Okay, I'll try my best to make this short and sweet. I'm going to be a senior in high school, I've had diabetes for a little bit less than 2 years, I'm on an insulin pump, and I run cross country. I've been having a lot of issues in which my doctors can't really seem to help me out, so I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions...my first race is in 2.5 weeks and I'd like to get it fixed by then. I do everything my doctors tell me to do...suspend the pump, eat fast and slow acting carbs...regardless of what I do I still end up going low into my run and end up having to stop. First and foremost, do you guys have any suggestions? Also, is there a specialist I can see that can assist me with this. I'd appreciate a response ASAP thanks for all of your help in advance!
Contact Gary Scheiner at type1university.com. He's has type 1 diabetes and is an exercise physiologist.
You can also try contacting Sheri Colbert, another type 1 exercise physiologist who wrote "The Diabetic Athlete."
Is there any way you could carry some glucose gel or chomps with you as you train the next couple weeks? Carry a crazy amount because that's what it takes to treat lows for the first few weeks. The lows should diminish and become more manageable after your body adjusts and becomes more efficient. You could also try to drink/eat a bunch of glucose right before you go, but it could skyrocket your blood sugar before the exercise brings it down. How high is your blood sugar when you start? You might try around 200 and see if that affects your performance; if not, it will give you a little cushion for the blood sugar drop. Keep experimenting and see what works for you.
The other part of competing is that excitement usually drops blood sugar. So your first race be extra aware of lows and have lots of extra glucose available.
Exercise is the toughest part of managing blood sugars. Once you figure something out, let us know.
Hey, I was 261 before I started today, and then 1.8 miles into the run I dropped to 67!!!! After the run I was 286!!!!! I 'm just not sure what to do, I took 15 grams of carbs then rechecked and finished the run.So I'm very depressed and upset right now.
You're not as off track as you think. 67 isn't a bad exercise low... it can be treated with 15g of carb or so. To put it in perspective, a non-diabetics blood sugar is often between 60-80.
Were you eating glucose between the 67 and when your blood sugar went up to 286 or did it happen on its own?
you feel pretty miserable after dropping from 261 to 67, but once that happened, i stopped, had 15 grams, waited 10 minutes then continued. when i finished the run, i checked and i was 286
Didn't mean to imply it didn't affect you or your run, just that it wasn't medically dangerous.
The cool thing is that your glucose isn't dropping crazy low from your workout. My guess is the 286 was caused because your muscles released stored glucose (called glycogen) during your run. I'm not a runner but this has happened to me during mountain biking, weight lifting, or anything else that uses deep muscle. It usually causes an unexpected low hours later (often happens to me in the middle of the night) when muscles take glucose back out of the blood to replenish their glycogen stores.
If you can struggle through a couple weeks of this, there's a good chance your body will become more efficient and not use or dump as much glucose. Your blood sugar will still decrease, but not as dramatically as now.
How you're eating and adjusting insulin sounds decent. If you aren't eating protein 30 minutes or so before your run, try that. I've also had good luck having some of my pre-exercise carbs from yogurt. Something about the dairy/fat keeps my blood sugar more stable.
That's all I can suggest. Check with the Scheiner and Colberg and hopefully one of the marathon runners on this site will respond.
Don't be discouraged. You can figure this out.