Israel National Masters Championships 2013

The weekend was the open championships for masters level cyclists.  I had set my sights on this event since March and I was really looking forward to competing on this level.  The winner in each category would receive a national masters jersey and entry to the upcoming Maccabi games.  I knew I wasn't going to be getting a podium.  I had raced exactly once, fortunately on exactly the same course.  The difference in the championship race was it was an extra 2 laps (30Km) more than 100Km in all.  I have ridden this distance before but perhaps not enough and not under race conditions. My goal was just do better than last time.  Last time I was only able to stay with the peloton for 1 lap, this time if not for the whole race at least for more than before.

more pictures here

My wife left me a message to see in the morning before the race.

sunrise at the start

The evening before Alon and I had our pasta dinner together.  This time he cooked and I brought desert.  Techina cup cakes with chocolate ganache and smoked salt, made by my wife.  We talked about the race and about what I am up to with TeamBG, ate plenty of pasta and drank lots of water.  I went home and got my stuff ready for the next day.  Water bottles filled, sandwiches made, chain oiled, bag packed with shoes, helmet, energy gels and everything else that I needed.

Alon brought coffee for the team

Making his coffee run so every can start the day right

The following morning my alarm goes off at around 415am.  I jump out of bed and start to get read.  I check my blood sugar.  It was a little high (not surprising after all that pasta the night before), see below for specific details.  I took some insulin and started eating my sandwiches.  I ate two on the drive as I wanted to store as much energy as possible for the long race.We arrived nice and early at the car park, got ready and went to meet the rest of the team at the water tent.  Alon Yotam and I started our warm up.  We had a few runs at the finishing hill and made our way back to the tent.  Carmi wished us all good luck and we all made our way to our respective start lines.  Alon, Yotam, Omer and I lined up together close to the front as the four representatives of X-Team in the 30-40 category.  I check my blood sugar a final time, at 312 mg/dl it was a lot higher than I would have liked but I had no choice.

Last minute tactics

getting the water tent ready

The starting beeps came and we were off.  The pace was around 35kmph and after the nervousness of the peloton died down a bit I started to relax.  My heart rate was higher than I would have liked but not sky high like the last time I raced.  As the race went on I felt comfortable moving around peloton, its not so easy and you have to fight for position.  Thankfully everyone was alert and there were no incidents, though one or two close calls, another reason to stay up near the front.  After a lap and half I was feeling really happy with myself, I had not been dropped from the group.  Time for some food, I reached for my preopened cliff bar.  First mistake of the race.  I took a big bite and I realised there was only a bit more left.  So I stuffed it in my mouth.  Ooops too much.  My mouth was really full.  I was finding it hard to breathe and I had so much in there I that I couldn't chew or swallow.  It took me me far to long to get down and sent my heart rate sky high, right gels from now on.

lining up on the start

Carmi setting off

Alon saw that I was doing ok and asked me to keep and eye on one of the danger men, Ariel.  He was easy to watch, the only one in an FC Barcelona cycling jersey.  I stuck to his wheel and watched for his moves as best I could.  I was able to take water on the go without getting dropped from the peloton.  Everything was great until it wasn't.  At the end of the 4 or 7 laps some guys made a break for it and the group sped up going up the steepest part of the towards the finish line.  I just couldn't hold on, after 60Km at race speed I was done.  I just couldn't hold the pace.  Yotam, one of my team mates, was having the same difficulty.  We rode together for a lap and a half unable to catch the peloton until I made my second mistake.  I had picked up Yotam's bottle the last time round the water tent.  I hit a bump and the bottle fell out.  I felt guilty as I was riding with the guy at the time and turned round to get it.  As I turned round I saw the Masters Pro peloton baring down on my like a freight train.  I decided to forget about the bottle and get moving again.  By this time Yotam was well ahead of me and by the end of the penultimate lap I was almost spent.  I finished up the race coming in 24th out of 30 around 20 minutes behind the leaders.

And we're off.

finishing a lap in the peloton

Yotam and I distanced from the pack

Alon in the break

Alon coming across the finish line

Finishing strong

Alon came second from a break.  Vered came second in the 30+ women, Avi came second in the 60+ men, and Orit came second in the 50+ women.  Ilan made the top ten in the 40+.  Most inspiring of all was Henry who at 80 years old was able to represent our team.  At the presentation he was presented with the winners Jersey for the 80+ category.  Carmi helped him up to the podium and he spoke a few words, thanking us all for being his extended family.

