I had the most successful first period of world cup racing I have ever had this year. All of my races were either good or excellent except for the final 30k in Rogla Slovenia. I tried a different insulin dosing strategy that did not work. I was forced to stop at 22.5k with a blood sugar of 49 (many people lose consciousness below 60). I was obviously disappointed with the race but I needed to experiment with my insulin strategy in 30k events.

18 months ago I switched  from using injections with lantus and humalog insulin to a pump that continually provides humalog insulin. The pump allows for much tighter control.  Most of my testing and most of my races have been for the 15k event since I made the switch to the pump. Because of the compartment syndrome surgery I had in early March last year I had to cut my season short.  As a consequence I only raced 30ks twice last year and both were hampered by the compartment syndrome.  This renedered the data fairly useless.

I always learn the most about how to dose insulin from racing. Testing while training or time trials is informative but nothing can truly simulate a race. Shortly after the problems I had in Rogla I resolved to do something during a race that I had never done before. I would stop and test my glucose during the 30k at Nationals. I decided that even if it meant sacrificing a national title any data I could gather to help my performance at the Olympics would be worth it. Also Based on how I had been skiing I believed that I could sacrifice 30 seconds for a test and still win. Cocky? yeah.

I arrived home from period one on the 21st of December and felt pretty good. I took a couple of days super easy and then on Christmas day I went for my first real training session, a three hour skate. About 8:00 PM that night I started feeling nautious. I went to sleep. At 1:00 AM I woke up and vomited violently.  My entire Christmas dinner came out my mouth and nose.  After puking I was literally blowing broccoli out of my nasal passages.  I went back to sleep.  I woke up at 2:00 and threw up again.  At 3:00 I literally hugged the toilet bowl like it was my best friend and curled up on the bathroom floor in the fetal position.

I went back to bed and slept for 28 of the next 36 hours.  When I woke up I felt OK. My fever was gone and I was hungry, a great sign.  My first ski wasn’t until the 28th and it was a timid hour of shuffling.  I felt fine but was weak and my heart rate was 20-30 beats high.  I improved slowly over the next three days.  On the 31st I had to decide whether to go to Nationals or not.  I’m a ski racer and I love to race so I decided to go and flew out to Anchorage on the 1st.

By the 3rd I was feeling pretty good and I was still improving every day.  The problem with feeling better every day is that it means you were not at 100 percent the day before and it is very likely you are not at 100 percent currently.  My energy was good though and I raced the 15k free at Nationals.  I felt flat and rushed but my energy held up fine.  My expectation was that after having a hard effort I would feel better for the 30k two days later.  It didn’t work out that way.

It snowed all night before the race and was about 30 degrees farenheit.   The tracks were slow and leading was not at all advantageous.  I wasn’t moving well and my heartrate was pegged by about 12k.  James was skiing more relaxed than me and I knew I was in for a battle.  Initially I decided to scrap the testing idea but when I skied by the coaches at the predetermined testing site it was clear to me that they were not happy with my decision not to stop.  I yelled next lap after skiing by and hoped I could pull ahead of James to give myself a cushion to test with.  I pulled ahead and felt like crap.  I made James take  the lead.  When I came to the coaches on the next lap I stopped to get the test and lost about 30 seconds in the process.  Second and Third places passed me while I stood on the side of the trail.  I pursued them in a self induced rage and passed them quickly and began reeling James back in.  About four k later I had closed the gap to James to 6 seconds.  I took a deep breath of relief and then blew up.  James still looked relaxed and strong and buried me over the last 2k of the race.

I limped to a second place finish and tested my blood sugar again.  The good news was that the much less aggressive insulin strategy that I had devised worked perfectly.  I consumed five 6 ounce bottles of gatorade and skied with my heart-rate near max for over half the race.  My glucose was 108, exactly where I want it.  I will duplicate this strategy at the Olympics and I am relieved to have confidence in this plan.

I tried really hard to be a gracious loser but I really suck at losing.  I have seen pictures of myself on the podium and I look like my dog just got run over and my girlfriend dumped me in the same minute.  I need some acting lessons.

I am genuinely glad that James is skiing well.  He has been a great teammate at world championships and the Olympics in the past and I will value him as a teammate in Vancouver.

The day after the 30k I tested skis for the upcoming classic sprint.  I was tired and questioning my reasons for racing again.  Basically I like to win and I wanted to go out and win.  That was the only reason to race.  The reasons not to race were that instead of being fird up by racing this week I have gotten more and more tired.  I was obviously depleted.

I decided I would race anyway.  Racing is fun.  Then my entire coaching staff got the flu last night, all five of them.  I am as vulnerable to a new infection as I can be so I scratched from the sprint.  I don’t feel very good right now and I am just hoping I can get back home in one piece and get my feet firmly on the ground during a three week training block at home.