Diabetes Game: Walking the line...

Howdy from HotLanta,

As always, it is great to be back home. We are heading into the crit series next, so I should have a steady influx of temp roommates in the house. First it was Daniel Holt, now Ken Hanson, but the guys are cool which makes it easy. Last I wrote, was after the test, and I was a bit down. Lots of work has been put in to getting faster, stronger, leaner to have a chance at success this year, and to find out the surgery was a failure really sucked. But, even with the semi-functional blood flow, I was still going ok, and the team was solid for Battenkill, so I went in ready to do my best for the team.

Saturday was a shorter race, at 80 miles. The weather was sketchy, in that it was nice and sunny at the start, but a good chance for rain. Normally I would have brought a rain jacket, and some arm warmers, but instead of having my bag go to Albany NY (on my flight) it went to Lafayette, LA. How this happened, I don't know, but Ken Hanson gave me a kit to race in. I was wearing Navigator, and 1 hour pre race was sitting at 150 flat line. Then there was a slight upward trend as we edged closer, and closer to the start. This is good, as typically at the beginning of a race is when the biggest drop happens for me. But apparently I either a) didn't have enough Lantus on board or b) ate too much before the start. But no way I am doing Apidra this close to the start. We started the race, and there was a solid climb at the start, and Dan and Ken made the break. They began to get more and more time on us, as the field rode a nice easy pace. There were tons of dirt roads on the course, and a lot of big rollers. It may be the coolest bike race course I have ever done. On the shorter hills, I am good, and was able to ride at/near the front. On some of the longer ones, the left leg would go numb, and I would have to gauge my effort very carefully as not to completely kill my leg. About 45 minutes into the race shortly after I ate a gel, I checked the Navigator and was 250ish. Then 30 minutes later 290, then 350... So it was water time. I quit eating food and gels, and just tried to stick to water. We then came up this 4km stair step climb. Steep at the bottom, then less steep, then more steep, for a while... 1km from the top I was unable to pedal with the left, so just went at a nice steady pace thinking my race was over. We made a left, and then down a long dirt descent. It was now raining, and I was freezing cold, so figured I would just pull out. Then I saw the group about a minute up the road, going slow, so I went a hard tempo to get back on. The blessing in disguise here was that we passed my buddy Johnny Sundt, who was just out riding, and he gave me his rain jacket. Thanks Johnny! Got back in the group, and we decided to pull the plug at the feed anyway. Dan had flatted out of the break, and Ken was trading attacks with the others up there, and ended up with a solid 3rd place. I got back and immediately gave a massive bolus, and after about 30-45 minutes started taking in calories again.
After that I was very sensitive to my Apidra, so was giving 3/4 boluses for food and snacks. Good BS's through the night, and after the high in race the day before, decided to stick with same basal instead of reducing. Mistake!

Day 2 was 200km (125 miles) on the same course, but with more teams in the race. It started pretty quick from the gun, and we had some good fights getting to the front for the dirt. Shawn Milne was our leader for the day, and we all felt good that we could rock it. I had a gel early, and then another, followed by some cliff blocks. I thought things were good, and made it through the tough parts of the course, gauging my efforts over the climbs carefully. As we got near the feedzone, I pulled out the Navigator, and saw 157 with an arrow Straight down, which gave me a quick alarm. So immediately, I downed 2 gels, more cliff blocks, and whatever sugar bottle they gave me. At the feed zone, I took 2 more bottles, downed another gel, and saw that I was 155 and flat. I thought I had avoided disaster, and was now 100% focused on the enxt dirt sections. Team Type 1 was well represented at the front, and we were constantly jostling for position on the dirt. We made it over a long gradual climb, and were bombing down the descent, when I heard the sound of air leaving my tire rapidly... Flat- happens all the time. I called Vassili on the radio, and started drifting through the line of 150 guys behind us. Alex gave me a quick wheel change, and was off chasing. So here I am chasing down the hill in the midst of a bike race induced dust storm. It reminded me of "Days of Thunder" and the cloud of smoke. I had a field to catch, so just closed my eyes (not really) and went for it, dodging cars, riders, and some rocks. It took about 20 minutes, but I got back on, dead from the chase, and at the base of a climb. Came off over the top, and then chased back again. It looked like it was slowing up, so I grabbed some bottles from the car to take to the guys. Then we began to go full tilt again. I was at the back, dying a slow death, but determined to get these bottles to the guys, as I could tell my race was coming to an early end. I managed to get Dan and Aldo feeds, just as my alarms began going crazy. I had already puked a bit of gel, and was sick to my stomach from the overload of carbs early, but still dropping. I guess the chase had me thinking of one thing and one thing only, which was to get back on. I should have been thinking get back on, well fueled, and help the guys. But for about 30 minutes of hard, hard riding, I forgot to eat a thing. When I saw 115 with an arrow going down, I knew I would have to take in about 75gms of carbs to have a chance, but couldn't even fathom a sip of gatorade. But, I got the bottles to the guys, and then Shawn went onto 4th place. He was nearly guaranteed 2nd, but a mis-timed flat ended our hopes of the podium. Scott Nydam (BMC) was off the front the entire day, and really deserved his win, and Karl-(10-Men)zies (Ouch) came in 2nd. All in all, it was a good day for the team. Our Orbea bikes were perfect for the fast stretches on the road, but also very good on the dirt.

What is the moral of the story here?? It isn't easy to nail the blood sugars every time. But knowing the # gives the power to deal with it accordingly. Had I not had Navigator on Saturday, I would have eated too much, and come home at 400, and on Sunday, I would not have been able to eat so much in advance of the low. Knowledge is power here, but no more so than off the bike. Check and correct, no matter where you are. It will help!

Then it was time to head home, and get ready for Twilight, and all the crits. I did my MRA, (which is an MRI of the arteries,) yesterday, and I will hopefully here from the surgeons at Emory as to what my options are. In the meantime, I have got some good advice from Tim Johnson, and a few others, so will continue to tweak things to make that leg work.

I really appreciate the support, and well wishes, and hope to see you at the crits. Please come say hey, and meet the team. Time to see big Joe turn on his speed, and Morgan Patton has a great chance at scoring her first NRC win this next week. I am real excited for the team.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day!

Phil
http://twitter.com/PhilSoutherland
www.TeamType1.org