Dropping low while cycling

[Skater P]

Hi all, just registered, first posting.

I got diagnosed 2 weeks ago with suspected T1.
I cycle for travel, sport and as cross training for speed skating

This is all very new and I maybe trying to "speed run" the whole T1D thing too fast. I'm still doing manual finger prick testing, working out my ratios, balancing eating, bolus and activity.

While I'm enjoying the improved legs that having some glycogen stores give you a few times out on the bike I've tested as a precaution and found myself low (e.g 3.6 today) but still feeling fine with no symptoms I've associated with my one "off the bike" low

(For reference I was a little above 10.2 before the start of the today's ride, down to 3.6 when I tested after about 10-12 miles but it seems to be common to have a huuuge dip on every ride I've been on)

Do I just need to eat more before I go out and not worry about pushing myself out of range?

For the first week after diagnosis I wasn't eating enough carbs as I was confused about what I needed to do around diet (I may not be still not be eating enough, I have no idea what the right amount is)
I'm possibly also worried about over-correcting for a low but that might be the safest side to be on.

How I deal with the speed skating is anyones guess 😎 I think it is going to be more like an interval session than steady state aerobic but that is out of scope for this thread...

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Skater P 🙂 Yes, I think maybe you are trying to sprint at things a bit. I’d leave the exercise until you get more stable and until your body has recovered now it’s got the insulin it needs. It’s probably been struggling for a while.

When you do start cycling again, you could have top-up carbs on your ride as you need them. It’s really important to preserve your hypo awareness and I’d be a little worried that you couldn’t spot the hypo on your bike like you can ‘on land’.

The recommended diet for Type 1s is the same healthy diet recommended for everyone. We just need to be our own pancreas. So, cereal, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, pizza, potatoes, pulses are all fine. I just eat what I would have eaten if I hadn’t developed Type 1. In fact, when I was diagnosed, the first step was a dietician asking me what I ate in an average day and then helping me adjust my insulin to cover that.

 

[helli]

Managing diabetes when doing exercise is something that takes trial and error.
What I have learned is that there is no one way of doing it and our BG depends on more than just "it's exercise".
Cycling is the example I usually give as there are certainly different things to consider such as duration, intensity, starting BG, when you last ate, amount of active insulin in your body and even the weather.
I try to exercise with no active insulin on board but that will depend on the other things.
- if i cycle gentle along the flat tow path whilst chatting to my friends, my BG is not impacted very much.
- if I do intensive high impact bike training such as a spin class for 45 to 60 minutes, my BG will go down.
- if I slog up a steep hill against the wind in the pouring rain, my BG will go up.
Each different type needs a different diabetes management technique.

 

[Skater P]

Welcome @Skater P 🙂 Yes, I think maybe you are trying to sprint at things a bit. I’d leave the exercise until you get more stable and until your body has recovered now it’s got the insulin it needs. It’s probably been struggling for a while.

When you do start cycling again, you could have top-up carbs on your ride as you need them. It’s really important to preserve your hypo awareness and I’d be a little worried that you couldn’t spot the hypo on your bike like you can ‘on land’.

The recommended diet for Type 1s is the same healthy diet recommended for everyone. We just need to be our own pancreas. So, cereal, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, pizza, potatoes, pulses are all fine. I just eat what I would have eaten if I hadn’t developed Type 1. In fact, when I was diagnosed, the first step was a dietician asking me what I ate in an average day and then helping me adjust my insulin to cover that.

Thanks @Inka
Very much so on the struggling for a while, my joy this week has been from eating some carbs again and feeling power returning (which I of course I've been testing out on the bike)

I heard someone say "Diabeties" so radically changed my diet in the first week (which was not a good week) the last one has been much better.

I'm trying to find a sensible diet, my pre-diagnosis diet wasn't good towards then end (I developed a sweet tooth after never being a big fan) having been not that bad for years before I that.

Yes, the un-telegraphed lows are a worry and I need to be more careful of them as I'm flying without flash/CGM

Thanks for the reminder it's not a race I can win in a week...

 

[Inka]

“It’s a marathon not a sprint” is a phrase often used here @Skater P and it’s very true. Pace yourself 🙂

As for diet, Type 1 is a very different condition from Type 2 and nothing to do with diet. It’s an auto-immune condition, as you probably now know. It’s all about being your own pancreas and trying to replace the insulin your pancreas can no longer make as closely as you can to your body’s needs. That’s easier said than done! We’re not aiming for perfection - because it’s impossible - but as time goes by, you’ll gain experience and start to get the hang of things.

These are the books often recommended for Type 1s on this forum:

Think Like a Pancreas’ by Gary Scheiner.

And Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas (ignore the title - great for adults too)

Think Like A Pancreas is American but I liked the chatty style and it contains some great information, as does the Ragnar Hanas book. They’re books to read over time and to refer to. Type 1 is a huge learning experience and that learning is continual.

 

[Skater P]

...amount of active insulin in your body and even the weather.
I try to exercise with no active insulin on board

Thanks for the pointers @helli

That may have been where I went/asm going wrong, I started 2:30 hours after my breakfast and its bolus (Novarapid) and while I think I was over the peak I'm likely to have had something, and my basal I s'pose

Getting the carb values for flapjacks when the cafe didn't have nutritional info at all took the joy out of the unexpected mid ride feed.

 

[trophywench]

Getting the carb values for flapjacks when the cafe didn't have nutritional info at all took the joy out of the unexpected mid ride feed.

Frankly IMHO I'd have taken it as a sign I didn't need any insulin for the flapjack ! You presumably were going to continue riding the bike, hence that would drop your blood glucose even more.

 

[helli]

Frankly IMHO I'd have taken it as a sign I didn't need any insulin for the flapjack ! You presumably were going to continue riding the bike, hence that would drop your blood glucose even more.

In my experience, flapjacks from cages tend to be large and carby (they are mostly oats and golden syrup/honey) so it is rare to get away with no insulin although may need less when doing cardio exercise.

 

[trophywench]

Well if they have to keep em in a cage before they sell them, that would indicate to me that they're very aggressive, so I'd probably choose summat else instead. Is this a feature of other parts of the UK that I have never been to? Do the shops have 'Caution dangerous flapjacks' warnings on the doors?

 

[Skater P]

Frankly IMHO I'd have taken it as a sign I didn't need any insulin for the flapjack ! You presumably were going to continue riding the bike, hence that would drop your blood glucose even more.

Yeap, I just didn't want to send myself way over the other way (as Helli mentioned) the cafe did at least weigh it for me and it was 100g so could have been a good 50g of carbs and I don't yet know how much grams of carbs I need to add to get me up the two or three notches on the BG meter.
Either way, I managed to stop at just before I was half way through the flapjack and waited for half an hour before testing again and going off on my merry way.

Oh, and I got my referal letter from my trip to the dietition with some advice around adjusting bolus to carb before riding and that (along with a sedate pace) helped have me stay up at 8mmol/L mid ride today, landing at 5.9mmol/L by the time I got home which I'll take as a win.

 

[CliffH]

Hi all, just registered, first posting.

I got diagnosed 2 weeks ago with suspected T1.
I cycle for travel, sport and as cross training for speed skating

This is all very new and I maybe trying to "speed run" the whole T1D thing too fast. I'm still doing manual finger prick testing, working out my ratios, balancing eating, bolus and activity.

While I'm enjoying the improved legs that having some glycogen stores give you a few times out on the bike I've tested as a precaution and found myself low (e.g 3.6 today) but still feeling fine with no symptoms I've associated with my one "off the bike" low

(For reference I was a little above 10.2 before the start of the today's ride, down to 3.6 when I tested after about 10-12 miles but it seems to be common to have a huuuge dip on every ride I've been on)

Do I just need to eat more before I go out and not worry about pushing myself out of range?

For the first week after diagnosis I wasn't eating enough carbs as I was confused about what I needed to do around diet (I may not be still not be eating enough, I have no idea what the right amount is)
I'm possibly also worried about over-correcting for a low but that might be the safest side to be on.

How I deal with the speed skating is anyones guess 😎 I think it is going to be more like an interval session than steady state aerobic but that is out of scope for this thread...

I'm a keen cyclist and insulin-dependent Type 1 (Late Onset). As with most keen cyclists, I take energy drink with me: even more important since I became diabetic, to avoid hypos.

Someone once told me that cycling is the animal kingdom's most efficient way of burning calories (with a salmon swimming upstream being Number Two!), so it's not hard to run out of available sugar when cycling, even for non-diabetics. Also, a long ride (say three hours) will mean that I need somewhat less insulin for the next 24 hours or so, so you may not need to worry too much even if your blood sugar's slightly higher than optimum when you finish a ride.

 

[trophywench]

I do realise why salmon swim upstream 'at all costs' but considering what sockeye look like by the time they get there (ie ugly as sin) I've never understood why anyone not actually compelled to take such arduous exercise would do it voluntarily.

 

[CliffH]

I do realise why salmon swim upstream 'at all costs' but considering what sockeye look like by the time they get there (ie ugly as sin) I've never understood why anyone not actually compelled to take such arduous exercise would do it voluntarily.

When I first visited the Fish Ladder at Pitlochry, I was disappointed that it's not a real ladder: I imagined the salmon jumping up from one rung to the next. https://pitlochry-scotland.co.uk/local-walks/pitlochry-dam-and-fish-ladder-walk.php