I have raced triathlons for several years, but only recently started getting into the “road” scene of cycling. This is my first year to buy a USACycling license, so until I have enough race starts, I’m still considered a cat 5. This weekend was the Oklahoma State Criterium Championship races, and I was pumped to get to racing!
I Had some pre-race jitters that had my BG up to 224 a few hours before my race. I bolused and increased my basal insulin to +85% (b/c of the intensity of crit races, my BG tends to rise during races, as opposed to the typical endurance activities I am used to).
I had a BG of 154 and then later 120 about 45 minutes before the race. My nerves made me insulin resistant so I was back up to 177 about 10 minutes before the race. At this point my basal insulin was back to normal.
The race was capped at a field of 50. The course had two small (but significant) risers in it, one which occurred directly after a hairpin off-camber turn. I was sitting in the top 5 when we rounded that tight corner and a friend of mine had a tubie roll off and he went down in front of me. I took the inside line to get around him, and after the shuffling, I ended up in the lead group of 4 (3 other riders and myself). We continued taking pulls and at one point I jumped off the front to even win a prime. The group of 4 of us had passed much of the field several times, and with 3 laps to go, as we turned the off-camber corner and started up the hill, I went to the “pain cave” to see if I could leave the group behind.
I just kept my head down and made sure to keep pedaling as hard as I could, and beat the group by nearly 1/2 a lap when I crossed the finish line three laps later, winning the Cat 5 Oklahoma State Championship.
BG afterward was 225. I took a bolus and came down quickly. Dropped to 99 about 45 minutes later. The race felt great and I was very happy to secure the state champ title! I am still trying to work on the insulin/nutrition combo with this kind of intense exercise, but I am loving this new avenue of racing! Can’t wait for the next one!