I wanted to spend some QT in the outdoors yesterday, after work.  I wanted to have more than six minutes of nice outdoor time.  And, I wanted to get a run in too.

Usually when I run I am so busy huffing and puffing that I don’t always look around and enjoy my surroundings.   (This is designed to keep me fall-free and twisted-ankle-free as well.)  I don’t think that is a bad thing, but I got myself thinking with the August Adventure post the other day and I thought about running in nice places that would make me happy and relaxed.

I was hoping to get in 7 or 8 miles, but I also wanted to run them on the slow side and keep my heart rate nice and low while I ran.  It’s a good idea for me to run some nice ones every now and then, just as it is a good idea to run some hard ones too.

Of course, as I was changing out of work clothes and into running clothes I checked and was 138.  Not terrible, but there was some active insulin left too so I ate some food and hoped for the best.

I left from work, and ran over onto Stanford campus.  Usually I run a 4 mile loop, but last night I wanted more.  I thought of running the loop twice, but it isn’t really a pretty loop and that wouldn’t really get me the “nice outdoor time” I was going for. 

So I started and didn’t think too much about the route.  I went where I wanted, when I got there. 

It was so fun! 

I did stop at mile four because that fourth mile felt just as hard as the first three, but was nearly a minute slower.  Problem.  When that happens, I know I need to stop and check.  Not part of my plan, but my workout last night wasn’t about a plan. 

And of course, 63.  Bummer.  I stood right there on the corner and had a gu.  I stood there for 7 minutes and checked again; 103.  Yay!  I guess the sport beans I ate at mile 3.5 had started working, and I knew the gu wasn’t far behind.  But I also used the low as a reminder to keep my effort level in check and just relax as I ran; speed wasn’t the point last night.

The second half of my run was simply lovely.  In fact, I named the run a Lovely Stanford Random Run.  I ran through neighborhoods I’ve not run through and in fact discovered a street ran all the way through that I would never have guessed from the other side.  I ran past some really cute houses with beautiful flowers and ran past some gorgeous estates whose photographs belong in magazines.

And I ended with a blood sugar of 84.  Tired, and energized at the same time.  What more could I ask of the great outdoors?

On Tuesdays, I like to run a medium-long run because I have the time that day to make it work.  For the past year and a half or so, I’ve tried to make Tuesdays my Treadmill Day and head to the community center down the street from my house for some interval and sprint work on the treadmill.

Because I’m gearing up to run the Silicon Valley Marathon in October with Run the Coast, I have been gradually increasing the length of my runs.  On Tuesday, that meant I wanted to get in eight or nine miles.

However.

If I tried to run the type of intervals I enjoy for that long, I would be exhausted and unable to continue at the speed I want.  If I skipped the intervals and just ran on the ‘mill, I would be so bored I’d slow down.

So on Tuesday, I decided I would run 5 miles outside first, then go to the community center and spend the next four miles doing intervals. 

Whatta plan!

Except for that 65 meter reading at mile 3.5 of my outside run.  Hmm.

With that reading, I had some decisions to make.  I could have just stopped my workout and walked home (I basically did a strange loop that kept me somehow within about a mile and a half of my house at all times), or I could keep going and skip the treadmill workout, or I could cut the outside run short and figure out how to do the treadmill workout, or I could do what I did: I walked the remainder of the outside run and also ran on the treadmill. 

Of course, there were some other things in there, too. 

I ate two “servings” of carbohydrate for the low at 65.  If I were going to walk home, I would probably have only had one.  But of course I was at the base of a big hill when I checked, and I wanted to keep going on my planned route.  I know that if I keep walking at a moderate effort when I’m in the middle of a run and low like this, I will continue to go low.  So I had two servings.  (I think I had about six with me, left over from my recent 13 mile run on the weekend.)

And then I checked again after the crest of the hill.  Oh yeah.  48.

So you and I know by now that a 48 isn’t going to get me running sprint intervals on a treadmill.   Which is perfectly fine, except that I just haven’t gotten to enjoy a Treadmill Tuesday in a few weeks and I plain and simple wanted to do it.  Harrumph. 

And this is when genius struck.  (I love when genius strikes me at 48.)  I recognized that I have been carrying this $5 bill with me on every long run I have done for the past two years.  I decided today was the day to spend it.  So I walked to the grocery store that was in between where I was and the treadmill.  And I bought a Gatorade. 

Now, I had Gatorade in my fridge at home, but home was 4 blocks past the treadmill.  I knew I wasn’t ever going to get over to that treadmill if I set foot inside my house, though, and since I had that $5 bill, I essentially gave myself permission to call my situation an emergency.

Right; a running emergency.  I had to buy that drink in order to keep running the way I wanted to run. 

