Castleton Classic 200km Audax

Joined by Cannon Hill riders Alina, Piotr and John for this audax. Paul signs up for the 100km ride. glucose is slightly low at the start and there is chocolate cake on offer. The first 50km is relatively flat, then the climbing starts and lots of it. We stop at a village hall control for freshly made oatcakes followed by homemade cakes. A big insulin dose needed to get back into range. My pace is slow and I am struggling to keep up with the others. The final 50km is much easier and with a target to back within 12 hours we increase our speed. Back in Shenstone Paul is waiting for us with a great plan for a post ride pub meal.

Heart of England 300km Audax

2 300km rides on consecutive weekends seemed a little ambitious but I was willing to give it a go. I traveled down to Cirencester on the Friday evening. Changing trains at Gloucester a carefully coordinated platform handover of a libre sensor to a fellow diabetic who was due to run a marathon before jumping on my next train.
I was one of  the first to arrive at the church hall so helped set up before getting a takeaway pizza and settling down for the night. Up at 5am, hurried packing away, shorts weather, sun cream applied. It warmed up very quickly and I soon stopped to peel off layers. Hillier than the previous week but we still made good time. We reached the final control and sat outside the pub eating apple crumble and custard. It was so warm it was hardly worth putting the arm warmers back on. Only 50km to go, how hard could that be? Very hard as it turned out. As darkness fell, bright flashes of light appeared across the sky ahead of us, a pyrotechnics display? It was a thunderstorm and we were about to cycle straight through the middle of it. One minute it was a beautiful warm spring evening the next minute torrential rain, thunder and lightening. Cycling through the village of Quenington, I felt my feet splashing through water as we rode into a flood, I just kept pedaling and made it to the other side. We arrived back at the church hall very wet and cold and I was glad of an apple turnover before going to bed. I injected 3 units of novorapid but hypoed about 3am. The following day my train was cancelled so I cycled 30km to Cheltenham to catch a train back to Birmingham.

Glucose control was a bit up and down. Extra correction doses needed to bring glucose down overnight after eating pizza. Several gaps in the graph with sudden drops in glucose, however this sensor failed the following day so may have been inaccurate. glucose was dropping below 4 by the end of the ride and down to 2 in the early hours of Sunday morning.

 

Everybody Rides to Skeggy 300km Audax

For my second attempt at a 300km ride I chose a flatter route with better weather. I was very uncertain how long it would take so I'd booked a room at Alfreton travelodge for the Saturday night in case I didn't make it back before my last train. I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, waking up several times with falling glucose levels. Somehow I managed to persuade Paul to get up in the middle of the night to drive me to Alfreton for a 6am start.  A fellow cannon hill cyclist and audaxer, John was also doing the ride.
A fast ride on the outward leg, we arrived at the first control only 20 minutes into the time window. Cake and coffee, cards stamped, and we were off again. It was so flat it was fairly monotonous riding across the fens. We were making such good time I cancelled my hotel booking, I'd easily make it for the last train. Reaching the coast we stopped at a cafe to get our cards stamped and have lunch.
"so what time is your last train" John asked
"about 10:30" I said checking my phone. Scrolling down I realised that this train involved an overnight stop in Nottingham "Okay it's actually 9:45"
Leaving the cafe we continued up the coast to the next control, just time for a pastry from the local bakery before continuing. A minor hypo but John had a well timed mechanical so I reached for the glucose tablets with no additional stops required. A packet of biscuits from a Co-op in Lincoln and we had just 70km left to go. I was counting down the final kilometers. 20km from the end I could feel my pace slowing, John was getting further ahead of me and it was only traffic lights that were helping me keep up. I knew my glucose was dropping, I wasn't going to get to the end without stopping. I pulled over onto the pavement and ate a couple of glucose tablets and one of my emergency flapjacks. We finished just after 8:30, plenty of time to get my train home.

Despite the overnights hypo glucose control was okay for the first half of the ride but I injected too much insulin at lunch causing glucose levels to drop in the afternoon. 

  

Saracen Spring Century 100km audax

Paul is keen to do another audax so we sign up for this 100km local event. We're joined by 2 other cannon hill club members, Mike and Piotr. Weather forecast slightly warmer but I'm still in full length bib tights, not quite war enough for shorts yet. Glucose is slightly low at the start and despite knowing it will come back up I over compensate and eat an energy bar at the start without insulin. Glucose is high for the rest of the morning. First control is at Evesham and with a high glucose level I don't feel like eating anything but Paul and I share a monster sized portion of bread pudding. I over correct the high and my glucose level falls fast over the next hour. I have to stop several times to check it but encourage Mike and Piotr to go on ahead. I hate holding other people up by stopping. Paul and I ride into Wellesbourne garden centre together to find that Piotr has crashed near the entrance. I join the very long queue at the cafe whilst the others find a table. We wait 20 minutes for our tea and cake to arrive and Poitr inspects the damage to his knee. In the final section of the route back to Droitwich Paul tells me off for riding too fast, he can't keep up. My glucose then crashes and I have to stop anyway, I let Mike and Piotr go ahead again and Paul and I ride the last 10km together.

With the shorter ride I have been very dedicated and entered all insulin doses and carbohydrate intake onto my libre reader. High for the first few hours, then fairly good for the rest of the day with a couple of slightly low results that needed treatment to avoid going hypo.