First with your head, and then with your heart.

My Latest Film

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Watch UCSD Triathlon: Season 2008 in Sports Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Dr. Colberg's new book

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:57:00 +0000

Dr. Colberg-Ochs, author of The Diabetic Athlete, has written a new book. Just got my ordered copy.

Check out pages 160, 161, 180 & 210. Ok, ok the rest of the book is probably good too...More feedback as I read it.

SOMA Quarterman Arizona

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:02:00 +0000

I'm writing to explain why I have a random finishing time of over 4 hours and and that I am on the results as 20th/20 despite having the 4th fastest swim in my age group and decent run this weekend. So yes, basically to put a band-aid on my ego.

Months ago Justin suggested we do this race and I needed motivation to train. I also saw it as a good reason for a road trip and Tempe is even the hometown of The Format, my favorite band, which had to count for something, so I registered.
My friend Tania came with me for fun, support, to be shotgun DJ, and comic relief...We left after my class on Friday and were able to take Richard to Blythe on the way and have dinner with his family before continuing to Peoria to meet up with Justin and Stefan. We stayed the night there at Justin's parent's house.
Saturday morning Justin and I rode for 40 minutes and ran for 20, to make sure bikes were shifting and we hadn't forgotten any equipment.
After lunch the Arnold's wine shop, we drove to Tempe to check in and put our bikes in to transition.
My parents flew in that afternoon (!!) and Tania and I were able to pick them up from the airport which was only 5 miles from the hotel, which was only 1.25 miles from Transition itself.

The swim was quite a mess. I was literally swimming over the wave ahead of us from about 300 yds in, but the course was probably the easiest course I've ever swum sighting-wise.
The bike felt pretty good for how little anaerobic training I've been doing. At about 48 minutes I was worried, but I soon had a lot more to think about...the 1/4Man course had too loops that were slightly different. The course monitor was directing people at the split:
"Quarterman left, Half right," he said as I rode up. I went left and did a U-turn heading back along the same bridge I'd come out on. I was worried because there were very few cyclists on the bridge, but I was merging with people and I looked back and saw a guy that could have been in my wave turn aswell. I was worried and distracted for a few hundred meters, but then was being passed by men with "Qs" for Quarterman on their calves and thought I was OK. Not so much.
I finished the loop again, the same loop.
"Quarterman first loop right, quarterman second loop left," they told the woman up ahead of me who was in my wave.
"I'm on my second, but I went left the first time!" She yelled.
"So did I!" I said.
"There were a bunch of guys that turned with me too," she said.
At that point we both knew we'd screwed it up. We fumed for a little while together, it seemed almost alright to be talking in the race, as we technically had a few miles of time to blow, that I would have given a lot to have back.
"It's just a race," she told me, "Let's just finish it from here."

We rode into T2 together. I was embarrassed because I knew I shouldn't be there yet. It was hard to focus on the run when felt like the cheater I was. But now, I wish I had stayed focused on the run better and just run harder.

When my Dad went to go turn me in to an official after the race, there was already another man there saying he had done exactly what I had and that there were a lot of people around him that made the same mistake. My Dad gave the official my name and number.

Still, on the results I was listed 5th overall and 1st in my age group, but I told the announcers again that my name shouldn't be called.

Justin was 2nd in his age group and won a bottle of wine!!

Where the 4:35-something finishing time came from I'm not sure...I finished in the 2:30s, and would much rather have a DQ next to my name than some arbitrary time...

Blood Sugars of the race below; more analysis to come.
Pre Pre-Race Dinner: 128
Pre Bed:190
Fasting:230
5 Units (1 piece Toast w/PB, 1/4 granola bar, 1/2 Banana, 12g Espresso drink)
Pre Warm Up:280
1 unit
Pre Start:297
T1:251
0.4 units
Drank 20g Accelerade, 20g gel at about mile 20
T2:265
0.4 units
Post Race (about 45 min after finishing):59
Thank you Dad, Mum, Tania, Justin, and Stefan!

The drive back was long, but we got to stop at the Armenta's again for a great dinner, and Richard treated me by driving the rest of the way home.

Triabetes 2008-Ironman Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:21:00 +0000

Ok, it has been a while. Before starting classes in the San Diego community college system, I calculated that I had been away from my San Diego home for 8 of the previous 10 weekends, it was so awesome.

One major event shouldn't go another day without being recognized.

I was in Canada with my family when I got a text:
"Blair. Want to go to Wisconsin in September. On us?"
It was Peter Nerothin. I was being invited by Insulindependence to go to Madison Wisconsin for the Triabetes team's Ironman race. 12 Type 1s, Triathlon. Heck Yes.

I am rarely around people with diabetes, and actually rarely talk about the daily routine of it, and usually like it that way, but the weekend was good for me to sort of "speak the diabetes language" with other people, and see how much sameness there is in what we all do. There are more people than I thought in-the-know as Anne says.

I met some incredible people, the IronkIDs and their families, and of course athletes themselves. It was so clear that they were not racing so much, if at all, for themselves, but were racing, as said so well by John Moore, to use what they were doing to help make the lives of people with diabetes better. They appeared an incredibly cohesive, driven group of people with the vision of "changing the way people approach diabetes." They are the subjects of a documentary coming out soon, that will be able to reach those who were not as lucky as I was to be there to see them in action, and of course will include the science behind the project. By STARTING - because who are we kidding, like Steve Chop said, the story is in getting to the race- by starting, that race they will have succeeded in changing the way many think about diabetes.

