Night time cycle ride.

Anybody have experience of cycling throughout the night 6-8 hrs and how it affects the blood sugars? Will be able to test each hour and there are regular resting places. Have started training and 1 hour seems to reduce my blood sugar by 2 despite taking a couple of biscuits before setting off.
Any experience or tips gratefully received.

No experience, but with an activity like that which is over long periods and a steady intensity I would imagine a reduction in insulin would be needed, so maybe think about dropping your previous meal dose down, and if that doesn't work, your background may need to be considered.......

All just standard handbook advice I'm afraid, good luck with it..........

Thanks for your help, will keep playing with it and good luck for the 1000.

Hi there - sounds cool! I haven't done long overnight rides but i have done long events including 3 x 100km bike rides. General Dafne comments focus on reducing your insulin but dont comment on your eating. Standard food guidelines for any endurance event (diabetic or otherwise) is weght based. kg weight = grams CHO e.g. i weigh 60kg so when riding/swimming or running I had 60grams of complex carbs per hour. if you do some more training sessions with food included you'll be able to work your insulin out better. i think you'd find it more helpful if you go into a good bike shop, ask about nutrition for that length of ride then come back to this site and get advice from there. When i helped at an all night ride once, we were cooking pasta the whole time and on the rest stops the guys ate then went off again.

Hi Jenny, sorry for the late reply. It is a charity ride where I am supporting Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Having not ridden a bike for 20+ years, its madness. Thanks for the brilliant advice, I will practise using your theory. Only trouble is, I don't like pasta, so potatoes it is!! Will try the bike shop, hadn't thought of that.

Have you considered a Hydration Backpack? I attach a link. If you fill it with non diet lemonade that should keep any Hypo at bay. Best of luck DD.

Link wont work so enter Google search...'cycle drink backpack' and see whats avaliable.

Thanks Dave, whatever happened to the other 4 members? Will give your link a look. Finding background insulin is dropping quite a lot already.

Hello - Have you done your ride yet? My tip might be too late! I don't do any overnight exercise but do work night shifts sometimes and even though its the same activity as day shifts find I need much much less insulin. Especially towards the early hours of the morning I sometimes have hypos. I normally reduce my background to 70-80%, but doing exercise I imagine you would need to reduce more. Make sure you eat lots of pasta before!! good luck!

Thanks ktop10, very interesting and helpful. June 10 is the big day and getting closer by the minute. My background has been reduced dramatically since training began. Only one problem with the pasta thing, I am not at all keen on it. We are working on it though.

hi Vic - hope all your training is going well and you've got your nutrition sorted. If you're not a fan of pasta, creamed rice is an absolutely yummy way to get carbs regularly. I'm sure this close to the ride things will be coming together a lot more. I saw an article on "runsweet" (I think) about a medical team in England who specialise in diabetics and sport - sounds good.
All the best.