Morning Ride!

**Before you read: To help you understand some of my "jargon" just a little background on blood sugar (BS). It should be between 80-100, but if I'm close to 80 I'm usually going low. Higher than 150 is pretty high, and not good! Bolused is what you do when you give yourself insulin. When I give myself a shot I do it in "units." I usually have to take 1 unit for every 20 carbs I eat. Phrendos are people on the diabetic network that are also into training. If you have any other questions, please comment and I'll try to answer!**

Very early this am (5:00 to be exact) a couple new friends and I got together for a 41 mile ride to Usery Pass and back. My husband and sister (who are very fast) were doing this ride, so I invited some other AZ phrendos to join us, and Lynanne Chapman and Jerry Nairn did. It was nice to meet Lynanne, and great to see Jerry again! I was especially glad to have them around because I am really not fast at all, and knew I couldn't keep up with the others. Turns out Troy and Dixie (hubby and sister) finished 1 HOUR before us...but whatever.

To back up a little, I went to a Shakespeare show at the Biltmore that my bro-in-law was performing in last night (very good! I took Cooper with me and he pretty much thought he'd died and gone to heaven getting to hang out with all the big people!), and afterwards we went for some dessert at the Cheesecake Factory...basically it was 1 am before I went to bed. I checked my email before crashing and saw that Lynanne and Jerry were indeed coming, so I set my alarm for 4:30 and hoped for sleep to come fast! (I'm a total insomniac, so this is something I definitely struggle with). Luckily I got some sleep, woke up to a BEAUTIFUL morning, and was ready to go.

Checked my BS and was at 289...YIKES! I guess that strawberry shortcake wasn't bolused correctly... However, I always tend to go low when I exercise (especially on long runs or rides), so it's always hard for me to decide what to do. Should I give myself some units to correct? I ate half a bagel with peanut butter and decided to give myself 2 units. One hour into the ride I was already at 99. Took some shot blocks and continued on my way. Let me just say, this was NOT an easy ride! It was absolutely gorgeous out this morning. It wasn't hot at all (which is unusual in AZ), it was windy (which was nice for keeping us cool, but sucked the big one for riding into. Lots of strong headwinds the whole time, esp. up the hills), and there were LOTS of bikers out on the roads. (I saw several of my friends out there!)

This ride started at my house, headed up to a place called Usery Pass, and then looped us around for 17 miles before we headed back home. Usery Pass is FULL of hills. There is an especially steep downhill that I thought I would be very scared of, but it turned out I LOVED the feeling of flying! I really am scared of what can happen when you're going that fast, but I tried not to think about it and ended up really enjoying it. However, that was the one nice stretch of the ride before some pretty ugly hills reared their heads. I was slow. Very slow. Poor Lynanne and Jerry--they were great sports sticking with me! (This just shows me how dang far I have to go to be ready for St. George. In fact, I kept thinking "What the h*** was I thinking saying I could do IMSG?????") There was one hill that just kept going for literally 4 miles, and I was getting passed left and right. I finally figured out how to change into the very lowest gears, which helped, but the bike I've got is not great and was really making it hard. But--I made it! We topped that hill and then finished the loop and headed for home. We had to stop 2 other times because I felt low and needed some GU, but I thought it was a very fun and awesome morning! I especially liked getting to know Lynanne, and having time to chat with both her and Jerry. Great people! I hope that next time we can have more Arizonans out with us! I know everyone is at different paces, but I think that would still work because we had 2 groups this time--fast and mega slow. :) We finished the 41 miles in 3 hours 45 minutes. (I'm pretty sure I was going about 3-4 mph on those killer hills! Not so hot...but hey, next time will be much better! Plus, when I get a bike that's actually good it will help a ton!)

If those 2 hadn't come, I would've slept in...SO GLAD THEY CAME!! Anyone else out there wanting to join us for long rides or runs, please let me know! I think I'm going to alternate each Saturday with a long run, then the next week a long ride.