leaving 6 of us behind. We worked steadily, and got the gap down to 15 seconds. There was a hill that is about 1km long, and fairly steep, and I knew that was my chance. When we hit the base I went full tilt getting across, got there with one eye half open, and sucking air through a straw. Needless to say, that really hurt, and I was in survival mode for a while. We caught Andy, and Mark immediately countered, to which I had nothing. There went the move, and not a thing I could do about it. We chased for a bit, but lost ground, and then it was "stay off the front time." About 30km's to go, we found out we had a 8 minute gap, and so kept it steady. I checked the Navigator, and was sitting at 97, which may have explained the lack of power. In about 1 hour of riding in the break, I consumed a lot of carbs, and still dropped 100 points. I was tired, and still stuffed from breakfast, but managed to take in everything I had. We stayed away, and I got smoked in the sprint for 5th by muscleman. I was able to finish 6th, which was good on some levels, but disheartening on others, cause if I would have made the front group, would have been going for the W. Oh well. After the race I was at 103, gave 6 units of rapid, then put down 75 carbs 20 protein, and then ate a muffin. This was enough rapid for a while. I ate some chips, and then about an 1.5 hours after got a bunch of junk food calories in, and was recovered. Legs didn't agree, but technically I was... Hopped in the car, drove home, and that was that. Day off Monday, and then came Tuesday, and Johnson Ferry Rd.

Tuesday was freezing cold. Went out for 1.5hrs in the am did some sprint workouts. The "feels like" on the Weather Chanel was 38F or something like that. Dan and I even got sleeted on for about 45 minutes. He the meteorologist says sleet, I saw snow... Get home, work with my little brother Jack for a while, and then set off for ride #2 to the Tuesday Crit. We head up getting a little lost, and it is looking like 1.5 ride at 44 degrees to get there. Riding N through Buckhead was ok, but then we hit Johnson Ferry Road in Cobb county, and all hell broke loose. This road is 6 lanes wide. 3 on each side, and an additional lane for any turns. Plenty of room. But we had more road rage here then any stretch of my life. One old man driving a Corvette laid on his horn. A guy on a motorcycle hung right there to watch over us, and the vetteMan so inconveniently changed lanes to pass us, and my buddy on the Moto flicked him off for us. Dan and I continued to ride, and had at least 9 more people lay on their horns.

To everyone who drives on Johnson Ferry Rd: I am sorry about your life, and that your day at work was so bad. I urge you to get on a bike and de-stress, try it out, and see that as much as it pains you to switch lanes to pass 2 guys on a bike, it hurts even more to go full gas trying to make a group ride. Maybe then you could re-think taking your frustrations out on your car horn for no real reason. I admit, I have been in a hurry, and if it was a twisty 2 lane mtn road and we blocked the whole road, I would understand. But 6 lanes!!!

Did the crit, or some of it, and then jetted back home to get 5 hours in for the day. Good times, and my legs hurt. The great thing about these 2-a-days are that the metabolism just flies!! I barely had to bolus at all yesterday, and ate close to 3800 calories for the day. Keeping steady at 16u of basal and will see how the changes happen after this week of training.
Another big day today. Dan is trying to get me to go the mtns. I am trying not too... Prolly will though. No racing this weekend, and then BattenKill with a full Team Type 1 squad in NY the next.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Philpott
www.TeamType1.org

Airport Game-quick rant...

2009-04-04T13:49:00.004-04:00

Howdy from the HotLanta Airport,

Things finally have started rolling again this week. A week ago, I was bored to tears (from being caught up,) not feeling good on the bike, and was working on a record of days in a row in one place (17.) But all has changed, and life is rocking.

I was feeling a bit better after having gotten 2nd in that race, and a bit more motivated to get on it. So Mon-Tues were the usual recover from the weekend. Matt McCarthy saved me on Tuesday by forcing me to go ride. Wed went out and just road real hard for about 2.5 hrs with The Artist Colby, and then 1.5hrs of yoga that night, which definitely hurt me (thanks James...) Thursday I began to question radar on the weather channel. There was no green, a 5% chance of rain, and as we got 40 minutes from home it started to sprinkle, and another 20 minutes later lightning was crashing as cats and dogs came down from the sky, all with a clear radar. Flipped it at an hour, and made it home just in time to shower, pack, eat, and head to the airport.

I got in late, took a walk with my buddy Geoff, who is the Chemist behind the first blood glucose strip, and Navigator. We talked mostly about riding, as he is an avid cyclist. Geoff claims to be fat and slow, but he climbs pretty darn good, especially for a 60 yr old...ha

Thurs night I put my Navigator back in. I saw the comment asking where it was last time. I love the device, and am it's biggest advocate, but I try to remember how to do it old school just in case. So I went 2 weeks without it, and was able to get my 14day avg down to 103, which is good, kind of. I had more low blood sugars in 2 weeks, then I had had in 2 months. It is crazy how much the FreeStyle Navigator helps to avid the trouble area. I wanted to get this perspective before a sitting on a CGM panel at the Diabetes Tech Society clinical meeting.

The meeting was really cool. I got to see some exciting studies, and learn a bit about the future of diabetes, and tech. There were some brilliant people there, and I can't say enough about this industry. One word, and one word along describes it, Passion!!! Everyone there was passionate about making better products, so we can live better lives. One of the coolest things was continuous in the hospital. If this could be standardized, people with diabetes would be so much better off, as when I was last there for surgery, I felt like I was back in diabetes care of 1989.

Then it was off to dinner, pack the bags, and call for my 4am wake-up call. On the plane at 6, having to repack my bags 3 times. I had a garmet bag, roller, and backback. Same bags I carried out to LA no prob was all the sudden a huge issue in LA. They tried to tell me it wouldn't work, can't do it, yada, yada, yada. So I walked away fuming, stuffed my suit, shirts and coats into the roller, shoes into my backback, and went through. Here is what I think the problem with the airline business. All these new cost, new rules, but no new added value to the customer. I think people would gladly pay $20/bag if they could get it immediately after the flight, or check bags if there was a guarantee they would arrive with the plane. Or how about some consistency? I am venting on the experience, and probably based off the fact that it is 2pm, and I am just now getting my 2nd cup of coffee...

One more quick flight to Charlotte, hook up with Dan Holt who is racing right now, and then Rock Hill (90 mile race) in the am. The plan for this is to skip my am basal, which should allow for a slight rise near the end of the race, and I will do 1/2 bolus for my breakfast tomorrow. The legs were good on Thursday, but who knows after 9 hours in the air in 48hrs. Time will tell. That's it for now, and off to catch a flight.

Thanks for reading!
Have a great day.

Philpott
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
TeamType1.org

Diabetes Game- To ride or not to ride...

2009-03-30T15:13:00.003-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta,

So back from Taiwan, settled home again, and bored out of my mind. There are times when things are intense, training is full on, on the phone/computer 8-10 hours a day, and then there are the not times. Things are relatively slow right now, which is most likely just the calm before the storm. Here I am 2 weeks at home, and already missing life on the road. One would think that this means plenty of time to ride, but I just have not had any motivation to get on my bike. Pretty beat both physically and mentally after the 2 month stint on the road, and 4 month heavy workload on the bike.
About a week ago, did a nice 5 hr hard ride, then day off. Tuesday, I went up to the World Champ Crit, got 4hrs total in, and feeling ok. Then the rain hit, and I couldn't make myself ride to save my life... This wasn't effecting basal much, as I was just not eating a whole lot. Daily diet when not riding consist of oatmeal w/ almond butter for breakfast, fruit in afternoon, and then a salad for dinner. Add in a few shots of espresso, and the day is done. So here I am with plenty of time to ride, but no desire to do my favorite thing in the world.

Was planning to race this past weekend, so riding was essential. I made it through most of Friday without the bike, and had conceded to being super fresh, when my buddy called and peer pressured me into 1 hour on the bike. Same deal Saturday, but I put the pressure on, and out we went for 1.5hrs. Went hard a few times to open up. Got a good dinner of Sushi and Guiness on Saturday then Sunday am set out for the Gainesville RR.

5:45: wake up, coffee, oatmeal, more coffee, pack the car (was thinking ahead, and packed bags the night before) hit McD's for game day breakfast and hit the road. Got to the race, and had blood sugar at 140, at the start, and was eating consistently. Set off with 50-60 other brave soldiers at 42 degrees, overcast, and windy. I made a deal with myself that I would not attack until my vest came off, which ended up being about 10 miles in. Started going with moves, and was feeling ok. As the race went on, I kept feeling better, and better, and would give it a go here and there. There were about 10 mygen, and 10 PaceSetter Steel boyz in the race. No moves could really get a gap, and it looked to be coming down to a sprint. So I bided my time, and was sitting good. 500m to go, someone tries to take my front wheel out, and I unclipped for balance. Got back in, having lost 10 spots or so, and then hit it out full gas. I was passing lots of dudes, and managed to sprint for 2nd overall. 2 feet later, and I think I would have taken it, but that is the game we play. I was pretty happy with 2nd, and ready to take on race #2 later in the day.

Hit the car, BS is 143, and do am dose of basal at 8u (total 16 on board now)
Then 4u rapid, and a recovery shake with 80gm carb, 20gm protein. Hit up a sandwich shop, and thought I was good to go. 1hr 45 min before the start, I was sitting at 154. Here is where the detail think comes in. Typically 1hrs 45 min before race, if I saw 154, I would wait, and then test 20 minutes later. But, idiot me only brought 7 strips or so for the day, 5 of which were now gone. So I planned on checking 45 min before the race, and right after. 45 min before, I am feeling a little groggy, and sure enough, 54. Eat Dex4 liquid blast for the quick spike, and a snickers for duration. Then sip on hammer gel leading up to the race. Felt good starting off, aggressive, and feeling good. Then about 10 miles in, we were going slower, and I was felt like it was harder. I could just be out of shape from not riding, but it was a different kind of pain. I was taking down lots of food during the race, but apparently not enough. At the rate I was going, I was sure I was going to get dropped from an easy race. So about 2 miles before the car, I drifted to last wheel, and as everyone made a right turn to race, I made a left to the car. Checked at the car, and was 53, which explains the dead feeling out there. I was thoroughly pissed. Lining up for a race, planning on going like hell for the Win, and then this crap happened. Was I pissed at diabetes?? Yes, infuriated. But when it comes down to it, if I would have brought more strips, checked more, ate more, done things better, I would have been fine.

They say: "guns don't kill people, people kill people."
I say:
"Diabetes doesn't create problems, poor diabetes control creates problems"

In this case it was on me, and I am still pissed off at it. In the past now, lesson learned, won't let it happen again. Every year, once during training, I will go low. Then I bring too much food for the next 364 days, and it doesn't happen again. Well, this is my "I didn't bring the strips" day of the year, and it will not happen again.

This week, I am local until Thurs, when I take off for Long Beach. Going to the Diabetes Tech conference out there, and will get to talk with a lot of the inventors, scientist, engineers behind the great products, and future goods of the diabetes world. Call me a geek, but I really enjoy these meetings, and am very excited about the opp to learn while there.
Then either racing in Long Beach on Sat, or flying back to Charlotte for Rock Hill RR on Sunday. Still working out the details. Hopefully I ride once or twice before then too...ha I am back on it, and looking forward to riding again tomorrow. I hit bottom last week, and feel like I bouncing straight back to the top. Hope the ride up is a good one!

Thanks for reading.

Phil

Diabetes Game- Travel-laundry-no bike

2009-03-19T16:23:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta!!!

I am so happy to be home. Granted I still am struggling to know what time zone I am on, life in my house is good. The race ended well for the team, with Jesse winning the King of the Mountains jersey, and Ken scoring a bunch of solid finishes near the end. Even through a rough race, we all had a good time together, and became closer as a unit. As the non-riding days went on, I went about doing more, and more insulin. I was up to 2x10u/day of Lantus, and up to 11 and 11 the day before we left. The plane ride again was good, and blood sugar was floating perfectly the entire day. I slept for 4 hours on the first 4.5 hour flight. Then hung out in the Tokyo airport for 5 hrs reading books, walking around, and checking email, which was good. Then slept for 8 of 13 hours on the next flight. So I got to LA thinking I was back on east coast time. Waited 3.5 hours in the airport and got on my last 4.5 hour flight back to Atl. So all in all it was about 32 hours of travel.

I walked into my house, thinking I had cleaned and organized everything, but I have never been so far from the truth. I had boxes shipped home, tons of mail, and 2 months of being away all packaged into 900 square feet... I have been spending the last 3 days trying to get organized, and failing consistently... Can anyone guess the absolute best thing about being home???
Abundance of boxers. That's right, having a never ending supply again. The days of travel, I would never wear a pair more than one day, and having only brought 5 sets for the entire trip it was a bit of a stress always having to wonder if I would get to laundry in time. No more, not at home. I am free and clear for weeks on end now, and loving it!!! Having my car, a valid driver's license, are also a bonus.

Then of course the coolest part is being around my buddies again. Monday I could not keep my eyes open at 5:30pm, took a nap, woke up at 8 to watch House and 24. Back to sleep for 9 hours.
Tuesday I commit to picking my buddy John Martin and his wife Ansley up at the airport at 9pm, then to see the crew at The Grainge for a St. Patty's celebration. Like clockwork, at 5:30 I am struggling to stay awake, and I go for my nap thinking I would wake up at 8 or so again. Well, low and behold I wake up, it is dark, grab my phone, and it is 1am!!! Wide awake, feeling like a punk and seeing 10 missed calls, made it all worse. Read for an hour, and back asleep. Spoke to Johnny in the am, and all was good.

I have been to massage 2x, and chiro 2x as I am still messed up from the crash. I guess my Sacrum is miss aligned, and essentially have a sprained butt. Dave suggested not riding to heal, as my butt is extremely flared up, which is causing near constant pain right now. Standing up, sitting down, getting in and out of bed are little torture sessions. Dave has helped some major progress today, and I am hopeful to be back on the bike tomorrow, and maybe racing this weekend. It will be interesting to see how the body reacts after this much time off. I think the rest is needed, but it will now take some time to get back into shape. I was on for 2 big races here in the US, but it doesn't make sense for 60%me to replace 100% teammate. Time to refocus, and get ready to rock soon.

Thanks for reading. I am going to go nap now... Love this jet lag.
Ciao
Phil

The games I play

2009-03-12T20:08:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Taipei,

Interesting culture over here. Since exiting the race, it has been a game of dodge the scooters (LOTS of them,) breathe as little as possible (smog,) and do more, and more insulin....

So the 4th stage was a tough one to begin with. I was warming up, feeling ok, but something was not right on my shoes. I noticed that my cleats (attach to the pedals from my shoes) were moved around a lot. This is not good, as even a millimeter change here is drastic. So I switched to my spare shoes moments before the start, only my left foot was hitting the crank arm every pedal stroke. So in the neutral section I got Doug to make his best effort to change em, and I switched shoes. Chased for a few minutes got back on, and then the flag dropped and the race was on. So we start going uphill, and my left knee had a dagger going through it, so I tried to get the shoes adjusted, and began chasing back, but all this position change just wrecked me. My left leg went numb (similar to problem I had surgery on last year) and couldn't muster up any power. This would have been a hard stage regardless, but this little malfunction was exponential due to the intensity. It was a shame, as I had blood sugar nailed.
Same day, Aldo came down with a fever, and took him out. Jesse was 5th, and then Ken 7th yesterday. We may only have a couple left in the race, but they are racing as 5 men! Please keep the Team Type 1 cheers coming...

I had done an extra unit of Lantus in the am, and a small Apidra correction post breakfast. As the race was going on, my body seemed to become more efficient at burning fuel, so more basal was needed to get the fuel to the muscles. Not exactly expected, but the right decision in my opinion, in my gut... I was able to snack lightly before the start, and began the race at 200(ish) flat lined. Things were good. Didn't need to eat in the first 20 minutes, and if I had not blundered the shoe situation, would have begun to eating Dex4 in the next 25-30 minutes as the trend went down. As it was, I pulled out of the race, and went back to the bus. I had a few hours, so I finished reading: "The People of the Book" which was a good read. Recommended by a nice lady at my book store in Atl, which I get to go back to on Sunday!!!

That night, I increased basal to 10 units, or 17 total for the day. Blood sugars were good. Next morning it was 8 units, or 18 on board, and then yesterday just seemed to be injection, after injection, after injection. Now that there is no race, I want to hang around 80-120, and I think I did 13 shots yesterday trying to get there. Last night I did 12 units of Lantus, and this am, another 9, to take me back to 21 units, which is higher than I was before the race. This am, I have 3 shots in so far, and most likely another to come in the next 10 minutes as I am hovering at 150. If the arrow does not go down, it will happen.
Question I could see coming up: 13 injections in one day!!! Wouldn't it be easier to be on a pump.
Answer: For day to day life, definitely maybe! But for race life, no. Racing is #1 for me, and I want that to come first. If I would have nailed the basal, I would have not needed so many, and when it comes down to it, I have done approximately 69,000 shots in my life, so 1 or 5 more is not that big of a deal.

Today, I am going to cruise around downtown Taiwan. My bike is being used as a spare, so I have no wheels. Not ideal, so I will go walk for a nice long time, and plow through my 3rd book for the trip. I did make a comment on the smog earlier, and will try to put pictures to explain, but each and every day it has looked like it was overcast skies, cloudy as can be. The thing was there was a 0%chance of rain. The over-cast was all smog. Visibility was minimal. It think this could be a very beautiful country, but it is hard to tell when so much is blocked from view. So next time I have to do an emissions test, or take a walk, ride a train, I will do so with a smile, as I hope the US never gets as bad as it is here.

Thanks for reading, and for all of your great comments!
Ciao for now.

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
www.teamtype1.org

P.S. Congrats to Morgan Patton for her first 2 wins this year!!! Start to a great year for her!
P.P.S. Now at 141, so I am gonna hold off for 20 more minutes before another shot...

Tour Taiwan-2 wheels on ground please...

2009-03-10T04:20:00.000-04:00

Howdy from another Hotel...

I hope everyone is rocking. So yesterday am, I went with the guy for 6u, which did not seem to be enough. We had a 140km stage lined up, and another 30 minutes of riding before hand, albeit very slow. Still, I was on the start line with a BS of 240 with an arrow going straight up. So I thought, how about bring it down, by what, insulin??? Nope, attacking! Early in the stage things were aggressive. I went with the first 3 moves, and was thinking, wow, glad this hill is over. But then, I saw that it was just beginning. We were on this really cool twisty, winding upward road, and lined out single file. I was in the red starting the climb, and practically going cross-eyed in pain to hold the wheel. It typically takes my engine a little while to get going, so this was not so shocking to be hurting this early. As the road tilted for one last steep pitch (didn't know it at the time) I decided I was going to ride my pace, and drifted a bit, and then a yee-ha!!! As we were at the top. It was a nice long downhill, and it took me a while to recover. Then Aldo went off the front, and Jesse, and Ken were covering tons of moves. The first sprint of the day Aldo took 2nd, and then we rode in the gutter for a long while as their was a stiff crosswind. The crosswinds are not so fun, as you are riding as far to one side of the road as possible, with very little draft, and hoping nothing pops up, as reaction time is minimal. Then just as the race was getting tough, Jesse made the break, and things eased up. Thanks Jess! We rode near the front for the next hour or so. Joe was the man here, riding in the wind to keep the boyz protected. At some point, teams started to get jumpy, and it was attack, stop, attack, stop for a long time. I covered about 15 moves in a row, which took it's toll. We got to the circuits, and it was 100% for Aldo here. One more spint, and some full gas riding to get there. This was a nice big crit, and in the gutter dying for a lot of it. At one point I made a BIG rookie mistake as we were coming into a left turn, I got gaped through it. I couldn't close it, and Aldo was on my wheel, so I slung him, and then was hung out to dry on the let, with a brutal cross coming from the left. Ken later told me I should have just swung right, as if I would have gotten a little protection, would have been fine, but I went right out the arse... Aldo won that intermediate sprint, and then 3 guys got away. Ken and Jess worked hard, and Aldo was set up, but a skipping chain caused him to lose the sprint. Team was gelling, and success will come soon.

Last night: 8u Lantus, 3u Apidra at dinner, and a high BS through the night. I gave 1 correction of 1u at bed time, added another unit of Lantus to make 9 total, and then another correction at some hour of the night, and 1 more at about 4am, to wake up at 105. I was so tired, that I fell right back asleep after all of em, so no love lost. Thanks Navigator for making sure I started the day right. I saw a comment ? about the lack of sleep and performance: I am a glass half full kind of guy. Theoretically, every time you fall asleep, you produce more growth hormone. And it is also good to keep the metabolism going with calories in the night. So when my alarm goes off, and I wake up to do a correction, I make sure and get about 20-30 calories from a protein shake, and then crash asleep again, knowing on a few levels, it is gonna help. Would I rather sleep through the night, without waking up? Of course, but I am pretty sure it is not affecting my performance in a negative way, and may even be helping.

