Christmas in July

Overall a busy week with some good training, and presents!! Early in the week I attended a Braves game in DC with some friends (Jay and Kathy Willson and their sons Nolan and Liam) from St. Edwards in Lawrenceville. It was one of the few times the Nationals sold out (Strasburg was scheduled to pitch) – standing room only, which worked well because they had a table in the restaurant and we managed to stay there for the entire game. The Braves lost – however, we had a nice time catching up.


Blair Ryan and her sister Alison arrived Tuesday night. I met with them briefly that night and they did a 6 mile run with me Wed. morning (Alison ran, Blair rode and took video). I admire the effort both of them put forth on this trip across the US to cover the Triabetes atheletes. If you haven’t seen the site, check out http://triabetesmediaproject.wordpress.com/. There are some pictures of my favorite athlete and part of his story posted there now - as well as some great shots and articles on his team.

Thursday morning we were up pretty early (out the door by 5) – so was the humidity and I think her camera lenses fogged up. Blair stopped to take some video as we were heading out – we managed to lose her in the first mile – circled back and found her – then continued on a 14 mile run (with hills just for fun). Alison ran most of the way with me, she and Blair switched about half way, but there is a slight height differential between the two of them (those who have met them both can attest) – and Blair’s bike doesn’t quite work with Alison’s slightly shorter stature (it is important to be able to put feet on the peddles and use the brakes at the same time, especially when going downhill). By the time we were done with 12 miles I was completely drenched (and the sun was just coming up) – might as well have been a torrential downpour. Got some water and slogged through the last 2 or so miles of Old Town Alexandria with Blair who was nice enough to keep a “moderate” pace so I could keep up. Headed back to Atlanta Thursday night – a wonderful light show outside on the eastern seaboard as we headed south (on yet another delayed flight).

Santa Claus (in the form of the UPS driver) arrived Friday with my XTerra wetsuit (like I’ll need that in the 86 degree lake water). I also got some swimming videos (courtesy of the US mailman) and to top it all off I got my loaner Dexcom CGM for a week!! I’ve had fun playing with it since then – seeing what happens when I eat certain things – for example: cereal and pizza. Don’t think I’ll do Chinese or Mexican at this point. It’s a plus to able to see what’s going on – even if there is a bit of a time lag – and even if it didn’t work when I did my 5k race Sunday (the rep says it can have a hard time registering rapid changes in BG – I’m thinking it was the blazing speed I had Sunday morning…or maybe the blazing sun – who knows).

Had a short (one-hour) ride at Stone Mountain Saturday and support team members Jolanta, Nicole and Martin made use of the playground area. I also took Victor and his friend Jake to Camp Kudzu to help unload the truck carrying the camp supplies. Fortunately the rain we ran into on the way up didn’t last too long so the only one that got soaked was me in humid air in the back of the 53’ trailer. Sunday was a 5k race which Andrew included as part of this week’s training regime. Did a 10 minute warm up lap (and the heat and humidity made it very warm) then had a good run from Centennial Olympic Park up toward Ga. Tech and back. There were about four hundred runners and I ended up placing in the top 80 (ego boost after the other races I’ve been doing recently – maybe it was the warm up?). Went to the pool with Martin and Nicole in the afternoon – he enjoys splashing the water with his hands (something he tries to practice with the dog’s water dish at home when he can – which isn’t frequently, even though he tries). Maybe that would help my swimming?

Looking forward to the coming week which should be one of rest/recovery (no double digit miles except for the bike ride Saturday) as well as using the CGM.