I am not as eloquent as Peter and therefore, have not been capable of expressing in words what I did, heard and witnessed that weekend. Not to mention describe the scope of the whole project. I don't think we know yet how far it will reach. I am constantly hearing and reading more examples of people being touched and motivated by what Triabetes did that day and continues to do.

Please check out the blogs of the athletes who are capable of expressing what it meant to them. (And a few of my photos as well!)
www.Triabetes.org

The rest of my photos from the event are on my website at the events page: www.BlairRyan.com

VHS's Mammoth Cross Country Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:09:00 +0000

I just got back from spending a week in the land of Deena and Meb. I was finally able to head up to Mammoth with my high school team for their annual summer cross country camp. My sister is on the team and it was great to spend the week with her and get some much needed run mileage in at 8000 feet.
I'd run in Mammoth 6 summers in a row, from 2000-2006, 4 with Ventura High and 2 with UCSD. The camp in 2000 was prior to my diagnosis and too long ago for me to remember how it felt. However since then, I've always had a rough time running up there. My sugars always tended to be higher, which is the opposite effect of what altitude is thought to have on BGs. Stiffness due to insulin resistance had been the trend.

It was interesting to see differences this year. This year almost every run felt great. We did the same runs as I had those first four years, got about the same amount of sleep and food etc, and we soaked in the lakes and streams the same way, but this time I wasn't stressed. I wasn't worrying about my spot on the team, what my time was going to be up "Life" hill or "Hershey's," or time trialing. I just had to run. It is amazing what stress does to my performance because of the havoc is reeks on my insulin sensitivity (like I talked about in a post from last summer.) But competing requires worrying about placing, pace, and time, so I'm going to have to figure out how to control stress so it doesn't affect me so much physically.Thanks to Julie, the other chaperone on the trip, I had coffee ready for me every morning when I got up. It really has been making all the difference on my runs. I have mixed feelings about dependence on caffeine and don't like that I'm getting to that point. (Sometimes I'll finish a run and try to figure out why I felt so crappy, and realize as an afterthought that I hadn't had coffee that morning.) It also helped that many of my additional training runs have been with my friend and training partner Richard. On those days I attempt to slow him down as little as possible.
Below are most of my bloodsugars of the week. As the week went on I had increasing resistance in the afternoons. I remember this being the case during my camps with UCSD. I should have remembered, predicted and adjusted more aggressively. Interestingly my correction ratio seemed to stay the same (with the exception of the last night, when I think the cite was getting old.) As you will see I made many mistakes and some clearly affected my later runs. I also started menstruating the day after we got back, which is usually preceded by 2-3 days of higher fastings, and I should have tested more than I did in some cases.

Pre Mammoth BGs (PM of day I drove to Ventura):
8/02:
12:52pm 274
6:20pm 120
7:40pm 143
11:50pm 57

Mammoth BGs:
8/03:
7:15am 80
10:38am 154
1:31pm 180
Ate 30grams- Ran 4 miles
3:39pm 144
6:53pm 100
9:39pm 117

8/04 (my Birthday!):
6:45 77-took 0.4 ate a banana with Peanut Butter
7:53am Pre Run 149
8:06am Post Warm up 123 ate 30grams
Run was 7 miles, mostly flat on sandy footing
9:46am Post Run 143
2:41pm 406
4:01 116
6:28pm 361
9:38pm 451 took 4 units correction
This began the increasing resistance in the afternoon. Maybe it is due to the physical stress of harder running, but it seems to be even more than that.
I saw a bear and swam around in the very chilly Crystal Lake in the shadow of Crystal Craig on my birthday, can't get much better than that.

8/05:
12:26am 91
4:43am 54
5:44am 184
6:08am 138 Pre Run
Run was 1 mile warm up, 48 min negative split on single track trail with rolling hills, a few strides and 8 min cool down.
7:51am 87 Post run
11:05am 66
12:34am 226
4:01pm 336
6:03pm 53
8:52pm 215 took 1.0 unit correction

8/06:
6:18am 59 ate 1.5 pieces of toast with PB
8:03am 160 Pre Run
Run up "Life" hill, up Old Sawmill Rd. from Shady Rest park; 3 miles up 4 miles down. Plus 6 strides and 1.5 mile cooldown.
9:01am 149 Post Run
2:26pm 188
6:03pm 201
8:12pm 394
9:28pm 316

8/07:
6:06am 202
Ran 2.2 mile warm up with the girls, then 0.5 to where I took photos and 2.2 mile cooldown with them.
8:01am126
12:33pm 321
4:39pm 220
5:12pm 55
7:17pm 164
9:21pm 412 - This was the result of a mistake of mine. We went out for ice cream and I went to bolus in the car but I couldn't see the screen because I hadn't set the indiglo light to come on my new pump and so I meant to bolus as soon as I got out of the van at the condo, but I forgot, and I paid for it during the night and next morning's run.

