Dear ASD fans:
  I've been getting a bit more serious about bicycling in the past two
or three months, and the results are getting to be ridiculous.
   As in, have about 38 grams of Carbohydrate in my breakfast, ride
for an hour to Shelter Island to meet up with one of the local cycling
groups (http://www.knickerbikers.com), then off back past my place up
the hill to UC San Diego, down the hill to Torrey Pines State Beach,
and up the hill to Del Mar so the ride leader can have her chai latte.
Never mind that we'd passed within 1/4 mile of about FIVE other
Starbucks (maybe as many as eight) on the way there. Upon arrival
there, between what I'd brought with me and a pastry thing purchased
there, I had about four carbohydrate exchanges in my lunch. FOUR! And
while one exchange was nice "safe" stuff (two whole wheat mini pita
breads stuffed with 1 tsp peanut butter each), the other four exchanges
were nasty white wheat flour or quick-acting apples. Then we biked back
down the hill, up the hill, and I broke off the ride at my apartment on
the grounds that I'd already done that leg to get to the ride start in
the first place.
   Didn't take a preprandial BG (CDE's trying to get me down to two
strips a day, lots of luck there, but I am trying to cut back), but my
two hour postprandial was 96 mg/dL. The CDE also wants me to cut out
coffee completely on the grounds it raises my bg numbers -- but
frankly, experiment shows that doesn't happen with me (so far -- it is
something I keep in the back of my mind whenever I see a tall number
and try to figure out how that happened, YMMV).
  Then I did more cycling -- shopping and a concert up in Normal
Heights (yup, uphill both ways again). And more food, and drink. I'll
spare you the gory details and cut to the chase: 81 mg/dL fasting blood
glucose this AM. Now, I LIKE to run a little on the low side (got that
"5% club" action going) because, so far my liver has been a very good
citizen when in comes to releasing and storing glucose/glycogen etc.,
but even by my "What, you haven't had a whole head of cabbage grated,
topped with vinegar and three ounces of tofu as a salad for dinner"
standards, this is just plain funny, edging into the scary portion.
  Maybe I'll ask Jay Newell, this adult-onset type 1 who does
triathalons (including Ironman Hawai'i) that I've read about, how he
does it. Because, if I can maintain and improve this level of fitness,
I've got my eye on a couple of century (100 miles plus) or metric
century (100 kilometers plus) rides for next year. And I'd really hate
to bottom out and go hypoglycemic in the middle of nowhere during the
Tour de Poway!
  I blame the endocrinologist for all of this -- he just HAD to say
that exercise would improve my HDL count....
   
Robert Leone rleone@hotmail.com