Endurance Exercise and BG

Hi,

Over the last year I have taken up cycling, I am having real problems with BG.

I don't seem to have too many problems under 3 hour rides, but i seem to struggle on longer rides, especially if I go with a group as it is awkward to keep testing.

I know it seems counter intuitive, but before a big ride (5+ hours) I half my morning BI and have a normal breakfast like porridge, with sugar unlike normal and a few units of QA. Everything seems fine during the ride for the first few hours and if we stop I test and it's normally ok, but hours in my BG usually plummets and I struggle to have enough energy gels. On 10+ hour rides I get to the point where I feel ill from the acidic nature of the energy gels!

Sometimes on a group ride I will feel hypo and have a gel without testing only to find I was knackered not hypo and my BG is 15+ and this makes me feel lethargic on the bike along with being knackered!

I am never sure on long rides if I am going to overdo it with gels and feel bad or not have enough gels to cope with the dropping BG. Does anyone else do endurance sports and have problems?

This whole situation is getting me down as other people in the cycling group don't have to deal with this rubbish, on a long ride I will take about 20+ gels and energy bars with me! other people in the group take 2 or 3!

Thanks,

Phil

Having to take more carbs than you want to sounds like your basal insulin is still too high. You may want to reduce it even more, and then take extra QA at breakfast to address any pre-ride high.

Are you able to take QA on your rides, or is it fairly non-stop?

I can't stand the gels. I save them for when I really, really need quick carb. I use sports drink, but I get sick of that pretty quickly too. Are you having lunch on your 10 hour rides? If so, then I'd recommend taking something that is low-GI so that the carbs get released slowly into the blood stream as opposed to the gels where they will do a big dump of sugar into the blood stream.

I find that food such as lentils and beans are really good, because they release sugar into the blood stream for about 8 hours. Something like this is really good:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/ricelentilloaf.htm

If your meter is a bit difficult to test with while riding, then look at getting a meter just for cycling like the Accu Chek Mobile. It doesn't leave any mess to clean up (testing strips) as it is all internal, so you can test really quickly, and then continue.

Hope that helps,
Warwick

Warwick,

Thanks for the response, yeah I have the Accu Chek Mobile, but I still need to stop to do a test, which is fine if I'm out on my own, but in a group its a bit harder, often have to guess if I'm hypo or tired!

I think you've probably hit the nail on the head with too much BI and possibly a bit more QA.

On really long rides we do stop for food, I try to have slow GI carbs such as potatoes, rice or pasta which helps.

The lentil loaf idea is also good, I could have it for breakfast (bit strange I know) to keep some carbs on board for the whole day.

Hope this thread helps other endurance atheletes too, not that I'm an athelete as such!

Phil

Hi Phil, whether you have diabetes or not, your body needs additional carbohydrate to fuel such prolonged efforts. If you watch Team Sky and the other pro teams, they are constantly eating during rides (a semi-solid rice pudding bar is one of their favourites!).

As a rule of thumb you will likely need between 30-60g carbohydrate per hour as a combination of cereal bars, sandwiches, sports drinks and gels. As Warwick advised it is a good idea to get some of your carbohydrate intake from lower GI sources (sandwiches, cereal bars etc), these are particularly useful in the earlier parts of the ride up to the last hour.

Rather than waiting until you are hungry or your BGs start to drop, try to work out a strategy of taking on the additional carbohydrate at regular intervals as a "drizzle" during the ride at regular intervals. It will take practice to train your gut and will require a bit of planning and BG monitoring to see how your body responds. .

I've even heard of riders mounting their meter such as an Accu Check Mobile onto the handle bars but be extremely careful if you do this!?

Ask to see the Dietitian at your hospital to help come up with a nutritional plan for when you are exercising.

Regards

James

James,

Thanks for the info, it is very similar to what I try to do with the 'drizzle', but like Warwick has said I might have too much BI.

As for mounting Accu Chek on bike, not sure I'm that good on the bike to do that while riding yet I would like a CGM to be able to just look at the direction of travel of BG at any time before eating on the bike, but they're too much money at the moment, the one off purchase wouldn't be too bad, but it would cost £1000s a month in pads which I couldn't do!

Thanks,

Phil

Have you tried testing at regular intervals when you do ride solo and are these rides of a similar length/duration/route to your group efforts? It might be of benefit to see if it highlights any trends rather than any hard and fast data because the group element will allow you to go further for longer, unless you always find yourself on the front in those situations! There is no getting away from the fact that you need to test in order to get the numbers but a few solitary stop-test-start rides should reduce your need on testing when in a group because you will have a better idea of what is going on (that is the theory at least, invariably experience has shown me that my body will throw in the occasional curve ball to keep me guessing).

James,

I go on 6+ hour solo rides and do stop-test-start regularly, but group rides are often longer than this upto 15 hours in the summer, the weather (wind n rain) and profile also play a big part in the effort, I try not to sit on the front for too long on a long ride if I can help it, hide behind some of the bigger guys out of the wind

I think I need to lower BI and try a few solo rides and play with the QA. Just annoying when go out on 6ish BG and stop 3-5 hours in with 20+ BG. On a dif day with dif weather/effort/speed/cadence etc... 5 hours in my BG could be 3ish! I need to keep testing on solo rides, I also need to find some slower GI carbs to have as well as the gels.

Phil

If you want a good read that might help with a few pointers, then I recommend Phil Southerland's book Not Dead Yet:

http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Southerland/e/B004LZW828

Phil was until recently a professional cyclist and is the founder of Team Type 1 which has won the Race Across America twice.

The lentil loaf is great for breakfast or for lunch cold. Especially if, like me, you coat it in tomato sauce...

I have started training for a marathon and while it’s early days and the runs are no more than 20-25 minutes i am finding my BG higher when i come in from the run. For example 9.4 and then afterwards 12.8.

Should i correct when having my dinner then at 12.8?

Thanks

Rafa,

I find if I am high (cos I've overdone the gels or not enough QA on board) when I get back before dinner I will not correct, if it was a long/strenuous ride rather than a relaxed social thing I will lower my QA for the next meal regardless of BG and then check again at bed.

For 20-25 mins of running this might not be the case, at 12.8 not correcting does it drop anyway?

Phil