8/08:
5:33am 333 BLAH
6:11 am 294 - I realized this was the 4th morning of my infusion cite. The correction from the night before probably wasn't absorbed correctly.
We ran the 6 mile Ridge Run with a 2.5 mile hill that continues downhill on the Mammoth Rock trail. I felt pretty horrible, clearly from the night of high blood sugars-glycogen depletion.
9:33am 211
2:03pm 162
7:57pm 119
11:20pm 64

Photos curtesy of Shatzi Sovich

Oh Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:29:00 +0000

I am so lucky that I was able to join my family for our annual trip to Canada. I haven't missed a year since I was born, and as always it is great to be back. We are now at my grandparents house in Barrie, Ontario after spending a week on Lake Boshkung with my Mum's side of the family. Like last year, I am feeling some lows that come with the low stress of vacation. I've had to reduce my basal rate 0.1 unit's for most of the day.
My sister Alison is training for her 3rd high school cross country season and has gotten me out of bed most mornings to run. It is so nice to have such a dedicated training partner up here to suffer with in the humidity.
I got some nice wakeboarding "cross training" in last week as well.
Cousin Erin and I before a swim

Watching the SDIT

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:20:00 +0000

I went down to the bay to watch the San Diego International. By the time I decided I wanted to race again after Nationals registration for the race was full. Sergio and I went down and watching the race was exactly what I needed. It made me want to race again. Sergio suggested the Pendleton Sprint in August, and I may join Justin Arnold at the October SOMA Quarterman in Arizona.

Sports Clubs Banquet

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:16:00 +0000

Today was my last day of classes of my undergrad career...it's a weird feeling.

It was also the UCSD Sports Clubs Banquet, where my team and I were recognized again for our team win at Nationals.
We were presented with a banner that will be hung in the RIMAC Arena on campus.
With my coach Sergio Borges

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:17:00 +0000

The MRI of my foot didn't show a stress fracture in the 5th metatarsal. Good news! However, the hospital personnel who reviewed the scan diagnosed one in the second metatarsal. This wasn't what hurt pre and post Nationals and I have very little local pain there, so we think it may be an old injury showing up on the MRI. In high school I had soreness on my metatarsal pad, which was eventually relieved by a lift/pad we put on the bottom of my 3rd, 4th, and 5th metatarsals to take the impact off of the 2nd. Since we first put the pad on I've had recurring soreness as it gets compressed and when I've built it back up it stops bothering me (something I haven't had to do in 1.5 years, probably with the lower run mileage I've done with Triathlon) I was told I could run as soon as my foot didn't hurt. I ran for the first time last Sunday, 12 minutes. Everything seemed okay. I did two other runs on trails and grass, and today some intervals on the track, pain free. Well, my foot has been pain free, my lungs and muscles, not so much.
Now I need to sign up for a race for motivation!

Foot

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:33:00 +0000

Can't the Nationals post remain the top post forever? I hate to follow it with news about my foot...

I will not be racing at Wildflower this weekend. My foot is still hurting and I haven't run since the 10k at Nationals. I have an MRI on my foot on Saturday morning. In 10+ years of running I get this when I have been running less mileage than any point in the last 8 years...?

A big group of my teammates are racing and I know some Insulindependence people are going. Wish I could race with you all, good luck!

We are headlining the Sports Club's website right now!
http://recadmin.ucsd.edu/sports/index.php

Collegiate National Champions!

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Photos By Dean Ryan

It was quite the weekend for me and my teammates in Tuscaloosa. Leaving La Jolla I was uneasy. I was traveling so far for a race after not racing well at all over the past couple of months, and honestly it didn't feel right. I knew the race could go many ways, but I guess that is all part of this game we play as athletes.

The day before the race was pretty chaotic. Friday morning found all of us trying to put our bikes together when they arrived in pieces after being driven across the country by two of my dedicated teammates (we fit 12 bikes and 10 wheels inside of a Toyota Prius!) Once they were together we rode some of the course, finding out that some bikes needed to be worked on and getting a flat in the group. After this, I was dropped off to go the the Captains meeting back at the Transition location. I thought to myself that it was pretty neat to be there sitting on a rock in Alabama representing our team at Collegiate Nationals.

I tried to stand in the river attempting to "soak/ice" my legs after being on them all day, but it wasn't cold enough to do much of anything, so I decided to swim a little instead. I swam for about 15 minutes and was quite refreshed after.

The stressful day, sporadic timing of workouts and inconsistent eating wasn't conducive to good bloodsugar control. I need to be more careful about that in the future, and figure out at what point it is better to not make life more difficult trying to fit every little thing in. My BG finally came down before bed setting me up for the next day well.

Friday:
High most of the day; 230, 237, 254, 210
Pre Bed: 97
Increased basal overnight by 0.05 units between 12-7am.

Race morning:
4:54 AM
Fasting: 220
Breakfast: 75g CHO, (Bagel with PB, 16 oz water, 6 oz. coffee drink,) 4.5 units
Arrival at race site: 298, 1 unit correction
Post 15 minute warm up run: 323, 1.5 units by injection (NOT pump)
T1: 86
Ate 1 gel and 24 oz of Accelerade on bike, no coverage, but basal rate on pump continued
T2: 75
Drank 30g CHO of apple juice in transition
Finish: 172 (after drinking 15 g CHO of gatorade in the chute)

As you will see in the above data adrenaline showed itself on race morning. Although theoretically adrenaline is a friendly thing during a race, it also makes insulin sensitivity plummet. Even after my warm-up run I was still 323 as I went to put my wetsuit on. Although I very rarely take injections I wanted to be absolutly sure that every drop of my last correction bolus before disconnecting from the pump was going to be absorbed. So, I pulled out the needle and vile for the first time in a while and "shot up" 1.5 units inside a human shield created by my parents.

Unlike in cross country and track, were I can keep my pump on until I step on the line, I have to disconnect from the pump when I put my wetsuit on even though this can be 20-30 minutes out from the start of my wave. I was just hoping that the breakfast coverage and the other corrections were enough to overcome the resistance that would come with the adrenaline and intensity of the race.