This am, I did 6u Apidra, ate a good breakfast, and started the trend up for race time. I was too high, and didn't really need to eat. I felt pretty crappy today, and of minimal help to the team. Ken, Joe, and Aldo were aggressive early on, then Jesse was the man again for a good while. I was able to cover a few big moves, but then just suffering out there. Stage races are like that, and hopefully it means tomorrow will bring good legs. With about 6 to go, I was mid pack, and it was time to get to the front to help set up the train. So I pop into a harder gear, and start moving up the left side. Then I see a crash, and about 20 some odd guys piled up, as I am doing 30+mph. I slammed the brakes only to hit a guy, and fly over the bars AGAIN. I look, and one of the bikes ahead of me is an Orbea team bike, but I don't see anyone. I am doing circles looking for me teammate, and even looking in the bushes. Then like magic Ken appeared shorts, and jersey torn to grab his bike. We, along with 40 others went to the pit, and got in with 3 to go. Ken went straight into leadout mode, and he and Jess got Aldo into a good position. Aldo got boxed, and then without sprinting was able to get 5th or 6th. Still not what we are looking for, but we are getting closer to the W! My sacrum is still killing me from the first crash, and now I have a nice little hematoma on my quad from the 2nd. Tomorrow starts with a big climb, then a lot of flat, and then a 1km steep one for the finish.

As for the diabetes game. It has not been too complicated here. But I think I need to go up, so tonight, I am gonna hit 10u Lantus. I want to race tomorrow with a BG around 150. I have been running higher, and doing good, but unable to eat much during the stages. This is walking a fine line, as if I do too much basal, then I will have to eat tons during the stage. So if I am running too hot, so to speak in the am, then I can back down to 5u of Lantus for my morning dose. If not, then I will do 6, and hopefully be perfect for the stage.

Gotta get Ken a beer tonight, as he is pretty banged up, but he is a great teammate, and really did impress us all today. Hopefully I can not crash tomorrow...

Ciao for now! Thanks for reading.

Phil
Team Type 1
www.teamtype1.org

the taiwan crash . . .

2009-03-08T21:54:00.000-04:00

Team Type 1 blog

The Diabetes Game... Basal cuts, and BG perfection

2009-03-08T04:51:00.003-04:00

Howdy from some hotel in some city in Taiwan,

Ah the life... A blurred one, one that revolves around getting up, eating food, riding bikes, eating more food, travel to hotel, eat more food, and sleep... Throw a few shots in there, and having a trusty roommate who actually remembers what room we are in, and life is good!

So yesterday, I said I was going to 8 and 8 for am/pm Lantus doses. I must confess, I lied. As I was injecting the 8 last night, something inside me said: "you need 9!" So I went with my gut (which is how I make all insulin dosage decisions,) turned the SoloStar 1 more notch, and 9 it was. What I didn't notice, was that I was already dropping. I was at 135, with an arrow headed down. So I had a Dex4 Liquid blast (15gm carb) and a granola bar, and by 9:20 I was sound asleep. Woke up once at midnight, and again at 2:30, but then slept right through to 6:30, when it was time to eat. Blood sugars in the night were between 92-115, which made me think the decision was the right one! Got back to the room, and after breakfast, I was at 154 I went with 7u Lantus for the grand total of 16u for the day. I snacked on a cliff bar, and began the race at 184 with an flat arrow. Today was an 80km crit, so got about an hour warm up in.

The gun went off, and it was aggressive from the start. We had everyone near the front, and I was feeling good. Covered a move here, a move there, but never going to hard to do so. 15 minutes or so in, I had a Dex4 Liquid blast to flatten any drop out, and then about 5 minutes later, we are moving pretty good, and I see one guy go down, then another, and it just so happened to be right in front of me. So I nail the guy, flip over the bars, and land square on my tailbone, and head. My Louis Garneau helmet kept the head good, other than a slight ringing in the ears, but the tailbone hurt. I checked my FreeStyle Navigator, which said 208 with an arrow up. Typically when I crash, blood sugar will sky rocket, but I am beginning to think that it is road rash that does this. Today, no road rash, and no spike. Still, i didn't eat anything for the next 1hr 30 minutes, only taking in about 25 grams of carbs from an energy drink.

Anyhow, I went ahead and hopped back on the bike, and limped to the pits. Shimano wheels were straight, nothing was broken, and I hopped back in. The boys were covering things, as I was getting back into the groove. I quickly figured out that I must have nailed my bike pretty hard, as I only had 4 gears working in the back. Most of the time, my chain was just skipping around, so I would just pick a gear, and stay there. This caused a bit of extra grinding (low cadence, more muscle use) than I would have liked. Normally during a crit, or any race for that matter, I like to spin a high cadence and use more of the cardio system. The grinding was manageable, but definitely took it's toll. Joe was super aggressive, as was Ken, and Jesse. We lined it out or the 2nd sprint, which Aldo and Ken went 1-2 in. Then at the end, having spent a lot of energy chasing the last break, we left Ken and Aldo on their own for the sprint, and the Polish team was fresh from sitting in all day. They did a solid lead out, and somehow got beat to the line. We managed 11th, and now have Aldo in 7th overall, which is ok for the first day. Our strength will come later in the race, and we are only going to get better the more we race together.
Post race, I was 150 trending down, but had to pull the sensor off, as the crash sprung it lose. So I am back to finger sticks for tonight, and will put new sensor on to calibrate at 5am, and 7am, so I will be good for the race. I did 6u Apidra back at the hotel, followed by Chocolate Milk and some extra protein to start. Then Gord came in with some killer sandwiches from the bakery, and then another 1/2 sandwich on the bus. Getting close to dinner now, and will do a little less insulin than normal, as sensitivity is probably up there. Tonight, definitely doing 8u Lantus, and will play it by ear in the am, as tomorrow is 140km, so will probably need less. I am guessing 6 in the morning, but will go with what the gut tells me tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, and for all of your comments!!!
Have a great night/day, or whatever it is wherever you are...
Ciao

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
www.teamtype1.org

Diabetes Game and 22hrs of flying

2009-03-07T04:58:00.003-05:00

Howdy from Kaushiung, Taiwan,

How is everyone doing? I am sitting in the hotel in Taiwan now, trying to stay awake, and make it to dinner which starts here soon. The past week has been good, with some solid rest in AZ, and a little bit of good training. I got my new Shimano Dura Ace shoes, with cleat set up, and Orthodox from Bill Peterson. New set up is feeling good, and I got Jason from CTS to set up my bike position. I was way off at Cali, and hopefully way better now...
Anyhow, a little while back I went to 2x Lantus so I could prep for the stage race, as well as the flight. Typically with any 20+ hour travel day, sitting, eating, sitting, and sitting, blood sugars go through the roof. Not this time baby. I did a little bit extra Lantus, 10u am, 10u pm and then had great bs's bordering on the lower side for the entire trip. We arrived late last night, and I had a beer with Ken, and Joe, catching up on their 2 week trip in Singapore. Fun times.

Today, I backed off the basal two 8u Lantus. Woke up at 4;45-5am, cruised down to the lobby played on the computer, and then ate some breakfast, and then more breakfast waiting for the boys to come down. Here is a bit of culture difference. I was sitting at the table of 4, by myself, in a 90% empty restaurant, when all of the sudden, this guy sits down next to me. A million chairs to pick from, and right down beside me. He was probably 50 yrs old, didn't speak a word of English, and just went about eating food without saying a word.

The boyz finally made it down, and we ate, chatted, and planned for the day. Aldo, Ken, Jesse, Joe, and I set out from our hotel by the river (take note of the by the river part) in the pouring rain for a 2 hour ride. We navigated through stoplights for what seemed life an eternity when we finally got to open roads where we could all do our openers (opener=intervals to get the legs ready for tomorrow- typically short, and very hard.) At 1:08 of ride time, we turn around.
Then we make a turn here, and another there, and all of the sudden, no idea where we are going. Here is where the problem lies, is that we are in a foreign land, and do not speak a word of Taiwanese. Asking people "where is the river" was next to impossible. Joe and Ken split one way, and Jesse, Aldo, and I another. We made it to Starbucks and got one set of directions, and then somewhere else for others, until finally at the 3hour mark made it back to the hotel. Joe and Ken came in about 45 minutes later. A bit long of a ride in advance of a 7 day stage race, but the legs are definitely open now.
Tonight I will do 8u Lantus, and tomorrow, probably 8u again. This should have me primed and ready for the crit tomorrow. It is a short 60kms, and then off in the bus to our next hotel. I am pretty excited that I now only have 8 more nights of suitcase life, and I get to go back to the Atl, and live in my house again, albeit for only 3 nights....

Anyhow, I believe I have rambled on long enough. Please forgive my lack of direction, as I am half asleep, and a bit jet lagged.

More race updates to come, and I will try to keep track of the changes for you.
Have a great night/day.
Ciao

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Diabetes Game-

2009-03-02T11:59:00.004-05:00

Howdy from Tucson,

What a place!! It has been over 80 every day I have been here. Sweating bullets and loving it. There is something to be said about just putting on shorts, and a jersey, and heading out for a ride, as opposed to the "is this going to be enough to stay warm, but not overheat??" that we all ask ourselves when it is cold, and/or wet.

Sometime last week I switched to the 2/xday basal. I have a 2 pronged reason for doing so. First, I need more of a basal at night, but not the pop that I get when first injecting basal. By this I mean, that if I put in 20u of basal, I will see a slight drop right away, which can cause the need to eat, and then go back up in the night. But if I do 10u, the "pop" is much less, and need for food after a 10u basal injection is not there.

Second, this Thursday I head off to Taiwan, which is a 12 hour time difference. If I was on 1 basal shot per day, I would most likely spend 5 days figuring out the adjustment. Now, it will be a very simple "insulin transition" to a brand new time zone. Back into the zone of riding last week. I thought it was going to be light, but was actually quite busy. I am in Tucson to do some sight inspections for hotels, for a potential TT1/TT2 conference in 2010. So I spent a lot of time doing that, and think we may have decided on the Star Pass Marriott, which will be a great location. I did 3.5 hrs Tues, 4hrs Wed, and then was very, very tired. It was nice having my metabolism get going again. I cut basal from a max of 22u basal last week, down to 16, and am now back up to 18. Insulin to carb ratios are coming back to normal, and after 2 nights of 10 hours of sleep, I am feeling pretty rested. Taiwan should be an interesting race. There will be a lot of real good competition there, which will make a few stage wins, and/or the overall very rewarding. It is by no means signed, sealed, and delivered, but confidence is high.

14 day BS Avg is 128 right now with 78% in target. Racing makes it tough for me to keep the averages that I like. If I was just training, at a base pace, I would shoot to have average less than 110, with 93% in target, and not have a problem with it. The simple reason is just consistency. Wake up same time, ride around the same time, at the same intensity, eat the same thing, bed at same time. Life is simple. Racing is completely the opposite. So because of Bike Racing, my A1C will most likely go up. I would venture to say I will be around 6-6.5 for the next one in April, which is not bad at all. Come April, I will have 3-4 weeks at home (I think/hope) and will get this consistent good stuff again!!

That is about all for now. I hope all is rocking for you, and thanks so much for reading!
Talk before Taiwan. 2 more days of training, some yoga, then off to the flat lands...

Ciao

Phil

Diabetes Game-post race shutdown...

2009-02-24T12:10:00.001-05:00

Howdy from Temecula (now Tucson with internet)

I gotta say thanks again to all the great fans out there this week. Big thanks to Brittany for tall of the posters, and to everyone who came by the bus. I had to split from the race for a couple of days to begin to refocus on training, as the season has just begun. The training is much needed, as my body went into shut down mode post race. What does this mean?

The day I dropped out, I increased to 14u Lantus, and was ok that night. 2 days ago, I went to split dose, and was still ok throughout the night, doing 16u total. Yesterday I think I did more shots then any one day before (slight exaggeration maybe.) Instead of 2u for a lot of breakfast, it 5u for a small portion. Then a correction of Apidra again afterwards. After that it just seemed like I was doing correction, after correction, after correction…. My body had been used to a lot of exercise, and now was getting none. I went from doing a grand total of 24-28u/day for 7000+ calories, and yesterday I did close to 40u of insulin for 2400 or so calories. Granted the day consisted of getting on the bus for 1.5 hours, walking around chatting for a few hours, and then in the car for another 4 hours with John Murphy on the way to San Diego.

I am now on two doses of 10u of Lantus. I have done 7u of Apidra already this morning, for my coffee, and a breakfast burrito. Blood sugar is 95. About to go out for a 2 hour training ride, in hopes of jump starting the body again. I am pretty sure my body is no different than a non-diabetic in terms of “how much insulin” is needed pre/during/post race or exercise. I am not a doctor, but I would venture to say that if everyone would exercise an hour or 2 a day, total insulin requirements would drop significantly.

What would this mean?

For people with diabetes, easier to manage blood sugar, and less insulin ($$ saved,) better A1C- less risk of complications.

People without diabetes: less production of insulin, which would prolong beta cell burnout, which could prevent the onset of type 2.

For all of us: a better state of mind, as I know I sure do feel a heck of a lot better on days I ride vs days I do not. So please, give it a try, and get a friend to do it, cause you can make a difference.

Today will be a day of relaxation, as the rest of the team fights to get in breakaways. It has been a rough go for the team this tour, but still 2 big days left. We are fighters, and not done yet. I am looking forward to getting back to the race tomorrow afternoon to see the finish at Palomar, and have a celebration with our team/staff/directors. We are celebrating the start of a great year, and hopefully many victories to come. Personally, I am looking forward to a few days of consistent riding, and getting my insulin regime back to normal.

Also, I would like to comment on a comment… I like it when people take blows like this, and don’t leave a name.

“yeah , what your doing as far as spreading a message for diabetics is great. but you have no right in a race like TOC. you have no results that should make you pro. remember, this is a professinal sport, not a charity. do something on the bike that will change my mind. not as a diabetic, but as a cyclist.”

Last I checked, I was on the start line, with a # pinned to my jersey, which technically gives “the right” to be in the race. On some level, you are right, in the last 5 years I have no results, in fact have barely raced. 5 years before I raced, got plenty of results, and for what? The work has been done, and with the goal of group health insurance for people with diabetes so that the next 20 year old with diabetes thinking about going to Europe can do it w/o question. Again, I would like to commend you your no-named comment. Real ballsy.

HUGE thanks to everyone else for all of your support and comments. I read them all, and plan on reporting some stage wins from Taiwan. That is the goal…

About to head out for a 4 hour ride, and trip to the Chiro. Hope to get straight again, as Cali turned me sideways…

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.

Phil

First Dance is over

2009-02-19T11:24:00.002-05:00

Howdy from the Team Bus,

Thanks so much to everyone for the cheers, and comments. It has been quite the experience the last 4-5 days, and the more road we covered, the more Team Type 1 signs we saw. It truly has everyone on the team, mgmt, and staff included extremely proud to be a part of this team.

So how'd it end? When it comes down to it, I was racing against the best of the best in cycling, and doing so after not having done any real racing since last March. That in itself was a challenge, but I was getting through. Ont he early days, we had saran (know idea on spelling) wrap around our shoes, and tape around the wrap on the ankles. This caused my left ankle to flare up. Not so bad on the bike, but miserable walking. On stage 3, this turned into some knee pain, and on stage 4 they were both bad. Excuses, no. I did need to be 100% to have a chance at fighting it out, and I was probably running at 75%. Unfortunately I am not that talented. When it comes to the diabetes, I was close to having it all figured out.

So yesterday, I nailed the Blood sugar before the start., I did 2u of Apidra at breakfast, and took in about 150gm carbs, and a solid amount of protein and fat. I sat at 160 for a bit before starting to trend down. Drank some Gatorade, and got it up to 225 and flat at the start. We took off neutral for a bit, with the sun shining. For the first hour we were going 30+mph non stop. It was crazy, but was feeling ok. I had a Dex 4 liquid blast 10 minutes into the stage, and then a clif shot no too long after that. Legs still ok. Then we hit some rolling hills, and when standing the pain in my knee became somewhat agonizing. It got to the point where I was using just my right leg when standing, and that one was wearing out quickly. At this time, attacks were going left and right, and the field was becoming lined out. Chris Jones got in a solid break with some A+ riders, which unfortunately got caught. It was about this point where we were flying uphill, with no top in sight, that I pulled the plug. It was a tough decision, but a smart one.

The guys road solid, and we got Matti in 13th and Kobza in 18th.

Yesterday's stage had over 11,000ft of climbing in it, and a lot of solid riders did not make the finish either. Had a funny moment on the 3rd stage, when I was catching back up through the cars, and I saw to my left that Lance had stopped to stretch... I was about 10 cars back, when I saw him, and 2 teammates drop back for him. So as he got back on the bike and came by me, and yelled "hop on buddy," which I did. It was nice having the Astana train pull me back up to the front of the field. Good times...

All in all, this has been a great race, a great experience, and hopefully will help jump start me to a higher level. Next on the race docket for me is Tour of Taiwan, March 8-15. It is a cool race, and I am excited to get back and go for some stage wins!!

Last night, I jumped up to 13u Lantus. Which had me good for all but a few hours last night. I am going to switch to 2x day dosage, and see if it smooths me out at the 10:30-1:30 time frame. Will keep you posted. Now it is time to relax a little, recover a lot, and begin to focus on training for the rest of the season. I plan to come back to this race next year, and give em hell, and hopefully have more stories from time off the front, than time off the back...

Thanks so much for your support, and the comments!

Phil
www.TeamType1.org
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Survival Game on multiple levels

2009-02-18T11:17:00.002-05:00

Howdy,
Quick update here.
Yesterday was survival. Dropped on first climb (which was very hard,) chased solo for long time, as catching the group, felt Navi vibration, so went to team car. Wearing super gloves so can't reach in pocket. Grabbed onto car, while the doc reached back to see I was at 133 dropping. Drank a coke, went through the cars to get back in. Officials saw that, and dq'd me, but after hearing why, re-instated. Thanks for the understanding!!!
Then I went on to eat, and eat, and eat. I calculated eating about 340gms of carbs over the course of the day, and at the end still finished at 91. I came off the back on the second climb, then chased through the cars to get back on, and then sat as close to the front as I could for the last 80km's or so. Feeling good until last bit, when I not eating enough got me too low, and was out of fuel. I have eaten tons since then, and am about to go give it another go.
Did 11u Lantus last night, down from 19u at the start. Woke up at 6:20 at 240, did 3u Apidra, and stuffed as much food down my throat as possible. Right now, I am 145 trending up, and gotta run hop on the Team Bus.

Thanks so much for the comments, and well wishes. Today is going to be hard, but sunny, and I plan to make it to the end.

Have a great day.

Phil
www.TeamType1.org
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Survival Game and Diabetes Game

2009-02-17T12:10:00.004-05:00

Howdy from Some Hotel in CA,

Yesterday was tough. But there were some cool parts. In the neutral section before the race, we rode across The Golden Gate Bridge. That was pretty darn cool. Then it was full gas. I was doing ok for a few minutes. At the top of the climb my glasses fogged a lot, so I took them off. Then all the crap from the road, and rain were in my eyes, and I couldn't see a thing. This would have been ok, other than the fact that we were doing 35mph on the flats in 50++ down the hills. Then as soon as we got to open roads, I had a mechanical. Got in the cars, and spent a long time off the back of the group fighting to get back up. I would move up 1 car, then back 3, then up 5, and back 2. For those who don't know, we have massive caravan of team cars, officials, police behind us. This caravan is probably 2 miles long, and is an extension of the field. So as long as I was in the cars, I was still racing. With the help of a few directors, I was able to get back in. So for 30ks, I got to ride with the bunch, and chat with some friends and teammates. Then we hit the next climb, which was 7 miles long. Rock Racing lined it up, and after some time I was off the back. Played the car game up the climb, and met up with Fabio, 3 Liquigas guys, 3 colavita, Fred Rodriguez and a few others. We rode lt tempo for an hour, then hard tempo for another hour, then an 8 mile climb, and a long descent to the finish. It was hard, but we snuck through the time cut, and survived to race another day.

Before the race I was having some trouble getting BS to go up. I was eating tons, and finally at the line able to see 177 with an upward trend. During the race, I had a 2 cliff bars (80gm carb) 6 shots (120gm carb) 3 cliff blocks packs (150gm carb) and a coke (25gm carb) I was fine and dandy for most of the day, but about 45 kms to go, I felt the vibration going off. It was hard to tell if it was the long vibe (low BS) or short vibe (high BS) so I went with the safest, and guessed low, and ate... On the last climb, I had our doc, Mark Greve reach into my jersey, and pull out the FreeStyle Navigator, which said I was 111. This is when I had the last of a coke, cliff bar, and shot. Finished, within the cut, and then did 7units of Apidra, and took in 60 gm of carb/20 protein from a drink. A cookie, and some chips. Then had a sandwich, and other stuff to hold over until dinner. 2.5u for a huge plate of rice, some sort of red meat, and 4 pieces of cake.
13u Lantus at 9am, followed by cereal, and a protein shake.

