The Diabetic Athlete » food

Weekend Fun (bklyn half; nyack ride)

Cary — Mon, 23 May 2011 22:49:44 +0000

Saturday was the Brooklyn Half-Marathon where I clocked a 2:00:58 – my goal time being sub 2 hours. Almost made it. Lessons for the road – waking up with a 270 BG at 5am is going to cause problems for a 7am race. Miles 7-9 were difficult as I was battling to keep a BG over 60 (Gatorade and Gu made me rather “full” while my BG inched up slowly). Once I hit mile 9 and finished dogging it, my pace picked up and I was able to finish off the race down the boardwalk without incident. Next half marathon the goal pace will be Sub-1:55 possibly sub-1:50. I should try and get some more longer training runs in – more than the 4 miles I usually stop with. This was also my first long run with my Nike Free 3.0 shoes. I’m really enjoying them – far better performance than many other traditional running shoes.

After passing out at 8pm I awoke early Sunday morning for a bike ride. A nice 60 mile ride to Nyackand back. Hill climbing was interesting to say the least as I rode strong, but the hills were painful as my overall leg flexibility was far less than normal. BGs were stable, although my insulin was highly sensitive and I used great care in bolusing.

I figure after a weekend like this I should be a little sore and beaten up (which I am); however, my right foot has some strange pain that I am slightly concerned about. I’m trying to rest it and see how it feels before putting more miles on it since the last time I pushed hard on an injury I ended up in an air-cast for 10 days.

Update June 10: Foot pain subsided after a few days of rest. Currently considering an Ironman distance event in late 2012 on top of the NYC Marathon in Nov 2012. Still looking to do some more half-marathons this year and actually put some training miles in.

Milk

Cary — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:04:04 +0000

We had no refrigerator for almost two weeks (compressor died). I drank about a gallon of milk in the 36 hours after we got a temporary replacement. I am always interested in how different types of milk with their highly variable carb/sugar/protein combinations effect blood glucose. I have been drinking organic skim milk as of late and it is about 12g of carbs per serving. However, I really only bolus for about 3g of carbs and let my basal attack the slow stuff (protein, fats).

When I have the opportunity to drink whole or 2% milk, the entire math changes because it is far more fatty and more carb intensive.

I’m a huge fan of chocolate milk post workout. I completely agree with this “study” DCRainMaker did a few years back.

Pizza, Burgers & Carbs for Athletes

Cary — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:11:55 +0000

I was reading The Incurable Runner and the story about running into Chrissie Wellington at a local burger shop.

It got me thinking about writing down how I deal with burgers, fries and pizza as they are a staple food in high-fat/high-carb eating (and splurging). To me, diabetes is simply a complex math problem with mostly UNKNOWNS. So solving for X (a good blood sugar) involves quite a few variables that you can get wrong.

Cheese burger: 50g (medium size), 1u:10g, 85% upfront, 15% over 1.5 hours. More fat/cheese/bacon, we simply add a little more time and less insulin to the upfront. Add some fries with that burger? Simply add it to my upfront component. Fries alone? 95% upfront, and leave a small 5% trail over the next hour.

Regular cheese pizza slice: 40g, 1u:10g, 55% upfront, 45% over the next 2 hours. For eating more than one slice, I will sometimes actually use 1u:9g, 55% upfront, and 45% over 3 hours.

It’s easy to get in trouble with these types of foods. However, I feel there is no reason not to enjoy them (especially if you can control the outcome reasonably well).

Nb. This works for me. This math will probably will not work for you. With a large amount of exercise on board I need to be careful of the trails over 1+ hours, since when the body is working harder the insulin gets supercharged to an unknown degree (another joyful variable).

Carbs

Cary — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:46:31 +0000

Low carb? Not me. I’m a high carb intake type 1 diabetic. Breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal and milk (not a small bowl, but a bowl that is about 1.5-2 serving sizes). I eat lots of pizza. Cheese and crackers are a fantastic snack (and easy to bolus if you are counting the crackers in advance). Some days I may eat 500 grams of carbs, other days I may eat 100 grams. It all depends upon the needs of my body that day and how hard I am working.

As long as I am not constantly consuming carbs to keep BGs within range (a BG control issue) – I am happy to consume carbs to keep my body energized.

Reading another athlete with T1:

Carbs are not my problem. I take Novolog insulin analog to replace the insulin my body isn’t producing. And as a type 1 diabetic friend once said, “I’m not on an insulin budget.”

If you are working hard and burning energy, you need carbs (sometimes a disgusting amount). End of story.