30 - 40 winners podium

All in all I had a good race.  I held the peloton for longer than last time, I collected water without getting dropped, and for the first half of the race I was riding really comfortably in with the front runners.  Next year I will be racing the the full season and hopefully after a busy off season I hope to smash it.

Post race festivities

Blood sugars and food as best as I can remember it.
2222 - 230
0428 - 215 4u insulin 80g sandwiches coffee
0615 - 257 2u insulin
0650 - 306
0703 - 312
cliff bar after 1.5 laps
gel at 2.5 laps
gel at 4 laps
gel at 5.5 laps
1028 - 43  this was a bad test, my hands were a little wet with sweat so messed up the reading
1028 - 198
1044 - 202 bowl of pasta and half a bottle of beer. no insulin
1122 - 252
1235 - 215
1331 - 204
1604 - 190 various food 7u insulin
1704 - 207
2102 - 266 schnitzel and mash potato 6u insulin
2348 - 191
0034 - 259
0747 - 142

Over all not a major success blood sugar wise.  I am conservative though because for such a long race where I have no opportunity to test along the way I do not want risk going low or running out of energy.  Should have had more insulin the night before with the pasta and more first thing in the morning, maybe 7u.  That way the insulin is mostly gone from my system midway through the race which will allow my body to break down glycogen and fat better.  When I first started and I was not getting feeding and insulin correct at all after a long ride I could be as high as 400, here finishing at around 200 wasn't so bad.  I was hesitant to give myself too much insulin in the afternoon as I was worried that the after burn would send me very low.

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

Race Day - Negba

This past weekend I had my first race.  Some of the guys from the group have raced before, one or two race regularly.  For me this was going to be a learning experience, as I am hoping to race more in the future.  The next race I plan to go to is the National Amateur championships.  So hopefully everything learned from this race would go towards a better performance at the Nationals.  The race itself for my category consisted of 5 laps of a 15KM course, totaling 75KM, around Kibbutz Negba. For maps and course profile you can see how it looked on strava.

The team before heading to the start line

The team had done some training on the course a couple of weeks earlier so I was familiar with the route.  Mostly it was flat, however there were two steep rises.  They were not major climbs however they would present a challenge staying with the peloton.  I was not going to with this race.  I did set myself some goals.

Negba Kibbutz

• Stay with the peloton as long as possible.
• Get comfortable riding in a big peloton
• If I could help out my teammate who had a chance of winning.
• Take water while racing
• Complete the race in a reasonable time
• Eat enough before and during the race that I finish with good numbers.
• Have fun

The tl;dr version is that I learned a lot.  Staying in the peleton is hard work.  If you miss the back you will not get back on.  At the end of the first lap I slowed too much to get water.  I could not get back to the peloton and I was left riding out 4 laps at a much slower pace.  I was not able to be much help to Alon, though he still managed to claim second place.  I got much better at taking water while moving quickly on later laps.  I felt that my time for finishing 75KM was pretty good. According to my Strava data I held 225 watts for 2 and a quarter hours, which I think is damn impressive.  I managed to get my eating right and didn't finish the race with blood glucose too high or too low (massive win for me).  I had a lot of fun.

Pictures from the race here.

For those who want more detail read on.

The night before the race Alon came over for dinner.  I had lowered my long term insulin to 22units and I took only 7 units of short term insulin for dinner.  We discussed tactics a little but mainly ate huge amounts of pasta.  A big worry for me usually because so much carbohydrate late in the evening makes me sleepy.  Considering I had to get up early (4:45am) the following morning feeling sleepy early on in the evening was not likely to be a problem.  After dinner I got my bike and kit ready for an early start in the morning.  I checked my sugar before bed and it was in 74mg/dl.  I started second guessing the amount of insulin I took.  I finished everything I had to do and checked once more - 92.  Ok it was heading in the right direction.  I decided to risk it and went to bed.

I woke up at a time that I have previously gone to bed on a Friday night.  Dressed, coffee, blood test 234, a bit higher than I would have liked.  5 units of insulin, to bring myself down and to cover the sandwich that I ate on the way there.

