I rode through Concord, New Hampshire today. Riding through it was a first for The Dream Tour. It’s the capital of New Hampshire and it’s the first capital city that I’ve ridden through on The Dream Tour.

Usually, I would try to avoid state capitals just like I would try to avoid any big city because they can be difficult to negotiate on a bicycle, especially when you’re unfamiliar with where the good bicycling routes are. But not Concord. I crossed the Merrimack River on the east side of Concord and two blocks later, I made a right turn onto Main Street which is where the capitol building is located. It was quiet downtown, even for a Saturday morning. There were people setting up for a flea market on one of the streets next to the capitol building. There were people sitting out, having coffee, enjoying the sunshine. And then there was me, enjoying the sights, taking pictures, and wishing I could spend a casual Saturday morning in downtown Concord.

I had places to go though. Namely, our destination for today, Keene, New Hampshire. It was a hilly 55 miles on busy roads beyond Concord. On top of that, there was a 10-15 mile per hour wind from the west. It was a bit of a problem when I was headed west, but the roads wind around so much around here that I had frequent breaks from riding directly into the wind.

Still, the hills and the wind and the heat combined to make this a more intense day than I had planned. While preparing for my ride this morning, I reduced my basal to 70% of its normal rate. This is the reduction that I normally use for moderate rides on The Dream Tour. Looking back on it, I should have just reduced my basal rate and additional 10%, but each time I stopped and had a low blood sugar, I was convinced that all I had to do was treat this low and then my blood sugars would come back into line. And I’m sure they did. For a while anyway. Generally, I can feel the symptoms of a low blood sugar — especially a 56 — and I know I didn’t feel symptoms of a low all day long, so they must have been normal for a while.

Here are my blood sugars from today:

• 130 (5:38 AM — fasting)
• 69 (7:09 AM — pre-ride — ate an additional half bagel and a banana)
• 56 (9:05 AM — 10 ounces of apple juice and half a bagel)
• 56 (10:18 AM — banana, half a bagel)
• 62 (11:50 AM — lunchtime — half a cup of raisins, bagel with peanut butter. Mmmm!)
• 83 (12:37 PM — 10 ounces of apple juice and a banana)
• 158 (2:10 PM — post-ride)
• 112 (4:45 PM)

I felt like I was eating all day long! I’ll have to reduce my basal to 60% (or less) of normal because the next couple of days of riding are on similiar, if not hillier, terrain.

While I was out riding today, Pat was out visiting some of the covered bridges in the area. Here are some of her pictures:

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 5:48 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Diabetes, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.