100 Miles a week

I learned I had diabetes in a roundabout way. I had recently made up my mind, in the middle of the depths of the dot com crash, to earn my commercial pilot's license and follow my life's passion of being a professional pilot. When my Doctor saw my blood test results - well, that was the end of that. Or so I thought.

By cycling and managing my nutrition (within the context of today's food processing marketing - more on this rant in another blog) I've been able to bring my blood glucose numbers in line. But it takes a great deal of effort.

Last year, when I was in daily training for my second MS 150, my numbers were not only normal, they were phenomenal, for any person. My blood test readings read like an athlete. All the key indicators were low, or in some cases, nearly off the low end of the scale. I intend to achieve this performance level again.

I've started my 100 miles per week regimen, and so far, it's not been hard to do. To be sure, the weather has been cold - I've ridden in the 40's, high winds and in mist so far. I do miss getting some projects done, but this can wait for a few months. And in any case, doing this helps me organize my time and life better.

So, how is it working? Already, my glucose numbers are normal. By keeping this up for 3 months, I will have lowered my ultimate statistic, the HbA1C number, which measures your 3-4 month average glucose buy checking the percentage of hemoglobin contaminated by excess glucose (below 7% is good, around 5.5% is awesome). At that point, assuming nothing else has gone wrong, I'll go for my flight medical again.

I plan to make this test an "open book test" though. Home blood test kits are available to check the HbA1C number at home. So I plan to have the answers before I take the test. Hey, what great pilot is not fully prepared?

Fingers crossed for luck too.

P.S. Bad luck yesterday, I flatted my rear tire with only 30 miles done this week, so I put the bike in the shop to fix that and for the yearly cleaning and maintenance. I'll have to make up the miles next week.