Here's my very niche n=1 story:
After doing tri for 11+ years and LD for 9 of them I was diagnosed with (late onset) Type I Diabetes last fall.
Since then I am wearing a continuous glucose monitoring device and have been able to monitor my current blood glucose level at all times. Obviously this has been very interesting, especially during workouts (I have a data-field on my garmin for that).
Knowing what I know, It is of no surprise to me that this very technology is beginning to get traction in performance application in elite athletes (e.g. jumbo-Visma).
Clearly my primary focus is managing my diabetes and still being able to do tri competitively.
Also my metabolic system is no longer fully comparable to that of somebody with a functioning pancreas.
That being said, I made a couple of observations:
In terms of what goes in my gel-flask i am still experimenting with various mixes of maltodextrin, fructose and dextrose with some citric acid and coke-flavour sirup for taste.
Going by the info in this thread I should apparently be looking into getting to a 1:1 Dextrose:Fructose ratio...
if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
After doing tri for 11+ years and LD for 9 of them I was diagnosed with (late onset) Type I Diabetes last fall.
Since then I am wearing a continuous glucose monitoring device and have been able to monitor my current blood glucose level at all times. Obviously this has been very interesting, especially during workouts (I have a data-field on my garmin for that).
Knowing what I know, It is of no surprise to me that this very technology is beginning to get traction in performance application in elite athletes (e.g. jumbo-Visma).
Clearly my primary focus is managing my diabetes and still being able to do tri competitively.
Also my metabolic system is no longer fully comparable to that of somebody with a functioning pancreas.
That being said, I made a couple of observations:
- I usually have a sharp drop in blood sugar in the first ~30 minutes of exercise (probably diabetes related and not relevant to y'all)
- For Z1/2 endurance workouts like the long run, it then stabilizes usually just below the "normal" level of 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L) without any fueling
- Then however it ever so slowly and steadily starts declining so that within an hour at the latest I am seeing and feeling low blood sugar
- That's why i started to always run with a 140ml gel-flask and fuel pretty much from the beginning (unless I had a snack just before the run).
(In contrast: In the past I followed the boosting fat metabolism idea and would only have maybe one or two gels if I felt hungry/bonkish 2 hrs in.) - As a consequence
- my long-runs feel much better,
- I can hold better technique for the full duration
- I am not as wasted afterwards.
- pace-to-heartrate ratio is getting better (see graph below)
- If I fuel till the end of the workout, my blood sugar starts rising pretty sharply after I stop running
- I need to be weary of this and correct with insulin,
- But I guess for the healthy person it means that your in-workout fuel will also "be there" for you for recovery after the workout.
In terms of what goes in my gel-flask i am still experimenting with various mixes of maltodextrin, fructose and dextrose with some citric acid and coke-flavour sirup for taste.
Going by the info in this thread I should apparently be looking into getting to a 1:1 Dextrose:Fructose ratio...
if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!