My swim was ok, not great by any means, but that is just something I need to work on mentally with racing. Physically I felt pretty good. I got into T1 and tested receiving that incredibly annoying "Err 2" sign on the tester screen. I knew it couldn't be the outside temperature this time, and knew that I couldn't get away with not knowing what my BG was and not being able to make the necessary adjustments there at Nationals. I tested again, "Err 2." My hands were still wet and I figured it must be getting a reading of mostly water. I dumped a strip into my hand avoiding getting water on the sampling end of the stick and this time got a reading, 86. So the corrections had worked as I had gone from 323 to 86. I'd spent 3 min in transition...But at least I knew what I was dealing with. Had I not tested I wouldn't have been as careful to eat and drink everything I had with me on the bike, which could have been dangerous coming into T2 any lower than I did.

The bike was a two-loop course. With the two loops and merging of 10 waves there were 15 people every 100 meters. Thus, making focusing on riding well virtually impossible while trying to maintain legal distances from everyone. (I say this now especially since I ended up getting a 2 minute drafting penalty, my first ever.) T2 was a quicker transition, my first test was fine, but I couldn't run 10k starting at 75, so I chugged the 30g CHO apple juice I had laid out in transition and set off on the run, telling myself that I was a distance runner, so I better go run like one.

The run felt pretty good. I was even able to recover from the 3 hills and somehow didn't have the stiffness I frequently accumulate quickly. Having a little more insulin on board, starting with complete breakfast coverage contributed to this. One big unknown before the race was my left foot which had been hurting for the prior 8 days. It only bothered me a little on the downhills and on left turns, I'll give the adrenaline credit for something. I am pretty sure I was not passed by a single woman on the run. I got to run with a guy from the AirForce for a while. As we came up on a pair of women who looked like they were working together he said to me "go get 'em" in an awesome southern accent. He and I picked people off for the next couple miles. At one of the turn around spots 2 miles out from the finish I saw Richard who had started behind my wave. I had told him before the race that he had better catch me as soon as he could, and that I'd be running from him. From across the street he said, "Don't let me catch you!" So I ran from him for the rest of the race, picking off more people on the way. I got a butt slap 800 meters from the finish, he'd caught me. I finished down the long chute, the announcer said my name, and my teammates were at the end to meet me. I found out that my teammate Amanda Felder had won the race, earning her a berth to the World University Games in Turkey in June. My parents were there too. They had timed the race and knew I would be happy with my 2:28:57, sub 2:30 finishing time (prior to the time penalty news...) Being able to race a good race after they came all the way out to watch was the best part for me, hands down.

We met back at the Prius to load it up so that it would be ready to leave early the next morning. Then we spread ourselves around the course to watch the US Olympic Trials, with the most elite in our sport race for a single spot on this summer's Olympic team.

That night at the Collegiate awards ceremony we got to see Amanda go up twice on her own: once for being the Overall National Champion, and again for being the overall Graduate winner. The men's team was 16th overall out of 50 teams. Although I had come to Alabama thinking we could potentially win overall on the women's side, after the race we had no idea. My teammate Darlene had gotten a flat on the bike and Lauren had a particularly rough swim. As the women's team results were announced we heard the gap between 3rd and 4th place was just 2 points, and the gap between 3rd and 2nd was only one. I would be interested to see what our heart rates were when they announced second place. It was not us! We had won! For the first time in UCSD history, our Women's team won the National Championship.

Photo by Daniel Derkacs

With a Men's score of 238 and our Women's team score of 35 we were 7th in the overall combined team competition of 45 teams nationwide!

We discovered that American Airlines will let you take a 5 foot long championship poster as a 3rd personal item.

Thank you so much to all of my teammates, Mum and Dad, Alison and Shane, Poppa, Uncle Craig, Uncle Brett, Grandma and Grandpa. Your pre-race good vibes were felt internationally. Thank you to Peter Nerothin from Insulindependence for the congrats and recognition post race.
photo by Richard Armenta
for more details on the trip please visit: www.ucsdtriathlon.org

UCSB 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:13:00 +0000

This past weekend was all about Triathlon for some of my teammates and I. Richard and I got up in the dark to get up to Oceanside to watch many of our friends and teammates race the Oceanside 70.3 Half Ironman. After the race we left from Chris' house in Oceanside and drove to Ventura where 8 of us stayed at my family's house. Richard and I left Chris to rest is weary legs and went on a short run around the orchards before dinner. We had a BBQ when the second car coming from San Diego arrived. The next morning it was our turn to race.

I feel okay about this race, but partly because the race I'm comparing it to is Cal Poly last weekend.

I had a good swim coming out of the water 6th or so. My bike was mediocre. I was running in my new Zoot shoes, that I bought for a little run inspiration. (I'm not proud of spending that much money on a shoe.) I felt very good about the run split for a short time, until we figured out that the course was very short, and I saw how fast other people had run.

I have very few BG details for this race. But I got into T1 and wasn't able to test, getting "Err 2" AGAIN! Then, to be honest I forgot to put my pump on in T1, making the decision not to go back and get it since it was a sprint distance race. I wouldn't have bolused anyway, but not having the basal rate going on the bike led to my BG of 230 heading into the run. I bolused 1 unit when I put my pump on in T2, however boluses take time to have an effect and the run was only 3 miles. If I had the pump on from T1 on, there may have been more insulin on board for the end of the bike, and run. But I did leave the race encouraged that maybe I was learning to run off the bike again since it didn't feel like I was running at 230, I felt better than I would have expected.

