Sugar Up
I went on my second training ride with the Outlaws today and I must say, compared to the first ride I rode with them, this one was soooooo much better. The blood sugars weren’t quite as well behaved as I would’ve liked them to have been (read: like during the socorro chile harvest triathlon) but they eventually straightened out and I rode a strong second half. I rode a good first quarter too, well, a good first 10 miles where I was averaging 18mph and keeping with the pack, it was during this time that I decided I liked riding in a pack, I get to draft, that was a nice feeling.
At about 10 miles, I knew my blood sugars were plummeting from the 221 that I started at. It was at this point that I started thinking that I really needed to stop every 10 miles and check my blood and eat a gel, but I kept going. The first rest stop was only a few miles ahead. In my head, I had already decided that I was done when I got to the rest stop, I just didn’t feel that I had the energy to put in the 60 mile ride that was slated for today. I had decided that I was going to be happy with 30 miles.
But then I got to the rest stop, and I told my teammates I was done and something about Dread Pirate and Flaming Mo only riding another 20 minutes further made me decide to keep going (after asking about the horrific hill of course). I checked my blood, sure enough, it had dropped to 93 and my pump was screaming at me. I downed some gel and some fluids and we were on our way.
At this point, I still didn’t have the energy to keep up with the group, it was another 10 miles before I caught up to them again, but it was ok because I had them in my sights for most of that 10 miles and when I didn’t I knew where they were headed. At one point, I could see them going up the big big big hill and they were so small that they seriously looked like ants on that hill. Having nothing better to do as I was hammering away at my 14-16mph speed, I started singing:
“the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah, the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah, the little one stops to chew some gum, i don’t remember the rest of the song, and they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out, of the rain. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”
The funny thing about this is that the clouds had just rolled over the mountains and the wind was threatening to knock me off my bike and the rain was coming. they looked like ants and the rain was coming. I think I’m the only one amused by this, but, hey, what can I say.
As I made it up the hill (because that was my goal at that point, to make it up the hill), I had passed the 20 mile marker, so then my goal became to go to 25 miles. It was around that point where my Outlaw buddies were waiting for me, and after telling them all about the mangled 6 ft rattlesnake that I had seen, I checked my blood and “sugared up”. Dread Pirate came up with that term. Bones asked if I were ready to go and she said “hang on, she’s sugaring up, we don’t want her to pass out while riding” to which I said “hrm, I haven’t tired that one yet” and gave a small laugh. I had come up a little from the last check, I was now 103. I had another gel and washed it down with some cytomax.
At this point, we had to head back towards town because the storm was comin and there were big rain drops falling from the sky so we crossed the overpass and headed back to where we began. I did much better on this portion of the ride than I did the first, I was riding a steady 16-18 mph, but mostly I was keeping at 16mph. When they made a turn off to add a couple more miles to their ride, I kept going straight, 50 miles total was more than enough distance for me and I was content and set into my pace at this point so it didn’t bother me that they we going to take a detour.
At the next stop made (stops were being made at about every 10 miles by this point; I can thank this stop to a flat tire one of the guys unfortunately got) my blood sugar was 134 and I was happy with it. I was so happy, that I didn’t have a gel, hindsight being 20/20, I should’ve because I went low at the end. I dropped to 76 and at the very end my energy and speed dropped with my numbers (there’s a strong correlation between the two).
Once I got past my lack of energy in the first half of the ride, things went smoothly for me. When it was all said and done, the ride was a very good ride. I maintained a good steady pace, my thoughts were fairly positive, besides deciding that I was prematurely done with the ride early on in the game, the thought that I couldn’t do the ride was never solidified in my brain. The blood sugars were ok, I wouldn’t consider them great, I do ride better when I’m in the 130 range out of all the other numbers I had, well, the 221 was ok as well I suppose, but I’ve still got to work on gaining some regularity among those numbers.
OH! and as an added bonus, something happened today that has never happened before, I had a sweat stain on the crotch area of my shorts. I was sitting and StarBucks with some teammates and I couldn’t figure out why the white stuff wouldn’t come off my shorts, and I asked what it was. I was told “Congratulations, you rode hard enough that you’ve got a sweat stain”. And then there was a conversation about sweat stains. Never in my life have I been so excited about a sweat stain.
For those who care, here’s the elevation profile of the ride (yes, I care):
And the full stats:
48 miles ridden
at 15.9 mph
with a max speed of 27.8mph (gotta love that atrocious hill I climbed, that’s really not as atrocious as it looks)
in 3 hours
2 Responses to “Sugar Up”
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August 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Great average. The downside of that hill looks steep, even though it’s ‘only’ 100 feet, no wonder you got that big max speed. Where do you get the cytomax and does it really help?
August 17th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Great job on finishing the ride. I didn’t realize you had so much to think about while riding. I used to coach volleyball, and 2 of my players had diabetes. They were very good at monitoring their sugar levels, but I always brough extra juice and snacks to practice, too.