By the time I got to the community center, I was 94.  Woot!  I hopped on, ran my sprints for another 35 minutes, and walked home.  When I got off the ‘mill, I was 136. 

I also bolused as soon as I got home.  I had been on a drastically reduced basal rate for an hour and a half and knew that all of the carbs I had consumed to get me through the workout would need some help after I stopped since there was pretty much no insulin remaining in my body. 

I think the highest I got was 226.  Not bad, considering all the jockeying I had done with basals, boluses, fast carbs, slow carbs, liquid carbs, intervals, and steady-state running. 

And best of all, I declared a Running Emergency and spent that $5 bill, and it all worked out pretty well.  Yay!

Now I’ve got to go find another $5 bill…

Cardiovascular fitness is a big thing for me: I like knowing I can run if I need to, and I like knowing I can keep running longer than most.  I find my long runs perfect opportunities to work out whatever obstacles have arisen in my personal and professional life since my last run.  I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after running X number of miles (when X > 10) and I think it’s fun to tell people at lunch how many miles I ran before they woke up that morning.  I generally think any run less than an hour shouldn’t really qualify as a workout.

Yet I know I’m in the minority.   (It has also taken me nearly a decade of running to reach that point, for the record.  I’ve worked to get there because it was something I wanted to do.)

I’m not saying I’m right and I’m not saying I work harder or less hard than anyone during a workout.  I’m saying that for me, running gives me a lot. 

And it also takes a lot.  A lot of time.

Good thing that several shorter bursts of cardio throughout the day can have multiple benefits for your overall cardiovascular health!

Give yourself 10 minutes before you take a shower in the morning, 10 minutes at lunch and 10 minutes before you read your mail at home, and you’ve squeezed in 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity that day.  You’ll get your metabolism kick started several times throughout your day, you’ll have the energy to make it all the way through your shorter session without too much fatigue, and you won’t have as many mental demons to battle for a shorter workout.

You know you can fit in those 10 minute segments.  Honestly; you know you can. 

I’m not saying that if you’ve signed up for a 5k all you need to do to prepare yourself for the run is to jog for 10 minutes three times a day.  I’m saying that if your goal is increased cardio health, try taking smaller bites out of the apple and choke down that exercise in a manageable way for yourself. 

My experiences with exercise and my insulin needs deal almost exclusively in exercise sessions longer than 30 minutes.  I know that for me, I need to be exercising at least 15-20 minutes before I sense any drop in my blood sugar (absent any other strange happenings in my day).

When I first started to exercise, I couldn’t jog a block.  If I did, I’d be low within 15 minutes.  So watch yourself and your effort levels and how they affect your blood sugar levels if you are just starting out.  You can easily benefit by having several shorter bursts of exercise spread throughout your day—if you do it regularly enough you may need to lower your overall basal rates due to your increased metabolism.    

Pretty cool.

Get Up, Get Out!  and No Child Left Inside!  Are two slogans of the Karno Kids Foundation, organized by ultra endurance athlete Dean Karnazes. 

Dean blogged today about the fact that kids are not participating in being outdoors in nature and being as active as any of us would like for them.  I think we all have fond memories of the summers we spent on our bikes or skates or flip flops to and from the community pool.  We want that for today’s kids, too.

Yet how do parents of diabetic kids feel comfortable taking their kids out and having them run and play and fall and scrape and get all mucky and then check their blood glucose with dirty fingers? 

(alright, that one was an easy one: alcohol swabs and more snacks and less insulin)

I think with diabetic kids it’s easy for a parent to see them as “broken” because they do have a malfunctioning pancreas.  Yet it is essential for them to get out and behave just like any other kid and get their elbows scraped, knees skinned, and every now and then an arm broken, just like their friends.

Our lives are more complicated by diabetes, absolutely.  Yet we still need fresh air and sun-streaked hair and dirty knees, too.

The blog comments are fascinating at Dean’s blog today; if you are a parent and/or someone interested in helping get kids out and active, I suggest you check it out here!  I’ll stop writing so you still have time to go over there and read.  

But, in case you don’t have that kind of time, here’s one of my favorite comments posted by Jason Hayden:

It’s up to us as parents to set an example for our kids. We should be our kids best role models and expose the to all of the amazing activities out there. Bring field guides when you hike so that you can look up everything the kids find, teach kids how to fix their bikes, get out of your own comfort zone and try new things so that the kids see it’s ok to be uncomfortable when trying something new.

It shouldn’t matter what the weather is the kids can still get outside…20 below or 100…appropriate gear, appropriate hydration and food, appropriate duration for the conditions…everyone can still have fun if you plan these things out right.