Tilt-Shifted

Have you ever seen a tilt-shift lens?  I don't have one but they're pretty cool.

Here's what they look like.

Tilt-shift lenses are neat because they let you change how you focus on a subject to create all sorts of interesting effects.

Here's an example:

Here's an even cooler one:

I feel like my life has been tilt-shifted the past two weeks.  The focal points aren't where they were, things that took centre stage were pushed off into the wings and things that I took for granted are no longer even in the picture. 

Things I took for granted two weeks ago: 

• I was running a marathon on October 23rd
• This marathon would be hard and I would struggle but finishing was never a question
• Diabetes management was just as important as running fitness and both had to be worked on with equal dedication. 

Add a tilt-shift lens and suddenly reality looks very different. 

• I have no idea if I'll be running a marathon (or any distance) on October 23rd
• If I do start, finishing is not a given.  In fact, I may have to drop en route if my ankle decides to have a blowout. 
• Diabetes management gets tossed to the side when an injury enters the picture. 

During the past three months, I have become a walking diabetes experiment.  Every long run was as much about learning what I needed to do to keep my blood sugar under control as it was about building strength and endurance.  I would try things out during a 22k run, learn the hard way about something, tweak my plan and test it again at 24k.  I would learn a few more things and try again during 26k and 28k. For 30k, which I ran two weeks ago, I decided to pretend it was race day and do everything the way I would during the marathon.  

Things worked well and I learned a few more things I wanted to try during my longest run - 35k.  

Add an injury to the mix and things changed focus...completely. 

I never did run 35k.  That means that the most important training run never happened.  My body was never put to that test.  My marathon diabetes management also never got that final trial run either.  

During the past two weeks - every run was an unknown.  I would go into them with a distance in mind but often came home before hitting it.  Some runs went from 10k to 3k.  Since different running distances and different running intensities require different diabetes management tricks - it's been a challenge.     

What did I do?  

I did nothing.  

I did not lower my basal rates.  I did not change what I ate or adjust my bolus insulin.  I just brought lots of food with me.  If I only ran 2-3k, I didn't have to do anything.  If I ran 5-6k, I would have a date or two part way through.  On Saturday I ran 15k (yay!!) but didn't know if I'd be able to.  So every 5k I had a gel to get me through the next 5k.  Not the best way to do it but unknown distances mean that I can't use my tried and true tricks. 

During the past two weeks, as I focused on my injury, my diabetes routine took a back seat.  That means that, by race day, I will have lost two weeks of running AND two weeks of diabetes experimentation.

It's going to be quite the ride.