My Goggins Challenge With T1 Diabetes: Epic Running, Insulin Mistakes, Many Lessons

Last week I completed the David Goggins Challenge: a total of 48 miles in 48 hours. From a physical and mental standpoint, it has been one of the hardest things I have done in my life, to date.

I am proud of myself for the courage to go explore and surpass my limits, for digging deeper within me to find the energy and the fortitude to meet these limits and raise the bar. That was the main point for me and, I believe, the main point of the challenge. From a spiritual perspective, it is a big “Mission accomplished”.

But we’re type-1 diabetics over here, aren’t we, Gio?

You’re goddamn right! And type 1 diabetes management was the challenge within the challenge. In my previous article I outlined my strategy and approach, and on that basis I observed the reaction of my body to the huge organic stress created by the combination of sleep deprivation, severe heat and extreme physical effort. While I can handle each one of these factors individually, I had never tried to face them all together.

And indeed, what a lesson have I learned! I have been in range far less than my worst expectation.

A mere 60% of the time, with a 1% below range and a huge 39% above range. I have clearly made mistakes, but my ultra endurance journey with diabetes had to start somewhere and I had no illusion it was going to be a smooth start.

I have gathered precious data I can leverage to refine my strategies and my knowledge of myself as an athlete with diabetes. As long as I use this data to improve, then I am good with the messy situation I’ve faced.

Enough with the bla bla. Let’s unpack the learnings.

Goggins Challenge With T1 Diabetes - The Mistakes

Insulin Management

Let’s start with the insulin. In my initial strategy (see last week’s article for the details), I stated that I would take 70% of my basal insulin, and start with 80% of my rapid insulin.

My blood glucose stability around meal times was quite good, meaning that I was nailing my boluses for the most part. The trick of injecting 70% of the total dose upon meal time and the remaining 30% within one hour from the end of the meal worked out perfectly because it made taming spikes and possible lows so much easier.

The real struggle occurred after some time from the meals, and during the nights - when I was just running, no eating. It became even more evident on day two of the challenge, when I decided to inject only 50% of my basal, down from the 70% of the previous day.

I thought that since I had already 24 miles in my legs and would stack 24 more, day two would have been on the lower side of the blood glucose spectrum, and I wanted to keep it slightly higher by reducing my basal.

That did not work, because in the hours when I was not eating (not proper “fasting” hours though, because I was still eating once every four hours and having several snacks here and there, but you got the point), my glycemic index was fluctuating around 200, always.

Something that added to this mistake was the blood glucose level I was targeting for every run. I somehow feel safe starting a workout somewhere in the region of 180, but I am not so sure that is a good idea anymore. It might suit a 100 mile bike ride or an ultramarathon, but not my ordinary one to two hour runs.

For these runs - the ones that make the Goggins Challenge - I should target a normal 120-130 blood sugar level, and keep it up with a mix of complex and fast acting carbohydrates depending on the need. I don’t see any reason why I should be at 180 before every run. 130 is better, and healthier.

In other words, I overestimated the total strain of the effort, and dealt with it as if it was an uninterrupted 48 miles run. Which brings me to the second mistake.

Overestimating The Effort

Don’t get me wrong, the Goggins Challenge is extremely tough on every level. But there is a huge difference, I discovered, between running 48 miles in one go and running them at four hours intervals.

The pace of each loop was moderate, and the strain on the body and on the blood sugar levels was not as severe as it I thought before starting the challenge.

Since I was running for 35 to 45 minutes at once and at a moderate pace, there was not enough time for the aerobic effort to compound in such a way that my blood glucose would come down rapidly. I had enough time to rest and refuel, which lowered the overall perceived fatigue and its impact on my type 1 diabetes biomarkers.

The running was not long or intense enough to produce the same effect as, say, running a marathon. The biggest stressor of these 48 hours of madness was the lack of sleep (more on that later), not the running itself.

Reducing my insulin intake too much, coupled with an overestimation of the intensity of the physical efforts, were two of the three factors that contributed to that 39% time above range.

The last factor of the triad was the food.

Too Many Yellow Light, Processed Foods

In my mind, ultra endurance is often associated with big calorie deficits. The body’s demand for energy is far too huge, and the stomach only has room for foods that bring calories: salads are good, but they’ll have to go, at least in part, during an extreme endurance feat.

Images of the Hardest Geezer eating all the crazy things to stay on top of his calories while running through Africa were spinning in my head. Words of ultra runners that had to rely on substantial amounts of calorie dense foods to get to the finish line were playing in my ears. There’s a time and a place for those things, and I am sure I’ll soon experience these scenarios myself.

It was my first time going past the marathon distance, and I thought I would starve, that staying on top of my calories would be impossible, that my body would give up. Rookie mistakes and thoughts that I don’t blame myself for, but that misled my approach to meals.

I surely kept my focus on carbohydrates, but I was too quick to trade part of those green light carb sources (in this case, fruits) for yellow or red light ones (whole bread, in some cases made with extra-virgin olive oil). I over dramatised the whole thing.

In a 135 miles race my body would suck up those calories and simply flush them out like nothing, but despite the huge toughness of it - and again, it was hard - the Goggins Challenge is not a 135 miles race in the Death Valley. I just running 48 miles in 48 hours in 4 miles loops around my house, eating and resting in between.

The combination of partially refined carbohydrates (whole bread) and added fats (olive oil) caused the delayed spikes and increased my insulin resistance. The increase in insulin sensitivity from the running was not enough to compensate. Hence the spikes.

I reduced my insulin intake too much, I overestimated the intensity of the effort and I mishandled my calories, jumping way too quickly on processed foods. These elements put the diabetic me in a tough spot.

