My upcoming events

The Israeli National Championship Masters (Amateur) - June 22nd
Same route as the Negba race but this time 100KM so thats 7 laps.

The mHealth Tour stage 4 as part of TeamBG  - September 16-19th
you can follow all my training on Strava

Grand Fondo Jerusalem - 11th October - 150KM

Bishvil HaShanti - October 26th
180km from the Tel Aviv Shanti House to the Desert Shanti house.  Shanti house is an organisation that takes children who have no where else to go and gives them a home and opportunities for a life they might not have had.  They do great work and I am happy to be supporting them.

The Gran Fondo Dead Sea Diabetes Challenge - December 13th
There will be two starts for regular riders 155KM and 100KM (these are approximate).  From the second start it will be timed.  I want to put to get a big group of riders to ride in support of TeamBG to publicize what we do on a national and international level.  We are thinking of opening up the first section to people who what to come and support this effort but do not feel that they can make the longer distances.  As this first section is not timed I am hoping to encourage many people to wear the jersey and cycle with us in a group.
I would like to extend an invitation to anyone currently involved in TeamBG or connected to Diabetes in any way to come join in and support our organisation.  I can help with arrangements and navigating the Hebrew pages if needed.

http://www.teambloodglucose.com/TeamBG/Home.html

Return to the upper Galilee

We had friends visiting from Canada and they invited us to come away with them for the weekend.  I wasn't ecstatic about the idea of going away for the weekend a week before the national championships.  But I trained hard during the week and took my bike with the intention of getting up early and putting in some miles.  We left Tel Aviv late morning and headed up the coast.  We met up with our friends in Akko (Acre) and had lunch at one of my favourite restaurants, Uri Buri.  We continued up north to the boarder where we tried to get to the caves at Rosh Hanikra.  Unfortunately they were already closed for the day so we continued on to Maarat Keshset.

View from Rosh Hanikra border crossing south towards Akko

View east, the hills of Galilee in the distance

At the border crossing

From there we went to the small village where we were to be staying the night.  It was a beautiful drive the the Upper Galilee, past villages of all denominations: Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze.  Through wine country, past vineyard after vineyard, some wineries and many graves of Rabbis from the Talmudic period.  You could almost smell the history.  We past the famous Mt Meron site of the grave of the mystical Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the town of Sefad, home to the Kabbalists of the 16th century.  The village we were staying in was in the middle of a forest on the side of a hill looking north over the Galilee and the Golan heights.

View west standing on top of Maarat Keshet

As we arrived and were being shown around by the owner it came up that I was planning a bike ride.

"I know someone here that likes to ride too"

"OK" I responded

"But he gets up really early to do it"

"That's fine by me, its what I was going to do anyway"

10 minutes later he comes back with Barak and introduces us.  Barak and I chatted for a couple of minutes and just like that it was decided that I was going to ride with him, and he would pick me up in the morning at 6.  Later that evening he called to make sure I was still up for it and to confirm the time.  Avraham the owner of the B & B where we stayed directed us to a restaurant in the Maronite Christian town of Jish.  We had a simple dinner of salads, pita bread, humous and shishkebabs.  We also witnessed a Druze wedding party which was explained to us by our waiter.

Team members refueling before attempting the short climb

The following morning I woke up with plenty of time to get ready, have a coffee and a sandwich before leaving.  Barak picked me up on time and we drove up the hill to the town of Biriya.  From there we rode down to Rosh Pina where we met up with the rest of his team.  They are called Bishvil Haofaniam BeGalil - "for galilee cycles".  Its a play on words that does not translate well.  I was introduced to the trainer a double winner of the national elite championship, Ido Sirkin.  He was warm and welcoming and was happy to hear that I was from X-Team and introduced me to the group.  Ido discussed the route and we took off together set off climbing a long climb which was not too steep.  I was feeling ok, climbing well, heart rate not too high.  As the climb wore on and my hear rate started climbing I felt unable to keep the pace.  A few others had dropped back before me so I was confident that I wasn't going to be the last one up the climb.  A short while later and I was on my own.  I saw ahead two others who had dropped back and when the hill flattened out for a short while I was able to catch them.  The three of us pretty much stuck together for the next part which were some flat and shallow uphills punctuated by some short punchy climbs.

Har Meron

We followed the route back the way we had come in the car the previous day.  The weather was sunny and warm but not too hot and not wind.  Perfect cycling conditions.  The roads were quiet and mostly in good condition.  When we arrived at Sasa I stopped to check my blood sugar, 141mg/dl not too bad but time for a gel.  One of my companions, Vered, asked me if I was diabetic, and what to do if there was an emergency.  I told her to call an ambulance if I fainted, but it has never happened so not worry about it.  We continued on to Matat where we met the others who were doing circuits.  The circuit was 1KM climb up Har Adir.  Steep does not described this hill, brutal would be better, averaging 10% and in parts well over 20% there was nothing to do but put the bike in the lowest gear and grind your way up.  After the climb it was a 5KM time trial back to the previous junction, then return and do it all again.  I did this once.  Barak and the 8 or so other tough guys did it 3 times.