I was 6th overall, and we won the collegiate women's race (Amanda and Darlene going 1,2) and were 2nd as a team with men and women combined.
Photos by Chris Burnham

Let's learn from our history...

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:32:00 +0000

I've had a couple rough weeks of training, especially running.
I had an epiphany and am embarrassed it took me so long to figure this out. I had stopped eating before practice like I used to, because I didn't feel like I needed to hunger-wise, and I could do without the calories. But the thing is if I don't eat something then I don't take any bolus insulin and the only insulin in my system in the morning is the little bit of basal rate that goes through the night. I think I was starting to feel drained because of the accumulation of days running without enough insulin 'on board.' Now I have had two good practices and the road race, after eating something and taking a bolus.
(Tuesday/Sat/Sunday were good, and Thursday was particularly bad because I woke up with a fasting of 250, and although it was down by the time we were doing intervals there were still lasting effects of being high over night.)

Pendleton Bulldog Road Race

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:18:00 +0000

Fasting: 111
Breakfast:75g CHO, 4 units (large piece of sourdough toast, half peanut butter, half honey, coffee with milk and 2 tbs sugar)
then sipped Cytomax on the way up to the race; another 20g CHO (no coverage)

After my race at UCI, Daniel recommended that I drink coffee before races. Tammy does before her cycling races now, so I gave it a try here.

Pre warm up:198
Starting line:194
Finish: 159

I didn't take any correction before warm up, because I thought the 4 units on board might cause a big drop. I prepared for this and had a Juicy Juice box and fruit snacks in my jersey for warm up. But I ditched these along the fence at the start when I was 194 post-warm up.

I was feeling really good. I definitely think the coffee helped.
My goal for the race was to stay with the main pack over the hill that marked about half way. I knew I could tuck in on the downhills, and ride with people on the flats IF I could stay close enough over the climb. I was ready to ride as hard as possible going up, hoping that my quads would cooperate.

The race started a little faster than we thought it would. It wasn't hard to stay with the pack in terms of heart rate, but we had to pay attention and not let people get too far ahead. There was a lot of accelerating out of turns etc. I was having a blast drafting and cruising along and not working hard. Darlene, Lauren, Allison and I could talk if necessary, very different from time trialing.

Then at about mile 8 a woman crashed in front of me.
I had two people on my right, and three on my left (I think Darlene and Lauren were two of them) and I had nowhere to go but over. I attempted to jump her, but her bike had swung around and so I had about 10 ft of obstacle instead of just her body. I went down, pretty hard on my right side.

I got up and picked up my water bottle that had rolled part way across the street. I looked up and the pack was already pretty far away and I had only been down maybe 10 seconds. I was probably 30-40 seconds back when I started riding. *Insert choice exploitive here* Those seconds proved to be an eternity. I didn't know what chance I had to catch the pack with their drafting advantage. I rode the rest of the race like a Time Trial-not at all what I had gone there to do...

A few minutes before I fell we had seen Chris coming back the other way, and had cheered for him. Frank was in the next group and we yelled for him too. Then I fell...and a minute or two after I got back on I saw Richard coming back. There I was, riding by myself, only 8 miles into the race. I had a total ego-moment...after he cheered for me I said "I crashed!" Not wanting him to think I was riding as badly as it looked, I prayed he'd heard.
We all laughed about that afterward.

A big thank you to Chris for being there at the finish.

Darlene was 3rd overall, Allison won her age group, Lauren was 2nd in our age group, I was 3rd, and Amanda Smith was 4th. Chris was 2nd in his age group, missing the top 3 overall by just 2 seconds, Frank 5th AG, Richard 6th AG.

I'm pretty sore today. I rode in drops at practice instead of aero because my forearm is pretty raw (even through armwarmers!) My neck muscles are pretty sore and my intercostal muscles too. But other than that I am alright and my bike seems to be too.

Photos by Jan Burnham

UC Irvine backwards sprint (1st WCCTC race of season)

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:59:00 +0000

This was a rough one. For some explained and some unexplained reasons.
Half of my team was staying with the family of my teammate Lauren about 15 minutes away, and the rest of us were dispersed throughout the apartments of the generous UCI team's grad students. They were hosting the race and were up until the early hours of the morning and out at the race site again before I woke up.
My plan was to get to the race site with plenty of time to do a full warm up, including riding and running. This was going to be a good opportunity since I wasn't going to have to worry about driving or getting other people there.

I woke up low and clammy at 2:00am; I was 42. I ate about 45gs worth of juicy juice and cliff bar, and went back to sleep. I woke up to my alarm at 5:20 in the 200's. (Too much correction.)

I ate the rest of my Cliff Bar for breakfast and drank some water. I covered it with only 25%. I literally walked out the door and rode to transition in 3 minutes. When I got back from riding a loop of the bike course I was 280ish, and I fought this unit by unit until the start. (I didn't record BG's soon enough post race, so I don't have the exact readings.)

I had a really good warm up as planned; I rode one loop of the bike course and ran about 30 minutes and did strides.

My run was horrible.
In T1 I was 250, so I took 0.5 units before getting on the bike.

I was already not feeling great and wouldn't have been happy about my ride regardless, but I had some mechanical issues on the bike. There were about 12 180 degree turns on the bike course and the sharpest was at the base of a pretty steep hill. I was having fun with these turns, calling out 'on your left' as I rode hard in and out of them. But my first time through the one at the base of the hill I shifted up and my chain did its thing where it sits between the two chain rings and spins with no resistance. I had to stop to get it down. I quickly discovered my rear derailer cable had snapped in the process of my frantic shifting to set the chain right. So I stood up all the hills for the next 2/3 of the race. I've been feeling that over the last few days!

