More cornfields and farmhouses today. But there’s a couple new additions to the mix: beanfields and the occasional aroma of a feedlot or pig farm.

But, just like yesterday, the ride was mostly rural and I went through just four towns during the 65 mile ride to Storm Lake: Fort Dodge (population 25,493), Clara (population: unknown, but very small), Fonda(population: 588), and Storm Lake(population: 9,963).

My blood sugars while riding have been pretty good recently. I’ve started eating less while I’m riding and drinking more energy drinks. With the heat and humidity, I need to be drinking as much as possible anyway. When I start out in the morning, in addition to the energy drinks (2 bottles worth which is about 100 grams of carbohydrate), I still bring with me the bagels, raisins, and bananas that I know and love. At the end of the day, I usually find the bagels uneaten. The bananas are always eaten. And that’s a good thing because a banana usually won’t survive more than one day in my bike bag.

Another thing I’ve started doing is adding an electrolyte solution to my water bottles. The energy drink that I use has some electrolytes, it is not an electrolyte replacement drink, so I need some other sources of electrolytes. The bananas and raisins have potassium, but not much sodium.

Anyway, here’s my blood sugars from the last two rides (on August 15 and August 16). First, from August 15:

• 110 (7:30 AM) - pre-ride. Ate banana and drank a half a bottle of apple juice. I had lowered my basal rate to 60% of normal just before this test. This is too late — I should have lowered it about an hour before starting my ride. In the activity of getting ready for a ride, I frequently forget to lower my basal rate early enough. As a result, I often have lower than usual blood sugars about an hour into my bike ride. This is an area where I could definitely improve my control.
• 92 (9:06 AM) - banana and bagel
• 101 (10:49 AM) - apple juice
• 128 (12:10 PM) - banana
• 133 (2:04 PM) - post-ride
• 135 (4:50 PM) - pre-dinner
• 73 (7:49 PM) - post-dinner
• 80 (10:20 PM) - bedtime
• 63 (12:02 AM) - Woke up feeling low. Drank a bottle of apple juice.

And now, from August 16:

• 88 (6:16 AM) - fasting
• – (7:30 AM) - lowered basal rate to 60% of normal
• 80 (8:08 AM) - pre-ride. Ate banana.
• 73 (9:15 AM) - banana and energy bar (48 grams of carbohydrate)
• 92 (10:40 AM) - apple juice and bagel
• 92 (12:13 PM) - banana and bagel
• 124 (12:52 PM) - post-ride

Here’s a link to some other pictures from today’s bike ride:

August 16: Fort Dodge to Storm Lake, Iowa Photos

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 7:34 am 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.