Freedom

Today we went to a park with the kids and Charlie took his bike. I chose this particular park because there is a .2 mile trail that makes a big circle. From the playground I can watch the entire loop, so my plan was to let Charlie ride around the park loop while we played with Gretchen.

Kids today don't have the freedom we had at their age. I had free range of the block at his age. I could go anywhere. In a few years I would be ranging all over the neighborhood and left to my own devices. This is unimaginable today.

I wanted to let Charlie experience that sense of freedom. It's what I loved so much about riding the bike at this age. I could do anything I wanted, as long as I was home for dinner.

As expected, Charlie reveled in this freedom. He probably did a mile - five times around. Once he understood the one ground rule - stay on the path - he was in his own world. It was fun to watch.

My wife had a different opinion. She was concerned that he was so far away from us. He's never a few steps away from us, she said. She's right, but I thought it was important to let him explore. It's tough to give them that freedom. I understand that. Maybe it's a sign of things to come.

To me, the look on his face was worth it.

The Cost of Diabetes

I estimate that my diabetes costs me $1,000 a month. Now, most of that is due to the fact that I am currently paying COBRA prices from my health insurance. When my wife lost her job and started her own company, I could not obtain insurance elsewhere, so as expensive as it is, I'm riding out COBRA until it ends and I can find another solution. Of course, all this will be moot in a couple of months when insurance companies must insure those with pre-existing conditions, but my purpose is not to get into that debate here. My wife and two children are on a separate policy and their healthcare costs are about $350 a month.

For the purposes of this discussion, let's consider that if I was not diabetic and we were on a family policy it's not unreasonable to expect that our family's total monthly healthcare cost would be more like $500.

That's a car payment or from one half to one third of a house payment. I imagine our entire family could eat for $500 a month if we did not go out much. That's two weeks (which is six days for us) of daycare.

A year's worth of diabetes-related expenses would easily buy me the top-of-the-line Specialized Tarmac or Roubaix. Heck, you can get into a decent small-displacement motorcycle or scooter for that much and throw in some gas to boot.

Of course in the end, like most parents, we would end up spending the money on the kids. That's a lot of soccer league fees and clothes.

In search of a low A1C

This winter has been hell on my A1C. Fortunately, I've got a few months to work on it before I go back to my endocrinologist.

Keeping my A1C below 7, and hopefully lower than that, is why I run, cycle and workout. Diabetics are all too familiar with this magic number, but non-diabetics probably don't know how important it is. Most people know that diabetics test their blood sugar to keep it in an acceptable range. For simplicity's sake, let me say this is around 100. Lower than 70 is too low, and my doctor likes me to be under 140 before I have a meal and take on insulin.

The A1C is different. It's a measure of how your blood sugars are trending over a period of time. In the most recent issue of Diabetes Forecast, the American Diabetes Association magazine, there was an interesting question posed to the Ask The Experts column. The question was about having too low an A1C.

The expert in this case, Sue Kirkman, MD, raised a few good points about A1C levels in her answer.

Kirkman notes that it's more important to know how that low number is derived. Frequent episodes of low hypoglycemia are not good, but tight control, especially a younger person with more time to theoretically develop complications from disease, should adhere to a number lower than 6.5. (A number in the 5s for non-diabetics is common, by comparison).

This is called tight control, and it comes at a cost. One cost can be those frequent low episodes, which are an acute problem. Low blood sugar can lead to coma and death, and anyone who has recently been diagnosed and knows how a low episode feels knows that new diabetics tend to over compensate to prevent these situations. I still have a snack before bed because of the one time I woke up with a 47, my lowest blood sugar ever. It was not pleasant. Shakes. Sweat. Not pretty.

High blood sugar kills you slowly.

There is a financial cost too. I've tried, and I have to say am succeeding, at keeping in tight control this week as I head into summer. That means testing several times a day - those test strips are expensive, even with insurance It also means taking extra insulin to correct for extra carbs at a meal or a higher than targeted blood sugar before a meal. That means more insulin used, meaning the prescription must be filled quicker - you get the picture. I have also upped my slow-release insulin, which I take twice a day, so have more "background" insulin on board.

This has led to late morning lows - 60s, which I feel (some don't) and so that means slamming a Gatorade or having some orange juice before heading out to the park with the kids.

And that's why I do all this. For my kids. I want to be around when they graduate college and get married decades from now. So for me, shooting for tight control makes sense.

And that's why I run and ride!

Confession Time

Here is my big confession. Over the winter I've put on five pounds. I feel fat. Slow. I have doubts. I have not been riding regularly. I have not been running regularly. I have been upping my insulin at lunch and dinner so I can eat crap.

I've got a million excuses. Valid ones. Kids. School. The usual. It's the reason most people get out of shape.