For the first time I took my feet out of my shoes on the bike, it was really nice to run to transition without my shoes.
The swim was only 250, a snake pattern through their 25 meter pool. I passed a few guys, but unfortunately there were no girls close enough to catch.

I was 10th.
I need to learn how to run again.

Special thanks to Mum,Dad, Alison,Katie,Jon,Tania,Magali and Tammy for coming to watch and cheer. Some of you got a good show at the base of the hill :P

Photos by Dean Ryan

Winter Cycling Camp at Borrego

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:50:00 +0000

On Friday I drove in a two car caravan to join the rest of the group out in the desert in Borrego Springs for Sergio's winter cycling camp. The group had ridden Palomar Mtn. that day, but I wasn't able to go up because of a midterm exam I had that morning.
I was driving my friend's truck, which we fit six bikes and three people in, and of course managed to take a wrong turn. We spent too many miles looking for a street that was not going to be there. We arrived late, which mean't eating late...Mexican food, always hard to guess:

Pre dinner: 71
post dinner:241
Post correction:240

I always have higher blood sugars when I'm away for the weekend, regardless of whether it is a race or not. I do increase my basal rate, but am usually too conservative, fearful of going very low in a strange place. It is also hard to set an alarm for 3am to wake up and test when you have three other people in the room.

Saturday AM:
Fasting: 230
Post Breakfast/Pre Ride:393
1.5 unit correction
At the top of Montezuma: 138, ate 2/3 of Clif Bar and drank more accelerade
mid ride: 130
post ride pre T Run: 130
Pre dinner: 136
post dinner: 151
did eat some trail mix at 10:30 and covered it

The beginning of Montezuma has a lot of climbing, about 3500 fit in 11 miles with grades of 6-8%. I had had a lot of trouble last year with a different ride at the camp. I tend to go anaerobic very quickly without a very good warm up. This has been the case since I ran youth track and has been most apparent the last 6 years. Knowing this and trying to learn from last year...I tried to get out a little earlier than the group and rode for about 15-20 minutes around the hotel complex. There were only about 5 flat miles after that before we started climbing; I would have liked 25...
I definitely would have wanted to start the ride at 150 NOT 393...however my attempt to make the best of the poor situation worked ok. The 1.5 unit correction was enough on top of the breakfast coverage to bring it down, but not too far. The rest of the ride proved easy to control. I covered the bars I ate with 0.3-0.8 units (25% of coverage not during or near exercise) and sipped Accelerade and it was all enough. I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't too anaerobic climbing Montezuma.

Sunday AM:
Fasting: 222
Post breakfast/ pre TT: 254
Post TT: 110

Again too high a fasting; I wish I hadn't eaten the trail mix before bed. Then I would have been able to isolate whether it was purely a need to increase basal over night...but as far as I know it was a combination of both eating late (even though I covered it 100% of normal coverage) and the stress of being at camp.
The time trial went pretty poorly. It was a 40k. The first half is slightly uphill almost the whole way, and it is an out and back. I definitely didn't warm up until at least the half way mark. I rode a couple minutes faster than camp last year, but don't think/hope it wasn't an accurate measure of my cycling fitness. I needed to make myself get out the door earlier and do a better warm up. It is just hard when the continental breakfast at the hotel restaurant is part of the social aspect of the camp!

The corrections of the high fastings and breakfast coverage were enough, so if I can just get it down from the beginning it may make all the difference.

Photos by Tyler Carle

Fiesta Island Race Simulation Workout

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:52:00 +0000

My favorite weather!

Pouring rain
Transitioning in 3 inches of mud
What could be better?!

7:00am:
8 mile bike (2 big loops)
2.5 miles run (1 small loop)
4 mile bike (1 big loop)
1 mile run
4 mile bike (1 big loop)
1 mile run

so fun, felt good, tested after the first 2 loops on bike, 79, had to drink JJ, drank 10 oz. of Accelerade throughout the rest of the workout

breakfast at Daniel's after...yum

12:00pm: taught swimming lesson, swam 20 min after, probably 1500 yds total

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:39:00 +0000

Tri vs Cycling Time Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 07:14:00 +0000

Today was a big day for the future of cycling at UCSD. The prospect of a Triathlon/Cycling team showdown had been discussed but never come to fruition…until today.

There had been some trash talk in the form of Facebook 'Wall' postings and jabs in the bike shop, but there was a good-natured vibe in the morning when we met at the shop to do a group ride down to Mission Bay. We did a lap, or two, ok three...around Fiesta trying to find a safe place to set up a start/finish line. After some illegal maneuvers on the one-way road, everyone safely grouped up. We sent people off on a 30 second interval, and everyone did 3 big loops of the island making for a 20K course, finishing on a slight uphill right by the start. We scored 7 deep.

