Bad News, Fun News, Great News

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

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

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???

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

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

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

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