Cycling

I think you may be confused about meds.
Most T2 meds do not carry a hypo risk.

Eating on hills - are you on a high carbohydrate diet for energy?
There are alternatives.

I have no idea why avoiding medication would lead you to getting a CGM - perhaps you could explain?

Do you have any suggestion as to why, as a fit cyclist, you have T2?
Information on diet, reasons for diagnosis, weight, HbA1c and all the other boring details would help us to comment more helpfully.

Oh, I have been cycling with T2 for years.
Not attempted Audax distances, though.

Maybe the carbs you are consuming exceeds your bodies capacity for dealing with them. You might want to look at some of the videos by Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek on ketogenic diets and athletic performance. Also some by Tim Noakes and what carb loading did to him. If you do decide to go the keto route then be warned it may take around 3 months to become fat adapted and start to get the initial drop in performance back

Andy@ark said:

My nurse says I should be on meds

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Do you know what your latest hba1c was? I would expect high blood sugars to impact negatively on your ability to do AUDAX (which sounds impressive) so you may want to consider your options to bring those levels down.

(I'm T1 not T2 but I definitely find high bgs make exercise harder for me.)

If insulin is the med in question, then this is my experience as an insulin taker.

I've been pushing up my distances since I started riding during lockdown - I regularly ride 100 miles when the weather is half decent and did a pair of ~220km rides at the end of the summer (before children back at school/work/weather cut into my available time/motivation.) I was hoping to do one just before Xmas, but being wet for 10h+ put me off!

Working out how to fuel for this duration put me off for a while, but after having ridden them, I realise that as is often the case it's mainly psychological.

My long rides are not organised Audaxes (I must go one some though) but normally loops via friends/family which means I can stop part way and get some proper food (I'm still slightly reluctant to abandon my bike outside a shop, but I will get over this!)

Organised Audax rides might be easier if some controls have food available (and/or stopping somewhere where there are other riders so I don't feel quite so exposed leaving my bike), so this is something I will have to try. While I take food and snack throughout shorter rides (<140km typically), I find that eating something decent half way for a 100 miler or 200km (and aiming for my BG to start rising appreciably before I start riding again) means I don't need to eat so often in the latter half of the ride. I don't tend to need to eat much for the first ~2h (I eat something uncovered before I leave), but by the 5h mark I need to eat quite a bit, so stopping and pushing BG up with proper food is much nicer than needing to eat portable snacky things while riding (at least not needing to eat them quite as often.)

So basically, it won't stop you, even if it does mean paying a bit more attention to fuelling/making sure you have enough supplies with you to make the next control/petrol station/coffee shop/supermarket/etc.

P.S. I realise the distances I'm talking about are short compared to things like LEL

It's a tricky one, if I'm riding I will aim to maintain levels above those I would aim for on a normal day, and above those I'd go for when doing something like playing badminton where I can stop and eat (and indeed give up and go home) as needed.

Part of this is that digestion appears to be delayed, so you need to eat much earlier than expected, especially if it's normal food rather than really quick acting stuff (which is sickly after a while.) I probably need a different set of alarms (and some way to turn them off without juggling a phone out of a bag/pocket) for when riding to remind me that I should eat at a given BG level. Always good to have things to work on

Andy@ark said:

I'm completely confused. Trying to get a straight answer from my local surgery is impossible. Reason for T2 may be genetic - mother, who also had a late life diagnosis. Diet good, no obvious symptoms. Originally went to surgery with an infection and was told there was no sign of that, but I was diabetic.

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Diabetes is a strange beast - I've been prediabetic for over 10 years and in the last few months tipped into diabetic range - treatment is currently diet only as I am only just diagnosed with a Hba1c of 52.

I am fit, slim, healthy otherwise no symptoms either - I race Ironman triathlon and regularly do rides of over 100k during training - my diet is good and was previously relatively low carb, i believe I have good fat adaption so the necessity for carbs is less. I am now aiming to hit sub 100 carbs, probably nearer 50gsm a day even with the training - I am still in the testing phase but currently fueling well before I set off on training, i.e. good solid breakfast, mainly fats and protein, then take with me mixed nuts for a mid ride snack when required. Hasten to say currently not riding long rides due to weather but still 1 to 2 hours is easy enough, but will be back on it soon so will report back when the rides get longer.

With regard to readings I am self funding freestyle libre for a few months to get a good picture of what does or doesn't work. So far I have minimal conclusions due to some sessions giving higher than usual numbers and other giving drops, but I am getting a reasonable view of what I need to do. Its a matter of testing and seeing what works as unfortunately there isn't that much information out there for athletic type 2's.

With regard to your GP telling you to get an electric bike I would tell them to go shove it and move to different GP as they obviously don't understand the problem or the fact that its a matter of keeping sane and continuing what you were doing, quality of llife..