Results are below:

1. Zack Simkover...... 27:24 Bike (alumni)
2. Alex Jarman......... 28:31 Bike
3. Colter Cederlof...... 29:29 Bike
4. Chris Burnham...... 29:51 TRI (alumni)
5. Frank Uyeda......... 30:09 TRI
6. Trevor Haag.......... 30:56 Bike
7. Justin Arnold......... 31:14 TRI
8. Jeff Kidder............ 31:22 Bike
9. John Burke............ 31:23 TRI
10. Marc Schommer.... 32:10 TRI
11. Ben Migliori.......... 32:42 TRI
12. Adam Strobl......... 32:52 TRI
13. Tim Machado........ 33:47 TRI
14. Josh Egbert.......... 34:04 Bike
15. Sante Kotturi........ 34:21 TRI
16. Blair Ryan............ 35:11 TRI
17. Tammy Wildgoose...35:19 Bike
18. Ben Reiter.............35:33 Bike
19. Ty Kubart............. 36:25 TRI
20. Bethany Sotak...... 37:20 TRI
21. Phil Bush............. 38:08 Bike
22. Garlen Yu............ 39:00 TRI
23. Allen Chan........... 42:35 TRI
24. Amanda Smith..... 43:43 TRI
TEAM SCORES:
Bike: (1,2,3,6,8,14,17)=51
Tri: (4,5,7,9,10,11,12)=58

Hard to beat a 1,2,3 sweep...

However, had we taken alumni out of the scoring, we would have won 53:56, and if we had scored 10 deep we would have won aswell.

Thanks to Robert Carr of the cycling team for making this race happen. Maybe it can be an annual thing now, and hopefully our teams will get together more in the future.

Photos coming soon.

Bloodsugars:
Fasting:164
Breakfast carbs:60gs
Breakfast coverage:1.0 unit
post warm up:256
ate 20gs and took: 2.0 units
pre Time Trial:289
bolus:0.5 on start line
Post time trial (35:11 minutes):152
Ate a banana: no bolus
Post ride home:91

I should have covered breakfast with more, but I didn't anticipate standing around at the bike shop after only 15 minutes of riding. That must have hindered the 1.0 working on the breakfast. By the time we were riding it had already gone up too much. The combination of correction and food between warm up and when I raced (I stood around for 35 minutes timing everyone else before I went) worked as well as I could have hoped.

Subaru All Women's Tri-San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:36:00 +0000

I was not able to race the LA Intl. Triathlon in September because of blisters from backpacking in Yosemite...so my UCSD teammate Amanda recommended this race she was doing, saying it could be a good last race of the season. Two weeks out I decided to race here in San Diego.

The race started at 7:00 meaning it was a very early morning. My roommate Tania got up with me and we picked Richard up on our way to Mission Bay in the dark. Richard let us out near transition and parked the car. It was still pitch black. I realized I had not pumped up my tires that morning, but I was able to borrow a pump from a very nice man in the parking lot. Phew.

I got in a good warm up, probably one of the best I've done. Since the roads were already blocked off there was a nice stretch to do laps on.

My frequent Tuesday/Thursday training partner Marisa and friend and neighbor Neily were also racing, and I found Amanda on the boat ramp after warming up for the swim. I was not excited to swim in Mission Bay, and don't ever want to know the official results of water quality tests done on it...It smelled like tadpole pond water and I could still smell it on me while I was on the bike.

My family came down for the race and I saw them as I was walking to the water. It was great to have them there, and to get to spend the evening before with them celebrating my brother's birthday. After the gun went off I had been swimming for about 3 minutes and when I breathed to the right I saw a familiar large yellow sweatshirt across the bay and it was my friends Katie and Jon who had come out to cheer me on. (I was really focused, I know....) Later on Ellen was cheering for me on the ride and run. Thanks guys!

My swim was decent and my bike felt good. I came into the race thinking I wanted to ride hard, because I don't usually ride hard enough. I was able to catch some girls and I could feel that my good warm up had helped. (Many times I haven't felt warmed up until half way through the bike.) My run was horribly slow. Probably from not enough 5k training and from sugars that were too high. The section in the dirt was hard on those stabilizing muscles.

I did manage to win my age group and was 12th overall out of 385 women.

BGs:
Arive at race location: 124
drank 15 grams of juicy juice
Pre warm up: 190
Post Warm up: 165
I drank about 10gs of Juicy Juice to be safe
T1: tried to test, got an 'error' because I was so wet, and didn't test again
T2: drank 15 grams of Juicy Juice
Post Run: 320
Shouldn't have drunk the Juice in T2
An extra test would have prevented that high as I could have taken a bolus. In a race that short it is hard to make yourself test in transition when there are people so close to you. But I should have tested, it could have made my run better.

Special thanks to Mum, Dad, Alison, Shane, Richard, Tania, Ellen, Katie and Jon for being everywhere on the course, all the pictures and cheering!

Photos by Dean Ryan and Richard Armenta

TCSD September Aquathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:48:00 +0000

Before going to the race my BG was around 200 but I was hungry so I ate something and covered it (or you could think of it as correcting and undercovering) but that was at about 4:15pm. So there was still quite a bit of insulin on board when I arrived at the beach for the race at 5:30.

Pre warm up: 220
After my 8 min run (trying not to get too sweaty before putting my wetsuit on) I was 120
I drank a juicy juice and ate 1/2 of a Clif Bar and didn't take insulin. I detached my pump to put my wesuit on and didn't reattach it until after the race. I swam for about 10 minutes and headed to the starting line.
Post race I was: 109

Due to lack of training and going to track practice that morning I wasn't expecting much from the race. I felt decent in the water and the run was bad, but could have been worse. Official results are not posted yet.

Photos by Daniel Derkacs

Playa Del Run Race

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:11:00 +0000

So I made a spontaneous decision (yes I know, Blair spontaneous? yes, I am feeling okay) last night at 11:30pm and decided to do the Aquathlon up in Solana Beach this morning. I hadn't raced since San Jose in June because of conflicts with work and Saturday races. Thanks to Tammy's good advice, and special goggle delivery at 11:40pm (since mine are at the pool) I got out there and raced.

