Nov 17 2008
Unexpected Turn
Three years ago today I was diagnosed with diabetes. My doctor said I had been diabetic for a long time, however I consistently rode a bike so much, it just didn’t show up until my pancreas quit producing insulin and the disease was not longer manageable by exercise alone. He also said I was the most fit patient he ever had and there was little he could do other than prescribe insulin for me.
How did he know I was a diabetic for a while? Because my first A1C number was 16.1. A1C also is known as glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and is formed by the attachment of glucose to hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying protein found in red blood cells. The percentage of glycosylated hemoglobin in the blood reflects the average blood sugar levels over the preceding 2-3 months. My A1C translated into an average glucose level of 443. For normal healthy people their A1C would be 6 or below and at any given time their glucose level should be below 100.
After my first visit and diagnoses, I set out to educate myself about this disease and found there is a wealth of information about how bad diabetes is, but little information is out there about diabetic athletes. Maybe this is because diabetes is different for everyone and nobody has it the same way or the disease changes over time. Fortunately for me I did not need to make many changes in my diet, but I did need to figure out how my body uses glucose and more importantly I needed to know how much energy I consumed while riding my bike. So how did I do this? By trial and error on my bike and at times it became interesting.
Getting low blood sugar (hypoglycemic) can be scary, even deadly and is easily accomplished by riding a bike because of the energy (glucose) your body uses during riding. Remember that trial and error learning I mentioned earlier? I found out quickly about being hypoglycemic, but I also learned a lot. So I started a new journey on learning what works for me. I now know how much glucose I consume and the difference in consumption rates between when riding my commuter bike and just cruising along, riding my go fast carbon fiber road bike, and riding my indoor trainer.
The biggest nuisance of diabetes is I can not carbo load for long rides, my recovery from long hard rides takes longer, and running out of gas (bonking) during a ride is a major pain in the ass. Although I have not had the need to be picked up and brought home, I have come close.
The best thing from diabetes is I am more fit and as my son puts it, I am “the most fit sick person he knows.” I ride more, work out more, and have significantly increased my fitness level. My morning blood pressure is 98/59, resting pulse is 49, body fat is in the low teens, and my A1C 5.9. That is a healthy persons A1C.
My lifestyle has changed a lot in the last three years. I start my mornings by sticking my finger to check my glucose (sugar) level and do this several more times during the day. I make a mental note of everything I eat or drink during the day, along with planning on how much to eat so it corresponds to the physical activity I am going to have during the day. I take my meter everywhere I go along with some kind of fruit as a backup in case my numbers tank and I pay attention to how I am feeling. I am one of the lucky diabetics who can feel the highs and lows of my blood sugar.
Three years ago today my bicycle journey turned onto a different and unexpected road. It reminded me life is not about the destination, but more importantly about the fun we have on the journey. Life is good and bikes make it fun.
Sorry to hear about your diabetes. I have done a fair amount of research to determine energy use when bicycling and it seems like it varies a lot.
How do you do it so specifically from bike to bike? Is more of a subjective thing on how you feel or are you getting some type of objective measurment?
Interesting thing about these blogs is you know so little about some people even when reading their blogs. For some reason I had you pegged as being younger than a guy who would have a son commenting on his father’s health.
How do you keep track of all that? I’m so disorganised that I struggle to keep up a regular input to my blog, can’t even keep a record of mileage etc.. Your efforts have obviously proved rewarding, in that your fitness levels are so good and you know where you’re going. Well done.
Cyclingred: I started by eating certain foods and taking my glucose readings every 15 minutes when I was riding. It gave me a good idea on how much my numbers would drop during the course of a ride and how they could be maintained during the rides by consuming certain amounts and type of carbs. Early on there was couple of times I became hypoglycemic and thought I may have pushed it too far. But eventually I fine tuned it and it is pretty easy to plan a ride or even be spontaneous.
My son and nephew have always made comments about my fitness because they can not out climb me on hills or go faster than me on flat ground. And because they are young men and also full of young man bravado, I always give them the, ” I am an old man and I can beat you.” Now that I have diabetes I tell them they can not even beat an old sick man. We all have a good laugh over it.
Welshcyclist: I keep a running total of daily food intake and glucose readings in my head during the day. I also have a computer program to track all of my glucose readings so I know what my averages are for each meal, day, week, month, and year and can create a graph for any given period of time. It also helps to like numbers and math.