Woke up at 3am at 254, and did 2.5u. Woke up with Projected low alarm at 4:45am, ate Dex4 glucose, and protein shake. Back to sleep. Low alarm again, and had 25 gm carb from Dex 4, and then woke up at 7:30 for breakfast.

Today is gonna be hard, wet, and cold. I need to have the ride of my life for the first 15 miles today, and then should make it to tomorrow.

Huge thanks to everyone for your comments, and support! It means the world to me, and I am gonna go give em hell today!

Have a great day.

Phil
TeamType1.org
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

California Game- Hell on wheels...

2009-02-15T23:22:00.002-05:00

Howdy,

So the winner is... appx 200gms of carbs. But here is why. So I eat a solid breakfast, and then have an arrow going down afterwards. So eat a bar, and a bunch of these rice balls that Avery made for us. At the start line, I was at 257 with an arrow going up, and already shivering.

Then, we took off, and it was decided that we would not go full gas, which was a relief. There were some brutal winds, and if it would have gone real hard, it would have been ugly. 20 minutes in I ate a gel, and then another 15 minutes, a 2nd gel. I was drinking water, and not much of it. Let me put it in perspective, it was about 40-45 degrees, raining the entire time, and windy. We were all shivering out there. It was crazy. I tried to stay as close the front as needed, and got some good assistance from my man Matt Wilson. He took care of me with advice, and even went back and grabbed a jacket for me (getting one for himself too,) which was HUGE!

About 30kms from the climb, we started to ride faster. It was 60kmh downhill, 50km everywhere else... This is when it began to hurt. I had already eaten a cliff bar and 1/2 at this point, and took down some Cliff Blocks too. Then in the feed zone, had some temporarily warm tea, and a rice ball. This was about the last of my food. When we went to the climb, I was relatively close to the front, and then began to drift. It was steep, very steep. Made it to and off the back, and then it was survival mode. I was doing everything within my power to lose as little time as possible. Over the top it was Fabio and I, and we rode a steady tempo for the last 40kms, to the finish, where we got a pro-rated time. Finished shivering, and got on the bus for some warm tea.

Blood sugar at the line was 133 (only time I checked all day out there.) So my new trick with Navigator is to set some specific alarms. High is 220 and both high, and projected high are a short vibrate. Low is set at 120. Both low, and projected low alarms are a long vibrate. On a day like today, it was impossible to reach back and pull it out to look. So it was going blind, and just eat, eat, eat. In the bus, I immediately started trending up, and did 7units of Apidra, and ate 60gm carb, 20protein from Recoverite, a product by Hammer Nutrition, and then chips, rice, cookie, and a lot of warm tea. This kept me at 190, and began to trend down at the hotel in time for dinner.

Last night, I ran a little low throughout the night, and with today's intesnity I am gonna back it off to 13u Lantus. Might be too much of a drop, but rather run high than low here.

Off to a massage. Gonna be another cold wet day tomorrow.
Thanks for the wishes, and all the comments!!! I really do appreciate it.

Have a great night.

Phil
www.TeamType1.com
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Tour of Cali

2009-02-15T11:50:00.002-05:00

Howdy,

Just a few minutes here before we depart for stage 1. Yesterday was a very cool experience. We had a lot of fans come up to the bus, and a big thanks to all of you who made it out!! The Prologue:
We decided to ride to the race, but with no clear direction how to get there, we got a little lost, ended up riding the interstate right back to the hotel... Phase 2, good directions now, and we are off. Running a bit behind we move pretty quick getting there. Arrive, and BS is at 95. Eat some rice ball things, cliff bars, and Dex 4, and after warm up on the trainer I am at 196. Ready to rock.

These Time Trial things have never been my strong suit. I have always finished near the back of the field, and mostly against mediocre fields. So with this being one of the strongest fields ever in the US, I had expectations of finishing near the back. So I take off, and go good for 2kms. I was in a good rhythm, high cadence, into a headwind. I then decided to go into a bigger gear, and it bogged me down, and I began to slow. So when all was said and done, it was a time of 5:21, which was much, much slower than the winner. Would like to do it again, as I already know a few ways I could go faster, but not 45 seconds faster.

Last night- Blood sugars were trending down a lot. So I cut back to 15u Lantus, and gave 1.5u Apidra at bedtime. Went up to 180, so gave another unit, which was too much. Each time I woke up, I was a bit lower than the last, and kept eating all night. This is not such a bad thing, as now the metabolism is moving. I gave 3u this am, ate a Cliff Bar, HUGE bowl of Oatmeal, eggs, potatoes, and bacon. I saw 220 at the end of breakfast, and am now at 155. Time to eat a muffin. I want to stay above 130 for the next 3 hours until the start of the race. I hope to start the race at 170 with an arrow trending up. I might get nervous, which could jack the BS up a bit, but who knows. I have the Navigator Calibrated, and am ready to rock, which brings me to a quick point of thanks.

I had been having some trouble with my Navigator after it gor dropped. I didn't feel it was going to make it though the race, so I called customer support at Abbott Fri am. By the pm, the said it was being overnighted to the race. I got a call late Fri night saying that Fedex would not make it in time, so they were Yvette and Esin were going to drive to Sacramento from San Fran to ensure we got it before race time... I cannot thank them enough for doing this, as I now have a clear head going into the race. Just an example of a company going the extra mile!!!

Thanks for reading. Today is survival for me.
Poll for the day: How many carbs will I eat during the race today?

Have a great day! Off to race.

Diabetes Game and Tour of California

2009-02-13T22:57:00.002-05:00

Howdy From Sac Town,

So here we are the night before the big show. It has been a crazy few days, and no doubt just the calm before the storm. I have had the opportunity to see some of the biggest names in cycling, and also get some solid advice from my teammates. The advice is much needed, as I am jumping into the fire here.

It was cool last night at the team presentation having the team introduced by Phil Ligget. Then Mr. Paul Sherwan came up and asked me a few questions. I got a hot second to share a bit of the story to the crowd, and was thrilled with the reception of the team. Multiple rounds of applause at what our team is doing really hit home for me. Not to mention having the two guys who I have heard announcing races for the last 15 years.

Rides have been good while here. We did an east 3.5 hrs yesterday. I felt so/so for the first half, and then got better as the day went on. On Wed night I did 19u Lantus. Had to eat a bit extra on the ride Thursday. Thursday backed off to 18u Lantus, and still had to smash a lot of food down on the ride. I will do 18 tonight, and then back of to 15 tomorrow in advance of the long day on Sunday. Lots to consider in the coming days in regards to insulin, as I have never done a race of this caliber. I have raced the distances before (been some time) but never this terrain, weather, and last but not least, the field.

Tomorrow is the Prologue. That means 3.8km of all out sprint! I hope to go out hard, and not blow up. If I can get up to a decent speed, stay there, without exploding, then it will be a success. To say I am going for a specific result is not reasonable, as I really do not know where I sit. I do know there are guys faster than me here, and there are guys slower than me here. But within that, I have to be smart, efficient, and be willing to push deep into the hurt box in the days to come. I will try to give regular updates as we go through.

So here is the poll questions: If I am on for 15 Lantus tomorrow before stage 1, then what would you guess I would be at come day 2? I am not asking about the 3rd, until I get there.

I hope all is well.
Thanks for reading!!

Philpott
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

Diabetes Game: Racin Baby!!

2009-02-11T11:40:00.001-05:00

Howdy From Santa Barbara,

How goes it? Life is good here. Now 4 days away from the beginning of the Tour of California, AKA: “The hardest race I have ever done!” I am extremely excited, nervous, and curious about the venture. But leading up to it, I feel good.

I feel fully recovered from a 3 week block of tough training. 23 hours before camp with a lot of intensity, 15 hrs,+ a million photo/video shoots (more tiring than training) and then a 26 hour week with the rock stars of Team Type 1! At the end, I was both physically, and mentally wiped out. The stay in Buellton after camp was good for me, and some weather forced rest had me feeling perky going into the crit on Sunday. This was it for me, the test. If I sucked, I was pulling out of ToC, but if I felt good, and could go, then I was going. So I woke up, ate breakfast, and blood sugar would not come down. I was a bit peeved, so decided instead of giving 3 extra shots, that I would go ride. I went out in San Diego, and felt good. Climbed a bunch of hills, and after getting lost, rode hard for a while to get back in time to go to the race. Also, blood sugar was 85 at the end of the ride, so that problem was solved.

Got to the race 4.5 hrs early. Got registered, dressed, and set off with Cajonez (Chris Jones) Matt Wilson, Joe, and Willem for a warm up. This consisted of 2.5 hours through the hills of Northern San Diego. Felt pretty good, and HR stayed a bit high. Then 1.5 hrs before the race grabbed an espresso, and went to relax. Checked BS, and it was 58. So I ate 2.4 scones, and a turkey Sandwich for about 90gms of carbs. Checked at the car, and was 220! Perfect! Then rode to the store to grab a Gatorade, and on the way back, went through a yellow light, and BAM! Hit by a car. The guy making a left turn was in a hurry and smashed me. Miraculously, and don’t ask me how, I got my body out of the way, and left unscathed. The only issue was a out of true Shimano wheel, and some paint chipage on my Orbea Opal. I felt real, real, real (to the 10th power) lucky to get out so easy. Crit Time…
Vassili’s orders for me were to sit in for the first half. The crit was going full throttle, and the team looked good. Matti, Willem, and Chris were covering lots of moves. Matti was in just about every move, and Willem was doing a hell of a job. And I just sat in the top half spinning around as we cruised at 30mph. Tough crit with a little hill on it. Then halfway through, Chris comes up and says
“How you feel”
I say “good”
He says, “you want to race then”
I say “Sure, at the halfway point”
He says “It is halfway, let’s race.

So I go to the front, and start covering moves. Not a whole lot of em, but I was able to get in moves, go real hard, and then recover, and do it again. Was finally getting some race confidence back, and doing this at fairly fast race. Covered Crane a few times, and hurt a bit. None the less, doing the crit to finish up a 5 hour day on the bike, and feeling good, was a nice sign. During the race, I had 2 bags of Jelly Belly Sport beans, and a cliff shot. Also had 4 Dex 4 tabs right before the start. My Hat goes off to Matti and Jones for a solid ride, and Willem for a hell of a ride. Blood sugar finished at 223, and did 7 units of Apidra for about 70gms of carbs. 1 hr later, was at 263. Did another 6 units and then had a burrito, and 2 units later was back at 100 before bed. Increased to 17u of Lantus, and still went high. Went to bed at 80, woke up at 12:30 at 255. Did 3u Apidra, and woke up at 104.

Last night, after a rest day (Email, massage, physical therapy, and very little food) went up to 18u, and woke up at 2am at 94, drank some Muscle Milk Protein drink and woke up at 134.

Coffee, Oatmeal, and 4u Apidra, and set off for a 3.5 hr ride with some intervals. Had my new Orthodics in from Bill Peterson (wedofeet.com) and felt better on the bike than when I took off the training wheels. Big thanks to Bill for the final touches of straightening me out, which has been the culmination of 3 years of work on that body project that some 25 specialist (outside of diabetes) have helped seen me in the process.

Started today at 220, ate Sport beans 50 minutes into the ride, and then it was interval time. Took a minute to get the HR up and then sat in the zone for 15 minutes. Took a nice recovery period, ate ½ cliff bar, then another bag of sport beans, then 3x2 minute all out efforts up mtn! These hurt real good. Ate the other ½ of the cliff bar, then another 15 minute effort. Ate a snickers, and set off on the hour ride home. Nice day, felt good, and finished the ride with a BG of 113. Took care of some email, and spent some time reading “What is the What” by David Edgers. I am really enjoying this one, and it makes any pain that we go through on a daily basis seem small and insignificant relative to what this man went through. I thought I knew hunger, but now know better.

Post ride was 7 units Apidra, with 40gm carb, 30gm protein from Choc Milk and Protein mix. Then another 90gm carb 9gm Protein from Oatmeal. Metabolism is moving now. I think I am gonna roll with 18u of Lantus again tonight, and another shake right before sleep. Tomorrow is an easy 2 hr ride, followed by travel to Sacramento for the Tour. After the ride, it is pack the bags, and hit the road.

Wed it will be 3 more days, and I am more and more excited the closer it gets. I really appreciate all of your support, and will need it during the Tour. I will try to update as often as possible, and give my personal play by play throughout the race.

Thanks for reading, and have a great Day!!!

Phil

Diabetes and Bike games...

2009-02-07T20:01:00.003-05:00

Howdy from San Diego,

Did anyone else think from Anchorman, that San Diego was always sunny? So did I... Wrong.

Back to that in a minute. Last I signed off, we were heading down to a crit. It was a nice day, and 10 of us took a spin from Buellton down to Santa Barbara, for the Moth Balls Criterium. Legs were tired, but proceeded to get better. We started the crit, fresh of yesterdays win, and wanted to do it again. So the team was in attack mode. One after the other, the guys attempted to rip legs off. I was under orders to sit in, and did just that, hanging near the front, but not touching the wind. Near the end of the race it was looking like a field sprint, and we all started moving to the front to set up the train. I took a couple of primes (after someone from the team took all the others!) and then sat in as the door man behind Matti, Kobza, and Jones. Behind me were 5 more, with Joe being the final man. The big man flatted with 2 laps to go, and then we ended up getting 2nd. We had control the entire race, and 9 guys lined up for the last 8 laps, but being the first leadout of the year, messed up just a bit. A positive is the error was realized after, and we vowed not to let it happen again.

Mon-Thurs were chill super relax days. I have been getting to bed at 9:30 and sleeping until 7:30. I spent the entire camp extremely tired. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open past 8pm. Legs were dead too. So Monday-Thurs, I was in recover mode. I got a massage every day, and did some riding. I did 3 hours easy on Tuesday, and then 3.5 hours hard on Wednesday. I have been upping my lantus to 16 by Thursday. Breakfast everyday was great. I had the Dutch Pancakes from Ellen's in Buellton. May have been the best ever! By the end of the week, I was beginning to feel rested. I got back to my roots, and did some Yoga Friday am, and plan to do it at least 3 more times before the start of Cali. It really helps me a lot, and felt I needed it before some racing.

Racing... In Sunny San Diego. Joe, Willem, and I took off Fri am from SB, and headed down for the 4 hour drive to San Diego. Had a sand which for lunch before the drive, and then did another 6 units of Apidra on the way down to get a good BG by ride time. As soon as we got hear, ate some food, and got on the bike for 1.5 hrs. We all did 3 sprints, and I got 3rd in them all. I used to have a good sprint, but no more... But, the legs felt good, real good. I finally had the snappy feeling that you have when things are good. Felt confident going to the race. Weather forecast showed for 50 and raining. Brought the right clothing for that forecast. BUT, instead it was 30ish and snowing on the line. I had no booties, no gloves, no beanie, and new it was a bad decision to be on the line. Went hard off the go trying to warm up, legs, but to no avail. Legs felt good, but after about 15 minutes, and no feeling in the hands, I flipped it and headed back to the car.

This was kind of like having a hypo, with no Dex 4, or sugar around. ??? You may ask. Moral of the story here is that, in diabetes, bike racing, or life in general, always be prepared. If I would have brought the right clothing, I would be writing a different tale right now.

Going to go with 16.5 u Lantus tonight. 15.5 had me high last night, and I need a good nights sleep. May have to eat more on the ride, but better than waking up to give a shot in the night.

Sorry for the lack of any sort of detail here, but my fingers are still frozen, as is my mind...

Criterium tomorrow, and hopefully some sunshine. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading.

Phil

Diabetes Game- Mt Fig and some racin...

2009-02-01T11:53:00.003-05:00

Howdy from Buellton Cali,

I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks for reading! When I last set off, I had a blood sugar of 220, and was ready to go out and tackle the day with higher bg's. We took off from the parking lot, and in anticipation of a tough day, I put down a snickers bar in the first 10 minutes. 40 minutes in I saw a blood sugar going down, so ate a Powerbar. 15 minutes after that, and with 15 minutes till the climb, I ate another PowerBar. One would think (me being one) that with 125gms of carbs, I would be stable. The first bit of Fig was tough. Team Type 1 is known for it climbers, and they were all out to do a tough day. Lill, Jones, McGregor, Kobza, Anthony were lighting it up. I was good for 3-4km's at the pace, and then pushed a little too hard trying to hang on, and KABOOM!!! I exploded. This is not good. It would have been better to back it off 2 minutes in advance and ride my own pace. Once the explosion happens, it takes some time to recover, and then never as good as the start. At the explosion, the FreeStyle Navigator said I was at 126 trending down. I took in 2 Dex 4 Gels, and then proceeded to get in a rhythm. Did some fun descending to catch back up to a few teammates: http://www.bicycle.net/2009/team-type-1-training-camp

After catching up we rode a nice tempo to the top. I had 1 more gel, and finished the climb at 122, which is ok. Then sitting at the top for a few minutes, my BS shot up to 220, where it stayed for the rest of the ride. I felt a lot better on the flat parts (as always) and was able to do my part in the leadout train. 5 hours on the bike.
Friday was a rest day, doing 1.5 hours in the am easy, then another 30 minutes that afternoon on my Orbea TT bike, which is SWEET!!

I did 13 units of Lantus on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday I did .5 units of Apidra at 9:30 with a good BS, and woke up at 11:30 at 57. Ate a bar, and then woke up at 170 at 2am, did .5 unit of Apidra, and at 5am was 100. Life is good. Friday, forgot to do the .5 unit, and woke up at 5am at 200, did a unit, and had a good bs in the am for RACE DAY...

So I had a good breakfast, lots of it in fact. I did 1.5 units for the food, and then was around 220 setting off for the ride. I had a banana 20 minutes in, and then got to the race, and it was calibration time. I saw 334... What shot me up? Too much food? Not enough basal? Nerves? Not sure, but time to correct, without over correcting. So I did .5 unit of Apidra to get me rolling. Felt pretty bad at the start (just tired legs) and then my team was annihilating the front of the race. We went over the first climb which was about 2kms, and I went too hard and came off. Chased back on with some others, and then at the turnaround see a break of 6 with 4 teammates in it. On the way back, I had 2 gels, and going up the climb again was painful. This time I rode a tempo I could manage, and then at the top chased back with a big group, thanks Gord! At the turnaround I see a group of 15 with 7 teammates in there... Then we climb again, I come off, chase back, and at the turnaround it is 20 with 10 teammates in there. It was pretty tough rest of way in, and we ended up going 1-2 with Ricardo taking the win, and Moises coming in 2nd. Great day for the team.
Me, I am tired. Slept 10 hours for the past 3 nights, and am really fatigued from training, photo/video, and more training. 1 more race today, a crit, and then a few days of super chill. I am coming off anti-biotics now, and hoping to be better soon. I will race again next weekend, and then the big show, Tour of California. I have done the work, and now realizing maybe too much. I think there is still time to recover, hope there is still time.

The team is flying. The guys are all going so much faster than last year, and we have a great dynamic going on. I think everyone is really motivated to have a good year, and I feel like this could be a great opportunity to learn from some of the best racers the US has to offer, and take my game up a few notches. The guys have all been real good about giving small tips here and there, and they are helping already.

When it comes down to it, bike racing and diabetes are not all that different. They are both a game, a sport, where every action has a reaction. Every detail makes a difference, and if you can continue to learn, than you can continue to get better. So on both games this year, I plan to improve.

Criterium today for 9 of us, and I will have updates to come soon.
Thanks for reading!

Philpott

P.S. You can also get quick snippet updates on my Twitter page:
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
Goal is 1000 followers by end of February... Please spread the word! Thanks

Training Video

2009-01-30T18:09:00.004-05:00

Training with Joe

Diabetes Game- New twist, and camp

2009-01-29T12:07:00.006-05:00

Howdy from Buellton CA!

I hope everyone is doing well. This has been a crazy week. Thursday was a photo shoot for Team Type 1 bike sponsor, Orbea, with Joe. The ad will be out in Road Magazine next week. It rocked. This was a 4 a.m. wake up, 4 airline flights that day, and back to hotel by 10 p.m. Friday. The Team Type 1, Lantus/Apidra video/photo shoot began that day which meant a 6 a.m. wake up for the team. Saturday through Monday had us setting our alarms to 4:45 a.m. to get ready for more video/photography work.

I have calculated that I am now about 13 hours behind on sleep. These shoots comprised of a wake up alarm, eating breakfast, riding around, sitting around, and smiling a lot. Great people to work with, but it took a toll on me. By Monday night, I was "fried." I had to put toothpicks in my eyes to keep them open. We had a great meet the team, hosted by the ADA Tour de Cure. I saw 140 people commit to doing a Tour de Cure ride in 2009. Team Type 1 will be present at 60 rides!!!

These days of video and photography shoots ended up being "rest days" on my body, which threw my metabolism off. I admit, I was very tired physically from training going into camp. I had done a solid 12 days block of hard long rides. I was pretty set on 15 units of Lantus, and then a lot of adjustments through the days. I was able to ride 3 days, each 3 hour rides. All of the sudden, I became SUPER sensitive to insulin. I went through one day only doing 2 units of Apidra, and eating lots of food. I dropped to 14 units of Lantus for the first time in a long time, and had low blood sugars still in the a.m.

