Full Fat Festive 500km Audax

Even I agree that this ride was a bit insane. broken rear gear cable at 50km, stopped at 65km for fry up breakfast at Premier Inn. Carried on to Oxford, thankfully relatively flat section. Visited Bike Zone in Oxford and nervously had a coffee in their cafe while they looked at my bike. Happily they managed to replace the rear gear cable within about 30 minutes and I was back on the road again. Next stop Winpole where I caught up with a few other audaxers. Really tasty cheese, pickle and salad sandwich from farm deli, one of the highlights of my ride! Then on to Cambridge, stopped at Wetherspoons for fish and chips. Next section was cycle path alongside guided bus route to St Ives, I rode most of this with another audaxer. As I was approaching St Ives glucose dropping to 4. Another Wetherspoons, his time just a packet of crisps, no insulin. Ride from St Ives to Northampton was tough into an icy headwind. Finally arrived in Northampton at 12:45. Checked in to travelodge, glad to be on the ground floor. Fell asleep before injecting and woke with glucose of 19. Correction dose plus quick mug of coffee and I was back on the bike by 04:20. Hypo'd a couple of hours later and ate my way through my glucose tablets and flapjacks. Stopped to change batteries in garmin and reached Gaydon services 3 minutes within time limit. Glucose had rebounded back up again but I was glad of the opportunity for some breakfast and had 2 yoghurt and granola pots plus a coffee. Next few hours were a glucose rollercoaster as I swung continuously from hypo to hyper. Eventually stopping just outside Gloucester I ate another flapjack and half a pack of glucose tablets and just let it run high for the rest of the ride.  Finished with about an hour to spare and tucked into a much needed plate of dhal and rice. Overall glucose control good for first 300km. This seems to be my limit at the moment. I haven't managed to maintain focus beyond this point on a long audax to keep glucose in range. An aim for 2019!

Loop of Brum 200km DIY Audax

Loop of Brum (Brum200) for the third time. Anticlockwise from Berkswell, beautiful day for a ride.
Sat outside cafe at Cannock chase for a couple of penguin bars, a friendly group of runners gave me a mince pie. I guessed insulin dose at 2.5 units. As I rode the next few km I did the calculations in my head. Total carbs divided by 7 and multiplied by 0.25. Calculated insulin dose 2.57 so I was pretty happy with my guestimate. Stopped at bakery in Penkridge for a packed lunch, egg may sandwich and rhubarb and cherry cake. My favourite section of his route is the ride to Ironbridge. The bridge itself was freshly painted and a sat in the sunshine eating my picnic lunch. My watch vibrated several times during ride to Bewdley but I was climbing the hills fine. I stopped to do a blood test which was reading 2 mmol/L above my Xdrip cgm. I recalibration Xdrip from the blood glucose result and carried on with a perfect glucose of 5.8. A pot of yoghurt and water bottle top up in Bewdley. The last 50km always appears hillier than expected, lots of christmas lights in the villages I past through and a stunning full moon to round off a great day of cycling. Glucose in range for the full 200km, I think that's the best yet.

Kings, Castles, Priests and Churches 200km Audax

Early start for train down to Tewksbury. Breakfast at 4:30am with normal insulin ratio. Short ride into town where I met up with Piotr to catch the train from New street. Coffee at the start at wetherspoons, 4 units of levemir at 7am. Quite a few familiar faces from the previous week's 300km ride, including Matt. A slice of orange and almond cake with a pot of tea at Bromyard. 2 units of insulin, probably slightly too much as needed half a flapjack an hour later. I joined up with Liz and Barbara and we rode together to the next cafe at Ludlow. In preparation for the hilly section of the ride I had apple pie and custard with 3 units of insulin. Liz and Barbara stopped in Presteigne for food but I pushed on to the next cafe control at Kington. I was a bit short of time but ordered a brie and cranberry panini. I left Kington with Piotr but he was slightly faster and soon enough he disappeared out of sight. When I reached the final garage control it was almost dark. A stamped card and a flapjack and I was back on the bike again. Finished in time for a curry at wetherspoons before riding back to Ashchurch with Piotr to catch the train.Thankfully no Rugby fans this time!
Probably the best glucose control for an audax so far. Peak at 12:00 is the apple pie, 11 units for the curry worked well although glucose increased overnight.

Adjusting my insulin doses for audax rides

I've developed my own method of adjusting my insulin doses for when I'm doing long periods of exercise. I have a rather 'non standard' insulin dosing regime to start with so this method only works for me, it wouldn't be appropriate for anyone else. 

