thanks, Danny!
Hi there,
I'm a T1 endurance athlete - swimmer, cyclist, runner, I do it all. I'm also 31 - have had T1 for nearly 14 years.
You're right, there's definitely a learning curve and you shouldn't feel pressured to learn it all overnight... you and this disease are in it for the long haul - and I promise, it's not the worst thing in the world... pretty soon you might even appreciate how in tune with your body and nutritional needs you become.
On to the running - fueling with T1 is tricky. I don't like to run if I'm above 300mg/dL because the stress (cortisol) of the run can actually cause it to go higher. Are you on an insulin pump? If so, it helps to keep the pump on during exercise, if even with the basal turned down 50% or so, just to keep some insulin in your system. What you will begin to notice is, with exercise and insulin, your BG will go down and you'll run into lows every now and then... you can reduce your basal insulin or fuel at regular intervals to prevent this from happening... I do both... also, during exercise, I only give myself HALF the normal meal and correction boluses because exercise makes you more sensitive to insulin. You might also notice you're more sensitive to insulin hours after exercise - everyone is different. Also, for your post run recovery meal, be sure to take insulin a good 15-20mins before the end of your run, so after eating the glucose doesn't stay in your blood for an hour before being absorbed. If you're not on a pump yet, run with your insulin pen or a prefilled syringe if you need to - if you're high and you inject it directly in the quad, it will actually work super fast while you're running.
There's an awesome facebook group called "Athletes with the 'betes" which might help you.
I'm really passionate about exercise and T1 so if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here or
Type1Rachelle@gmail.com
good luck!