Addison's and Training: Planning for a 50 with Addison's Disease

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can." Sidney Smith

Training, doing the activity you're going to do in your ultimate goal activity persistently and consistently, is the most difficult part of doing the event. This is the time where you see how your body responds to stresses and you make adjustments to food, hydration and medications.

For the Desert RATS, I've come up with a race plan. Although it might seem like common sense to eat, drink and take meds regularly, when you're in the middle of it, it's not common sense for me. I think common sense occasionally goes out the window when the starting gun sounds! In the link, you'll find a tiny map of the course, the spread sheet that I put together for the race and the specifics of the course (copied from the Desert RATS website). Dusty's Fruita 2008 race plan

Here's a letter that I always submit to the medical director prior to the race. Here's a text version of the Emergency Care instructions. It's imperative that you assume no one understands what Addison's Disease is and how Addison's crisis is treated treated because most medical personnel have no understanding of treating an Addisonian crisis. In most states, ambulances don't carry injectable hydrocortisone. Check with your local EMTs for their protocol. You'll be surprised that you won't get the right treatment until you make it to the hospital if you don't carry your own injectable hydrocortisone and instructions on how to use it.

COMMENTS? CRITICISMS? WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING THAT STRETCHES YOUR LIMITS??