Vale of Belvoir 200km Audax

Time for a second ride of the Lichfield Audax. After the last few weeks of very hilly rides I was pleased I had this in the calendar. I had thought Paul might join me for his first 200km rides but after TINAT he was taking a break from audaxing.

This was my first long ride using the miao miao transmitter, changing my libre, flash glucose monitoring device into true continuous glucose monitor (cgm). It was great to be able to keep riding whilst keeping an eye on my watch to check my glucose. No more stopping to scan the libre sensor or juggling the libre reader in one hand, steering the bike with the other and scanning the sensor whilst riding along.

My glucose has high for the first 50km and I had to stop several times to do corrections. I was careful to just correct by a couple of units each  time to avoid hypoing. I was in range and dropping by the time I arrived at the first control, perfect preparation for cake consumption. I ordered a cream tea and sat out in the court yard. Seeing a fellow audax rider tucking into a slice of raspberry frangipane, I ordered one of these as well. Remembering the recent advice from my dietitian to 'eat 2 cakes instead of 1' when stopping during a long cycle ride. The route was slightly different to last year, avoiding the traffic lights through Melton Mowbray. I also opted for the alternative control at the half way point, diverting to the co-op in Colsterworth for a danish pastry and bag of crisps, far better than the A1 services. I judged the 2 units of novorapid for 50g carbs perfectly and spiked up to 8 before dropping back down to 5.5 within a couple of hours. At 150km I stopped at Sutalia cafe in Loughborough. Last year I just had some cake here but this time I treated myself to a bowl of pasta with roast vegetables and tomato sauce. It was delicious and worth the slightly extended cafe stop. During the final 15km my watch started giving low glucose alerts. I had a couple of glucose tablets and continued. My glucose remained stubbornly less than 3.5 and Paul phoned to check I was okay. I scanned my glucose sensor with the libre reader and got a reading of 4.7 so I judged this was an xDrip calibration error and carried on riding. The following day I confirmed my suspicions with a blood test. The xDrip calibration was slightly wrong giving falsely low results. It was a reminder that xDrip should only be calibrated when glucose concentrations are very stable.

Overall glucose control was pretty good during the ride. My dosing for he first and second food stops was very good. I need to reduce novorapid dose further towards the end of the ride. Glucose concentration was high overnight after ride as I didn't inject enough insulin with post ride meal.

Miao miao, converting libre into a cgm

I have a new glucose monitoring set up to test out. A miao miao (yes I thought that was a street drug too) is a device that fits over the libre sensor, scanning by NFC every 5 minutes. Results are transmitted via bluetooth to the xDrip app on my phone and also to my smart watch. I'm now using my sony SW3 as a regular smart watch rather than strapped to my libre sensor so I no longer need it to have NFC capability. I haven't yet upgraded the firmware back to it's factory settings so it doesn't work as a collector device, only as a follower.

Paul also has xDrip on his phone and is set up as a follower. I did explain to him that this would mean regular alarms when my glucose was low or high but he seemed okay with that. Within a few days he was suffering from extreme alarm fatigue and changed his settings to drastically reduce the number of alarms he received. He now only gets alarms for low results and I have a 30 minute grace period to sort things out before he is alerted.

I wear the watch continuously, except when charging it up. The battery lasts a full 24 hours and it only takes an hour to recharge. 

This is not a tour 200km (A) Audax

'This is not a tour' (TINAT) was a weekend of audax rides in the spirit of the late ultra endurance cyclist Mike Hall. Designed to maximise elevation gain with some off road sections and making the most of the mid Wales landscape.  When I entered this audax I was doubtful about my ability to complete it. The elevation profile was harder than any audax I had done previously. Paul had entered the 100km audax with >1500m ascent but a generous minimum speed of 8km/hr. He'd spent weeks researching gear ratios, putting knobbly tyres back on and fitting mountain bike mud guards. I'd put it to the back of my mind until the week before in the hope that I'd somehow be prepared for it.

The weekend before TINAT, south Birmingham was hit by several hours of torrential rain and flash flooding. Met office weather forecast continued to show a <5% chance of rain throughout this period. Our street was knee deep with water and several houses in the area flooded. Thankfully we escaped the worst of it but with more storms forecast we were unsure about going to Wales for the weekend. 
"How are you feeling about the audax?" I asked Paul
"the thing I'm most worried about is that the tent will get wet and we won't be able to dry it out before packing it up to bring home" He was definitely in denial!
Weather in Wales was warm and sunny. After setting up the very heavy but spacious bell tent we unpacked everything, soon discovering that we'd forgotten the camping mugs.
"I'm not sure why we brought this" Paul said uncertainly, holding up a little brush attachment for the vacuum cleaner.
The following morning after a quick breakfast, I rode down to the start point. I gave myself 2 units of levemir rather than 3 given the difficulty of the ride. Underestimated breakfast dose meant doing a couple of corrections in the first 20km. I began riding with a couple of women from Bristol South cycling club but they were a bit fast for me so I settled into a more comfortable speed alone. The first stop was a check point somewhere along a rough track. I was unsure what to expect. Could I have cycled past it? was it someone hiding behind a tree with a clip board? Soon enough I approached a group of cyclists on the track with controllers checking names off on a list. Another brief stop on a bridge across the dam to take photos and we carried on. Shortly after I was overtaken by a group of riders on the other 200 B ride. Some of the off road sections were particularly hard going including the 'mohican' road. A narrow strip of tarmac, less than a foot wide, snaked up a steep slope. On either side of the tarmac were deep gullies filled with rubble. I fell off at least twice unable to maintain momentum up the slope whilst concentrating on keeping the wheels on the tarmac. It was a relief to arrive in Llandidnoes and after having my brevet card stamped I headed further up the road to the Great Oak cafe. I was spoilt for choice with a tempting display of cakes, quiches and pastries on offer. I chose a slice of apple cake and a large flapjack. I rode the next section alone but met up with some more audax riders at the co-op in  Machynleth. This was the half way point for me but they were  a third of the way into a 600km ride and were just stopping to refuel. I brief moment of receipt anxiety forced me to ride further up the road to the centre of the town to get an ATM receipt. Leaving Machynleth, I initially turned right back the way I had come before I stopped, checked my route sheet instructions and back tracked. Relieved that no other audax riders were around to notice my error I carried on.
For me, one of my favourite memories of this ride was the solitude. Riding alone, with views over mountains around me with no people, cars or buildings in sight. As I waited at the traffic lights in Llandrindod Wells, more audax riders joined me. After some uncertainty about the location of the finish and yet more traffic lights, we joined the queue for brevet card checking.

Glucose control was okay, high at the start, generally good during the day, dropping below 4 at the end, just in time for fish and chips.