Had a great time today meeting new faces, visiting friends, and speaking at the North Carolina JDRF Family Retreat.  Myself and my two sons traveled down early in the morning to the event which was held at the Grandover Hotel in Greensboro, NC.

The attendance to the event this year was SPECTACULAR, and, as usual, the JDRF chapters and volunteers did a great job with the logistics.

My first two session where "Real Life Situations" discussions with 9-12 year olds who either had diabetes themselves, or who where the siblings of children with diabetes.  In both sessions we broke into smaller groups and went through a series of prepared scenarios and questions.  Everything from bullying to forgetting supplies.

Near the end we re-assembled and compared notes.

My initial impressions where how incredibly smart and "plugged" in ALL of these young people are.  Of particular note where the siblings - very much in tune with their family member's situation.  I walked out of the second session both impressed with all of their abilities and knowledge, and quite sad at the reminder that such young people need to deal with such a topic.

I am SURE I was not even 1% as diabetes aware as these kids when I was diagnosed at their age.

After a great lunch talking to a bunch of families affected by diabetes, I was in a session with Joe Largay from the UNC Diabetes Care Center.  The session was about diabetes and sports, and, as Joe is my diabetes care provider, thought I could contribute to this presentation.

I hope he doesn't mind, but I wanted to share two slides from the presentation.  The first one shows a study that was done that had participants finish their exercise session with a 10 second full on sprint.  I was AMAZED by the post 2hr mark difference in BGs:

As we know their can be TONS of other factors involved here... but still... I am found this very interesting.

The second slide shows the active times of insulin.  I, for one, SWEAR that insulin is no longer active in my system after 2 hours.  Swear on it.

Obviously I am wrong:

The blue line is Regular insulin, the red the Humalog, Novolog type products that we almost all use.  At the 4 hour mark there is about 30% active insulin left.

I am not sure how this related to "non synthetic" insulin, but it is making me think long and hard about some of the pre-exercise temp basal start times I use.

The biggest thing I walked away from following this event, was how truly the experiences and stories are among ALL the attendees.

We ALL have high BGs.

We ALL have low BGs.

We ALL fight with certain foods (pizza, cereal, pasta, potatoes).

We ALL fear hypoglycemia.

We ALL struggle at times.

We ALL hate diabetes.

And, most importantly and assuredly, we are ALL in this together.

Thank you JDRF for hosting me, and keep choppin'!!!!

The month of January could not possibly go any quicker... or any slower.

Winter has been ok here in the NC (NOT Catawba county mind you, I live in Durham...) but it has been raining a fair amount lately.  Which is only a problem when it rains on the ONLY days that you have available for getting longer rides in.

As it has.

That is one of the most frustrating things I have to deal with right now.  Time management and time in the saddle.  I have been trying different methods and opportunities to ride, but I just haven't found the groove yet.  As the days get longer, and the weather looks drier, that outcome will improve.

I've got a long way to go right now.

Commuting on the Ion has been GREAT!!  It's nice to leave the car behind a couple of days per week, and enjoy the ride to and from the office.  Opens up another 90 minutes a day of riding, and makes getting up and going to the gig slightly more enjoyable.  :)

We have the NC State JDRF retreat coming up this weekend.  I am scheduled to be speaking/hosting 3 sessions, and I am REALLY looking forward to it!!

I wonder what time I need to leave to ride my bike to Charlotte...  :)

Keep Choppin' y'all!!

"I will prepare and some day my chance will come".

- Abraham Lincoln


Write this one down. 


Fact.  

Its taken me a bit of time to get my first blog post of 2012 off the ground, but that is NOT because things are moving and happening almost as fast as the day changes.  Not a bad thing, necessarily, but the clock hands are zinging around at full sprint speed....

We have added a collection of staff members to the Type1Rider family.  Thomas Moore has taken the helm as Chief Communication Officer, and is primarily responsible for everything and the kitchen sink.  Thomas has a long track record in the DOC, and had successfully worked on a bunch of well known projects.  I admire him a ton, and am so grateful to have him on board.  We also have a few other slots including the COO spot that has been filled, and, as soon as Legal give the thumbs up, I will get those announcements out as well.

I migrated my Facebook Profile to a page, and have also set up a page for The Type1Rider Organization as well.  I still post my BGs to the Tony Cervati page, and communicate extensively through that.  The pages give me a little more flexibility.  Follow the links on the right to take a look, and let me know what you think!

Another big change I am making for 2012 is I becoming a bicycle commuter.  I work about 8 miles or so away from home, and beginning this week, I am going to ride about 3 or 4 days a week.  I won't be able to ride on the days I need to drop or pick up the boys from school, but other than that I am on the bike.  Quick calculations tell me that between gas and parking I should be able to save almost $200 a month.  Along with that it adds 4 hours of pedaling a week.  Every little bit helps.

I won't be riding my mountain bikes to work, so I sold a few of them and picked up a 2012 Trek Ion CX from my family at Trek Raleigh.  It should be here in the next week or so, and I am looking forward to it!  It will also be my road bike, and the one I ride in the trainer at home.

Since we are past solstice I am hoping the weather stay nice, and spring gets here early!  Can't wait to be back on singletrack in shorts....

Training has been spotty (at best) as the holidays run through and the weather is turning all the time. I have been running a bit more then usual, however, and getting very good usage of the UNC Kenan Football Stadium steps and bleachers.  Running with the bike sometimes over the back of the seats to simulate post holing.

Every little bit counts, right?  The clock is ticking....