Hiking and Diabetes

Yesterday, I went on my fourth hike since moving to Vancouver.

Armed with juice, snacks of varying GI values, lifesavers, and 60% of my normal basal dose, it was a well-behaved diabetes day. My sugars were higher upon waking (11.3), so I corrected and pre-dosed for my breakfast, which I ate nearly an hour later. Sugars were stable for the drive out and I started the hike at a comfy post-meal-pre-exercise level (9.0).

After half an hour, I was out of breath and out of shape, haha. Sugars were dropping and I was juicing. After this bit, a pack of lifesavers and a few handfuls of trail mixed saw me through the next 2 and a bit hours to top of the hike with sugars staying in a very happy place (4.8-6.5).

The above picture was taken from the Elfin Lakes. Calling it the 'top of the hike' is a little misleading, it's the end point, but not the top. You can actually call this hike 'uphill both ways'. The first half was about 65-35 (uphill-downhill), and the opposite when you turn back around.

I made my classic hiking mistake... "Surely my sugars won't spike from lunch because they've been evenly dropping while hiking...", but that's stupid. Lunch happens while you've stopped moving so your sugars sure do rise with the food!

[I know in normal life, I should alway dose at least 15-20 minutes before a meal, but I rarely actually do... On this hike, the difference between dosing before eating and after the sandwich would have made a huge difference.]

Starting on our way back, my sugars were 13.1, but didn't stay there long due to some corrections I planned on counteracting later. It wasn't even half an hour before I was under 10, at which point I had a granola bar and some lifesavers which kept me stable for the rest of the up. The last half of the hike was stable and good!

When we got to the car at the end, we celebrated with Apple Strudel, and then another when I realized my sugars weren't moving upward at all. It's a good thing I got my friend to drive home because I really needed those 70 carbs of strudel... 2 hours later, my sugars were still stable at 7.3!

The evening sucked - I didn't drink enough water so I was suffering from heat exhaustion. It baffled me because I didn't sweat anywhere near as much as I usually do on hikes, and I drank a good 2 litres of water. PLUS, there was no sun, whatsoever... maybe 15 minutes of sun the entire day. It was cloudy the whole time... but now that I think about it, my transition lenses were dark the whole time, meaning that there were some UV rays sneaking through! Also, I passed out early on, before I had taken my nightly Lantus... I woke up at 4am feeling not so hot, but my sugars were only at 11.4.

I am feeling great today, a little stiff, but it's all good!

Oh ya, the reason I was focusing on diabetes today was because my friend (and fellow hiker) Jim was asking about diabetes management things as they related to hiking and exercise. I answered his questions to the best of my ability, but there really aren't enough answers. Sometimes my sugars go up after exercise (like at lunch time), other times, they go down after exercise (back at the car) and I haven't been able to identify the pattern conclusively.

I've been more active this year than I have in years, and I'm getting better at managing diabetes in relation to it. The first hike and the first few Kung Fu classes were disasters where diabetes really got in the way. I've improved in as much as diabetes causes mild to moderate hiccups, and I look forward to the days that I do things regularly enough that diabetes is a natural, non-influential part of my exercising!