I am running my first half marathon this weekend. Done plenty of 5k, 10k races and am excited to have finally stepped it up a notch. One thing I struggle with is the week of lighter workouts and rest before I do my race. As I train my blood sugar is pretty predictable, but when I slow down or stop all together, its all over the place. I feel almost as if the rest is counter productive as I am having to figure out how to keep things under control with a major shift is my exercise level, and my sugars are rarely where I expect them to be. Anyone else have this issue? How do you deal with this?
You don't need to cut back that much before a half. Just don't do any really long runs, like over 8 miles, in the last week, and don't do any speed work in the last three days or so.
How much were you planning to taper off? The things you're talking about are more of a concern with longer distances, where there can be more of a change during the taper.
I probably cut back too much the week of a race. Most weeks for me I run 5-10 miles 3-4 times a week, ride 25-35 miles 1-2 times a week, and get weight training in when I can The week of a race I try not to stress my body as I do most weeks and run 1-2 miles 2 times and ride 15 miles 1 time with 2 days of weight training. Being new to training with longer (albeit not that long for most of you) runs, I am just getting used to how to adjust my sugars. Changing my routine always seems to spark a bit of unpredictability in my sugars.
Nice job getting out to a 1/2! That's a great achievement! I notice the same thing from stopping but I think that it helps my running in longer runs when I taper more. I try to do other stuff, from bicycling to walking the dog to sort of keep from bouncing off the walls and also to keep on top of bg. I always look at bicycling as "less work" than running but it seems to help hit my BG as it's a new/ different activity and getting used to it can make even moderate cycling push my BG where I want it. Although I am sort of bad about not really doing it moderately and riding as fast as I can because it's so much fun!
Good luck - and enjoy the half! I use the "pattern" function on my pump - and have set different patterns for different levels of exercise duration (intensity factored in as well). As I taper off, I increase daily basal insulin rate via the patterns - tend to test a bit more as well (but watch the CGM numbers as well).