Attack Of The Summer Cold

I have to thank all of you for such great advice for my canceled camping trip this past weekend. Unfortunately I came down with an awful cold on Thursday and had to cancel the trip; since I was going through a box of tissues an hour and my head felt as if it was going to explode in the a/c I couldn't imagine how I would have felt tramping through the woods. However, I'll hopefully be able to get in a camping trip at some point this summer and will be sure to report in when I do.

A cold with diabetes provides a whole host of new problems that I never knew about. I hadn't a clue that insulin would react in a completely different way because I was a bit sick. My normal bolus ratios seemed to work ok for some meals but for other meals I'd still go pretty high. I'm not sure if the insulin just takes longer to get through your system when sick or if it's less effective, I did go low after a few corrections - nothing to be too concerned about. My biggest disappointment was the Chinese food I ordered for the first time in 3 months! Normally when I have a cold I get the spiciest food possible to clear out my sinuses; it seems that my favorite local delivery places went out of business in the past month or so and I had to try a new place - it was awful; I wound up having to eat some bread to have enough carbs since I barely ate half of my meal.

Thankfully, I was feeling well enough by mid-day Sunday to go on a Bike Ride and prepare for the Tour de Cure. Unlike my ride a few weeks ago I really prepared for this one and took some advice from commentors. I reduced my bolus by one unit on Sunday morning, had a full Cliff Bar before my ride, had one water bottle with water and another with half water and half Gatorade and had Carb Booms throughout the ride. For all the effort I was rewarded with this view:

The ride was insane - I rode through 41 miles of hills in the Hudson Valley - for those of you familiar with the area I started at the intersection of route 100 and 35 in Somers, traveled south on 100 to 129, took a left on Quaker Ridge Rd. Then found Quaker Bridge Rd where that gorgeous view was snapped from an iron bridge in the middle of the woods - from there I found my way back to 134 and closed the loop with 100. I've never done a ride with that many hills before and man my quads were burning by the end - when I started on 100 I was averaging about 22 mph, on the same stretch back I could muster only enough energy for an average of 14 mph! The Carb Booms prevented any lows and for endurance sports I highly suggest them over the other energy gels - they taste better and seem to be much more effective - I was using bannana.

Have a great 4th of July! The next time you'll hear from me I'll be an official Insulin Pumper!!!