April 18: Coldwater to Harper, Kansas
Today’s ride was supposed to be an easy, flat 78-mile cruise. At least, that’s what I expected. Well, the ride was neither easy nor flat. The road between Coldwater and Medicine Lodge is 41 miles of rolling hills. As soon as you get to the top of one hill, there’s another downhill followed by an uphill that you could swear is the same one you just finished.
But it wasn’t the hills that really got to me today. I actually find that rolling hills make for nice riding. It was the wind advisories today that got to me. The wind was mostly from the north with just a touch of a tailwind. The winds were 25-35 miles per hour with gusts to 40. On the plus side though, the temperatures was only around 80 degrees instead of the 95 that it was yesterday. Both yesterday’s ride and today’s ride, I had 4 bottles of water with me and two 12 ounce bottles of apple juice. Today, the only thing I had left when I arrived was one bottle of juice and about half a bottle of water.
I’ve written on the site about the difficulties (and dangers) of riding with a strong cross wind in my entry for April 15, so I won’t say any more about it here except to add that today has to qualify as one of my least favorite days on the tour so far. Seventy-five miles of fighting the cross-wind and the final three miles directly into the wind and I’m tired and when I got to Harper, I was not in a very good mood. A nice hot shower really helped to improve my outlook, but I’m really, really hoping tomorrow isn’t like this.
Here are some blood sugars from today’s ride.
| Time: | Blood Glucose (mg/dl) | Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| 6:52 AM | 137 | fasting. My bedtime BG at 9:52 PM was 70 mg/dl |
| 8:20 AM | 62 | About 40 minutes from ride start. At about 7:45 AM, I had a bagel and peanut butter for breakfast. I bolused 5 units. Because it was so low, I had an extra half bagel and a banana. |
| 10:22 AM | 76 | About an hour and 15 minutes into the ride. Had a banana and 12 ounces of apple juice |
| 90 | 11:51 AM | Time for lunch. Bagel, banana, energy bar. Hmmm! |
| 12:33 PM | 88 | |
| 1:13 PM | 119 | About 10 miles from Harper, our destination for today. |
| 4:58 PM | 129 | I was feeling pretty wiped out after the ride today, so at about 2:30, I had another half a bagel with peanut butter, a rice cake, and a full bottle of water. |
April 18th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Sorry you had a bad day. I hope tomorrow is better. This is my first time replying to your posts, but I always look forward to reading your daily entry. I have type 1 diabetes and use an insulin pump. I am training to run a 1/2 marathon, and you are a huge inspiration for me. Keep up the good work!