Mt. Laguna Ride

Route: Laguna Mountain Loop
Distance 49.6 miles
Location: East County Difficulty (1-10): 7 - Intermediate to Advanced
Terrain: Long hard climb followed by long descent.
Climbing Elevation: 5,385 ft
Up to the Mt. Laguna Summit, a 2500' climb over 10 miles. From the summit onward thru Lake Cuyamaca it is a long descent back down to the starting point.

7:45 am-110 Fasting
8:00-8:30am- ate bagel and PB and banana took 4.0 units, left regular morning basal on
9:22am- 128 pre ride, drank juicy juice, and ate a 15 gram bar
11:16am- 88 at top of big climb 1:43 into ride, at ½ a gel, and a 15g popsicle (didn’t cover either)
1:05pm- 98 at next stop
2:00pm- another stop, I ate 2/3 of a cliff bar (again didn’t cover it)
3:18pm-123 post ride
I didn’t take any bolus’ until covering my post ride meal, the whole ride I was sipping Accelerade and left my regular daily basal rate on.

These sugars were surprisingly good considering the length and difficulty of the ride. I had a particularly rough time on the main climb. My BG at the top was only 88, would have liked it at 140, but the main thing I attribute my difficulties to was that we only rode 6 miles (which wasn’t all flat either) before starting to climb. My heart rate was 165+ from virtually the moment I got on the bike, and was up to 185 for a lot of the climb and I was riding slowly! I have seen time and time again that I need much more warm up for anything high intensity. I need a warm up that gets my heart rate up uncomfortably high, but then lets it come down before the hard portion. If I had been riding for 45 decently hard, but not consistently hard, minutes before climbing I bet it would have gone much better. I made it up the hill thanks to my friend Tammy, who was in the pack I was dropped from, but came back to get me. Don’t know what I would have done without her today…actually, everyday.