Joe helping us to get ready.

Shooting Pete from the moving car.

SAG car and our sponsors.

Pete, Matt S., Joe, and Dave.

Kim and Pete cheating the wind.

Matt directing Derek (the camera guy), "Now let's make this shot look professional. Stay tight, keep your head up, and don't look at the camera. Good, good, now let's do that one again. Great, one more time."

Playing the new lunch time game, shoot the rock in the Gatorade bottle.

Matt V's shadow while riding.

Dave getting silly.

Eureka's post office.

Great view of Mt. Nebo.

"What does a heart attack feel like?" asks Kim after the final climb.

Homestretch to Payson.

April 5: Delta to Payson
81 miles, 2500 ft elevation gain
40 mph max speed, 17 mph avg. speed

My day unexpectedly started at 2:00am, when I woke up sweaty, hungry, and disoriented. My blood sugar was very low. The 230+ miles on the bike has made my body more sensitive to insulin than normal. I didn't test my BG to make sure, I knew I was low. I went right for the bottle of glucose tabs.

Sometimes when I wake up from a low blood sugar like this, I eat way more than I should to bring me back to normal. Eight glucose tabs probably would have done the trick. Instead, I ate over half the bottle of glucose tabs (20 approx.), a Clif Bar, a ProMax protein bar, and an all natural Pear Bar. I felt better and went back to sleep.

When I woke up at 8:00am, my BG was 350 and I didn't feel very good… I guess I ate a little too much for the low blood sugar. After a quick urine check, I tested negative for keytones… thank goodness, because keytones are bad and if I had them, I probably couldn't ride. I did a correction bolus and by breakfast my BG was on it's way back to normal.

Today's weather was so much better than yesterday's cold, windy, and rainy nightmare. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and there was a slight breeze. Pete told us today's ride would be about 60 miles of rolling hills all the way to Payton.

We had a great pace going for the first 17 miles, then we saw a sign that said "Santaquin: 55 miles." Santaquin is 5 miles further than Payton… 17 miles we've already ridden, plus 55 miles to Stantaquin, plus those 5 additional miles equals 77 miles, not Pete's prediction of 60 miles! "Oh well, at least the terrain is pretty mellow," I thought to myself.

The rolling hills were nice, set by a beautiful backdrop of snow-capped mountains. We had a steady climb to the very small mining town of Eureka, followed by a great downhill through the canyons and a nice view of Mt. Nebo. At this point, it was supposed to be flat and fast to Payson. Actually we had another intense climb to Santaquin. My legs were tired from the last climb and all I wanted to do was lie down and take a nap. Instead, Pete and I took turns blocking the wind and pulled each other up the hill. The remaining five miles to Payson were relatively flat and painless.

When we all arrived at the Comfort Inn in Payson, everyone quietly went to their rooms with their legs throbbing from the unexpectedly tough day.

BG, Carbs, Etc.

The morning's low BG was caused by too much insulin, so I raised my insulin to carb ratio to 1 unit/40 gms of carbs (normally 1 unit/15 gms of carbs). After breakfast, I felt fine and wasn't really affected by the early AM low and immediate high BG. I kept the same 0.10 u/hr basal for riding.

Matt's Daily Numbers, Freestyle CoPilot.