Anybody non-diabetics use Glucose Tablets for training, etc? It raise bood sugar fast and boosts energy…
Thoughts?
I’m a type 1 who uses glucose tablets but wouldn’t suggest using them as a training aid. While they boost blood sugar levels they don’t necessarily give any extra energy. The sugar is quick acting and is really intended to regulate blood sugar levels - its the equivalent of having sweet tarts or sour patch kids during a race. A healthy pancreas will help regulate your blood sugar levels alot better so for the energy you need I’d suggest sticking with some form of gel and protein bars.
I am a diabetic and I don’t use them to train with because they are intended to rapidly add sugar to the blood stream, which is good, but they only last for a few minutes, which is not good from a training/racing perspective. Glucose tabs are a very simple sugar, whereas something like a Power Gel are a complex carbohydrate, which is formulated for race conditions, and contains other things you need such as sodium.
Glucose would be the tab equivilant of coke on the run…
Glucose Tablests…haha…this brings back funny memories from high school. My grandma is diabetic and I found out about the tablets. We started using them at cross country practice (although we never ran over 5 miles, so depleted glycogen was never an issue) and it was a major placebo effect. They were all over the place in the locker room after a few weeks, and we would carry them around out at practice in the little containers. Then the basketball players and soccer team heard about it and they wanted to know where I was getting them…they all started taking them before their games and at halftime
How is the new Gluekos drink different than the glucose tablets?
you can trash talk simple sugars all you want, but when I hit the wall during my marathon, simple sugars in the form of peppermint candies held it off long enough to finish. I’d have to compare the two, but I’m sure these tablets would do the same thing (if not better). Ideally you plan you nutrition so that stuff like that doesn’t happen, but once it happens, thinking about what went wrong doesn’t fix the issue.
Question for the diabetics:
How does diabetes affect your training and racing?
My wife was recently diagnosed as a Type I diabetic. She has expressed an interest in triathlon, but has no desire to complete anything longer than a sprint. She’s insulin-dependent, obviously, but not on a pump.
E-Bell; training as a diabetic does bring about certain challenges but it also has increased my motivation. I was diagnosed back in April with Type 1 and while I can’t go all out without thinking about it anymore it hasn’t adversely affected my training too much. Life is much easier on the pump as well - there are a ton of resources for her to look into such as DESA, you can find links to alot of them on my blog www.ringthebolus.blogspot.com
Ed
Thanks. I’ll be following your blog. It’s hard enough to manage your sugars without the rigors of training. I’m very interested to see how you do.