This was all fine and dandy until yesterday. 2 units of Apidra for breakfast, and 150gms of carbs. I was still going low. I ate another 75 carbs before the start of the ride, and then 75 in first 45 minutes. Blood sugar never went above 110 on the ride. I was good on the easy/moderate parts, and even some of the hard bits, but when it went real hard I was weak. I was also watching Ken Hanson, a non diabetic, who was using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). He sat at 130-140 blood sugar reading for most of the ride. Went a good period without any food, then a long climb, and he dropped to 80. Then he drank a Sprite, and went on a long hard climb, and he shot up to 161. He maintained 160 for some time after the climb, until a hard rotation, where he dropped to 130. He ate a ton of carbs post ride, and he, a non diabetic, actually shot up to 270 on the CGM.

We have 5 others without diabetes using CGM during camp, and hope to have more exciting data for you soon. I have been wanting to conduct this study for 2 years now, and Dr. Howard Zisser was kind enough to make it happen!

I have five and 1/2 hours today, climbing Mt Fig, which will take about an hour. Then some sprint/paceline work. It is going to be a hard day.

Also, almost forgot, I cut basal to 13 units of Lantus last night, went high in night. I was down to 100 after breakfast. I ate a bit much, and am now sitting at 220. I want a direct comparison of my performance yesterday will a blood sugar 50 points higher. News to tell tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.

Phil
TeamType1.org

Diabetes Game- Really long rides...

2009-01-19T10:06:00.003-05:00

Howdy from Sunny S0Cal!

Have I mentioned I love this place yet??? I was so lucky to have a great host in Gina, Irvay, Sean, and Natalie for about 8 days while here in SB. They opened there home to me, and I could not have made this trip without them!!! I have also been lucky enough to see Kim Bleth, who is the best massage therapist I have worked with, along with Dianna Palmer, who is keeping my body in line. Throw in some acupuncture from Kathleen Zisser, and I can ride real hard, stay straight, and suffer on the bike. Thanks to all for your help while here.

Now this game... Thursday I went with the 15 units of Lantus- hypo all night. Was this cause of the lantus, or did I not eat enough carbs for the insulin I did? Woke up Fri am, worked for a while, then set off on a 2 hour ride with my buddies, Joe, Ken, Tim, Barney, and Laura Van Gilder (wow-she is strong!!!) I did .5 units of Apidra, then ate oatmeal (65gm carb) and a scone at the shop. 2 bars earl in the ride, and BS stayed at around 100... We did a couple of hours, going hard on some climbs, but decided to call an early day. I got home, blood sugar of 101, ate some oatmeal, and set off to do one more climb. Ouch... Get home, pack my bags and move over to Tim's place. We headed to a party at Gina's place. She got the Santa Barbara Support group together, and I got to meet another 15-20 type 1's!! Some young kids who said they are going to race with us!! Joe and I gave a quick chat about the team, and how it formed, and tried to get the kids (and adults) fired up about good control, and then benefits to the rest of life...

Early sleep, as Saturday was a big daddy! 130 mile ride with about 7500 feet of climbing, which translates to a lot of time going up. Big lesson learned today too!! We did this with the Chicken Ranch team, and had a great ride. It almost didn't happen, as Tim (I am always 2 minutes late) Johnson and I missed the start. We then went real, real hard out of the blocks until we saw the pace truck. Then motorpaced for another 20 minutes, until we finally caught the group. I had eaten 60 gms of carbs at this point. Also, I left the house with a BG of 186. Was 110 when I woke up, and did .4 units of Apidra to cover 90gms carbs. I wanted to have a little more than basal to carry that to my muscles, but not too much to drop. Also, I set off on this ride blind. Navigator was calibrating, and I don't take a meter when I ride. I go by feel. I do this, so that if for some reason I don't have it in races, I will be ready. So the ride goes on, and we begin first climb. I smashed a bar in before the climb, and felt good for the first 2 miles, then we made a left and went up on a 5% grade for another 2 miles. As We kept climbing, people kept popping, and it was Tim, Jesse putting the hammer down, followed by John and I. Then it was those 3 as I lost contact, trying not to explode. Should have pushed harder to see how deep I can go.
Then next climb Tim ups the pace again (I have eaten 2 more bars at this point) and there are 4 of us again. Tim, Jesse, Kim, and I. I got dropped with about 3/4 mile to go, then bridged back up, then dropped again, then bridged back up. Dropped a 3rd time, and then hammered until I was cross-eyed and drooling to cross the top next to Tim. Ouch. We get the the beach, and I drank a coke, a muffin, and some of Joe's french fries. All in all, another 120 gms of carbs. And off we went. Climb again, it was hold Tim's wheel to the top, and then we went flat out for next 5 miles to the end of the road. Good session. Jesse was looking good!! Then another bar, and this was at about 4:30 hours into the ride.

For some reason or another, I forgot to eat for the next little while. Maybe cause my stomach ached from all the water and food in there, or I was a litlle on the low side, and not thinking properly, but for 45 minutes I did not have a single carb. Then at about 5 hrs into the ride, it was just flat out pace line on the coast. My spoke had broken, and shifters were not working, but on top of that neither were my legs. I was dying. I got a little pissed cause I should have been good. Still didn't eat. We get to the finish of the group ride, and I had a burrito (100gm carbs) some sugar drink, and chips. I was wondering how high I would be after all that... Ride 30 minutes back home to get a total of 130 miles in 6.5 hours. Check BG, and it was 77. What that tells me is that when we were going flat out, I was most likely in the 50-90 range, which is not good for power, strength, but most importantly focus. I had been real good on the fueling for 4:30 hours, but not at the important part. Gotta do better. Best to make these mistakes while training, and not during a race. Ate TONS of food after that ride. 75 gms carbs/25 protein right at finish. Then Huge plate of pasta. Then massive salad with lots of tuna on it, and some bars. 14 units of Lantus, and BS was at 202 at 12:30. Did 1 unit, and woke up at 65. So I am thinking I have my lantus right for the day, but this constant up flow at night from 11:30-1am. Having the Omni-Pod would be good to take care of that, but since I am not on that program now, I am going to have to start giving a .5 unit injection of Apidra at around 11:30 each night. That is my new plan, and I will keep you posted on it.
1 more day of short suffering on the SB group ride, then watch some football, pack (again) Big thanks to Mr. Tim Johnson for the lesson's on the bike, and for the place to crash for 2 nights. You da man!

Also, I am now in an Altitude tent (Altitudetech tent) I am doing this for a few reasons. One, to get the benefit of sleeping at altitude, while training at Sea level- I can see the ocean form my window, so this is true..
Second, to study the effects of the tent on insulin needs. I have now had 4 nights in the tent, with no significant droppage of insulin. I am not taking a lot, but no huge drop, but only 4 days. 3rd, I want to see hematocrit, and I have been given a hema-cue from Dr. Howard Zisser so I can keep track of all of these. He is going to take in all of my data from the Navigator, + exercise, and we will be doing this for other riders at camp. We want to find the perfect blood sugar for all type 1 (and non type 1) for performance, and figure out the right amount of insulin/carbs to get there. We will be doing all this at camp...

Speaking of, now only 4 days until camp!!! Real, real excited to see it all come together, meet new teammates, catch up with old friends, and begin to ride with the team. We will be getting our new Orbea bikes, with Shimano Dura-Ace, along with new Louis Garneau Clothing!!! Gonna be quite a site, and I will try to post pictures. We should have 56 athletes here for both Team Type 1, and Team Type 2. Gonna be big!!!

Great lessons learned last week, and more to come this week! Excited for a rest day, which I feel I earned. 23 hours, with a lot of intensity last week, and 2- 6 hour rides.

Thanks for reading, and have a Great DAY!!!

Philpott
www.TeamType1.org

Diabetes Game- Ever really a conclusion??

2009-01-15T20:08:00.002-05:00

Howdy from Sunny Santa Barbara,

How is everyone doing? Thanks so much for the great posts. If you ever have specific questions, please email me directly at phil@teamtype1.org cause I cannot reply to the blog comments directly. Thanks!

So last we were at a nice 17 units of Lantus on a rest day. This turned out to be... not enough. I woke up at 1am at 161 trending up on the Navigator, so gave 1 unit of Apidra. Woke up at 95 and was pretty happy. Tuesday worked for a while, did some acupuncture with Kathleen Zisser, who rocks, then went for a bike ride!! I was doing a good ride with my buddy/teammate Jesse Anthony for about 2 hours, when Jesse called it a day. I wanted to make it 4 so I rode the hills, getting a good 15 minutes of sub threshold in. Then went to ride more hills/mountains. At 2:45 of ride time, I decided to go visit Gibraltar, which is a nice, long climb. I started with a blood sugar of 106ish, and ate a bar, began to climb, spent 10 minutes with a heart rate of 155-162, was at 112, ate another bar, 10 minute later same heart rate, 102, ate another bar, and another 10 minute of climbing at same pace and was at 98. So it only took 60 grams of carbs for the 35 minutes of climbing to not go hypo... Funny thing was that I probably only ate 60 grams of carbs in the 2.5 hours up to that point. So maybe eating more before, would have meant less need for food on the climb?? Ride down into town, and then back home getting a solid 4 hours and 28 seconds... I love aiming for a 4 hour day, and just making it like that!!

Did my 7 units of Apidra, then took a 50 gm of carb recovery drink. 20 minutes later eating 140 gms of carbs from Pasta. The rest of the day I was floating at 80-100... Very nice. Then go hang with Jesse and Tim, go see my friend Howard Zisser to nail down what kind of research we are going to do on the team, and also comment on the game I am playing. He wasn't sure. I did 2 units for a HUGE turkey sandwich. Floated at 90 or so, and backed down to 16 units of lantus. Low and behold, I am hypo ALL night. Sitting at 60, get my alarm, eat 25gm of carbs, and then wake up at 50, eat some Dex 4 Glucose, and then 45...
Way too much basal, right???
Eat tons, and tons of food on my ride Wed. All in all, get 6 hours in, with a lot of climbing, and lot of hard work. Get home, bolus, recovery drink, pasta, later that night, more pasta, and a steak with only 2 units. Then since I went real low last night on 16 units, and did a 6 hour ride, I think 14 units would make more sense. WRONG. I wake up at 350 close to midnight, after going to bed at 93. What gives? I do not know... Did 4 units of Apidra, 1 more unit of Lantus and woke up, 27 years old, and at a blood sugar of 52.

Today- a 2 hour recovery ride, 6 units of APidra, and 140gms of carbs from pasta.
Doing 15 units tonight, and will have news to report tomorrow...

Tomorrow should be a good day, and then long hard days on Sat-Sunday. Who knows what the score to my diabetes game will be. I look for trends, and patterns, but right now it is more like a ping pong, which bothers me. But when it comes down to it, I am playing a game. I cannot win the super bowl each and every year, but I can recruit new tools, new players, new knowledge, and try to do it better the next time. I have a short memory when it comes to the diabetes game. I forget the failures, and use them as lessons, cause as long as I am alive, I have not failed, rather I have learned. So I will keep working, keep learning, and keep asking, and try to come up with a system that makes sense for all. That is the goal!

Have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Phil

Diabetes Game---More insulin and the small world....

2009-01-12T09:49:00.004-05:00

Howdy from Santa Barbara,

I hope everyone is rocking! Life on the west coast is good. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Atlanta, but being able to get anywhere in town in 5 minutes is quite nice. So I get out here, and it is 60 degrees and sunny, and like a fool, I go for a ride with new teammate/buddy Ken Hanson. Why like a fool? Cause I went out in shorts, and no leg warmers. The body is such a delicate thing, that having that extra chill, plus my whacked out position, caused a nice re-strain to the hammy. 3.5 hours that day. 15 units Lantus
Thurs am, go out for the group ride, and about 1 hour in, bam, that knife goes through my hammy. This time, instead of riding for 2.5 hours on it, I called my wonderful host Gina, and she came to Summerland to pick me up. I spoke with my Physical Therapist, Dianna Palmer, who could see me immediately. I head to Dianna's and she let me know that we caught it early, and all could be good. I did some ultra sound, stem, stretching, and walked out with some hot pink tape on my hamstring. You may have seen this on the Olympic athletes (not there yet:) but it helps to alleviate strain on muscles, and Dianna is a master at it!!!

At this point, I am pretty bummed to not be able to train. Last time, this set me back 10 days, and to be honest, I can't spare 2 days right now. That afternoon I met with Dr. Howard Zisser (research master) and we discussed some great possibilities to help people with diabetes round the world. I love brain storming with scientist! Howard asked me to come watch the game at his place. So I go meet the family, Howard, Kathleen, Noah, and McKenzie. His kids were brilliant, and great musicians. Watched the Gators stomp OU, and in the process learn Kathleen specializes in acupuncture. She could see me the next am. Now I am doing 15 units of Lantus.
High blood sugar in the night- Do I need more, or do I need a new vial??
Friday:
Wake up- work, 100 emails or so, head to acupuncture. Kathleen agrees there is a light strain, and goes to work with the needles. She also worked on my massive scars from the surgery in May.

Next ride with Tim to see Dianna- more ultra sound, stem, exercises, and getting made fun of, which is one of the main reasons I love going to see her. Ride goes well, with no pain, and then off to see Kim, who does my massage. He is the best of the West, and really helps get the kinks worked out.
New vial of Insulin, 15 units Lantus, high blood sugar at night.
Ride in am with Kim, Ken, and Tim, who all say my seat position is wrong. Kim helped me make some changes, and then Sunday I get to test. Yesterday Kim, Tim, and I went for 4.5 hours over some mtns, through some valleys, and a good steady ride. My sensor for Navigator came off during yoga (2 hours till expiration anyhow) and so I went off feel for this ride.

I woke up at 60 (correction in night) did 3 units of Apidra, ate 80 gms carbs, then 15 minutes before leaving I was 170, and 3 minutes before leaving was 156. Slight downward trend. So I jump down to the coffee shop, and eat a scone. Early part of ride, eating lots. Stop 2 hours in, eat another scone. I felt like I was bonking on the latter part of the ride, and eat more... Quite thirsty though. I thought my BS was too low, so I over corrected with food. I get home, and what do you know, 296. Scrub hands, and 302... So I dropped 9 units of Apidra in my body, and 20 minutes later downing pasta. This 1 hour after a ride is crucial for recovery, so insulin and food are a must. Ideally, I would be at 150 when I got home, but ideally doesn't always happen in diabetes... But with the right amount of insulin, I was 105 1 hour after ride, and still eating.

I had also been sick of high blood sugars in the middle of the night, so I decided to make a jump. Recall 15 units Sat night, with only 3 hours on the bike. I said "screw it" and jumped to 17 units of Lantus after a 4.5 hour tough day... Too much. I was a little on the low side this am. Today I do no exercise, and I am going to go with 17 again, and should be good.

Thanks for reading the longest blog post of all time. I guess I could have summed it up by saying SB is a cool place, because I saw 3 therapist, and a bike ride in 1 day, without spending more than 7 minutes in the car at one time.

Have a great day. Until next time:)

Philpott
TeamType1.org

Diabetes Game- Thanks to all for advice

2009-01-09T09:52:00.002-05:00

Howdy From Santa Barbara,

This place really, really rocks!!! Sunny, warm, and great riding. I have a great place here, staying with Gina, and her family. They have been very gracious to put me up. Gina is part of the team, as is her son Sean!! http://www.apidra.com/real_people/stories/Gina.aspx
Big thanks for the warm Welcome to Santa Barbara:)

Thanks to everyone for the solid advice and comments. It has been a fun game to play, and have been learning a bit. Believe it or not I actually enjoy the confusion. Why? I imagine that if I had to do the same thing each and every day, I might get a bit bored, and then what fun would it be? But with all these changes, it constantly allows me to learn more, and sharpen this little brain I am stuck with...

What are some of the new theories? Well, kind of like Kerry said, as well as my buddy Tim Johnson- the body changes. it becomes more efficient at using fuel, so may need additional help (insulin) to get the fuel to where it needs. After having dropped my basal from 15 down to 12 last week, I have now raised it back up to 14, and will do 15 units of Lantus tonight. Instead of 3 units of Apidra for my 150gms of post ride Pasta, I am now doing 7 units. Where as last Saturday, I could eat 200gms of carbs on .5 unit of Insulin, today, I am going to inject 4 units of Apidra for 60gms of carbs.

I have another theory too... I had been sleeping in an Altitude tent each and every night. When I first got in, I slowly started reducing total daily insulin requirements, as the body burns more at night while in the tent. For the past 2 weeks, over the holidays, I have been in and out, and mostly out. Could this have lead to the higher insulin needs? Maybe? I just ordered a new tent from Altitudetech Inc. le and should have by early next week. I will make sure to let you know how that effects my insulin requirements.

Training camp is getting closer, and it is somewhat the talk of the town out here. We are going to have some of the top endos in the country at camp, as well as the top 27 athletes (who ride a bike) with type 1 in the world (that we know of.) This is a very exciting culmination of 4 years of work to get to this point, and just the beginning for Team Type 1, and the super beginning for Team Type 2.

Also, I am starting to get learn more about Twitter. So as I begin to travel the world more, and spend less time from the computer, I will try to do updates. If you would like to follow that way, please check: http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland

More news to come, as I figure this part of the game out.
Thanks for reading, and Have a GREAT day!

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Interesting game....

2009-01-05T13:47:00.002-05:00

Howdy From HotLanta:

This will be my last post from the South, as on Wednesday I am moving to Santa Barbara for final preparations for the season. Will get to train with teammates, Ken Hanson, Jesse Anthony, Joe Eldridge, and a few other fast guys to get moving quicker...

A few answers to some questions from the last post:
Sandi: I like to have my blood sugar at around 150 for the start of rides. Does this always happen? No, but it is a good goal. I usually prefer an upward trend. To get this, I will not give any Apidra (rapid acting insulin) for 2.5-3 hrs before my rides. 30 minutes before walking out, I will eat a minimum of 60gms of carbs. That will get the arrow going up on my Navigator. Then in the first 10-20 minutes, I usually am eating food to level it off. If you are starting at 200, that is great. If you are dropping rapidly, then more food earlier would be a good start. Dex4 Liquid Blast, banana, or granola bar in the first 20 minutes will help. Eat a lot in the first hour, and see how it goes. Please keep me posted...

This past week has been very solid training. Did VO2 testing with Matt Russ on Tuesday. Numbers were good! Then a 5 day block of about 18 hours with intensity. Last week, I was riding tons, with next to no food and slowly increasing my insulin doses. More for basal, more for bolus. It was crazy. Then this week, another flip/flop. Obn Wednesday I ate the normal oatmeal pre-ride, went out for 3 hours, and had to eat. Thursday, I did 4 hours hard, and was eating lots. Basal was dropping, boluses dropping. I was now confused. Friday morning I was back down to 13 units of Lantus, with no bolus for breakfast, and a lot of carbs. Friday was 12 units, HUGE breakfast (200gms carbs) with only a .5 unit bolus, and highest blood sugar on the ride was 151.

I am awaiting call backs from my doc right now to try and learn what is going on. I am used to changes happening, but not so much the flip flop. But this is the game we all play, and no two days are ever alike. Better to accept that, and make the adjustments, than to wonder about the past. That is how I see it.

I hope all is well. Happy New Year to all!
Have a great day.

Phil
www.TeamType1.org

Diabetes Game- Mild Confusion

2008-12-29T08:53:00.003-05:00

Howdy From Hotlanta,

The end of the year is near, which will bring to close a great one on so many levels. For the time being things are slow, which is nice, but also boredom can set in. I am looking forward to that, as have had none of it in a long, long time.

So last week. Got to spend time with my brother Jack driving down to see mom for Xmas. It was really, really nice to have the family back together!!!

As for riding, 3hrs Tuesday, felt really tired. 3hrs Wednesday, felt good for 1hr, then really tired for 2.5 hours. Tired the rest of the day, tired all day xmas. It was kind of strange. So I took 2 days, where I just rode 1 hour to try and recover. Friday's 1 hour day was good. I have still been tinkering with this food and ride thing. I had gone up to 9 units of Lantus at night, which had been the highest in some time.
Saturday AM woke up for the WBL, winterbikeleague.com in Athens GA. I ate a big breakfast doing 2 units of Apidra (www.Apidra.com please check out, lots of cool new video of TT1 on the site,) which I rarely do before rides. Blood sugar started going up, and up, and up.... I usually like to sit in for the first part of these rides, and let the body warm up. But since the trend was going up on my FreeStyle Navigator kept going up, I decided to pull. I went to thr front with my buddy David Crowe, who has been punishing me for 8 solid years. Can't really believe I have been doing the WBL's for 8 years now... Lots of great memories of fun, suffering, more fun, and more suffering. So we pull for sometime which levels me off at 290. I am drinking water, and not eating. Then I slowly start coming down, and about 2 hours into the ride, I am at 240. At the store I drink a diet coke, diet red bull, and some water. Leave the store and get to the front with my boy Murph Dog (John Murphy) and he laughs at me as I pull. Pull for a while, get back in, then pull again, then sit, then pull... Oh yea, all this time on the front, so was John... He is flying right now, and prolly gonna impress some folks this year.
Pretty tired by the end of the ride, but so was everyone. Ate some good food, and saw Morgan Patton's new pad in Athens. She will like the town, as she can hang out/ride with people her age.