The bottom of the Har Adir climb

Coming back round for another go

While the stronger guys were on their last set a few of us started to make our way back.  The way back was much easier.  We formed a nice group and took it easy.  I was feeling good and my blood sugar was fine.  As I was heading back to the car with Barak I had to let the group go and wait for Barak who wasn't far behind.  He was ahead of the rest of his group with one other guy.  We then climbed back up to wear we left the car.  This was another short but very steep climb.  Not the easiest thing after almost 90KM of riding.  I finished strong and we headed back to where I was staying.

Barak catching up with me

I was back by about 11am, just in time to catch the end of breakfast.  My blood sugar was under control and I was feeling really good.  I had a great time riding with Bishvil Haofanaim BeGalil and they invited me back next time I am in the north.  I look forward to seeing them at the National Championships this weekend and hopefully I will ride with them again in the future.  Thank you Barak and Ido for and to the whole team who were wonderful to ride with and very welcoming.

Here are my  blood sugars (all readings in mg/dl)

2304 - 243
0548 - 190 2 units insulin and a sandwich (30g carbs)
0510 - 201 granola bar (15g carbs)
0630 - start riding to meet group, mainly downhill
0654 - 283 beginning of bike ride
0700 - granola bar while riding
0824 - 141 powerbar gel (27g carbs)
0857 - 186 1/3 of sandwich (10g)
0900 - short all out hill climb
0943 - 212 1/3 of sandwich
1010 - 250 waiting for Barak
1025 - final tough hill climb
1112 - 145 6 units insulin and breakfast
1202 - 137
1243 - 122
1417 - 127

On the whole I need to reduce the amount of times I spike above 200.  I think it affects my performance as well as the potential long term hazards.  I am currently on 24 units of long term at night.  I think reducing the long term insulin and increasing the short term insulin slightly might work.  I tend to keep myself too high for fear of having low blood sugar, but I would rather hold myself in the 150 - 190 range than spike up to 250.

TeamBloodGlucose Part 2 - What's next after the kickoff event?

Last post I wrote about my participation in the mHealth tour as a part of the newly formed TeamBloodGlucose.  These are my plans for afterwards, though I have already set these plans in action.

Once the tour is over the participants from TeamBG, 10 countries in all, will go back to their home countries and work to create events there.  I have started work already.  My first event here in Israel will be to take part as a team, in TeamBG colours, in the Gran Fondo on December 13th.  I have invited members of TeamBG to come over and join in, but my main goal is to get some local people with diabetes to ride with us on the event.  It will be called The Gran Fondo Dead Sea Diabetes Challenge.  The challenge is to for a team of people with diabetes to ride the full Gran Fondo, which will be held near the Dead Sea in December, and it is a call to people with diabetes that want to get fit, get their diabetes under control and ride a serious and long bike ride.  This is not something you can just turn up on the day and ride.  You have to train for it.  This is why I my work starts now.  I really hope that I can encourage some people that would have normally thought that this was out of reach to take part.  The larger the group of TeamBG representatives that we have the bigger noise we will make - meaning more publicity.  This is about local, and possibly international, publicity.  Part of this will mean having our own support car, that will follow the bulk of the group of riders, making sure that they are OK, have plenty of food and water, spare wheels and inner tubes as well as some technical support.  There are food stops along the way and in addition to the food and water available for everyone I hope to have a little extra support for people with diabetes, for example spare blood glucose testers.

From here I hope that the organisation will become well enough established that we can have our own events as well as participate in national and international races and sportives.  The plan is to create an event some time in spring 2014, close enough to the Gran Fondo, December 2013, that we can ride the wave of publicity but not in the middle of winter and to give enough time to plan.  The event will be a day of participation in sport for people with diabetes, families of those with diabetes, and people who are at risk of diabetes.  I plan to include events at different levels, not just cycling but other things as well.  With medical professionals like dietitians and sports consultants who can help people chose a sport that works for them and give advice on how to use that sport to effectively improve the diabetic control.  Finally I hope that there will be enough high level people that we could have a main event style race, to show people what can be achieved, that there is no reason that diabetes should hold anyone back from anything, certainly not sport.

If you are reading this and are interested in the work that I am doing or in joining me on the challenge or future events, please contact me through this blog or Twitter as soon as possible.   I cannot do this alone.  I have made a start.  I am in constant contact with the organizer of the Gran Fondo, who is really hoping we can make this into something big.  I have spoken to another diabetic cyclist who works for a medical devices company here in Israel, and I have started negotiations with another diabetic device company about sponsorship.

If you know of anyone that might be interested or that you think I should speak to let me know.  Currently I am looking for diabetic cyclists, team and personal sponsors and donors, and in the future people with diabetes who want to get more involved in sport, old bikes (well I don't want them yet, but if you have one hang on to it for a bit for me please) and people that want to volunteer to help organize future events.

