Wednesday - The Double-Edged Razor

   I was reading Phil Southerland's blog this morning and a thought occurred to me, the "Double-Edged Razor". Some time ago a family member gave me a copy of "Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France" by Daniel Coyle. In reading it, I came to understand the term "riding the razor", which is basically an athlete pushing themselves very decisively hard (to the point of peak performance - on the razors edge), and yet not beyond that. Beyond that is to get very sick. Well, stepping away from just the cyclist aspect of that you have endurance atheletes for example who do this. The folks that as professional athletes train pretty much every day. They streamline their diets, sleeping, lifestyle, and training. Everything is put to the science of perfection for peak performace. Now mix it up and add Type 1 diabetes to it.......you now have an individual who is riding a double-edged razor. If many thought it was tough with just a single blade, now the individual has two that need focus and extreme attention.

   It's an achievement on its own to be able to for example cycle in the Tour de California, it's a whole other achievement in it's own to add to that being a Type 1 Diabetic. You may crash as a typical cyclist, but you can crash even harder and faster as a Type 1.