Alon was already attaching his bike to the rack when I got downstairs.  We finished loading up the car and got on our way.  Thankfully the roads were clear and we got to the car park at 5:55.  There were many people there already and a good contingent from our team.  I walked Leehee to the water tent that we had set up on the hill.  Aviv was organizing things, I introduced them and left them too it while I while I started to warm up.

We took a group photo and made our way to the start.  I realised as I was doing my final BG test and grabbing a snack that I still had my glucagon kit on me.  I quickly went to find our support car that would be following my group around, unsuccessfully, and just made it back in time for the start.  Final check before the start, 229, I stuff half an energy bar in to my mouth and waited with my teammates.  We got moving at a decent pace.  Generally I was feeling fine, a little anxious about being in a large peloton but I was up for it and I felt like I could hang with the pace.  I was getting used to the movement of the group and trying to get into a rhythm.  But my legs weren't feeling nearly as relaxed as I wanted.  My glutes and hamstrings were really tight and worse my heart rate was at 171bpm.  This was really bizarre because at this level I should have been struggling, but I felt ok and I was getting the power out of my legs.

some of the elite racers coming past the water tent.

The first lap was at quite a pace and I was happy that I stuck with the peloton.  I was pretty happy that considering my high heart rate which was starting to settle down and my tight legs I was still able to ride in the pack.  It was all a bit nervous, certainly that's how I felt and I figured others were this way as well.  There was a lot of jostling for position, I was finding myself near the front and within a few moments near the back.  I worked myself into the middle but I was on the right hand side coming towards the end of the lap where the team water point was.  I couldn't find away through so I let myself go back to the pack and round to the right hand side of the road to get water.  I collected the water from Aviv at pace but too slow to stay on the back of the pack, the next 50 meters continued to rise and I had to put in a big dig to catch them.  Unfortunately I could not.  The pack were getting away from me and I was fast approaching my limit. 

dropping off a bottle 

I chased hard, giving it everything.  I took a corner too wide and almost crashed out, thinking if I could just make it up the next rise I could go all out on the descent and catch up.  I could see them pulling away with every peddle stroke and towards the end of the down hill they were out of site and I knew I had no chance.  I saw some individuals in front of me and as I got closer I saw some green shirts.  They were members of X-Team from the 40+ and 50+ starts.  I caught and passed them and Shai came back up to my wheel and we decided to work together for the rest of the race.

I was now at a much more comfortable pace, switching between leading, on the flat and downhill, and following on the rises.  My heart rate had come down into the mid 160s and my legs were loosening up.  I could now think about feeding.  I was worried that my sugar might be dropping after the second lap and I had a gel and some energy chews.  I was trying to eat something small but regularly.  Alternating between energy gels, bars, dates and chews.  I mistakenly did not record exactly what I ate but made sure to eat something small when I could.  I drank at least a bottle a lap.  My first two bottles had electrolyte and the rest were just water.

As the race went on we got passed by the Elite riders and they flew passed us at quite a pace.  The last lap I was feeling really good.  I was glad when it start to rain briefly that we weren't in a big group.  The roads were very slippery and it caused many accidents around the course.  We came up to a big group from X-Team, they were not riding so quickly so Shai and I went past them.  I rode up the rise following the turn off the main road, able to stand up on my peddles and power up the hill.  I took the down hill carefully and when I saw that I was riding away from Shai I slowed up and let him come to my wheel.  Eventually though he couldn't hold my pace and I rode away.  Finally on the last hill, I pushed myself.  I stood up on the peddles and gave it what I could.

Final lap, final hill.

I have never been so motivated coming passed my wife and the rest of the X-Team crew in the water tent loudly cheering me on giving me the power to speed up the final rise and on to the finish.  I was about 15 minutes behind the peloton.  Not as good as I was hoping but still happy that I finished and certainly good that I did not get lapped.

pushing hard to finish strong

The most encouraging part was that I finished the race with a blood glucose of 146mg/dl.  This is better than I had expected.  Not too high or too low.  I had something to eat to keep my sugars from dropping and went to the awards ceremony.  Out team did quite well.  Alon came second in our race, the 30-39 category.  We also got second in mens 60+, womens 30-39, and second and third in women's 50+.

Alon in second place 30+

Avi in second place 60+

Vered in second place womens 30+

Following the ceremony the team got together and had brunch.  It was a great day, everyone had a good time.  There were a couple of scrapes but we all survived the race well.

Team brunch

I look forward to the next one.