The Struggle is Real

two continual challenges

This week’s running has largely been good, and it feels especially good to be home and running on familiar tracks and paths, but it has brought up two problems, one I’ve dealt with for years and one that’s new, thanks to the diabetes diagnosis.

First, the longstanding problem. I did some speed work this week, and the times were about what I had hoped (just under 3:20 for 4 x 800s), given the heat and humidity. My coach commented that I can run my track work (200s, 400s, and 800s) faster than my race times would make people expect. That’s always been the case. However, I’m not fast enough on the track to actually run those distances in a competitive way (for my age group, of course).

Thus, there seems to be this disconnect between my ability to run speed workouts quickly and how that translates into the longer race distances, even as short as a 5K. I’m not fast enough to do track workouts, but I’m also not as fast as it feels like I should be once the distances get longer. I’m not really complaining here, as I tend to do fairly well in my age group in the longer races, but it’s frustrating that the work I’m able to do in the shorter track workouts don’t translate into faster times during longer runs/races. If anybody has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

The second problem came on Wednesday, which is when I do a short, easy run, along with some upper body strength training. Typically, I run first, then do the lifting. However, given the heat and humidity, I didn’t want to get soaking wet, then go in and lift, so I reversed the order. I’ve only done that one other time, and I hit the same problem both times.

For some reason, when I lift first, then do the easy run, my blood sugar crashes out, and I end up having to take a gel before I can even get through thirty minutes of easy running. Oddly enough, when I lift, then walk on the treadmill or do the bike, I don’t have this problem. I knew it was going to be a problem, as my numbers didn’t increase during the lifting part as much as they do on other days. I have no explanation as to why they didn’t, as it’s not like my body knows what’s coming after that lifting session.

Of course, the easy solution is simply to run first, but that gets more complicated on days where it’s raining or I’m going to get super sweaty because of the weather. I’ll probably try a smaller insulin dose before the lifting to try to let my numbers get higher and see if that helps.

If you’re curious, my other days went well, though Thursday was simply a hard, challenging run. I did 3 x 5 minute repeats at 5K pace, and it took everything I had just to get to a 7:12 or 7:13 pace. I’d really like to run the 5K next Saturday faster than that, but this workout doesn’t give me hope that I can do so. Part of that will depend on the weather, but part of it is just that I’m probably not quite in good enough shape to hope for anything better than a 7:15.

Today’s run was simply six easy miles, though it was raining throughout. Despite all of the rain we’ve had this summer, I haven’t run in the rain in a long time. It doesn’t bother me, of course, and it keeps it a bit cooler, but it’s never fun to come back into the house just soaked, whether because of rain or heat and humidity. Still, not a bad week of running, and we’ll see how the race next weekend goes.