Sponsor Me as a Red Rider for the Tour de Cure

I want to publicly thank BeeLady for her generous donation! I am only $75 away from my goal.

I am right on track for my ride too. I just completed my first metric century of the season. It was a bit more challenging than usual, since recently I started a new medication. I am a mild type 1 diabetic. I undersecrete insulin, but still have some response so until very recently could control it totally with diet and exercise. I recently went on symlin, an amylin analog. Its normally co-secreted with insulin, and it works to inhibit the rise in blood sugar that accompanies a meal due to glycogenolysis, and also induces delayed stomach emptying, so carbs take longer to get released into the blood stream. But, it meant I had to completely change how I eat when I ride. My first two rides on it I had zero energy. That was in part why I signed up for the tour de cure, to motivate it to be able to complete that ride with a red rider jersey that says 'I ride with Diabetes' since those words suddenly took on new meaning for me.

For my metric century this past weekend, I started with a sweet potato and chicken sausage breakfast after my symlin shot. It really did cause a slow steady rise in blood sugar that took me very nicely the first 20 miles. I monitored my blood sugar, and when it would drop to 100 took tiny amounts of carbs to bring it to ~120, which was roughly every 20 miles. I continued to drink my protein shakes. I was nervous about taking something that inhibits gylcogenolysis and gluconeogenesis on a bike ride, but since it has a relatively short half life, it let me use the breakfast I ate initially, preserving my glycogen stores for later in the ride.

I had the best energy ever. I no longer felt like there was a competition going on between my brain and muscles for glucose. I am still only going to do the metric on my tour de cure, since both the imperial and metric centuries are *very hilly* courses and I am not sure I could complete the imperial century in the required cut off time. But I'll see how my training goes and think about it.