-Fasting: 80
-Breakfast: 1 and 1/2 pieces of toast with PB, a banana, and 8oz gatorade
Only covered with 1 unit
-Post 10 minute warm up run: 120 (drank a Juicy Juice (15gs), took 0.3 units, detached from pump, put wetsuit on)
-Didn't test in T1, but drank 1/2 of a Juicy Juice (7gs), left pump off
-Post race: 168

1000m swim: 15:59
T1 + 5k Splits=25:06 (blah)
Total: 41:04

(age group win)

Special thanks to Tammy for riding up to cheer for me.

NPH to the Rescue

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 06:37:00 +0000

This summer I am teaching swimming lessons and two weeks ago I started what is going to be a month of teaching 9am-12pm and then 2:30pm-6:30pm. During the lessons I am in the pool and therefore detached from my pump. It took me a couple of days of horrible fastings to figure out what was happening.
I was testing between each lesson and my sugars were fine throughout the morning (85, 120, 107 etc) so I wouldn't take any insulin because the BG was staying down from moving around in the water. Pre lunch would be 150 or so and I'd eat lunch and cover normally. Then I would test after lunch and it would be high so I'd correct before the next set of lessons. The correction always worked and I'd test between the next set of lessons sometimes giving a bolus to keep it down. Then post dinner would be bad and I'd be high throughout the night and my fasting as well (the pre bedtime corrections seemingly not working.)
This happened multiple days in a row. So I tried taking some insulin between classes (even though my sugar seemed perfect) because I knew I was needing insulin on board. (This didn't fix the high nights and fastings.) My workouts for the week went horribly. I was finishing workouts that were supposed to be fast and intense at 8:00min pace or slower with a heart rate of 186 or 192! Definitely glycogen starved.
I was hestiant to take NPH because I didn't want to risk being low at work or low if I decided to work out in the evening after work because of any lingering NPH. But I needed some legitimate basal rate going.
So this past Monday I took just over 50% of my daily basal from 9-6:30pm as NPH and it worked so well. I left my pump off during work except for boluses. Just having that basal insulin there made all the difference.
I was frusterated after Tuesday's turbo workout was still no better despite a fasting of 124 (still not low enough, but not 330...) but after another two days of good fastings Thursdays track seemed to be a big improvement, and so hopefully I am 'back in the game.'

Mt. Laguna Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:52:00 +0000

Route: Laguna Mountain Loop
Distance 49.6 miles
Location: East County Difficulty (1-10): 7 - Intermediate to Advanced
Terrain: Long hard climb followed by long descent.
Climbing Elevation: 5,385 ft
Up to the Mt. Laguna Summit, a 2500' climb over 10 miles. From the summit onward thru Lake Cuyamaca it is a long descent back down to the starting point.

7:45 am-110 Fasting
8:00-8:30am- ate bagel and PB and banana took 4.0 units, left regular morning basal on
9:22am- 128 pre ride, drank juicy juice, and ate a 15 gram bar
11:16am- 88 at top of big climb 1:43 into ride, at ½ a gel, and a 15g popsicle (didn’t cover either)
1:05pm- 98 at next stop
2:00pm- another stop, I ate 2/3 of a cliff bar (again didn’t cover it)
3:18pm-123 post ride
I didn’t take any bolus’ until covering my post ride meal, the whole ride I was sipping Accelerade and left my regular daily basal rate on.

These sugars were surprisingly good considering the length and difficulty of the ride. I had a particularly rough time on the main climb. My BG at the top was only 88, would have liked it at 140, but the main thing I attribute my difficulties to was that we only rode 6 miles (which wasn’t all flat either) before starting to climb. My heart rate was 165+ from virtually the moment I got on the bike, and was up to 185 for a lot of the climb and I was riding slowly! I have seen time and time again that I need much more warm up for anything high intensity. I need a warm up that gets my heart rate up uncomfortably high, but then lets it come down before the hard portion. If I had been riding for 45 decently hard, but not consistently hard, minutes before climbing I bet it would have gone much better. I made it up the hill thanks to my friend Tammy, who was in the pack I was dropped from, but came back to get me. Don’t know what I would have done without her today…actually, everyday.

Effects of Stress

noreply@blogger.com (Blair) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:35:00 +0000

I just got home from a two week vacation in Canada and it was such a relaxing trip...and I didn't just feel relaxed, my bloodsugars were proof.
Like I had found the day before the San Jose Triathlon and always do during finals week of school, stress makes my insulin needs go up 50% in terms of basal rate and boluses.
On the trip I had to decrease my night time basal rate by 0.15 units and covered meals less. After I woke up so low one morning I was disoriented (only second time in my life) I decreased my nightime basal by 0.05 and still woke up at 43, so decreased it again, waking up at 56, and again, waking up at 85 finally. The last morning however, I woke up at 220. The only thing I can atribute that to was the stress of travelling home to San Diego, even though I wasn't worried about the trip, or at least didn't think I was!
After San Jose I e-mailed professional Brazilian triathlete Vinicius Santana (who is also a type one diabetic, and uses HPH and Humolog injections) asking him whether he has increased insulin needs the day before a race. He says that he takes 3x his usual daily insulin total the day before a race and those needs stay high for up to a week after ironman distance triathlons because of the stress his body is under.
(My cousin and my sister with me during a swim.)