So the ride and food... 4 hours, pushed pretty hard, and 0 calories intake. Finished the ride at 190. So what am I thinking? I need more basal, and it would be better to eat. I do my 2nd dose of Lantus to 4 units to make it 13 total for the day, along with 6 units of Apidra to eat. Ate some food, stayed up there, and then did another 3 units in anticipation of a 2nd meal. We head to the GRit, no blous, but ate a salad, and some pita bread. Drive home, not much food, and then had 2 more salads, with Filet!!
9 units Lantus that night. Wake up high at 150 or so, bolus 2.5 units, eat oatmeal, go straight up, and then hit 180 before coming down. Ate 50gms of carbs for 3 hr ride, 6 unit bolus after, and 150gms carbs, 40 protein. Blood sugar on ride was 120-180, which was better. I decided I am going back to once a day Lantus, to test it out. To make the switch, I was doing a lot fo 1 unit boluses to reverse the upward trend. Did Yoga last night, and at 8:30 did 13 units of lantus, ate a bar, and went to bed. This am, woke up at 150, so I am going to do 14 units tonight.

Not sure what my body is burning for fuel on the rides right now, but it is not carbs. I am curious if i have gone ketonic on the rides, and thus would be burning fat. Does it take 4 weeks of exercise for the non-diabetic to do this too??? Studies to come.

Happy NEW YEAR! Time to make next year the best year ever! What are your goals? I have a few...
Ciao

Philpott
www.TeamType1.og

Diabetes Game: Exercise Resistance?

2008-12-24T05:23:00.002-05:00

Howdy From Atlanta,

The game has taken a twist. If you recall, about 10 days ago I would have to eat everything in site, and then some on rides. Insulin was being cut drastically. I think that was my body being inefficient at fueling on the bike, as a major switch has happened.
I have had to increase basal a touch, and think I am going to get it up some more. The past 3 rides I have done, eating the normal goods before hand, oatmeal, my blood sugars have skyrocketed. I have been getting up to 250 on the rides, and then a slow drop down to the 180's, and if I eat, BS goes right back up. Yesterday for example, I had a total of 40 grams of carbs on a 3 hour ride.

I think my body is now becoming more efficient, and I may be able to add some additional basal, or I may need a very small bolus (.5 unit of Apidra) with meal before ride. Today I am driving home to see mom, and should be on the bike by 11am for a 4hour ride. I am going to eat my oatmeal, with .5 units, and see what the reaction is. I do enjoy not having to stuff my face on the rides, however, I would much rather be between 140-180, than 180-220.

It is great having the FreeStyle Navigator, so I can really monitor these adjustments, and know immediately if I made the right call.

Although, I initially thought this is crazy, thinking back it happens every year. Insulin drop, drop, drop, and then all the sudden, add, add, add... If I can keep the training going without interruption this will be very helpful for racing, as I won't be stressing about low's.
It is also good for training, and my pockets won't be so stuffed full of food, and bars for my rides.

This is the start of week 4 of training post hamstring break. It took 2.5 weeks for the switch to happen. Could this be the same for non-diabetic metabolism? Has anyone out there with diabetes had similar experience with fueling?

Also, working with some top docs on potential research studies, and trying to find out more info for you. More details to come!!!
Very exciting step for me here, now time to fine tune it a little more to ensure I am at the best on the bike with both legs, and blood sugars.

Have a great day.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and Happy New Year to ALL!!!

Phil

Diabetes Game- closer to the solution

2008-12-21T18:56:00.002-05:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

How is everyone doing? Great question from Stella's mom, about why I wasn't back on the pump. In diabetes, there are a million ways to skin the cat. I had raced for 6 years on Lantus, and made a lot of mistakes, but more importantly learned a lot of lessons. So when I was on the pump, I found I was having a lot more lows on the bike, and then off the bike too which was causing me to eat way too much food. With Lantus, by making a 1 unit adjustment of Lantus/day, I can essentially make a .05 unit/hr basal adjustment, which is a big deal. I change my basal daily, and doing this on the pump for me is too much manual labor. I have done over 50,000 injections in my life, so 5-7 more a day, to me, is no big deal.

Also, why does exercise = less insulin: When exercising, the muscles become more sensitive to insulin, both basal and bolus. The body will naturally burn more calories per day, which means less basal needed, and the muscles are much more sensitive to insulin post exercise which = less bolus/meal. Not sure if there has been a science experiment, and I could be wrong, but that is my guess, and I have not had a doctor argue yet...

So the diabetes game: Last weekend I cut it a bit, and on Sunday was good. Blood sugars were up in the 200's, and I was eating a bit, but felt good. I have decided to start doing my 2nd shot of Lantus after my rides. So it is kind of a temp basal. Lately I have been doing 6 at night, and 3 in the afternoon. Tuesday I did that, and went pretty high on the ride up to 257, before I started trending down. I only had to eat about 400 calories on a 3 hour ride, and I was flying. Wed, I had a bit more basal, 7 units night, 3 in am. I went up to 220, before dropping to 150, and was eating a bit more. 800 calories on a 4 hour ride. After that ride I kept dropping, so I that night I dropped Lantus dose again to 6 units. Had to do a small bolus of .5 unit of Apidra in the middle of the night. Thursday was a 3 hour ride, and I can't really remember what was going on...ha Lots of activity this week. I have done yoga on Tues-Thurs, and Sunday this week. Stretching every am. Friday I only road for 1.5 hrs and was real tired, then Saturday did a mountain bike ride with my buddy John Martin!!! I figured this was going to be hard, and slowly rose my BG to 200 at the start. Within 20 minutes I ate a king size snickers, and 15 minutes later some other bar. Blood sugar was 220 trending up said the Navigator! So I began to drink water, until at some point I saw 287. For the last 2 hours, I did nothing but drink water, and dropped to 215. These #'s are a bit higher than I would like. I am obviously under insulinized, so I think the switch needs to be 7 units at night, and then 3 after ride of Lantus.

But the higher blood sugars are making me feel very, very good on the bike. But I don't want to completely sacrifice a good A1C for performance. If I could raise it to 5.8-6.0, I would be happy. Higher... not so sure. But that is me.

Yesterday a good friend got some great news, and I am happy for her. I got some bad news, and it was a rough day. All will be ok in the long run... The work week was pretty stressed. But the thing is, making time every day to ride, really, really helps. No matter how much crap is piled on, I have not given an inch when it comes to my riding, and yoga. So for anyone out there if the stress seems to pile up, I would encourage you to get out and ride a bike, take a walk, or bit the gym, as it puts everything else at ease.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the jumble of #'s.
Have a great night, and Happy Holidays!!!

Phil

Ride ride ride... Diabetes game is back

2008-12-14T08:01:00.002-05:00

Howdy,

How is everyone? I appreciate the comments on my last post. We shall see what gets done. In regards to where the money may come from, we now have $14b not going to automakers, so why not make some good of it?? J/k

Training seems to be back on track. I have not done anything too crazy, but spend about 30 minutes every am doing exercises, then 2-3 hours on the bike, and 1-1.5hrs of yoga 3x a week. This has all really helped, as I am feeling smooth on the bike, and using muscles I didn't know existed... I have tried to stay ahead of the curve in the insulin drop, which has been good and bad. The good being, I have 0% below target for what is now 2 weeks of training. The bad being that blood sugars will run between 130-150 at night. I have cut my morning dose of Lantus to 3 units, and my PM dose is now 8 units of Lantus. I did do a 4.5 hour 87 mile WBL yesterday. It seems if I have 12 units of basal while riding, no matter what I start at, blood sugar will trend down, and I have to eat A LOT on the bike. Yesterday for example. I had eating the legendary Waffle House breakfast of a pecan waffle, grits, and 2 eggs. Did 3 units of Apidra at 8am, for this carb stacked breakfast, and from 8:30 to 10, I had a slow rise in blood sugar to 177 by the time I got on the bike. Road for 15 minutes to the start, and hung out for a few minutes. Look at my Navigator to see 128 with an arrow straight down. Banana, Dex4, and 500 calories of bars in the first 30 minutes of the ride to stop the drop and settle around 90. This is where I stayed. I continued eating appx 80gms carbs+/hr for the ride. At the store stop, I drank a coke, had a snickers, and then another snickers 20 minutes later. Stayed between 85-100... I did most of this group ride with 100 or so people talking to my buddy Steve Sevner. Sevy was one of the best back in the day, and is coming back to do an ironman. He gave me a lot of great advice for when the going gets tough in the races, and help me stay strong between the ears. Going to put that into use today as well.

Now those blood sugars are not all bad. The ride was not that hard, so I didn't need BS to be higher, and learning to train at that level, and push at that blood sugar will be good practice for if I do go low during a race, which is bound to happen at some point in time. But it is not where I want to be. Today comes a new test. I am going to skip my Lantus dose this morning. Which means I will have 8 units of basal on board, effectively giving a temp basal. My goal is that after I eat my 80 gms of carbs for breakfast with no insulin, and head out on the bike that I will get up to 220 or so, and proceed a slow drop to the 150's, where I will snack, but more along the lines of 20-40gms of carbs/hour. This ride will be similar to yesterday, with a little more time spent at the top end.

Stay tuned for the experiment results. New lessons every day, and always trying to get better. Real goal here is to see exactly how much basal I need, so that when race season comes, it is dialed in 100%!

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

Phil

My RANT: Trips to pharmacy

2008-12-09T07:36:00.003-05:00

Howdy everyone!!!

First, thanks Angela for the bit about sleep before midnight. It had been a few years since I last heard that. Makes it all crystal clear now, and I feel good about waking up the roosters:)

Second, training is going good. The lantus drop has been good. 5 units in the am, 7 units pm, and Blood sugars have been perfect. Saw the eye, and endo docs yesterday. All results were perfect. I had a better A1C than my endo, Bruce Bode...ha Sitting at 5.5 now with only 2% below target in 28 days. Best #'s ever. Ride on Sunday was amazing. Doing exercises every morning, yoga 3x a week, and massage and the difference is noticeable. I am very excited, and very motivated!!! Bigger week this week, with a few small tests. My guess is that by Saturday, total Lantus dose will be less than 10 units/day.

Ok, so now for the rant. I have been going to the pharmacy once a month for my entire life to get supplies. Every month I get the same thing: Apidra, Lantus, Freestyle Strips, Syringes, and Pen Needles. I get the same quantity every time, yet for some reason each and every time I go in the pharmacy, I never leave in less than 30 minutes. It has always been like this. I am not going to name bash, but they all seem to be about the same. Yesterday I went in to get the same 5 items as always, that I called in and requested, and then verified via phone before going in, and then I get my order minus 2 big boxes. No Syringes. I ask the guy, and he said insurance isn't covering them.
"Excuse me" I say.
"Well, your insurance isn't going to pay." he says
"I still need the needles" Wondering here why he didn't tell me this was the reason I had no needles instead of just not giving them to me.
"You have to pay cash"
"Ok, I want to keep my eye-sight, I will take the needles..."
So I pay my $30/box for needles, but decided to prolong the trip by calling my insurance company, United Health Care, who initially denied the coverage. The ironic thing is on the on-going message while I was on hold, the first thing it said was "Properly managed diabetes can significantly reduce the risk of complications, such as blindness." I found it quite funny that they are telling me to properly manage my disease, but refuse to pay for syringes that I need to give injections to ensure I do not have complications.
The lady on customer service was very nice, and ended up taking care of it, so I waited another 20 minutes while the "script" was filled, and then got my boxes for $15 a pop. All in all, just getting the diabetes supplies was $250, and this is the same cost every month.

I hope President Obama does act on his plans to help people get the tools. I have faith that he will. What if it was an underprivileged family, who could not swing $60 for needles, or didn't have a cell phone to call the insurance company, or even worse, did not have insurance to pay for the supplies???

I know exactly what would happen:
The person would be forced to check less, due to cost, not desire. He/she would be forced to do fewer injections, use inferior insulin, and/or use dirty needles, which could cause infection. This person probably sees an endo 2x/year at best, and has an A1C over 10, purely because of $$.

Diabetes, as you know, is a disease where management is everything. We have to take care of it, and having the best treatment (insulin) and technology will enable us to avoid complications.
Not having the tools is not an option, and if any reader out there has a contact in the House, Senate, or Oval Office, I would truly appreciate an introduction to try and make change.

I propose a $26 Billion Dollar "Supply Campaign" where we provide supplies to people with diabetes around the world, provide the best cancer treatment to those in need, and help people who cannot afford to help themselves. Maybe we start here, and see the impact it has, and then move outwards.

Together we can do it.
Thanks for listening to my RANT.

Have a great day.

Phil

Back Baby! early rising??

2008-12-07T07:04:00.003-05:00

Howdy!

Things have been good as of late, and my respect for those who gain their fitness from riding inside has sky-rocketed. Why? So this was comeback week for me. Sunday, I got to ride inside for 1 hour, and was counting the seconds. Tuesday I had big plans to ride outside, but it was freezing, so I opted to ride inside again. Made it 1 hour, and wondered why I do this? Did some Yoga that night, which was refreshing. The mediation part at the end is really good for me, and at least I know for 4-6 minutes a few times a week, nothing matters. It rocks!!
Wed, was able to ride outside for 1.5 hours, and then Thurs had plans to ride with my buddy John Martin, when the sky bottomed out. Back to the rollers. Again the longest hour of my life.
Wed, I got some acupuncture, and massage, as well as trying gyrotonics and Pilates, which were good! All this time, insulin requirements are dropping. It really is cool to see the effect exercise has on my metabolism. Going from 15 units of Lantus early in the week, down to 12 last night.

I saw my chiro on Thursday, and he straightened me out, which anyone who has ridden with me over the past few years will attest to the miracle that it is... I have been pretty crooked for some time, and I believe it is due to the blood flow discrepancy that has now been fixed, but it has been tricky to re-train the body to think straight.

Friday and Saturday were both 3 hour rides, and I have begun to feel good on the bike again. Let's just say I am very motivated to do everything humanly possible to be the best I can be.

This time getting back into training, I have been staying one step ahead of the game with my Lantus drop. Sticking with 5 units in the am and have gone from 10 at night down to 7 last night. I have been determined not to go hypo. So it has meant some rises in the night, and small corrections in the middle of the night. I plan to do 4 hours today, and will most likely stick with 7, as I went up to 155 by 4am, did .5 unit of Apidra and had a nice slow drop to 105 where I am sitting now. Just did the Lantus, and in will snack on some fruit, until about 9am. At 9 I will eat 2 packets of Oatmeal to get the trend going up, and then hit the road at 9:30. I am hoping that I won't have to eat as much on the rides as the past few days. Yesterday I had to eat 1000 calories on a 3 hour ride. My Blood sugar was between 80-110 the entire time, but I would have preferred 110-130, or even 130-150 with less food. This is normal as the body is learning to fuel during exercise. I think by this time next week, I will be able to do the same ride with only 500 calories.

Last thing before my ramble ends... Can someone explain to me what has happened? I used to enjoy sleep, and could sleep until 8,9 in the morning no problem. This week, Mon-Fri I have woken up between 5-6 every day. Granted I am going to bed earlier than normal, but this is making me wonder....ha Not to say it has been a bad thing. I am up, and can get 50 emails out of the way, and am caught up by 8am every day. Then I spend the day staying on top of them as possible before the inevitable fall behind...

Thanks for reading, and any thoughts on these new sleep habits would be much appreciated.
Have a great day!

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Riding inside=counting grains of sand on the beach

2008-12-02T16:48:00.002-05:00

Howdy from HotLanta...

So things have been working again. Hamstring is feeling better. I have seen a lot of specialist in the past week to get this rolling. Massage, ultrasound, cold laser, stretching, acupuncture, yoga all with the hope of being able to ride again. Sunday, I was given clearance to ride on Monday. I was stoked to do it again...

Then there ended up being a high of 45, and even snow during the day. Normally this is no problem, I enjoy training in the rain and cold cause for some reason I think it makes me tuff! But coming back from Injury, I didn't want to stress a muscle with the cold, which meant riding inside on the rollers. Why do I like to ride? So I can be out there, away from everything, and always choosing a new path as I see fit, usually having no set route. Sometimes I can be gone for 5 hours, and it seems like only minutes. Then you put me inside on a bike, and it is about as boring as can be. I put music on, as well as the tv, and for some reason every second takes a minute. Going nowhere slowly...

But, it has to be done. As much as I think riding in the nasty weather makes you tough, I think the rollers are about =. It is truly taxing to the mind, and takes away a lot of the enjoyment of riding. Then I think of everyone who lives North of the Mason Dixon line, who if they want to be fit for spring races, will spend hour after hour inside staring at walls, I feel like a punk.
Did it again today, and it was a bit better. Tomorrow the weather is looking good, so I plan to ride outside!!! yee-ha!!

What about the diabetes game? Things have been good. For the last 14 days, My FreeStyle Navigator has my avg blood sugar is 118, with 5% above target, 94% in, and 1% below target. That is the best below target I think I have ever had, and still BS equates to an A1C of 5.4ish.
Still doing split dose of lantus. I was doing 3 in the am, and 10 in pm. Now that I am training again, I am going to slowly try to get back to the even split. This morning I did 4 units, and tonight I will do 10. Tomorrow, 5 units, and then 9 at night, as I plan to train for 2 hours tomorrow.

Also started doing Yoga. Have done 1 class, and plan to go back tonight. It was amazing to see how much flexibility changed by the end of the class. Of course I have spent the last 2 days in pain from using muscles I did not know existed. Wednesday I am going to give Gyrotonics and Pilates a test. Racing a bike is a lot more than just legs. It is mostly the head that controls success, followed by endurance, speed, and a strong core, which helps create more power. I am focusing a big effort on doing that, in hopes of being better than ever next year!

Thanks for reading!
Have a great day.

Philpott
www.teamtype1.org

Metabolism shut down-diabetes game

2008-11-28T13:37:00.004-05:00

Howdy from Atlanta, and Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!!!

I hope your holidays rocked! I am still off the bike due to hamstring strain. The first few days the split dose of Lantus continued to work, as I went a little higher day by day. But about 4-5 days into being off the bike, the split dose quit working, and I went high in night. It seems when I am not riding, I need that hit at night. As soon as I went back to a much heaver dose at night (10 units) then I was back to normal in the am. The other difference I noticed was that I was having to bolus a lot more for anything I ate. Diet was pretty simple. Fruits and salad for the most part, and some sushi. When I was training, I would bolus 1-1.5 units for the salad, and not go over 150 before coming back down. On Tuesday, I had to give a shot of 4 units. I think this further proves the value of exercise to both people with and without diabetes.

How is that? When I was exercising, and eating about 2000 calories a day, I was doing less than 20 units of insulin for the day (basal and bolus.)

Not training: eating a restricted diet, and doing appx 25 units of insulin total.

For the non-diabetic this would be very similar. Not exercising your body may produce 30 units throughout the course of the day to cover all of your food intake, but if you began to exercise 1 hour a day, you may be able to cut that # in half. Type 2 diabetes is essentially caused by using up all of your insulin (every one has a pre-set amount-genetics) too early. So if you can cut down the amount of insulin production by 33%, theoretically your pancreas will function that much longer. This is my theory, and I could be way off, but I think I am right.
There are currently 50 MILLION Americans with Pre-Diabetes- Just think if everyone hopped on a bike, or went to the gym, then we could cut that number in half, if not make it dissapear.

I am thankful for all of my family, my friends, my health. Do you know someone who would be thankful in 1 year that you pushed them to exercise today? Just a thought.

Going to try accupuncture tomorrow. Never done it, but I got some good news, and am extra motivated to train, and ensure good health. Riding is my biggest stress relief, and the thing I enjoy doing more than anything, and not doing it has been tough. I am eager and anxious to get back, so I can start saving money on insulin again...ha

Thanks for reading. Have a great holiday, and I appreciate all of your support for the Tour of California! Hopefully good news to share soon!!

Philpott
www.TeamType1.org
www.TeamType2.com Yes you read it right, please check it out. Exciting for 2009!!! site under construction!

less exercise, more insulin...

2008-11-24T10:31:00.002-05:00

Howdy,

Last week, I have had a minor set-back in a strained hamstring. I am going to see the doc again today, and will hopefully get clearance to train. It has now been 4 full days with no riding. I am thinking the strain may have been due to gym work, cold weather, riding a bit, who knows??

It hasn't been all bad, as I have made a lot of work progress, and had plenty to do. On Saturday, I flew out to San Diego in the morning, went straight to the TCOYD conference. It was a great event and I was thrilled to be there. I got to catch up with a lot of old friends, and meet some new ones too! Andy, Morgan, and I were at the event which had over 2000 attendees. We then attended the snack bar, and went to a great sushi restaurant with Eric, Jessica (of Sanofi) and Doug of Euro, who is in charge of the media team over there. He and his team have been a dream to work with.