Finally regarding sponsorship.  If you are a company, or know of one,  that makes equipment or apps for people with diabetes and are interested on being well advertised by our events and participants, additionally we will have the opportunity to use the product and show it off, then please let me know.  If you are involved in a company that has nothing to do with diabetes but would still like that association, publicity and knowledge that you are helping with a worthy cause that affects more than 300 million people worldwide, we are also interested in sponsorship.  What we are trying to do will require some funding and if you can donate we would greatly appreciate it.  If you would like to donate to TeamBG or sponsor me personally on my up coming ride across the Pyrenees then please go to the the TeamBG website and click on the donate button.  Half the money you donate will go towards funding my entry into the ride and the other half will go directly to the TeamBG pot.  If you do donate you will be contacted asking if you are donating on someone's behalf.

Thanks for your support, please get in touch and let me know what you think

Live long and stay healthy.

Team Blood Glucose Part 1 - the mHealth tour

Lately when people ask me what I do, unless they specify '...for a living', I answer something along the lines of a lot of cycling and some diabetes projects.  I am not what I do for a living.  Sure its a big part of my life, and I do enjoy writing programs and playing with data.  Hey, I even did a PhD in the my field of work, so its certainly no small thing.  Outside of my work life, I cycle 200km a week, I blog about diabetes and cycling and I am involved in the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) through twitter.

It is through twitter that I have met some great people.  Many of them are super motivated to do something positive for the world of diabetes.  Others are looking for emotional and practical support from the many other people out there on on social networks that are willing to help (One of the reasons I started this blog was to share my experiences dealing with diabetes so other people could learn from them).

The sense of community among people with diabetes is incredible.  I regularly get messaged by twitter friends asking for advice, or just comparing notes on how are blood sugars are at that moment.

All those things have come together as one big project for me that contains a number of smaller and larger ones.  Coincidentally I got involved with the DOC and twitter just a week before World Diabetes Day.  It was a great day.  I chatted to lots of people, I participated in tweetchats on a variety of topics, and I met many other people with people with Diabetes.

One of the people I met through Twitter, Paul, has been encouraging and enthusiastic from the get go.  He had been diagnosed less than a year ago, in his 40s, with type 1 diabetes.  Since then he has been determined to make a difference in the world of diabetes. 

Paul suggested that I join the mHealth tour, a ride over two weeks from Brussels to Barcelona.  He recommended that we do it as part of a new venture that he was working on.  That venture is TeamBloodGlucose, which Pauls has founded as a not for profit organisation.  He has sought out grants and sponsorship and has arranged for TeamBloodGlucose to be the official patient team for the mHealth tour.  I am looking forward to being a part of this venture and especially to ride for 3 days across the Pyrenees and into Barcelona.

The goal of the tour is to showcase medical technology for diabetes care, to aid research on the effects of sport on diabetes, to raise awareness about diabetes and to encourage participation of people with diabetes in sport.  This final goal is inline with TeamBloodGlucose's mission.  We as an organization wish to do exactly that, to encourage participation in sport for the benefit of diabetic care.  I am doing almost 600KM in 3 days with around 8000m of climbing.  This will be the hardest, longest and highest I have ever been on my bike.  Not only is it a challenge for me to get fit and strong enough to complete this event but managing my diabetes both in training and on the ride itself is no small feat.

Doing this as a team will allow us to give each other encouragement as well has having the support we need. It will also show others that this kind of thing is in reach.  When I was first diagnosed I wondered if I was going to be able to be able to continue being active and involved in sports.  But you do not need to look very far to find people who have competed at the highest level despite having diabetes.  Our participation in this event says to people, "Hey, its not just superstar athletes with diabetes that can do serious sport, but anyone"

If you are reading this and are interested in the work that I am doing or in joining me on this tour or future rides, please contact me through this blog or Twitter as soon as possible.  If you know of anyone that might be interested or that you think I should speak to let me know.  Currently I am looking for diabetic cyclists, team and personal sponsors and donors, and in the future people with diabetes who want to get more involved in sport, old bikes (well I don't want them yet, but if you have one hang on to it for a bit for me please) and people that want to volunteer to help organize future events.

Finally regarding sponsorship.  If you are a company, or know of one,  that makes equipment or apps for people with diabetes and are interested on being well advertised by our events and participants, additionally we will have the opportunity to use the product and show it off, then please let me know.  If you are involved in a company that has nothing to do with diabetes but would still like that association, publicity and knowledge that you are helping with a worthy cause that affects more than 300 million people worldwide, we are also interested in sponsorship.  What we are trying to do will require some funding and if you can donate we would greatly appreciate it.  If you would like to donate or sponsor me personally on my up coming ride across the Pyrenees then please go to the the TeamBG website and click on the donate button.  Half the money you donate will go towards funding my entry into the ride and the other half will go directly to the TeamBG pot.  If you do donate you will be contacted asking if you are donating on someone's behalf.

Thanks for your support, please get in touch and let me know what you think

Live long and stay healthy.