It is great to finally be back, and get a chance to reflect on last week. I have raced for a lot of years now, and done a few stage races, but never had I done one with such a strong team, organization, and leadership. After day 3, I was having issues, and digging real deep a lot of the time. Pretty much in pain from waking up to going to bed. But as soon as we got on the Orbea Orca bikes, (which thanks to Super Doug Berner, worked perfectly and were spotless every day) things got better. Why: we were talking about the race, planning strategy, and going for the win every day, and trying to chip away at the overall. Before the warm up, our soigneur, Jeremy Fliss had all food ready, bottles made, and radios ready as well. We would even get a quick rub before the start to get the blood flowing. Then there would be more talk, planning, race begins, and the small aches would go away, and it would just be the hurt box. Shawn was a great leader on and off the road, and allowed us to work, knowing he would to his absolute best to deliver. Chris patrolled the front for all 8 days, as did Emile, and Valeri was our attack master. After race finished, we had bottles made, clean up a bit, and go sit on the bus or ride back to the hotel.
Get hear, eat some food, get massage, eat more food, fight for the one internet cable, and then go to sleep. We would also have a meeting with Ed Beamon see pic with hair. He agreed to shave the goatee if we won. Sure enough Shawn delivered, and he followed through...ha (see below)
With organization like we had, the diabetes was not too much to handle.
Here is how it went:
I was doing 2x day lantus, so that I did not have to worry about hypos. Early in the race, I was having to do a lot of Apidra on a relative scale. As the race went on, I did less and less, and ate more and more. My body also adapted to the fueling needs of the race. As it went on, I had to eat less and less for the stages, and my blood sugars were more stable. With all that, the only way to make all of the small adjustments necessary (and there were A LOT) was to check, and check often. I was drinking about 1 liter of water every night right before bed to ensure I would wake up to pee, ie check. Chris Jones always got freaked out when I was checking in the middle of the night. Lucky I had my Dex 4 glucose close to the bed, and my FreeStyle Lite which has the small light (piece of cake to check in the night,) so I didn't have to wake anyone up with the big lights...
We made sure all of these guys knew what to do when hypo, and trained them with glucagon as well. Lucky didn't have to use it, or should I say skillful...
When did I check the most: before race and before bed. Usually 5 times in the hour before. Always once in the middle of the night, and 4-7 times in the 3hrs post race. Never the same 2 days in a row.
Funny enough, I can remember just about every day close to what I ended at: day 1-8:- 68*, 189, 174, 158ish, 168, 98, 128, 56*
*= BS was high or trending up before the race, so had to make small bolus, and did not eat enough.
Days 1 and 8, I was empty at the end. Day 6 was a hard, hard day, and day 7 I was so so. Days 2-5 were my best days. Any correlation to Blood sugar and performance??? You bet ya. So I learned a lot this past week, and have adjusted back to East Coast time pretty well. Back to once a day Lantus, and Apidra for my rapid.
If I were to have to make bottles, clean and work on bike, take care of meals plus this it may have been stressful. Diabetes is our disease, and with the right mindset it can be a fun challenge to overcome. I got the opportunity to learn 2x the other guys. I learned a heck of a lot about racing, and a lot about diabetes. Pretty cool.
Have a great day!
Thanks for reading.
Phil
www.teamtype1.org