After dinner, straight to the airport, and red-eye back. I slept the ENTIRE flight, which rarely happens.

What happens to the metabolism when you go from 2-5 hours of exercise a day (9 units of Lantus- and less than 10 of Apidra) to 0 hours of exercise?
More insulin is what happens. I had noticed that I was having to do a little more Apidra/carb than normal, and instead of a very slight drop in blood sugars, there was a very slight rise. This meant the metabolism was slowing quickly. Surprisingly though, I stuck to the 5 units of Lantus in the am, and 5 at night, and last night was the first time, where I started going high. It was mildly frustrating, and I had to do a lot more boluses than normal for the amount of food I was eating.
So this morning, I woke up at 6am at 198, did 3 units, went back to sleep, and then woke up at 8:45 at 109. Last week if I would have been 198 in the night, I would have done less than 1 unit, and woke up at 70. This morning I increased my basal to 6 units of Lantus, and I think I should be back on track. I was somewhat surprised that the very low basal rate lasted until Sunday night. I think it means my body is working well.
While I can't train, I am going to diet heavily. A friend labeled this "manorexia" which is fitting.

Here is the thing: We find out this week if we get into the Tour of California. I am really hoping we do, and think it would be a very big day for Team Type 1.
If we do get in, I will get to race against many riders who have won stages at the Tour de France, and many of the best riders in the world. I know to have a chance of success I have to be my best ever, which means getting the power to weight ratio as high as possible. 2 ways to do this.

One is to gain more power, which I will work hard on.

Two: lose weight.

Also working hard on this. If I can gain a little power, lose a little weight, then all will be good. If I were not planning on having a stellar year on the bike, I would be more than happy with where I am now. So please cross your fingers for us for the ToC, as that is one huge step to getting to the Tour de France by 2012.

Have a great day!

Philpott
www.TeamType1.org

FreeStyle Navigator on a bike ride-diabetes tool

2008-11-20T07:37:00.002-05:00

Howdy again,

Training has been going good as of late. I have my system pretty down now, and am enjoying life. I wanted to give a post not so much about the wacky basal rate changes, but more about an actual bike ride.

Yesterday, on the phone by 8am doing the usual. At 9:30 eat breakfast (2 packs of oatmeal) with 3 units of Apidra. Apparently I misjudged as I went up a bit, and had to do a correction of 2 units, which at 11am had me dropping. I think at one point I was 142 with an arrow straight down, so I snacked on some juice, had an apple, and leveled off at 107 by 11:15. I had a conference call set up for 12, and then planned to hit the bike for a 4 hour training day immediately after. At 11:45 I had 2 more packets of Oatmeal (no bolus,) or 60 gms of carbs, and the arrow began to go up. By the time I left the house at 12:15, I was at 148 with an arrow pointed slightly up.
Quick arrow definitions:
If it is going straight up or down, it means blood sugar is change at least 2 points per minute, sometimes more.
If it is at a 45 degree angle, then it is changing at 1 point per minute. Very helpful to plan ahead.

I knew I was going up. I set out on the ride with 3 almond bars, at 160 calories each, a banana, a cliff bar, Dex4, 1 bottle of water, and 1 Gatorade.

25 minutes into the ride I was 160, with no arrow. This meant that I was leveling off, and I was thinking I would either flat line, or begin to drop. 15 minutes later, I checked the Navigator, and I was at 148, so the drop had begun. I drank some water (fluid before food helps digestion) and then ate the banana. 1 hour into the ride, I was at 118, so I ate a almond bar. 20 minutes later, was at 111, so I ate another almond bar, this time with Gatorade in advance. I am not riding a real fast pace right now, so I am very comfortable riding with a blood sugars between 90-160. If I were racing, I would want them higher, say 130-180. At 1.5 hours I was at 99, with flat arrow, but noticing a slight downward trend. I ate my last almond bar (these things are really good!!!) drank some Gatorade, and I knew I would be good. I did not look at Navigator until about 2 hours 20 minutes into the ride, when it got to 91. I stopped as I needed fluids, got a coke, and Gatorade. I drank about half the coke (40 gms carbs) on the spot, and then put the rest in my bottles. I rode the rest of the way without looking. I knew I was good, felt good, and continued to take a coke/Gatorade mix in for the last 1-1.5hrs. Should have had more though, as when I got home I was 88 with an arrow pointed straight down.

The recovery process: 88 arrow straight down: Went straight for about 45 gms carb/15 gm protein from Chocolate milk, then put 162 gms of pasta on the stove. This is about 120 gms of carbs. I ate the pasta, and then bolused 5 units of Apidra. Blood sugar went up to 148 before dropping, and 1.5 hours after my ride I had some Dex4, and an apple which leveled me out, before grabbing sushi with my brother Jack at 7:30, or 2.5 hrs after my ride. Typical dose for sushi would have been 5 units, but I did 2, and blood sugar was great!
Before ride carb/insulin ratio seemed to be about 15/1, and after ride 30/1.
Exercise does make a difference.
Last night continued on my split dose Lantus, with a 4 unit bolus of Lantus at 10pm.
Then Southpark, and asleep by 10:35...

That is a very typical day, and how "my" body works for training. I hope this helps.
Have a great day.

Phil
Team Type 1

Platinum Baby!! a little diabetes stuff

2008-11-18T10:01:00.002-05:00

Howdy again,

Platinum?? So today I hit the mark, 75,000 fly miles on Delta this year which is the mark to hit their Platinum status. I think I have been on 65 separate flights with them this year, and it gave me some time to reflect. What exactly do you do when on a plane this much. Let's look at some #'s: 65 flights with average of 1.5 hours on the runway per flight not counting fly time. =97.5 hours

Then 75,000 miles at 500mph = appx 150 hours of fly time.

Then time before check in: avg 1hr, and 45 minutes spent at airport after flight or 105 hours
for a grand estimated total of: 14.7 days spent at airports or on planes. Not factoring in delays, driving too, and from airport.
Which begs the question: What in the heck do you do? So I went and took a look at my book shelf, and counted 34 books read this year. Some great ones, some not so good ones, and some that just pass the time.

I really don't mind all of this fly time, as it does give me a chance to escape into the world of words. I have no contact with email/phone while flying, and I get to read, which I love to do. I am on book #35 right now, and kind of half-way reading 2 others, and have another 10 or so that I want to read before the year is out.
So I would say that if you tend to get stressed out when jumping on a plane, grab a book in the bookstore that every airport has. It really takes a lot of the stress out, and also makes it easier (for me) to fall asleep on the plane.

Now for diabetes... I am still splitting my doses of Lantus. Doing 5 in the am, and 4 at night. I didn't work out yesterday, and that was too little. Woke up a little elevated at 4 am, did a small correction and woke up at 78. Plan is to hit the gym, and then ride in the 45 degree weather, and will stick to 4 tonight thanks to the elevated metabolism.

Now, I know it seems like I make a lot of changes, but I think that is the bike racer in me doing it. If I did not change training every day, I would probably do the same amount of insulin give or take a few units of Apidra day after day. But when riding/racing a bike, you have to be on the lookout for new ways to improve, which is why I am always switching things up. It may seem from some of my last posts, that diabetes is the most complicated disease in the world (which it can be at times...) but to me I go by feel. I am CDE's worst nightmare, because I do not carb count, and I wing it every time. It just so happens that I can look at a plate of food and judge what I need, which I bet you can too.

My challenge to you: Before factoring carbs, correction, and bolus needed next time, take a guess at what you think you would do. Then compare to what the "real" calculations say. I would say you can probably do it by feel as well. At Camp Kudzu a few years ago, I worked with our clinician Susie Smith. She was cool with me not carb counting, and playing the guessing game, but she wanted to expirement. So I counted the carbs, told her what I ate, while giving the amount of insulin I thought I needed. It just so happened that 98% of camp I was on a carb/insulin ration of 18.75/1.
Internally I knew, and I bet you can too. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.
If you do this, please double check afterwards to ensure you did it right.

Thanks for reading!
Have a great day.

Philpott (yes, this is in fact my middle name. Thanks mom...)
www.teamtype1.org

split dose basal- Diabetes game again...

2008-11-16T08:45:00.003-05:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

I like saying "from Atlanta!!!" As of tomorrow night, it will be 2 full weeks, yes 14 days that I have not stepped on an airplane. I believe this is the single longest stretch since mid February, and it rocks. It is good to be home, see friends, and have a semblance of a schedule. Life is good, and biking is great!!

So last time, I think I made the cut to 9 units Lantus. That was a bit too much still for the early part of the night, but a touch too little for the night. When my metabolism is going, it goes, and a bigger dose almost feels like rapid acting insulin plus. So about 4 am, I saw 155 with an arrow trending up, did a .5 unit of Apidra, and woke up at 80. I decided it was time (thanks Dr. Howard Zisser) to go to split dose. I did 3 units the next morning, and had a good day. Friday was I able to train for 2 hrs, and felt decent. Then Friday night, laid low, and did 6 units for a total of 9 units of basal. Had to eat extra at night due to the pop. Saturday went for 4 units in the am, had a big bowl of oatmeal, with no bolus, and then hit the road for 4.5 hours. Got lost, which added the extra hour. Blood sugar went up to 220 in the early part of the ride, but 2 hours in I began dropping, and eating. Stabalized at 110, and kept eating and eating. Got home with a bg of 77, did 5 units Apidra, and had 160 gms of carbs (pasta and chocolate milk) and 40 gms protein. After 1 hour, I began to drop again, so ate some fruit. Dinner consisted of a salad, fruit, and steak.
Last night I went to 5 units, still having the 9 units of basal, but thanks to the split dose, I have had no hypo's. This morning, it was 5 units of Lantus, and tonight I will do 3-4. It has been a slow transition, but I think I have finally found the sweet spot. Curious to see if with the split dose, my basal will decrease much more??? The lowest I have ever gotten was 6 units of Lantus split 3 in am, 3u pm.

Today is another 4 hour day on the bike, and tomorrow a day off! Time to get dressed, and see if I guessed right today!
I hope all is well.
Have a great day.

Philpott
www.teamtype1.org

diabetes daily dose... a tiny rant too

2008-11-13T13:46:00.003-05:00

Howdy again,

I think I have now posted more in last 3-4 days, than in the last 3-4 months. It is fun being at home, with a schedule, and having time to think for myself vs always being on the run.

Sometimes thinking is not so good though. Since I had been cutting my Lantus doses way down, I have not been feeling great on the bike. This could mean one of two things:
1. I am tired from the training, and am in an adaptation phase
2. Not doing enough insulin, so muscles are not getting fueled.

So I sent an email to my buddy Howard Zisser, who is one of leading diabetes researchers in new technology in the US. A brilliant guy, even though he is a gator fan...ha Howard said that you should do 1/4 unit per kilo of body weight. I am at 64 kilos, so one would guess that I should be doing 16 units of Lantus as my basal. I explained that I was doing much less, and he said numbers should run high. I responded that #'s are as good as ever, and in fact my 21 day average is 101 (on a continuous basis!) That is better than most non-diabetics.

Needless to say, I figured I try to give a little more. Last night, I was in a heated debate with myself between 9 and 10 units. I had did 10 the night before, and woke up perfect at 78, but had also ridden 3 hours (55 miles) yesterday. I decided to eat a little extra at night, adn go for 10. WRONG answer. Should have done 9. I woke up a bit on the low side, and had a lighter day of training today. I did a 2 mile run, 1 hour in the gym, and 45 minutes on the bike, and my legs felt ok. So tonight I am going to cut to 9 units, and I think I should be good. No debate, the decision is made.

I really do appreciate the comments. Mike I am glad that this has helped. There are always 2 ways to look at everything. I could look at these decisions I have to make, and always looking at my FreeStlye Navigator, wondering how much Lantus, or Apidra (Rapid Acting Insulin-very fast) and say poor me. But as of now, I cannot control the fact that I have diabetes, so I have decided to emrace it with open arms, and use these learning experiences to be better tomorrow than I was today. I do have highs, and I do have lows. Impossible to avoid all the time. But with a conscience effort, I am able to control diabetes, not the other way around. It is fun for me, and I hope it always will be. I hope that Team Type 1 can help people with and without diabetes to embrace your challenge, overcome it, and be better tomorrow thanks to the work you did today.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Any questions, please let me know, and I will try to answer.
Have a great day.

Philpott
Team Type 1
www.teamtype1.org

The Insulin guessing game- diabetes is fun...

2008-11-11T15:49:00.002-05:00

Howdy again,
On a roll now... So yesterday was a day off. Having backed Lantus down to 9 on Sunday, was great for Monday am. Woke up with perfect BG, but as the day wore on, and I was inactive, it became apparent that I needed more basal. I had my usual salad, chicken, fruit during the day, and then had a salad with fruit for dinner. If it was Saturday or Sunday, I would have bolused 1 unit of Apidra for the Salad, but knowing I took the day off, I went for 3 units, and my blood sugar...
skyrocketed!!! So I ended up doing an additional 4 units, and new the metabolism had slowed. Instead of just going to 10 units for Lantus, I decided to make the jump to 11 units. This was a bit of an overkill, and I touched on the low end in the am. I think 10 units would have been wiser.

Today, I woke up, ate, went to the gym, ran for 15 minutes, worked out, then came home ate some oatmeal, and out on the bike for 1 hour. Felt really tired for a while, then halfway through, the legs woke up and life was good. Looking forward to a 3+ hour ride tomorrow...

So tonight, what should I do??? I am thinking 10 units initially, but then again, if 10 would have been perfect last night, and I did jump start the metabolism with gym/riding, then maybe I should go back to 9 units of Lantus. I am undecided at this point, and will make the call depending on the trend at 9:30-10:30pm. Let's see how I react to the salad tonight.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any specific questions I could address, please feel free to comment, and I will try to get to them.

Have a great day!
Philpott

Diabetes- travel-training and food...

2008-11-10T16:17:00.005-05:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

I am obviously really good about constant updates (joke, joke). My apologies for not being more consistent. Life has been very busy, but very good. We, at Team Type 1, are finalizing our sponsor agreements. Our sponsors have all been so supportive. The year 2009 looks to be even bigger than 08. Should have 50 athletes flying the TeamType1 banner next year, including twenty-seven with Type 1, ten with type 2 (Team Type 2!!!,) and another 15+/- who are embracing sharing the message that people with diabetes rock and can do the "same" as normal people - just with a little more discipline.

Anyone ever spent 24 hours straight traveling? I did, flying back home from visiting Italy, and Abu-Dhabi, where one of my best friends, and teammates, Daniel Holt lives. Had a great time there, and then proceeded to travel for 24 hours to get home. I returned home to watch UGA beat LSU, and then head to bed. Woke up and rode on a 50 mile bike ride (spin for kids)

My blood sugars had been pretty phenomenal while on vacation. I was eating a fair bit, running some, and all was good. I was doing an average of 15 units of Lantus, and 10-14 of Apidra each day. When I got home, day 2-3 upon return, things got all out of wack. If I looked at an apple, my blood sugar would rise. I was up to 20 units of Lantus, and another 20 of Apidra. Exercise and diet helped get me back in the groove. I returned and soon began to travel again. I totaled 10 flights in 10 days!! When I was on the road, I ran, and I was eating very low carb diet, and by day 5, I had lantus back down to 15 units.

Morgan and I went to Vanderbilt. We met some great people at the Ped Endo Day, where I have now spoken for the past three years.

Sunday, base began, and I have ridden 9 days in a row, including 2 days in the gym. No more travel for me for a while, and I am focused 100% on being ready hopefully for the Tour of California in February. That has meant between 2-4 hours a day of working out.
Avg day now:

wake up drink coffee
talk on phone/email for 2-3 hours.
eat oatmeal to get the blood sugar trend going up,
ride 2-4hrs (or gym 2x week)
return home 3-4 units of Apidra and appx 120 grams of carbs through Pasta which is also about 30 gms of protein.
eat an apple-
dinner: salad w/fruit and maybe some fish or chicken.
Lantus at 10:00pm, and hit the hay.

This week, I have been a little behind the curve on my Lantus adjustments. I went from 14 units on Sunday, down to 9 on Saturday and Sunday. If I wake up with a low BS, then I will typically reduce 1 unit/night until I find the magic #. This time, that was not quick enough. I had gotten down to 11 units by Friday, woke up on the lower side for the 3rd day in a row, so jumped to 9 units Saturday night after a 4 hour training day. I woke up at 208 at 5am, then went and did 3 hrs on the bike. Sunday, stayed at 9 units factoring in the additional training, and woke up at 5am to a low alarm on my FreeStyle Navigator. I prepare for this by keeping Dex 4 (glucose) on my night stand, and so took down 15gms of carbs and was good to go.

Tonight, with no exercise today, I am still contemplating whether to take 9 units, or increase to 10... I will know when I know:)

Last 3 days total insulin intake has been between 15-18 units, which is a record low for me.
I look forward to learning more this next week, and putting week 2 to the test.

They don't write books about your personal life with diabetes. You are your own best doctor. I would encourage you to be pro-active about adjustments but also run them by your endo, or your diabetes educator the first few times to make sure they are on the same "wave length." I have had many years of doing this, and am on the same page with my Dr, Bruce Bode.

I hope this helps. Hoping to be a more consistent blogger in future! Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for your TeamType1 support.

Have a great day!

Philpott
www.teamtype1.org

Thanks to Morgan Patton

2008-08-27T09:32:00.003-04:00

Howdy from my new House in Atl...

Yee-ha, finally a homeowner. Could this be a stressful situation, to which someone would want to pull their hair out??? I think anytime you move the answer is probably a resounding yes. However, not for me... Why? Because I had the professional help of my new assistant, Morgan Patton. She helped to pack everything, unpack and organize everything, pick out furniture, and call the cable company... I am very, very excited to have her on board to help keep me in line.

So this may be the first you have heard of Morgan, but it will not be the last. She was diagnosed at age of 6, lead a great young life, rocked the horse jumping seen for a few years (youngest competitor at most events,) and then in May of 06, by some freak twist of fate, our parents met at a pub in Tallahassee. My mom was talking away about what I was about to do in RAAM, and Morgan's mom, Debbie said that it may help her daughter to crew. My mom made me do it, and I am so grateful that we got her on. Video of Morgan
At that time Morgan's A1C was 16.7, and she didn't care about diabetes. But then she saw the team, and everyone checking their blood sugar, doing shots, exercising, and being pro-active about good control...
And began to do the same things. 8 months later she began to race, and win. a full year later just by checking, correcting, eating better, and RIDING her bike, her A1C had dropped to 9.3.
She crewed again, doing a remarkable job, and at that point switched over to Apidra (what the team was using) as well as FreeStyle Lite, and Omni-Pod. And began riding more and more, wanting to be a bad arse on the bike, and knowing that she was going to need good control to do it.
Another year goes buy, she gets better, gets stronger, suffers being hit by a car, and 2 broken collar bones... Then in May she gets her A1C, approximately 2 years after our mom's met in the pub, and it is 6.3!!! Then what: Then Morgan goes on (with the solid help of teammate Monique) to get 2nd place, and 5th place in 2 of the biggest women's professional crits in the country.
"The Power of Good Control"

Next year, she is going to embark on her first year as a professional for Team Type 1, while also being a full time student (via the internet) at FSU, and working for me. Pretty impressive, and then take into account that she is 19 years old. I would say in her case, as it was for me, diabetes made us better. It is the control that gives that power.

So please be on the look out for this rock star, and ask about her story. It is one of the most impressive that I know.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great day.

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Diabetes game: winning more

2008-08-25T09:25:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta,

So riding has been getting good... It is amazing how much better my legs feel when not traveling all the time. Early last week, I was getting some decent rides in, but not much intensity, and having a cool basal rate of 15 units of Lantus. On Tuesday I got 4 hrs in and went hard... 14 units, with a morning blood sugar post in the 70's. Then easy ride, and on Thursday a am ride, and a pm hard ride. Down to 13 units. Friday went easy, in prep of Saturday's torcher fest...
For one, I had too much basal on board, as I woke up Sat am, at 70 carbs with no Apidra, and only went up to 135 before starting a 125 mile ride. For the first 2 hours of the ride, I was eating DEX4 like it was going out of style, and any kind of food I had my hands on. Still the FreeStyle Navigator leveled off at 65, and after the first stop, and a liter of Mt Dew, I was able to get BS up to 85. Felt really good on the ride, other than feeling really bad which is the expected result of a 6.5 hour ride.

How about some #'s??? So last I wrote, my goal was to get rid of some of the below target #'s.
Last A1C: 5.1
How about some statistics:
28 Day Average: 106
Above target: 6% of time
Within Target: 90%
Below target: 4% (new record for me)

So, I am getting better at keeping #'s right where they need to be, without going low.
How??? Small adjustments. Thanks to metabolism boost from riding, and eating a healthy diet, have been doing less than 20 units of insulin/day.

In my experience:
Exercise DOES make insulin work better (diabetes or no diabetes.)

I ride so I can eat, and I ride to help with control.
I ride to I can get faster, and hopefully help the team at USPro Champs in Greenville this Sunday. First real race since April, but time to get the legs moving looking to 2009.