I use MDI (multiple daily injections). I have 2 insulin pens, levemir which is a long acting insulin and novorapid, a faster acting insulin. 

For days when I'm not doing a long cycle ride I inject levemir twice a day and novorapid every time i eat or drink carbohydrate. I also inject 3 units of novorapid at  9am and 9pm. These additional doses of novorapid are to prevent glucose rises at certain times of the day which are not matched by the levemir profile.

When I'm doing a long audax ride, I reduce my levemir dose on the morning of the ride to 40% of my normal dose, I inject my normal dose of novorapid with breakfast and aim to have a glucose around 5-7 at the start. I miss out my 9am novorapid dose. I still get a bit of a glucose rise mid morning so might have to do a small correction dose before the first cafe stop.  During a ride when I stop at a shop or cafe I inject 25% of my normal novorapid dose for food I eat. With such low insulin doses the limiting factor is the insulin pen which has half unit increments.

I have occasionally ridden audaxes starting at 11am in the morning. I used the same protocol but by the time I started riding my glucose was 13+ which was difficult to manage.

If I'm riding through the night I reduce my evening levemir and miss my 10pm novorapid dose.

It's taken a lot of trial and error to work this out, occasionally I get it right. The longer a ride is the more difficult it is to maintain focus on keeping my glucose in range.

Moonrakers and Sunseekers 300km Audax

A 300km event at the end of November was slightly ambitious. The weather in the few days before had been very cold. I tried to get some rest on the Friday in preparation. I injected normal amounts of insulin during the day and for evening meal. Train to Bristol and short ride to the cycle cafe where a surprisingly large number of riders had gathered for the 10pm start. I injected 60% normal levemir dose just before start. Predictably I had far too many layers on for what turned out to be a fairly mild night. Normal insulin regime up until evening of ride. The first control was the Moonrakers pub. I had a cup of tea and homemade flapjack. Chairs were rather too comfortable but I forced myself back out into the dark. Lee and 5 or 6 others caught up with me and it was nice to ride as part of a group for a while. When turning right at a T junction I was confused by headlights that appeared to moving very slowly. As I got closer I realised it was a convoy of military tanks! The next control was a Service station, most riders had stopped at MacDonalds but I headed sraight for the co-op at the garage. I was starting to feel a bit dehydrated and really fancied a pot of yogurt. I picked up a costa coffee lid to use as a spoon. Explaining the lid to the cashier as I paid, he was kind enough to give me a plastic spoon from a supply he had behind the counter. As I sat on the garage forecourt in front of the coal bags I was joined by John and Matt. I rode with them for the second part of the night but by 6am I was cycling alone again along Bournemouth beach. I think this was one of my favourite bits of the ride. I kept a look out for Becca my friend who swims from Poole harbour every day but I think I was a bit early even for her! The half way point was Poole scout hut. I had imagined huddling round a tiny beach hut but it was actually very spacious and we took our bikes inside. I stayed here for nearly an hour and tucked into a large plate of baked potato and beans. 3.5 units of novorapid and 2 units of levemir. I left at 7:30 as the sun was coming up. After a glucose running slightly high all night I finally dropped down to 4ish at 10am and stopped for a flapjack. The drizzly rain continued throughout the day. By 200km my front wheel was making a strange clattering sound. I stopped several times and spun the wheel but couldn't identify the cause. By the time I reached the next control it sounded like marbles in a washing machine. As I joined the other cyclists at the service station I wasn't feeling optimistic about finishing. The food options at greggs where all rather unappealing but I opted for a bag of doughnuts. After hearing the sound of my bike Matt and John unsurprisingly went on ahead. I was fairly sure it was the hub but decided on just carry on and ignore the horrific sound it was making. Final control was the station cafe at the end of the strawberry line.  A particularly good date flapjack and only 25km to the finish. Last 6km through Bristol were tricky to navigate but I led a group of audaxers through the traffic and we soon reached the adventure playground finish. Dhal and rice plus another flapjack were just what I needed before heading back to the station. Overall glucose was running a bit high throughout, no hypos, and only very high results were on the train home when I was too tired to care. 

Audax UK female merit award

 In November 2018 I was awarded the Audax UK female merit award. The nomination was for achieving the randonneur round the year award (200km event in each calendar month), super randonneur award (200, 300, 400 and 600km events) and randonneur 5000 award (50 points in an audax season) in my first audax year. I was however well behind the maximum point scorers some of whom managed 100 or even 200 points within the year.

Mr Pickwick's Cymraeg Cyrch 200km Audax

Another Tewksbury audax