Spoken Too Soon

Saturday morning I ran 16k. It went quite well but I finished it on a mission of sorts. I was determined to have a happy blood sugar day and I wanted to avoid an afternoon of chasing lows after a morning of running.

Here is how the day went:
I checked my blood sugar when I woke up and I was 4.4. I ate two dates, a GU gel, a clementine and a small granola cookie thing. I ran 16k and I was 4.3 when I finished. That's cutting it kinda close but I was happy that I didn't go low but didn't end up high either.

Now the juggling began. "No lows today" was my goal. Here is what happened.

11:00am BG 4.3 (post run) I had a chocolate milk and took 1/3 of my regular bolus. I set a 60% basal rate for two hours.
11:30am Breakfast shake and 1/2 grapefruit while icing my legs. I took half of my regular bolus for breakfast.
2:00pm lunch BG 5.4. I calculated 20 carbs for lunch but didn't bolus one drop of insulin for it.
4:00pm BG check 6.2
6:30pm Dinner BG 6.4 I took the full bolus for dinner but miscalculated the carbs on our homemade pizza so I was 15.5 when I checked again at 9pm. I took a correction bolus and congratulated myself on a job well done. Not one low all day despite running hard for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Sunday morning began at 1:00am with a low of 2.9. I inhaled two packages of fruit chews (40 carbs) which was way more than the recommended 15 carbs to correct a low. I waited until my sugar climbed back into the human range and went back to sleep confident that I would wake in a mildly high but not too high zone.

I woke up again at 6:30am with a BG of 2.9. I had a juice box (20 carbs), recovered, and fell back to sleep for another two hours. When I padded down for breakfast at 9:00am I discovered that I was 3.4. I had my regular breakfast shake and 1/2 grapefruit and took 5 units instead of 6.4 figuring that would do the trick.

Sunday is a day off from exercise so I spent most of the day at my desk trying to get my rapidly growing photo library under control again. Meaning that I basically did not move except to refill my water bottle and empty my bladder periodically.

At 11:00am I was 4.4 so I ate 35 carbs despite still being full from breakfast and having no interest in food.

At 1:30pm we had lunch and I was 6.7. The lows seemed to be under control again - whew! I reduced my lunch bolus by one unit just to be extra sure.

At 3pm I was 7.6 and by 4:30pm I was 3.5. I ate 30 carbs. At 5:30pm I was 3.6. I ate 25 more carbs.

Dinner was at 6pm and, despite having 20 carbs in it, I didn't take a drop of insulin.

At 8pm, I was 6.4.

Saturday, after my run, I didn't have one low.
Sunday, the day after my run, I had six.

You might suggest that the lows of Sunday were a residual effect from the exercise the day before. I would tend to agree except that I've been writing down all of my BGs for a month now and I can confirm that, on the previous two weekends, I had lows on Saturday after my long runs and no lows at all on Sunday.  So why this time?

I bet the crazy diabetes rabbit has a set number of lows it wants you to have after a long run and, if you don't cooperate, it just adds them to the next day's total.

Jerk.