Have a great day, and please wish our guys luck in Ireland. Fabio (type 1 for 7 years now) will be the first type 1 to compete in a race of this caliber in Europe. Big deal, and he was looking good in UTah for prep.
Thanks for reading.

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Mutated Diabetes?? or the game I play??

2008-08-13T12:34:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

So last week I was at the AADE National Convention with most of Team Type 1. I had a great time, and got to meet some of the most caring, and passionate people in all of diabetes, The CDE's! I got my A1C checked as I usually do at conferences to get an A1C of 5.1 using FreeStyle Navigator, Lantus, and Apidra. Exact same result as last year using Apidra, Omni-Pod, and Navigator.
While at a dinner, I was asked if I had a mutated form of diabetes, where my pancreas still works on some level, meaning it is "easy" to control my blood sugar. I know this was meant somewhat as a compliment, but it got me thinking out on the ride today, and I kept going faster. I look back at the 26 some odd years with diabetes, the many trips to the ER as a kid both from hypoglycemia (no such thing as projected alarms back then) or when I had the flu, having severe ketones, and not being able to hold food down, then having to get the one needle that actually scared me as a kid, an IV. My mom would let me bite down on her finger for as long as it took to get the needle in... Thanks Mom:)
But that was just a point in the game, a lesson when diabetes got a goal on me. What do you do when the other team is up?? Learn from your mistakes, and go out there and beat that team. Use the loss as motivation to do better, and leave your mark on the team. That is what I have done with diabetes. I am stubborn, and will try, and fail, then try again, and fail. This will repeat until there is success. I feel like I am scoring most of the goals, and diabetes has now become one of my best teammates. Outside of our games, it helps me to win. A hospital visit or lesson was just one step closer to a better A1C. And now when I apply those lesson's and discipline to real life, it is a synch. It is also a synch due to the treatment (lantus/apidra) and technology (Navigator/omni-Pod) that I can always win! I work with these companies, and am excited about their long term commitment to making our game easier.

But even with these goodies, we are still out on the field. It is still a 24 hour a day, 365 day/year job. I am the CEO of my body, just as much as you are the CEO of yours. Can your company beat mine? Can you be better than you were last year, and ensure the long term success?
My A1C is 5.1: I want to have fewer blood sugar under 60. That is my goal.

What is your goal? Where do you want your A1C to be? What is it going to take to get it there?
Being an election year, I would ask: Are there any politicians out there who would like to be responsible for ensuring these tools are in the hands of those who need it. Anyone who can make sure that no child or adult is left un-insured with diabetes? I hope so, and if you are one, or know someone, please pass that challenge along.

Thanks for reading the rant! Have a great day...

Phil

Riding fast again...kind of

2008-08-02T22:09:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

Not sure where I left of last time, but needless to say life has been busy. Been riding a lot more these days, talking on the phone way too much, and spending time with Rylie (my beautiful little girl:)
2 weeks ago I got to speak to a Sanofi-Aventis Sales conference, which had appx 650 people. I get a big rush from talking to groups of this size, and I worked very hard to make sure I was ready to nail it, and I did!!! Then it was a 4.5 hour day in the 200 degree fl heat, then CWD. This is my favorite event of the year, as I get to see all the future Team members there in action. Did that for 2.5 days talking to kids, and parents of kids with type 1.
Then 2 days of disney. Thanks mom for coming down to help.
3 days in Atlanta (all on phone) and bike, and then up to Sanofi home office in NJ, so that we can make plans for 2009. Exciting day.
2.5 hours yesterday, and then 4.5 today, doing a century. My metabolism is kicking again, so this morning I woke up, ate a big bowl of cereal, and got in the car with coffee. I was hoping to get my blood sugar up to 150 or so, but it only hit 125. I kept snacking, and then we set off at a blistering tempo... I was snacking on my Dex 4 gel, and eating bars, and low and behold 1 hour in BS on my Navigator is 63. I eat about everything I have, drink it all, and stayed between 62-73 for the entire ride. I was always ok, but whenever I would go hard the energy would not last that long. So tonight, I have reduced my lantus further to 13 units. I am still dieting, so food has been not such a factor. I was going to race, but now am going to go train in the mtns by myself. This is fun, and will give me a good chance to rock out to my tunes...

Goal tomorrow: get blood sugar up to 150 pre-ride, and keep it there for 4-5 hours, so I can have a good ride. Will do 10-15 minute efforts up the climbs, and see how well the surgery went. Right after the ride, I will head to Camp Kudzu for 2 days, which is AWESOME!!! Then Boston for Camp Joslin, and Carefree, then Washington DC, for the AADE National meeting, and back home to race next weekend. Then 4 weeks at home to train and prep for US Pro Champs...

Team is looking good for end of year, and next. More details to come when I can.
I hope all is well. Thanks so much for reading.
Have a great night.

Phil

The Timeline

2008-07-14T15:24:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Atl!
So great new down here: I can ride, and ride a lot. I have been upping the miles the past 2 weeks, and feeling good about it. 2 more weeks, and I can go hard, so in the meantime, I am gonna pour em on.
Now looking back 10 weeks, I was thinking of the where I was to where I am, and where I hope to be, and wanted to get it down. It made me start to think that no matter where you are in any aspect of life, if you have an idea of where you want to go, and work, you can get there!!!
May 5: surgery- hurts badly to move in the bed
May 7: hospital discharge- 50 feet is a long walk
May 10: Home on couch. I think I walked to the coffee shop, on a lot pain killers, with a cane
May 15-16: AACE program in Orlando- sitting in a booth, in lots of pain. 2 trips of the hotel had me in absolute agony. My friend Jay, got yelled at my my friends in the CSM dept, for having me there.
May 20: back on the phone/email full time. Walking is better.
June 5: San Fran for ADA- Walking is not painful- so I do A LOT of it. Worked real, real hard for 5 days, and laid groundwork for future.
June 11: Start of RAAM, 2 days later fly in for Red Bull Party for last 1500 miles, as driver...
June 19: first bike ride. 20 minutes on indoor bike
June 20-28: Indoor riding on hotel exercise bikes. (I despise riding inside, but was still fun)
June 29: 1hr outside!!! So liberating
July 5: 1.3 hours
July 7-11: 1-2 hour rides: very hard at finish
Last Saturday- Sunday: 3hrs and 3:45!!! Felt good.

So 10 weeks ago, I could barely walk, and tomorrow, I hope to doa 4-5 hour training ride. Yesterday, I went out and road in the rain (pouring) with Hank. Typically when doing a full year, motivation to ride in lighting storms, is not so high. I am so damn motivated to come back and win this year, that it was a treat to get to ride. There, I said it: I want to win at least 1 race this year. I am working to do so. Time to lose weight, train lots, start to travel, and train a lot.
My commitment to help me win: At conferences, I will train, eat, and sleep properly. No partying, when I can be recovering. I got a stack of books the other day to help me do so.

I hope all is well, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers for Ben Brooks. He is recovering well, and even having some laughs... He was way better than me when I was forced off bike, so who knows where he will be 10 weeks from today.
Congrats to Matt, Moises, and Shawn for great rides at Cascade.

Have a great day.

Philpott
www.teamtype1.org

No airplane this week!!! Riding bikes...

2008-07-09T20:04:00.003-04:00

Howdy from HotLanta...

No more travel!!! Or at least for 7 more days. I checked out my flight schedule, and this is the first 7 day period in 2 months I have not been on a plane... But it has been some great times! Last week, I got to Boston, with hopes of riding with my man Mark Supernaut, but endless games of phone tag, and the inability for me to plan made it not possible. I did catch a ride with Rob Campbell and Amy at Insulet, which was nice, and then cruised through downtown Boston, and Harvard to check out my future school (please let me know when you stop laughing...)

Great times at Omni-Pod, and that is a company that is just taking off. Great people, great products, and great ideas for the future! Then John G, Rob, and I took off for some fishing, and caught a bunch of striper, but no tuna. Saw a lot of whales! Then 3 hours later, wake up, and get back on the boat with John, Rob, and my man Steve Bubrick for another day of fishing! Again, no tuna, but did see more whales, and catch a bunch of striper. John and Rob laughed at Steve and I as we made fishing look hard.

Back to Atlanta, and still training. Hitting the gym to get some strength back, and also got my first 2 hour ride in yesterday. It is awesome holding onto Dan and Joe's jerseys as we go uphill to keep my heart rate down right now, and cracking on a 2 hour ride. Fitness come back please!!!
Now for some diabetes: I can't figure out what is going on just yet. I am doing more lantus then when not training, and in the morning, it seems to take a lot of insulin to cover the life cereal I have recently been re-united with. I am not sure if it is a dawn effect, or what, but am blood sugars are not where I want them to be. Solution: get on the bike. As soon as I do that, the BS comes right now. Tomorrow, I am going low carb for breakfast, then gym, then bike. We shall see how that works. Might try a little something else as well.

7 more days in Atlanta, with hopes of doing 3hrs by the end of the week, and 4 by this time next week. Then we head to Toronto for the DESA convention, then Sanofi National Sales meeting, and finish up the trip with Children with Diabetes conference in Orlando, Fl.

Also, a special note: Please say a prayer for my friend and teammate, Ben Brooks, who took a nasty spill today in the Cascade Classic in Bend, OR. He needs our support right now!

Thanks for reading. Have a great night!

Philpott

travel travel travel-over...

2008-07-02T12:28:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Boston,

Or wait, which city? So last week was a busy VA-NYC-Atl trip. Got home said hi to a few people, then back to Boston. Yesterday I visited Insulet Corp, makers of the Omni-Pod. These folks rock! It is fun getting to meet and chat with the people, (John G, Marc, Steve, Amy)
who invented it, and are constantly working to make it a bit better. Got to spend some time catching up with my man Steve B, who has been with TT1 from the start.

Oh yeah, I have been riding!!! Got to ride outside 4 times now, and even though I feel not so great (out of shape) it feels SOOOO good to ride. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got out there. Now it will be a long slow process getting back to top shape! On Friday I go home to Atl, and then have almost 10 days in Atlanta. I hope that by the end of that stint I am up to 3-4 hour rides, before a 11 day travel stint going to Toronto for DESA, Orlando for a Sanofi Sales meeting, and then Children With Diabetes. During that trip I hope to ride 2-3 hours/day with some intensity. That is my plan, and I hope to stick to it.

Boston is a cool place to ride. Went through BU, Harvard, MIT, and then got lost in the maze of 1 ways in downtown. Fun times! If it didn't snow or freeze for half the year, I would love to live here.
Fishing with John, Rob, and Steve tomorrow. Hoping for some good bites.
Happy 4th to all.
Have a great day.

Phil

Life is good: Bike-diabetes-all of it

2008-06-26T09:16:00.002-04:00

Howdy from NYC:
I have come to terms with the fact that I am not a good blogger. It seems for a blog to be catchy, it must be updated very frequently, with new material. My apologies, as there is a lot of material (I am biased, so think it is good...ha) but time to sit down and write it up is not.

Enough excuses: I can ride my bike again!!!! For the last 10 days, beginning with the day the team finished RAAM, I have been on a stationary bike. First ride in Annapolis, 2nd ride in Atlanta on my bike (inside) then KS, MO, then Atl, then a ride in Charlottesville, VA, and now 2 days in NYC before heading home to head outside, which I cannot wait for!!! I will go a little extreme here, but to me riding inside would be along the lines (how cheesy can I get) of a
lion in a petting zoo...
So what does a type 1 exercise junky do, when you take his ideal form of life away...
Set new goals: I want to go uphill fast, and am going to target US Pro Champs, and if recovery is good Tour of MO. To be good for these, I have gone into extreme diet mode, and it has paid dividends. I am appx 10 lb.s lighter than in February, and my basal rate of insulin is at an all time low, and that is with minimal exercise. Am hoping now tomorrow to get on the bike, and on the path to speed. The past 2 weeks have been great, and seeing the guys leave their hearts on the road for RAAM was awesome. I got the true appreciation of what it means to be on the crew, and the effort they put in for us the past 2 years. At the finish line, the Apidra/Lantus team had 25 reps from the area to support us. It rocked! Then athlete days, which are a great opportunity to share with docs about TT1, and what we are doing, and who makes it possible. Yesterday was a nice 15hr work day, with a lot of social fun in the mix. Today was a little bit lighter, and got to cab it all around NYC... Good times.
The reps and doctors here have been awesome, and we may have a new teammate or 2 because of it. The ladies of the NYC team Dyna Pride, Yvonne, Adriana, Pam, and others all had TT1 t-shirts sporting the teams time!! Truly a great few days.
Tomorrow am home, and stay through Monday night, and then Tuesday I head to Boston for a few days to meet with Omni-Pod. Exciting times.

That is about it for now. Thanks for reading.
Phil

Questions from last post

2008-05-28T15:25:00.002-04:00

Howdy again from HotLanta...

Had a few questions from the last post, and I am more than happy to address them anytime:
as related to diabetes?
1) Did you ever figure out what the itching was? Do you think it was related to diabetes?
No idea what the itching was. There were a few theories:
1. Morphine- which I was on for appx 1 hr.
2. The epidural, and drug that it delivered
3. The bed sheets.

2) How can you be on a Lantus/Aphidra routine on a pump??
For the time being, I am just on shots. When on a pump, I use the Omni-Pod, with Apidra in it, but for now, I am on a pump-holiday so to speak., and when doing that I take Lantus and Apidra.

Today was first swim day. I got some goggles and a kick board and went to town for 20 minutes. Nice to get a little workout in. I hope to be able to extend the swim to 45 minutes this time next week.

Thanks for reading, and for the great questions!
Have a nice day.

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Inquiring minds want to know. And congratulations on the successful surgery.

-- Stellasmom

phone-phone-no exercise...

2008-05-27T16:01:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Atlanta,

Not too much to report these days. Still recovering from the surgery, so not too much that I can do. Walking a quarter mile is about the most I can do. In fact, went to a Brave's game yesterday and the walk from the car to park, and park to car created a good bit of sore muscles last night.

These days I get to watch bike racing. I got to see all the RAAM guys get trained on the FreeStyle Navigator last Friday. Then the guys were all overloaded with the wealth of info this bad boy brings. You can make adjustments before you need them, and get close to perfect blood sugars once you learn how to use the machine. It does take time, and it takes lessons, but here are some examples of the control:
14 Day Average: 106
Above Target: 5%
Within Target: 87%
Below Target: 8%
Last A1C: 5.4

Doing all this on a basal/bolus regime of Lantus/Apidra. I am however surprised about the amount of Lantus I am using. Even with a near sedentary lifestyle, I am only on 20 units of lantus a day. Typical sedentary is 23 units for me, so it seems to be working great! The Apidra also works better with lantus than any other rapid acting insulin.

Now it is on though: This week I ca start to swim, and do some light gym work. I am also on a full fledged diet. I am not training, which means I don't need to recover, so don't need to eat., much. My old buddy Dan Holt has moved in, and is helping me to get lean so that when I get back on the bike it is on! I want to drop 4lb.s by middle of June, and another 4 by middle of July, so that come August/September I am ready to dance of some climbs for Nationals in Greenville, and Tour of Missouri if the artery is good.

So what to do when not racing:
Conference calls. I am now on the phone all the time making plans for 2009, and getting riders to come on board, sponsor renewal, and all that good stuff. I enjoy the business side, and have some aggressive plans for growth in 2009 which will take us closer and closer to the Tour de France by 2012.

BIG CONGRATS to Monique and Morgan for their stellar rides up in Kelly Cup and Somerville. Morgan took 2nd and 5th in those races, and Monique was 3rd in Kelly, and did super work for Morgan in both those races. For any team to get 2 ladies on the podium in a NRC race is HUGE, and when you take into account that they were are only 2 ladies, and oh yeah, both have type 1!!! Team Type 1 keeps rocking the house, and I hope you will all follow the blog as RAAM comes up in 2 weeks!

Thanks for the support.
Have a great day.

Phil
www.teamtype1.org

slice and dice, diabetes in the hospital...

2008-05-21T09:09:00.004-04:00

Howdy from GA,

My apologies for dropping off the face of the earth. A lot and a little have been going on. I guess last time I was about to go in for surgery, or get some test done to see if it was needed, and it was. So I go into the hospital, explain to the anesthesiologist (no idea how to spell) about FreeStyle Navigator, and he agreed to use that to monitor my blood sugar during the surgery. At first he told me we were gonna do it his way, then came back apologizing, and thought the thing was awesome. So they give me an epidural, and knock me out for this bad boy. I wake up, and am itching pretty bad. Get some Benadryl, and fall asleep. In and out all day, itching the entire time... I am told that I will be on Regular (prehistoric) insulin for my stay in the hospital, and they will give me a shot every 4 hours, which I scoffed at.
I said I wanted to use Lantus and Apidra as my basal/bolus, and they said no. I got my endo, Bruce Bode on the phone, and he told me just to do it my way. So I fought, and fought (still all doped up) and finally was able to sign a consent form saying that I would be responsible if I died from hypo in the hospital, but that I could manage my own blood sugars. Happy to sign. My mom helped me big time here, and even went to sleep on a hospital chair to look out for me through the night. My blood sugar ran in the 150-200 range most of that day, and I was conservative with insulin cause I couldn't eat, and didn't want to go hypo.
But, I did want the itching to stop!!! So at 9pm it got bad, and if I had nails I am pretty sure I would have bled to death. At 12am, I was taken off pain killers to see if I was reacting to them. 12am- Benadryl- to "stop itching and put me to sleep"
1am- wide awake about to have a nervous breakdown from the itching- doc give me more Benadryl
2am- had a nervous breakdown- doc recommends Benadryl again. I say "it didn't work the 1st or the 2nd time, and I don't think it is gonna work the 3rd..." he gets pissed, and give me more anyway
3am- still wide awake, still itching, and I am really getting on everyones nerves. I was trying to explain that it felt like I had both chicken pox and poison ivy at the same time, and nothing I could do about it.- I get some other drug to "stop itching"
4am- no sleep still get another drug, and finally at 4:30 after watching sportscenter for the 20th time I crash
6am- woken up by doc to check pulse- and itching is back
this went on until high noon

The surgery however was a success. This was a problem caused by cycling, not diabetes. Kenneth Cherry is supposed to be the best in the nation for it. I had been having my left leg go numb for about 1.5yrs, and racing with 1 leg is not an option. So we did test and I had stenosis in both the iliac and femoral arteries, so they sliced me open, diced the arteries, and the put patches on them both. It was been 2 weeks off the bike, and 4 more before I can start light riding again. When I come back, and achieve good form again (September???)I should be faster than ever.

My mom had good friends in Charlottesville who opened their home to us, the Eichelberger's.

Last few weeks have been hanging out, getting used to walking again, and beating people with my cane...ha

Thanks for letting me vent. And if you are ever in the hospital I would recommend
1) take my mom with you
2) fight like hell to control your own blood sugars as opposed to someone who has no idea what diabetes is.

Have a great day!
Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Bad News, Fun News, Great News

2008-04-18T11:43:00.005-04:00

Hello Hello from Hotlanta,

Life has been a bit hectic as of late. After a sub-par personal performance at Redlands, I had some decisions to make. We were all gearing up for Tour of GA, and have a strong team ready to rock. With my recent nagging lack of performance in my left leg, I opted out of the Tour of GA. This race has been my focus for the year, and was essentially my main goal in 2008. It is extremely dissappointing to pull not even start my home race. The team will still rock, and have better odds in the sprints now that my man Emile Abraham is taking my spot, and I will be there to witness, and cheer the guys on. So some lack of training enabled me to work on a speech I had the pleasure of giving to the Sanofi-Aventis Regional Sales Meeting.

At this meeting there were about 1100 people from all over the East Coast!! I had my good friend Shashank (pictured above,) and was ready to rock. I just wanted to thank the sales force for fighting the fight for Apidra, and getting the best insulin into the hands of doctors and patients. The crowd was great, and they were very nice not to throw tomatoes in my 20 minutes on stage. I truly enjoy giving talks, and the thanks that come afterwards. 1100 was the biggest crowd in a while, and it seems that the more people there, the more jazzed I get!

It was a lot of fun to meet all the Apidra team, and I hope they can have a great 2008. They are going to be one of the main reason's we get to the Tour de France in 2012...

So now for the Great news. Today, I inserted the first approved FreeStyle Navigator in the US. I have used this device many a times, but always under study protocols. This time it is mine, and I don't have to give it back!!! For all the people with diabetes who struggle with not knowing what your blood sugar is, and where it is going, this is the answer. For parents of children with diabetes who want to get a good night sleep, this is the answer. I will try to give updates about how my life is changing because of it. Mainly, I will be able to titrate my blood sugar to a much closer range, and hopefully get my A1C back into the low 5's!

In 2 weeks time, I go to UVA for a diagnostic on my Iliac artery, and if all is bad, then surgery on May 5. On April 26, I might head to the JDRF Gala here in Atlanta, and then on May 2, I get the pleasure of being the keynote at the JDRF Gala, in Madison, WI.

