Exercise & BG levels

Having a week or so off exercise can drive BGs up. I took a couple of weeks off exercise in June and instead of doing about 10 hours of exercise per week, I only did one 20 minute run over the two week period and my BGs went so high that I had to increase my basal insulin by quite a large amount to compensate.

Exercise helps the absorption of insulin, but for exercise of less than half an hour, taking extra QA more than what you are taking is unlikely to change your post-exercise BGs without risking hypos an hour or so after the exercise.

I'd recommend testing about 45 minutes before exercise. If you are high, you can then take QA to correct, and by the time you finish your exercise, most of the QA will be used up which should give you a good idea of how much you need to take.

Ahhhh! not sure how i will manage this especially when i run at 6:20am and my alarm normally goes off at 6:10am! This will be okay when i exercise after work but for now I may just have to carry on with what I am doing. My levels today have all been perfect *touch wood*, but tomorrow could be another story! Thankyou!

I signed up to run the London Marathon for type one diabetes research last week. Really looking forward to running for the charity. Nervous as well! Any diabetics on here run a marathon any advice/tips please? Only ever ran two half marathons before.

No marathon or any running experience, but good luck and well done........

Only run 10km (6miles) hope to increase that to 9miles
Good luck and all the best with the London marathon

Excellent Rafa. How exciting.

I've run four marathons - the first one pre-diabetes and the last three post diabetes. You will work out most or all of what you need to know in the training that you do for it. Build up the training slowly to avoid injuries - one long run a week supported by a couple of shorter runs per week is good.

For the actual day, I run with one of these:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Drink-Bottle-Holder-Belt-Hydration-Waist-Pack-Nathan-Elite-2V-Plus-Fuel-Belt-New-/330897401499

One 750 ml bottle is ordinary strength sports drink, and the other contains 3 x strength sports drink. I drink the ordinary-strength bottle of sports drink over the first quarter of the event, then stop at a drink station, transfer 1/3 of the concentrated sports drink to the empty bottle, and top it up with water from the drink station. That gets me to half way, then I transfer half of the remaining concentrated bottle to my empty bottle, top both up with water, and I'm good for the rest of the race.

The hydration belt is also good for carrying things like jelly beans, blood glucose meter, hand sanitiser, keys etc.

It's best not to rely on the provided sports drinks at the water stations as they tend to be watered down a lot. Alternatively, you might be able to hand your bottles in to the event prior to running and have them available at the drink stations, but if you do that, then make sure your bottles are very noticeable, e.g. spray paint them pink so that you can work out which is yours from everyone else's.

In training, on your long runs, work out how much carb you need to take while running, and also how much you need to drop your basal by prior to the run. On race day, you will be really prepared for anything that can happen, because it will almost certainly have already happened to you in training.

Testing for hypos is also really important in the 24-48 hours after the event (and training long runs). It is much more likely that you will have them during that period.

I wrote up about my first marathon post diabetes here:

http://needcarbs.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/marathon-number-2/

(note that at the time I was on 2 x basal insulin injections per day with no QA injections).

Marathons 3 and 4, I wrote about here when I was on basal and QA injections:

http://needcarbs.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/finishing-unfinished-business/

That last link also contains a link to Heidi Jane James' website which I'd recommend for info from another type 1 marathoner and ironman.

Thanks Warwick I'm sure your links and experience will help Rafa, I myself will try some of your suggestions to reach my next goal.......

novorapidboi26 said:
No marathon or any running experience, but good luck and well done........

Warwick said:
Excellent Rafa. How exciting.

I've run four marathons - the first one pre-diabetes and the last three post diabetes. You will work out most or all of what you need to know in the training that you do for it. Build up the training slowly to avoid injuries - one long run a week supported by a couple of shorter runs per week is good.

For the actual day, I run with one of these:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Drink-Bottle-Holder-Belt-Hydration-Waist-Pack-Nathan-Elite-2V-Plus-Fuel-Belt-New-/330897401499

One 750 ml bottle is ordinary strength sports drink, and the other contains 3 x strength sports drink. I drink the ordinary-strength bottle of sports drink over the first quarter of the event, then stop at a drink station, transfer 1/3 of the concentrated sports drink to the empty bottle, and top it up with water from the drink station. That gets me to half way, then I transfer half of the remaining concentrated bottle to my empty bottle, top both up with water, and I'm good for the rest of the race.

The hydration belt is also good for carrying things like jelly beans, blood glucose meter, hand sanitiser, keys etc.

It's best not to rely on the provided sports drinks at the water stations as they tend to be watered down a lot. Alternatively, you might be able to hand your bottles in to the event prior to running and have them available at the drink stations, but if you do that, then make sure your bottles are very noticeable, e.g. spray paint them pink so that you can work out which is yours from everyone else's.

In training, on your long runs, work out how much carb you need to take while running, and also how much you need to drop your basal by prior to the run. On race day, you will be really prepared for anything that can happen, because it will almost certainly have already happened to you in training.

Testing for hypos is also really important in the 24-48 hours after the event (and training long runs). It is much more likely that you will have them during that period.

I wrote up about my first marathon post diabetes here:

http://needcarbs.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/marathon-number-2/

(note that at the time I was on 2 x basal insulin injections per day with no QA injections).

Marathons 3 and 4, I wrote about here when I was on basal and QA injections:

http://needcarbs.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/finishing-unfinished-business/

That last link also contains a link to Heidi Jane James' website which I'd recommend for info from another type 1 marathoner and ironman.

youone said:
Only run 10km (6miles) hope to increase that to 9miles
Good luck and all the best with the London marathon