I have started training for a Mini-Tri next April. 200 yd swim, 5 mile bike and 1 mile run. I am T1 pumper,diagnosed 2years ago, 45 yrs old. No, I never had any form of Diabetes prior and no family history. Started walking because the doctor told me I had to. After doing 5miles and 20min stationary bike daily I decided why not do a Tri. I welcome any tips and suggestions. I seem to be having crazy lows in the evening. I am not sure of the correct carbs to eat prior to work outs. I have a protein smoothie after working out and it really helps me through the night.
If you're going low in the evening when you're fasting, I'd cut your basal down a shade, maybe 10%, and see what happens. If it's after your meal, I'd adjust your carb/ insulin ratio maybe the same amount, turning it down. It may be useful to just turn it down on the days you work out or entirely reset it but that would depend how much you're training. If it's every day and you're running low every day, I think turning your pump down a shade would be the solution! Have a great race!
april 2014? wow lots of time to train!
Ok, first thing, dont worry about any form of speed work like intervals etc until january. All you want to do now is build your base. You need to be able to cover the distance (plus some). For example, you would want to be able to swim 500yrds straight, bike 8 or so miles and run around 4. Build slowly. If your walking now, start to throw in periods of jogging and take not how far you jog. Over time, you want to extend the time spent jogging vs walking. Same for swimming- if 25rds is all you can do, do that for a few weeks, then try do 40 yards or so for a few weeks etc. Build, build :).
I spike myself prior to training but everyone is different. Take note of what your bs does at regular intervals during your training. You may find the less fit you are in one sport, the more glucose you will need. I suck at swimming and snort lines of sugar because my body works hard. You may find similar.
Anyway, try 3 times a week per sport, but again this is something you may want to build too. For now, twice a week for swimming, biking and running will suffice.
Wow, that's not too far at all. You shouldn't have too much of a problem for this, it's not horribly prolonged. I may be biased, considering I'm a distance runner.
A general rule of thumb for any sort of exercise for any human is a snack with healthy carbs and protein within an hour of a workout. You may want to try it uncovered or half-covered.
I always try to work out before lunch if I can. There's a 7 hour period after you work out where you're in danger of post-exercise lows. Track practices after school were hell because I'd finish a long run at 5pm and find myself low at 11pm.
I keep my basal at -30% for a few hours after a workout, this doesn't work if you aren't pumping. If you're not, I would recommend you start ASAP if you want to get into serious exercise.
In general, you need 15g of carbs per half hour of moderate exercise, according to my DNE. I've found that speed and tempo workouts require straight carbs with little protein, whereas long slow distances need a bit more protein. I've bought a variety of granola bars and glucose gels from my local running store. It's really trial and error and finding out what works for you. I can give you more info on specific products if you're interested.
Thanks for minimizing what I am attempting to do. I am 47 yrs old and I have never been a very athletic person. It's nice that the community I belong to has members that would say "that's not far at all." You don't know me nor my life so to make a judgment based on what you can do is rather rude. What may seem easy for you may be someone else's trial and tribulation. Remember don't judge until you have walked a mile in my shoes.. My strong suggestion is maybe to start a response positively, I know I always do.
please join our tri group
I think it's great that your trying to do a triathlon! I was in the same boat in 2004, realized I needed to do things and started walking and have kept at it. One thing about these that always intimidates me (plus I've been training for other stuff when we have the local triathlon so I have just blown it off...) is that swimming seems to whale on my bloodsugar more than running or bicycling.
MrsAcidRock broke her toe a few years ago and 10 laps in a pool would pound me down quite a bit. I totally unplug for swimming when I've gone but it's not my favorite thing. The advantage I see in a tri is that it's really easy to load a bike up with carbs.
I think Leah's carb recommendation is pretty close to what I've run into running and cycling although sometimes I try to shave off a bit, maybe 8-12 grams but I've practiced a lot and generally had more carbs and ran up until I got to that point. I also agree that running stores have lots of different things that you can try out although my caveat with that is that I find that the ones that have maltodextrose seem to make my BG run up unless I have them pretty much at the start of the run for like a 2 hour run. I usually only have gels at pretty big events b/c of the delay effect I've seen. I prefer Gatorade in bottles and/ or on courses as they have it at a lot of races, and the dextrose seems to work pretty quickly, as opposed to the gels. It may also be that by "not too far at all," she may be referring to the amount of time involved as I sort of block things out "ok, we're running x miles today so I need 3 snacks..." and will monitor my BG w/ a CGM and then skip the carbs if my BG runs high for some reason. I've had a lot of runs that worked great, everything was awesome, etc. but I've probably had just as many where I've been going "eek, what the hell is going on her, get me off this trail...," along w/ various other problems, horrible cramps, etc. which may or may not be D related.
Reading Leah's comments, I can understand how you would feel but I think that the details are excellent suggestions. Congratulations again on finding the motivation to get moving. It has been very hard for me to do but has been very rewarding!!