Thumbs Up from the Good Doc

I met with the Good Doc today to discuss my hair-brained idea of doing an Ironman. As expected, the Good Doc was in complete support of my giving this a GO! He asked about my nutrition plan for race day and I admitted this was something which had me concerned. Most of what you read on race day nutrition discusses the importance of large doses of glucose. Yes, your body needs lots of glucose on race day. There is no doubt about it, but what is right for a diabetic? 


I recently discovered a new podcast by Jon called Garden Variety Triathlon. Jon completed his first Ironman in Florida on November 3rd of this year and discussed his race day nutrition plan. For Jon, the key to feeling strong throughout the day was taking in a small amount of fat as well as the glucose. He ingested Justin's Almond Butter in individual packets on the bike, drank Hammer Perpetual Coffee Latte and ate cannoli cookies. I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I'm sure I will figure it out with some more research. Jon's plan was based on maltodextrin plant based nutrition. Because of my concern about ingesting pure sugar, I may look into the idea of using the almond butter on race day. I also emailed The Intimidators to see if they could share their nutrition plan from IM-Wisconsin. They are going to check their files and let me know. See what I mean? They have FILES of information on nutrition. Yah, I can learn from them. I also found a good introductory article on Beginner Triathlete on nutrition for your 1st Ironman. 


The Good Doc also discussed the idea of getting a Constant Glucose Monitor,  CGM, for me to use during training as well as race day. I used one back in 2010 after I had growing concerns about high blood sugars after races. Unfortunately, with that CGM, I didn't have a display screen to tell me what my blood sugars were doing. Instead I had to keep a food & activity log and then the doctor's office reviewed my log and CGM results. Me, being the control freak that I am, did not like that very much. I want to touch, feel and see the results myself. So today the Good Doc gave me a copy of my results to review. Yay me! He's hoping one of the companies he works with closely will be able to provide a CGM for me. He's also going to discuss my situation with his office diabetic educator to see what kind of plan would be best for me. 


After the race, I will need to monitor my blood sugar every 2 hours for up to 7 days to make sure I don't develop hypoglycemia. Hmmm, doesn't that sound like fun? 


Man, this sure would be a lot simpler if I didn't come from such a bad gene pool. On the flip side, it certainly does make me think a lot more, plan a lot better and prepare for just about anything that will come my way.