Wonderful summary! Thanks for this!
Maybe take the gtabs right before you start, not when walking to the pool? Post-swim bolus and carbs and protein?
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that’s one of my favorite parts of the swim 
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Another swimming experiment:
so i over-slept this morning and missed my time window for bfast. i need to get all of my IOB out of my system before 11:30am in order to start my swim prep. everything i put in my mouth in the morning, even just looking at food, raises my BG terribly.
so, i had expected to have a large bowl of oatmeal with a big glass of milk, but that ships has come and gone.
so this will be interesting. no food on board. hope i have enough fuel for my swim.
must say that i am totally looking fwd to my post swim carbs replacement…just LOVE those chocolate protein/carb shakes MMMMMM yummy.
will keep you posted as always.
DM
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So no breakfast this morning? Hmmmmm. I suspect you will be more likely to drop because of no fuel. So just watch out for it. What is your BG?
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my BG is now 123. just gave myself .5 units and turned off basal. will check again in one hour and see where i am going. (my morning BGs were 59 at 4am 1Gtab, then 73 at 8:30am, then 123 at 11:30, my last test.)
i would like to shoot for a 2 hour swim, but if i can only do an hour or 1.5 hours, i will feel good about myself. if i am below 100 going into the pool i will take either 1 or 2 Gtabs (not the 4 like last time 
.)
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You are going about 2 hours from now, right? If you are 123 now, you will be fine.
Is your insulin duration 4.5 hours? If so, by 2:00 you will have less then 0.10 units of active insulin, and by 3:30, you will have nothing. Swim hard. You will be fine.
just retested at 12:30 ; my BG was 110. on 0% basal for 1 hour now.
Is your duration 4.5?
if i swim for 2 hours, my time off my pump is 4.5. if i only swim for 1.5 hrs it is 4hrs. and so on. don’t feel that strong today. bad nights sleep. but i would love to have a good swim before the w/end.
its 1:20pm. BG was 133. so i am leaving now for the pool. i think should be fine. i still have .3 units IOB from the .5 prep pre-bolus. not concerned at all.
i’ll let you know when i return.
DM
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RESULTS FROM THE LATEST EXPERIMENT:
well despite my fear of going low during my swim b/c i had no food/ fuel in my system (no bfast or lunch ), i stayed rather high, but steady. i swam strong and hard for 90 minutes and ended at 126 BG.
why i started high is anybody’s guess 'cause i haven’t a clue. here are the stats:
2pm BG jumped from 110 all the way to 157 !!! got in the pool without correction.
2:30 BG 147
3pm BG 142
3:30 BG 126 and at 3:35 i bolused 1.7 units for basal replenishment.
4:10 pm i bolused 1.6 units for replacement carbs/protein BG 129
would have swam that extra 1/2 hour, but as i mentioned earlier, i did not sleep well last night, and i was just exhausted. but 90 minutes is a good swim, and i plan to eat a lot this weekend and fuel up for monday’s swim. (pizza , prtein and other yummy carbs ) and as i write this, i am chugging down my delicious chocolate shakes. i’ll say it again :" there is almost nothing as good as chocolate!!!"
i just want to mention one thing here 'cause i find it interesting and important: when i got out of the pool, my BG was 126. despite the fact that i had bolused immediately after i got out of the pool , i spiked from 126 to 157; it came down within 20 minutes or so, but i don’t ever want to be afraid of going low after i stop swimming, b/c i know that my BGs will go up instantly. eric taught me that. so, even if my BG is 50, for example, i would still bolus the same amount as if my BGs were 120. anything to prevent that post workout spike. 
hope this helps somebody!
DM
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Your spike was higher than usual today with NO breakfast and no morning insulin. So that tells me that your morning insulin is lasting you a pretty long while.
A lot of times you do the same thing, but when you eat breakfast and turn off your basal at the same time, you are lower when you start. What time do you usually take your breakfast bolus?
So that is an interesting thing to see. And considering you missed breakfast and did things a little bit different today, this turned out pretty good for you today. Nice recovery!
i try and bolus for bfast between 6:30am and 7am. this way, there is no IOB from my bolus by he time i turn off my pump (11:30am)
(also, in the morning, i pre-bolus for about 20 minutes, which is something i have just started doing, and it has been very effective, especially with the oatmeal which is so carby)
i don’t turn off my basal at the same time i am eating bfast. am i misunderstanding you?
I know, I didn’t phrase it well. I should have said, “When you DO eat breakfast and you turn off your basal at the same time as you turned it off did today, which is 11am…”
Your big spike today seemed higher than normal, right? You went swimming yesterday, so this was a bit unexpected.
I guess if you are taking your insulin for breakfast so early, there isn’t anything left of it.
So perhaps today’s spike is just a bit of variability that can happen once-in-a-while. Is it starting to cool down where you live? Did you eat a lot last night?
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i didn’t swim yesterday. also, i don’t turn off my basal until 11:30am this way, after i eat bfast, there is NO IOB by the time i turn off the basal ( 0% TB )
make sense?
yes to both questions 
I think maybe if you sum up those things - no swimming yesterday, big dinner last night, and cooler weather - the bigger spike today is not that crazy.
Let’s regroup on Monday and go at it again!
sounds like a plan . have a great w/end !!!
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Monday’s Swimming Experience:
well, today i was exhausted from a bad nights sleep, it is cold here in this neck of the woods, and i was in one of those crappy moods which i just couldn’t shake off. basically, i would have been very happy staying in bed and under the covers with my cat, Oscar Wilde, and just sleep all day long. BUT I didn’t. i pulled myself together and put on my cold-weather clothing and walked to the pool. Yay for me !
As much as i see all the other athletes on this site who use their Dexcoms while working out, i still rely upon my finger sticks. and because i am in the water while i exercise, i don’t have the luxury of wearing my pump (MiniMed). so things get complicated. its a lot of work, and i am still a work in progress. some days (like today) i just want to bag it. but i try and stick with my intention and drag myself to the pool. now, there are many things i bribe myself with while i am walking over there which have been very effective methods for getting me to do all the elaborate pre-work and trying to get psyched for my swim: my post swim Chocolate Shakes, all the food i will eat for dinner, the endorphin rush, the sensation of the water as i swim my laps…sounds silly but it works 
but here are the latest stats:
2pm BG 141
2:30 BG 118 (took 1 Glucose Tab )
3pm BG 120
3:30 BG 106
3:45 BG 105 gave myself 1.7 units manual bolus for basal replacement as well as 1.6 units for carbs i am soon to be drinking (the chocolate Glucose Control Boost Shakes).
i look at the numbers and am impressed considering where i am coming from since last year. still wondering and waiting for the day when i will have this system down to a science. its easy to get frustrated when you are doing all these experiments and trying so hard, and not seeing the results you feel like you deserve to see. i look at Kaelan’s swimming stats that he posted just last week; it was his first swim on his new pump. i couldn’t believe how manageable and extraordinary his BGs were. i can only dream of that kind of success now. but, seeing his success, i thought to myself “Why not me too?” it may just take me a little longer to get there.
I am pledging that i refuse to give up, even when i want to stay under the covers with my cat .
and thats all the news thats fit to print. i hope that someone finds this encouraging and that my trials and tribulations become truly worthwhile to myself and possibly others.
DM
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