I have resolved this summer when I am home with the kids before hopefully starting nursing school in the fall, to take time for myself. The time I have is before 7 a.m. If that's it, that's it. Early to bed...you know the rest.

The old me was in a sad shape. I was incapable of getting out of bed at 6 a.m. strapping on running shoes and heading out the door.

The new me:

• is winded after a 16-mile ride, not ready to pass out,
• gets up, hits the street and walks a mile rather than running - but he gets out there,
• considers this a bump in the road, not a hopeless situation,
• is looking forward to logging miles running and riding,
• is ready to head to the gym and work on my skinny arms so I don't look like a geek in a running singlet,
• wants to fix my hernia so I don't look pregnant when my shirt is a little tight,
• Wants to fit into a Size Large shirt. Right now I can wear an XL, but most of my shirts are still 2X,
• wants to be able to fit into size 38 jeans, the promised land of wide selection of cool kid jeans,
• wants to eventually be under 200 pounds and retire my Clydesdale status,
• wants to be around for his kids.

In short, the New Me is going to have a good summer.

The Digital Age

I was presently surprised to find live video on the Amgen Tour of California app. I was able to watch the end of Stage 1 shortly after finishing our family's Mother's Day Celebration on Sunday.

Every day thousands of Americans unplug from cable and satellite. We did it last winter and the only regret I've had is losing out on some live sports. I can't say I miss anything else. There's so much to watch on Netflix, Hulu+ and, oh yeah, broadcast TV. Most of the local stations now have a second broadcast stream that carries old television shows and movies, etc. And there are there PBS's!

Sports is lagging behind somewhat, mostly due to antiquated television rights deals. Among the sports I follow, Major League Baseball seems to have done the best job, with some qualification. I am a firstly a Royal's fan and a Dodger's fan second. I can watch all the Dodger gams on MLB's subscription-based At Bat service. I usually watch on my iPad or stream to Apple TV. I can't watch Royals games. I can only listen to them thanks to the local market blackout. The Royals have no local broadcast deal - all games are on cable - so highlights of my favorite team are it.

The NFL has less of a problem. All the Chiefs games are on broadcast, though theoretically the threat of a blackout exists, though it has not happened for 20 years or so. Every home game sells out. You can pretty much watch dusk-to-dawn football on Sundays and that's enough for me.

Sporting KC, our MLS team, also sells out every game. They are reliably on local, broadcast TV. Big European matches are now broadcast in the US. Saturday's FA Cup was thrilling.

The NHL and NBA are irrelevant in my universe. I used to be a hockey fan, but drifted away after the strikes. This last one did it. I'm out of the habit and I just don't have time. I'm still stinging from the Kings moving to Sacramento and now the winds of change are blowing again - they appear ready to move to Seattle.

I could go on. I haven't even mentioned NASCAR (most races live on the networks) and the Indy 500, for me the biggest event of the year.

College sports is spotty, but it's still easy to be a fan. There are plenty of football and basketball games broadcast on regular television. Mizzou football games are a big enough deal to me that I will go to a bar to catch most or all of a game. The SEC has just announced a deal that will begin in 2014 that should allow me the opportunity to watch even more games, and from all devices.

That brings us to Cycling. Cycling is a sport, in my opinion, that was made for the iPad. I can watch video of the peleton and have a map and stats right there on the same screen. I hope we see more of this in coming years.

It's inevitable, of course.

A highlight every month!

A few words about golf

I used to play a lot of golf. I got into it so much one summer that I played three or four times a week. I would get up and play nine holes before the groundskeepers would even put out the flags. I spent a lot of money on golf balls. A lot. I never was very good.

My favorite bike path takes me along a good portion of a golf course. I look out at those golfers and I'm glad on this side of the fence. It reminds me of a kind of zoo. Don't feed the golfers. Today at one of the tees the foursome was chatting up the beer cart girl. Four guys, probably in their late 30s by the look of it, trying to impress a high school girl.

At other times, I've seen groups of golfers - usually two foursomes - patiently waiting at the tee boxes for the shotgun start of a tournament. On nice weekend days like today I often see guys - they are always guys - sitting in their carts waiting to play through. There is a lot of standing around in that game, which accentuates the zoo-like effect.

And that's why I am glad to be on this side of the fence. As far as exercise goes, golf just doesn't cut it. Most courses require you to rent a cart to speed play anyway. Don't get me started about the clothes.

Golf is the Facebook of exercise: A way to spend half the day outside and feel like you are getting exercise without breaking a sweat in the same way you can stay connected with people on Facebook without having to deal with them face-to-face.

Almost that time of year

It's almost that time of year. Hard to believe that the Tour de Cure is only three weeks away. I have hardly had time to train properly, and I'm running a 5K the day before! Oh, my. Trial by fire. I need something to shock me out of this winter blah, so this is it. School is over the the semester and it's time to go! Looking forward to making some great strides this summer.