SO ds and i just pledged to do the ride for the cure...WE are really pumped ( excuse the pun) .I have two concerns - ONE is figuring out how biking is going to affect his diabetes needs...and two raising the 4,000 for jdrf. ANyone able to help me with the first concern...we signed up to do the 64 mile route.
Awesome! Last summer I rode bikes with my brother a few times a week. We probably rode between 10 and 20 miles a night. I did get low a few times, but I always brought juice and snacks with me in my basket. I sometimes reduced my basal rate or had a snack beforehand if I was on the lower side when we started. I did notice that the one time I got really low while riding, it was so much harder to finish the ride back home afterwards, and I did ask him to cut our ride short that night, so I would definitely recommend avoiding lows before they happen and taking breaks if necessary to let your blood sugar go back up if you do start to get low. I know this is probably all obvious stuff, but it's been my experience.
Good luck and thank you for all that you're doing!
Molly
[quote user="kcbscrapper"]ONE is figuring out how biking is going to affect his diabetes needs[/quote]
I have done the Ride to Cure five times - four times in Death Valley and once in Killington, VT. I FINALLY finished the entire 105 miles in Death Valley last year (4th time the charm? :-). It does take some effort in figuring out what works and what doesn't as far as diabetes care when riding, especially long distances. Oh, and I have had type 1 for 33 years.
What works for me (and you'll both need to figure out what works for him):
Details of what's at a JDRF ride - I've been to two different sites, and they had basically similar things: fruit (oranges and/or bananas), heed (which is like gatorade), but they water it down a lot - so I don't count on this as "carb" source (sometimes they have Gatorade too, but again - watered down pb&j, cookies, some sort of sub sandwich at one of the breakpoints, and other snack type items. I bring my own glucose-tabs (I usually have three or four of the small containers that have 12 tabs in them - two in my back pockets, two in my bike bag). I also bring Trader Joe's fruit strips - usually have six of them stuffed in back pockets and bike bag.
He will definitely want/need meter (if you have any access to a CGM - I HIGHLY recommend it!) and perhaps keep it in plastic bag. I keep my meter in my bike bag. Some people have created contraptions (which include duct tape :-) to keep their meter up on their handle bars so they dont' have to go digging. I use a CGM so I don't use the meter all that much when riding. Checking BG every hour is crucial. I'm guessing if you can do training rides every week or two, he'll be able to figure out what works and what doesn't for him so that Ride day is just another ride and all the guess work will be gone.
Which site are you going to? I'll be in Death Valley again this year (it's a love/hate relationship I have with the valley).
Which site are you going to?
We are riding in Wisconsin -- mostly because it is close and a good date for us to go. We picked the bronze package because it is our first year and we are not sure how easy it will be to raise the funds-- Wisconsin travel and accomodations will be cheaper for us. Someday I would love to do the death valley one-- I admire you for doing it!
Thanks for the good practical advice. I am looking forward to the training to get myself in shape to do the race -- he will need the training to be able to figure out dosing and all.
I've done 10ks (walking) and 5ks - here's what I've done
1) Lots of water. Helps to keep those electrolytes circulating!
2) Eat a banana before or about 1hr in.... nice sugar, potassium, fiber, protein, and will help keep you going
3) Lower your basal - 50% works for me during exertion
4) Check regularly.
5) Most well-sorted biking stores that have triathlete supplies or nutrition stores will carry gel packs (look like large ketsup packets). These deliver sugar and electrolytes... about 20-40gs depending. These are better for short-term pickmeups.
6) if you do go with gatorade, do the regular in 50/50 mixes so your BG doesn't rapidly spike or get the new G2 Gatorade, which has just enough carbs to be helpful but not spike you.
I personally try to avoid artificial means to BG rise, and ones that deliver slower vs. fast pickmeups. I've been told by my nurses and physicians numerous times that its the large pendulum swings that are bad, not the graduals.