If wish I had read Eat & Run by Scott Jurek, that would have been a substantial help to understand how to fuel ultra endurance as a plant based athlete. However, I have read it now and I will apply that information from now on.

Couple the poor food choices with a lack of sleep, and your “dream” scenario is complete. Not only did sleep deprivation alter my insulin sensitivity and hunger management. As the hours passed and the fatigue stacked on itself, I was finding less and less time and energy to properly log, track and annotate my food intake and my insulin to carb ratios. I couldn’t do the math as lucidly anymore (or so I told myself), and I paid for it.

Tracking and calculating the dosages is a must, so this is not acceptable: in the future, I must come up with a more “autopilot”-like plan. Planned meals, with known macros and ingredients, so that the math required for me to adjust my dosing is minimal if not absent, especially when I become too tired to even bother thinking about it.

What worked

At this point in the article, you might have the impression this challenge has been a complete disaster. It wasn’t! All of the mistakes listed so far are precious lessons I can now refer to before any future endurance endeavors.

Besides that, there were many things that worked very well. Let’s have a look.

Insulin Timing: Far From Runs

The risk of running with insulin on board and having my blood sugar plummet during a run was easily avoided by having my injections as soon as I finished a run. I’d take my shoes off, inject, stretch and have a shower (thus buying myself 15 minutes to let the insulin enter into circulation) and eat. By the time I’d start the next run, I’d have fully digested my food and my insulin would not be around anymore.

In a couple occasions I was above 200 before my run, so I took one unit right before going. By the time I was done my blood sugar was down to 150, and I was ready to inject and refuel.

Hydration

I can’t stress the importance of hydration enough. I had no cramps, no muscle tension or tightness of any kind, no troubles getting through any of the runs from an energy standpoint. I attribute most of that to good hydration.

I was drinking all the time: one cup of water as soon as I stepped through the door, several cups between rounds, one sip here, one sip there, some tea, some water, some coconut water, lemon water. Always a bottle full of water within reach.

If I thought I had had enough water, I’d drink some more. Simple.

Recovery Part I: Stretching? No, Squatting!

If you scan YouTube for vlogs of people who did the challenge, almost everyone complains their legs becoming painful, stiff, unmovable at some point.

Everyone is foam rolling, doing the usual stretches that most people do, and almost everyone gets to day two with legs as heavy and stiff as pieces of wood. Pain in the knees, ankles, hips, etc…you know the story.

Did anyone ever mentioned just staying in the most natural position the human being has been designed for, the deep squat?

That was the only stretch I did. And my legs were fresh and pain free from the first to the last second to the challenge. And in the days after, I felt as if I hadn’t done the challenge at all: I was walking, running, carrying my groceries up and down the stairs…things as usual.

So what made the difference? Before every run I’d stay in a squat for one to two minutes to prepare all the joints (ankles, knees, hips) to run. A fter every run, the first thing I’d do would be squatting for one to two minutes. I like to squat while I sip on some fresh water, upload the workouts on Strava, reply to messages or note down my diabetes data. After the deep squat, I’d do some bear walks to further release all the tension in the hamstrings, glutes, lower back and around the knees, and that would be it.

In the hours between each loop, if I was not resting horizontally, I’d stay in a squat or shin box position while eating, watching TV, reading or replying to messages in between rounds.

That was all the “stretching” I did.

Recovery II: NSDR (Yoga Nidra)

I could not rely on deep, good quality, uninterrupted sleep. So I had to find ways to deeply rest my body and help it recover while also calming down my nervous system.

That’s why I had at least a half hour NSDR protocol after every session. I’d stretch, shower, inject, eat and do NSDR. This was a non-negotiable part of the strategy because on top of recovering my body it was helping to tame the high cortisol levels that contribute to increasing blood sugar levels.

Plus, it was incredibly effective to help me fall asleep after my night runs. It would’ve been hard to get into deep sleep right after a run, the body was just hyperactive. So I’d do a 10 minutes guided NSDR protocol, and that definitely helped me to make the most out of those sixty/ninety minutes I could hit the bed.

Here’s an explanation of why it works.

Loving The Experience: Enjoyment and Maturity

Last one on the “What Worked” list has to be the experience itself. I needed something as tough and uncomfortable as the Goggins Challenge to prove some things to myself. That I can endure more than I thought. That I am able to suck up very uncomfortable situations. That I can aim higher despite of and thanks to type 1 diabetes.

Sure, it would’ve been great to hit a 100% time in range and an average blood glucose of 110, but I this challenge was a golden opportunity for me to step into unknown territory and try to figure out how to make it work.

As my frequent hyperglycemias testify, I committed many errors. But deep down I wanted to make these errors to bring to the surface as many of the things that I now know I need to consider.

When the time for the next ultra endurance test comes, I will have several more weapons to disintegrate the obstacles. The thing is, this arsenal can only be built with experience, by trial and error, and with the unwavering determination of putting myself and all my hard-earned knowledge to the test over and over and over again.

This is the lesson I learned from the Goggins Challenge. I thought I was capable of 10, but in truth I am capable of 100. I thought I knew 10, but there’s a 100 more I have to learn.

All the better.

I am grateful for type 1 diabetes, because many years ago it put me on the trajectory that led me to this challenge. The will to prove to myself that I can do incredible things with this disease is what moves me.

This challenge gave me evidence that I have the confidence and the stamina needed to keep elevating myself not to 100, but to 1000. Maybe even more.

Thank you Type-1 Diabetes, Thank You David Goggins for inspiring me to dig deeper into myself, Thank You Running for being such a powerful and democratic tool we can all use to discover ourselves.

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“It’s all on video! I’ve got it on camera!” 🤣