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Type 1 Running

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Petert65

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Recently been diagnosed as type 1 diabetic. Entered a half marathon a while ago and still aim to run it. Any tips from anyone who has run with type 1, i.e. Pre food, energy sources during the race and post race food. Do you check sugars during a race and can you still use gels.
 
Hi @Petert1965 . A visit to the fitness and exercise section of the forum could prove informative for you.
An internet search for Runsweet. Could also offer some great advice.
I'll tag @Snapsy although not a marathon runner yet , she is a source of invaluable knowledge.
Good luck.
 
The same advice as would be given to anyone running a half marathon - do a sensible training schedule.

But with type 1, your training schedule will have to include working out how best to manage your blood sugar when you run. You might need to think about adjusting your basal insulin to take account of long run days (on mdi only really levemir is flexible enough to do this), you might need to think about the timing of your last bolus dose before a run - novorapid lasts about 5 hours so if you run within 5 hours you will have active insulin on board.

Yes of course you can test blood sugar during a race. It really confuses the St. John's ambulance men if you choose to pause and test your blood sugar next to their ambulance though! But yes, if your running it's wise to test blood sugar before during and after a run - you might want to test during training at say every 3 or 5 miles see how much that kind of distance has on your blood sugar so you can decide when you need to stop and test during the race. The other alternative would be to get a CGM or a libre so you don't have to stop and test during a race - although do be aware that they run about 20mins behind what your blood sugar is doing and, occasionally they can struggle to keep up with fast moving blood sugar (which can happen with exercise).

Yes of course you can use gels. If your tests show you going low at a particular distance you might need to take on a gel to avoid a hypo. I've not used any gels because I'd be worried about over treating and just ending up running high, which I find much more difficult to deal with than running low. But you've got to have a little experiment with thes things to figure out what works for you.

Personally, my preference is to run with no active insulin on board. I run with an unbolused for breakfast. I run with medical alert ID (well I have a tattoo on my wrist because I got so narked with the bracelets). I run with my blood sugar monitor and hypo treatment and I use a CGM.

With post race good you might need to consider reducing your I:C ratio to take account of the exercise which might make you more insulin sensitive.
 
@catapillar . Apologies I always forget that you are a great source of knowledge on running. Mental note to me. Tag you.
 
Done 2 marathons and a few halfs. Pump was helpful as I could reduce my basal temporarily. Also do not assume you will go low- gluconeogenesis can happen if you run fasted or have a high bg so might be useful to see how you individually respond. Good luck!
 
catapillar said:
The same advice as would be given to anyone running a half marathon - do a sensible training schedule.

But with type 1, your training schedule will have to include working out how best to manage your blood sugar when you run. You might need to think about adjusting your basal insulin to take account of long run days (on mdi only really levemir is flexible enough to do this), you might need to think about the timing of your last bolus dose before a run - novorapid lasts about 5 hours so if you run within 5 hours you will have active insulin on board.

Yes of course you can test blood sugar during a race. It really confuses the St. John's ambulance men if you choose to pause and test your blood sugar next to their ambulance though! But yes, if your running it's wise to test blood sugar before during and after a run - you might want to test during training at say every 3 or 5 miles see how much that kind of distance has on your blood sugar so you can decide when you need to stop and test during the race. The other alternative would be to get a CGM or a libre so you don't have to stop and test during a race - although do be aware that they run about 20mins behind what your blood sugar is doing and, occasionally they can struggle to keep up with fast moving blood sugar (which can happen with exercise).

Yes of course you can use gels. If your tests show you going low at a particular distance you might need to take on a gel to avoid a hypo. I've not used any gels because I'd be worried about over treating and just ending up running high, which I find much more difficult to deal with than running low. But you've got to have a little experiment with thes things to figure out what works for you.

Personally, my preference is to run with no active insulin on board. I run with an unbolused for breakfast. I run with medical alert ID (well I have a tattoo on my wrist because I got so narked with the bracelets). I run with my blood sugar monitor and hypo treatment and I use a CGM.

With post race good you might need to consider reducing your I:C ratio to take account of the exercise which might make you more insulin sensitive.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. A lot to get your head round.
 
therower said:
not a marathon runner yet
Click to expand...
Oh @therower you've just absolutely cracked me up.....! But thank you! Regular parkruns and ONE 10k race to my name! So far............

@Petert1965 it's great that you're going for it with the half! For the sort of distances I run (waaaaay shorter than 13.1 miles!) I tend to go high initially thanks to the adrenaline, but if I have bolus insulin on board (eg for breakfast the morning of a run) I will turn my basal down so as to avoid a low. I use a pump.

I run with my Libre scanner and some glucose tablets secreted within the two layers of my sports bra - forgive me for making assumptions here but I am suspecting that given your username you perhaps don't have that option - ;) - if I'm out for more than 5km though I'll take a tiny rucksack containing my full test kit, Libre, a drink, glucose tablets and a snack. I've never yet needed glucose during parkrun - and as it's such a short distance with loads of people I've never felt vulnerable.

I haven't yet ever had to do a blood test en route during a run, but I do scan my Libre sensor regularly, and I'll often adjust my basal as I go.

Without fail my blood sugar drops like a stone around 6 hours after a run. When I did the BM10k in April I pretty much wrote off the rest of the day - not just from being hypo but also being in intense leg pain due to not having trained enough (ironically due to persistent injury!) - but as far as post-run hypos are concerned I'd recommend loooooads of testing!

All the best with it!
 
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