Thanks for reading, and please follow the team and send support to the guys at our blog on www.teamtype1.org.

GA and training

2008-04-11T08:33:00.002-04:00

Howdy from Hotlanta,

The past few weeks have been a bit hectic, and my apologies for lack of posts. So after the crash, it was to Carp, and then from there a drive down with Shawn Milne to Redlands Classic, S of LA. This was going to be a tough race with all the heavy hitters present. No big Shocker, but Santiago Botero, former winner of Mtns jersey in the Tour de France, and World Time Trial champ won the Road Race. I quit the race 10 miles in with only one leg working properly, or should I say, one leg working at all. Been fighting this problem for a while, and hopeful to get some resolution soon. Then came crit time, and our guys were riding good.

Everyone was active until finally Shawn got away with a group of 4. He was the fastest man in the group, and looked like a sure victory, but a crash with 2 corners to go took him out, and took his wrist, making it 3 broken wrists in 3 weeks...
Next day was the road race, and Chris Jones rode like a phenom. We had 3 of our guys taken out of the lead group in the first 5 miles with a crash, so he was on his own, and did a great job.

Then it was back to Atlanta. Time to get the metabolism going. Monday night after an all day trip, I got to go to dinner with the Sales Team from Omni-Pod. It was a great night, and they got me even more pumped about the team. They have a great product, but more importantly great people!!! I got to spend some time with my good friend Steve Bubrick, which was a nice surprise.
That night it was 19 units of Lantus (back on it for race season.)
Then Tues-Wed-Thurs I did 4-4.5-4.5 hrs on the bike. Mon night 20units of Lantus, Tuesday 19, Wed 17, and Thurs 15. Amazing how quick the metabolism speeds up. Last night after a hard 4.5 hrs, I did 4 units post ride. Then for recovery had 20oz of Chocolate Milk, and 30 minutes later a bowl of cereal and fruit which had appx 80gms of carbs. Bloood sugar did not go above 80 the entire night... Continuous would have been nice.

Today, I am heading to the Clinical Diabetes and Technology meeting to speak on a panel about my experience with FreeStyle Navigator. It is a great chance for me to meet the people who are designing the new technology that is making our lives better!
Tomorrow and Sunday I race in ChataVegas Tenn, and then rest up before a start in the Tour of Georgia on April 21, which is a dream come true. It would take me having 3 legs to ride for a win in that race, and I am crossing my fingers hoping just to have 2.
Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

Phil

crashing... and Insurance

2008-03-31T20:51:00.003-04:00

Howdy from Carpinteria,

We just finished a successful weekend in San Dimas, CA. The team rode great, and delivered Emile to the line to take the field sprint for 3rd on Sunday. He claimed it was the easiest time he has ever had for a sprint, which means the team did it's job. Shawn Milne and Ben Brooks took care of our boy, and his legs worked fast. I got to see this all from the sidelines since I hit the deck on Saturday When crashing, it is almost always someone else's fault. Not this time... All mine. I put my front Zipp 404 into someone else's rear derailleur, and after holding it steady for a 100meters, the wheel exploded, and I hit it. Couldn't catch back up, so went on a 3hr training ride on my own through the mountains. It was peaceful and serene until I came to what appeared to be a traffic jam. I get to the front of it, and to my surprise I see a chopper and 4 cop cars, with about 8 cops all with guns pulled on an SUV. Apparently there were 3 guys with machine guns in there, so I sat and watched (behind a truck...) while the cops took care of business with no shots fired. Only in LA. Interesting thing after the crash was that when I got back to the car, my blood sugar on my FreeStyle Lite read 303. Washed my hands, and then 306. I did 5 units of Apidra, then 45 minutes of riding later, I was 283. Last time I crashed, the same thing happened. The body goes into shock, and I guess a bunch of hormones are produced which cause insulin sensitivity to stop. Last time I used different measures to fix it quickly, and this time, I just road. Drank water for first 1.5hrs, then switched to Gatorade, dex 4 (x2) and 80gms of carbs from cliff shots, while doing a 10 mile mtn climb, and then 30 or so miles of flats. Got home with a BS of 115, and had to eat a lot right away. Moral of the story: When falling off a bike, and bruised and bloody, and blood sugars go through the roof, immediately ride for 3 hrs, with minimal food... Just kidding. Trial and error lead me to this one. I will need to test it out 1 more time to confirm my theory, but I hope I don't have to test it for a long time...
Relaxing in Carp for a couple of days, and for the first time in my life without health insurance. In my absence of Atlanta, my bills got to me a bit later than usually. I had anticipated this, and paid PRINCIPAL Insurance $1200 bucks for Dec-Feb, but my rates got raised in Jan, so I was appx $48/short. They sent a cancellation notice on Feb 20, but sent it to my old address, so it didn't get to me until March 17 when I got back to Atlanta (post Taiwan.) On march 5, I had sent a check for $1500, but that was apparently too late. But they are a big company with unbend able policies, and are sticking to their guns. I still don't have my money back, but surely the will pay...
Fortunately FreeStyle has me covered on strips, and I stocked up on Insulin before hitting the road. My endo, Bruce Bode, being the awesome man that he is saw me free of charge, and gave me enough samples of Apidra and Lantus to get me through for a while. He is the man.
I have set up a group plan with TT1, and should find out this week, if Joe and I are actually insurable. If not... I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there...
Thanks for reading, and if you have any ideas, please feel free to share!
Have a great day.
Phil

Back at it... airport logic???

2008-03-28T20:21:00.004-04:00

Howdy from San Dimas,

So we are back at racing here in the US. After Taiwan it was head home, sleep a lot, see a chiro/sports specialist Dr Fred Fritsch a bunch, and sleep some more, then head back to Cali. Home was good. I am now infamous for the Lantern Rouge on the group rides, and most people have actually forgotten my real name and just call me Lantern...ha Granted finishing in the top 30 every day was prolly an option, being part of the team's victory and getting last was much more rewarding.

Warning: Next paragraph is me venting-feel free to skip...
Before making it out to Cali, I got to fly out here, which provided another opportunity to witness the mayhem/ lack of manners of airports. I admit, there have been times when I was in a huge rush, running through the airport like my life depended on it, and in that scenario all bets are off. But the manners of people in the airport really get to me. It seems there is a sense of entitlement just for having flown that day. Leaving the plane there are 4 different merge points. It would seem fair that 1 line go, then the other, then 1 line, then the other, but the people on this one assumed their lines got to go. No looks in the eye either. Next merge point, the same thing. This one guy fought me to get ahead, after 3 others from his line did the same thing, and then immediately after getting off the plane onto the jetway (walk thing between terminal and plane-can someone help me here?) and stops. No rush, he just had to be ahead...
Then at baggage claim, the big fight to be on the front row to watch the bag come at .25 mph down the ramp. If we all stepped back 10 feet and only went forward when your bag was coming then it would be much less crowded. I must say, the flight attendants on Delta were fantastic. Always friendly, and wanting to make my day, the best day possible.
Done with that rant, back to racing...

While racing in Taiwan, and then getting back, the body had adjusted to riding all the time. While back in Atl, so long as I got my blood sugar up to 150 before the ride, I could ride for 3hrs on nothing but water. I would venture to say I was burning fat on those rides, as I was losing weight too.Then it seemed I switched back and on Tuesday I was actually eating on the ride, going pretty hard, and also going hypo. Now it seems my body is burning glycogen straight up. So we are at the race today, and I screwed up... Ate lunch, and afterward was 124, then 30 minutes later 156- did 1 unit of Apidra, then 20 after that 234, and did one more unit as I was trending up to quickly (or so I thought.) With a start time of 3:37, we left at 2:00 pm to ride to the start, and grabbed a double espresso on the way.
At 2:40pm after a 20 minute ride, I was 49- had 4 vials of Dex 4 liquid shot (60gm carb) 1 package of cliff blocks (50gm carb) and 30 minute later 86. So drank 2 cokes (40gm carb each) and a 1/2 cliff bar (23gms of carbs) and at 3:20 I was 125. So I rolled to the start line of this 4 mile uphill time trial, took some more dex 4, to take the grand total of carbs to 188gms for a 4 mile TT. Did the TT which I suck at, and road slow enough. Then got back and was 150, which is perfect for post race.
So what I know I have to do tomorrow before the 88mile road race is don't do any insulin within 3 hrs of start, start with a steady blood sugar in the 140-220 range, and then in the first 30 minutes of the race eat about 75gms of carbs, and then every 15 minutes post need to put down another 20gms for 1.5 hrs, and then all should be good. So that is my plan, and if it all goes perfect (does it ever) I will be able to write about the success tomorrow.

We have last years winner, Ben Brooks, and a real strong team for the race tomorrow, so my goal will be to do the job that MR.Beamon sets out, and hope for a good race. I know the closers on the team will be there to rock it out.
Thanks for reading. Have a great day.
Philpott (yes this really is my middle name) thanks mom...ha

Home Sweet Home

2008-03-20T11:02:00.004-04:00

Howdy From Georgia,

It is great to finally be back, and get a chance to reflect on last week. I have raced for a lot of years now, and done a few stage races, but never had I done one with such a strong team, organization, and leadership. After day 3, I was having issues, and digging real deep a lot of the time. Pretty much in pain from waking up to going to bed. But as soon as we got on the Orbea Orca bikes, (which thanks to Super Doug Berner, worked perfectly and were spotless every day) things got better. Why: we were talking about the race, planning strategy, and going for the win every day, and trying to chip away at the overall. Before the warm up, our soigneur, Jeremy Fliss had all food ready, bottles made, and radios ready as well. We would even get a quick rub before the start to get the blood flowing. Then there would be more talk, planning, race begins, and the small aches would go away, and it would just be the hurt box. Shawn was a great leader on and off the road, and allowed us to work, knowing he would to his absolute best to deliver. Chris patrolled the front for all 8 days, as did Emile, and Valeri was our attack master. After race finished, we had bottles made, clean up a bit, and go sit on the bus or ride back to the hotel.
Get hear, eat some food, get massage, eat more food, fight for the one internet cable, and then go to sleep. We would also have a meeting with Ed Beamon see pic with hair. He agreed to shave the goatee if we won. Sure enough Shawn delivered, and he followed through...ha (see below)

With organization like we had, the diabetes was not too much to handle.

Here is how it went:
I was doing 2x day lantus, so that I did not have to worry about hypos. Early in the race, I was having to do a lot of Apidra on a relative scale. As the race went on, I did less and less, and ate more and more. My body also adapted to the fueling needs of the race. As it went on, I had to eat less and less for the stages, and my blood sugars were more stable. With all that, the only way to make all of the small adjustments necessary (and there were A LOT) was to check, and check often. I was drinking about 1 liter of water every night right before bed to ensure I would wake up to pee, ie check. Chris Jones always got freaked out when I was checking in the middle of the night. Lucky I had my Dex 4 glucose close to the bed, and my FreeStyle Lite which has the small light (piece of cake to check in the night,) so I didn't have to wake anyone up with the big lights...
We made sure all of these guys knew what to do when hypo, and trained them with glucagon as well. Lucky didn't have to use it, or should I say skillful...
When did I check the most: before race and before bed. Usually 5 times in the hour before. Always once in the middle of the night, and 4-7 times in the 3hrs post race. Never the same 2 days in a row.
Funny enough, I can remember just about every day close to what I ended at: day 1-8:- 68*, 189, 174, 158ish, 168, 98, 128, 56*
*= BS was high or trending up before the race, so had to make small bolus, and did not eat enough.
Days 1 and 8, I was empty at the end. Day 6 was a hard, hard day, and day 7 I was so so. Days 2-5 were my best days. Any correlation to Blood sugar and performance??? You bet ya. So I learned a lot this past week, and have adjusted back to East Coast time pretty well. Back to once a day Lantus, and Apidra for my rapid.

If I were to have to make bottles, clean and work on bike, take care of meals plus this it may have been stressful. Diabetes is our disease, and with the right mindset it can be a fun challenge to overcome. I got the opportunity to learn 2x the other guys. I learned a heck of a lot about racing, and a lot about diabetes. Pretty cool.
Have a great day!
Thanks for reading.
Phil
www.teamtype1.org

Tour is over... Team rocked

2008-03-16T04:49:00.002-04:00

Howdy,
So the tour de Taiwan has concluded, thankfully...ha Stages were good. We were in the fight the entire week, and ended up 2nd overall. After stage 3, I went on a slow downward spiral, where as the team went up. Shawn won stage 5 in dramatic sprint finish style. We were active all day, and everyone road solid. We set Shawn up right behind the polish train, and he swamped em for the W. Stage 6 was a tough one. Rain, wind, cold and real real fast. This was a long hard day for me, and I was at the back for most of it. Valeri was off the front for the ENTIRE day. He would be in a break get caught, go again, get caught, go again, and managed to get 2nd to a another active guy who got to sit in every break he was in. Stages 7-8 were crits. 7 the team road solid, and the 4 guys sans me who were blowing it to pieces did just that when a crash with 10 to go neutralized the field. Today was a solid finale to the week. Everyone was a bit tired, and Chris was fresh with road rash, but Emile was the man of the day today. He covered all the moves. Shawn took 3rd on 2 sprints, and 4th in the final, and we ended up the stage race. I took the honor (if you call it that) of the lantern rouge, or final placed finisher. The bar has now been set, and I have to step it up for every race from here on out.

Personally, my expectations were about met. Having not raced on this level for 6 years, I knew it would be tough. I wanted to help the team, get experience, and get ready to rock back in the states for 08. I would have liked to have been better for stages 6-8, but that is life. The guys were really supportive, and really helped me get through the tough parts, and there were a lot.

Blood sugar wise was pretty good. I made the mistake of not eating enough on day 1 and day 8. Stages 2-7 were good. I have been doing 13 units of lantus for the last 3 days, and maybe as much Apidra. I have been eating more as the days went on, and using less insulin, just proving that activity really does boost the metabolism. I will show some pics as they come. My buddy Jack Guest from Atl, who lives in Hong Kong came over, and saw me sucking the back of the pack the last 2 days...ha We also met Stan, who founded SRAM, and is a major supporter, and Louis who founded Champion Systems who will soon be selling Team Type 1 clothing to the world for us...
Thanks a lot for reading. Have a great day, and I will be coming back to raise the bar.
For more race details, please visit www.teamtype1.org
Thanks,
Phil

Unthinkable and stage 2 and 3

2008-03-11T08:40:00.003-04:00

Howdy- So just about to head to sleep at 8:40pm after a couple of good days. But first, the unthinkable: We have made it through 5 days of being in Taiwan, and bike racing, coordinating 8 people for breakfast, race, dinner, and such and not a single one of us has used a cell phone to communicate. IT CAN BE DONE...ha I must admit, I am one of many who thought that the world could not exist without them, but I was and am wrong. It has actually been quite nice not fussing over it every second both with calls, and emails, stocks, or weather. So if you are thinking of going on vacation, I would urge turning off the phone completely, and see how nice it is.

Back to racing, which can be done with no phone... Yesterday was solid, doing 110km at 47km/hr. Fast with lots of attacks, and we were in just about every move. Worked hard, had fun, and was able to help the guys get where they needed most of the time. One time I was pulling pretty hard in my standards, and needed to close a gap, and then Valeri (teammate) came through and killed it. He is the man. Blood sugar control was better today, which made the race better for me. Was about 180 at the start, and ate about 200gm/carbs over the 2hr 15 minute race to finish at 183. I had 3 Dex 4 liquid blast, some shots, and some drink. Amazing how good legs are when I do it right.
Today was crosswind for the entire day. Was in attacks for first 30-40km, then it hit the fan and I was working hard just to maintain. It was tough tough for 20-30km, and then Valeri got in the break. He rocked it. Emile shut down the field, and then I took over the job of pedaling real slow... Chris and Shawn sat tight, as the they were in it for the climbs at the end. We sat behind the health net train as they tried t bring down the gap. Then attacked into the base of the climb with Shawn and Chris on my wheel, who then attacked up the climb and left a bunch of people in the dust. Shawn is now tied for 3rd on GC, and we plan to better that in the days to come. We are trying to get "Book Ends" which means first and last on GC. So I am sitting 3rd to last, and extremely happy with it, as I have done my job. If Shawn wins, I win. It is a team sport 100%. It was also a ton of fun when we were doing 50km an hour, and I am on the white line only able to see the wheel in front. Then that guy swerves left, and there is cement block. 1/10th of a second to react but somehow we all made it through doing this 150 times...ha Chris and Emile did a great job setting Shawn up for the finish, and he got 3rd, which ain't bad for a sprinter up a 1km climb. Also, on this day, BS's were solid. I am checking 8 times in the 45 minutes pre-race to do this right, and make sure the trend is right. Today had about 250gms of carbs in a 3hr race. Sick to my stomach at the end, but blood sugar at the end was 150, which again was perfect. Tomorrow is a crit, and yet another day with no cell phones. For quciker udates, please visit www.teamtype1.org and check out our blog.
Thanks for reading!
Phil

diabetes, Stage 1 and cell phones....

2008-03-09T05:52:00.000-04:00

Howdy,
More photos here.
So toady was stage 1 of the Tour de Taiwan, which was also my first race as a pro, and also my first race with this rock star team... So here is an approximation of how the day went. Woke up at 6am with a blood sugar of 320... Not a great way to start the day. Why? Well, my metabolism was flying last night so I backed of my lantus by a bit too much. I might even venture to say that I was mildly ketonic upon waking as I had to do a lot of Apidra to finally get down. I ate enough food and espresso so I was good to go. 1.5hrs before race 132, 1 hr 155... I had been eating a good bit to make sure I did not go hypo.

Then 45 minutes before start 232, 30 minutes to go, and I am 254. Do .5 units. 15 minutes to go 297, so I did 1 unit more of Apidra, and ate some food. Started race and was feeling good. Ate 1/2 a cliff bar, and some other goods. Now the race is on...

Early on there was a flury of attacks. We had a guy in just about every move. Chris Jones was SUPER active early on. Then Emile and I covered some moves, and Shawn and Valeri were rocking it out at the front. First sprint, and we went to set the Trinidadian Torpedo Emile up. It was us battling Health Net. I screwed up and did not go early enough, and could only manage to get Emile up to 2nd wheel. He held it for the sprint. Then some recovery, and then covering attacks. We went to set him up for the 2nd, and I did not do a great job, but he still managed 2nd. After this my gas was going out. I could cover moves, but not stick them too long.

Juice was going. I had 2 cliff shots, 1 bottle gatorade, and then 1 Dex 4 liquid blast. Lights were going out. Last 10 laps I could get close to front, and then would fade. Then I was hurting to hold wheels, and even the easy gears were hard. I knew I was bonking. 10 minutes post stage, Blood sugar was 68, which is way too low to race properly. Valeri and Chris busted there humps, and road like supermen to bring back a 17 second gap down to 7, and then Shawn launched a leadout which nearly closed it. Sprint got tricky, and we did not do so hot.

With the sprint seconds Emile is now in 5th, with a 120km stage tomorrow. Cell phone story to come tomorrow, as I am ready for bed at 7pm.
Thanks for reading.
Philpott
www.teamtype1.org

Taiwan Baby!!!

2008-03-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

Howdy from Kaosiung

So we have arrived in Taiwan, and it is an interesting place. First of all, there are more scooters than any where else in the entire world (that I have visited.) Reminds me of the days in college going around on one in Athens, GA. Now add a Nascar/F1 feel to it, and that is Taiwan. The people have all been extremely friendly, and have been very helpful. I think it is a lot of fun communicating when you have no clue what the other is saying. It is a challenge that I think that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy when you achieve the goal. Check out the picture there. That is how coffee is done... Tasted ok, but looked super cool.

So I am over here with defending champ, Shawn Milne, Chris Jones, Emile Abraham, and Valeri Gobzerenko to race with. We have big goals for this one, and will take it day by day. For staff, we have El Director Ed Beamon, Super Mechanic Doug Berner, and The "I make your legs feel real good via food, drink, and massage man" Jeremy Fliss. All in all after a 3 hour trip to LA from camp, a 14 hour flight, 5 hrs in the airport, and then a 4.5 hour bus ride, everyone seems to be in a pretty good mood. Racing starts tomorrow, and I will try to update with y side of it.
Camp was awesome and low and behold we got accepted to the Tour fo Georgia. If I make the roster for the team, which I plan on busting my arse to do, then I would personally like to invite you to come to the finish of Brasstown Bald to push me up the mountain...ha

Real quick on camp: The team is great. All the pros and devo team got some riding in together, and the pro team w/o diabetes all made a huge effort to learn about diabetes, and what foods do to the body. The guys were all using their own FreeStyle Lite meters to check appx 10-15 times per day to live a day, or a week in the life. Great fun, and with the guys we have, I think it is going to be an awesome year. Big congrats to Tom Schuler, Ed Beamon, and Bob Shrank for Roster selections, as we have an AWESOME team!

So please wish us luck, not only in the race, but with the getting around and not getting hit by a scooter. One last pic of the boyz and I getting in after our ride last night!
Thanks for reading. Have a great night.

Philpott