i’m so glad i’m back in the pool, too. it sets my mind right, not just my body. 
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You may want to ask about the Masters swimming group. In most of the clubs I have attended there is an adult coach that works out a group of serious adult swimmers and can certainly offer help with improving strokes. And you certainly qualify as a serious swimmer.
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Thx Chris,
I will definitely check this out. But what I just learned about is that they offer are private lessons. It costs quite a bit of money, but I think I would get the attention I want and that it would be worth the cost.
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I’d agree!
My MIL goes to the gym and works with a personal trainer every week. She calls it her “long term care insurance” and I think it’s a great attitude. If you can afford to add that into your life, it’ll be a good investment in your health and mind.
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thanks for your encouragement. its nice to know that these services are out there for those of us who want them. and, i deff do.
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PRE-SWIM EXPERIMENT # 1:
today i thought i would try something new. whenever i have turned off my pump in the past to stop my basal, i give myself a mini bolus of between .3 and .5 units in order to prevent a spike due to the lack of any basal.
however, no matter how many times i have tried to prevent a relatively large drop in my BG within the first 1/2 hour of my swim, i have not been successful. so, today i thought that perhaps if i skip that little mini bolus, it would prevent that beginning crash (going, for example, from starting at 160 and dropping to 130 within just 1/2 hour).
well, when i turned off my pump today at 11:30, my BG was 116. very reasonable and in target. all seemed well, so i didnt give myself that bolus. i re-tested in just 1/2 hour and my BG had climbed from 116 to 134. only that 1/2 hour had passed so i decided to bolus .3 units.
when i re-tested 1/2 hour later, i had leveled off at 131. i have another hour before i leave for the pool, so i am very eager to see how this works out. cant learn without trying new things. but remember: YDMV this is what has been working for me. i am always trying to go with the flow, so why not try something new? it seemed like a reasonable experiment 
hope this helps someone who is struggling with their exercise routine. and, i hope this brings courage to anyone afraid of trying new things. if anyone should know this: fear and worry kept me locked in a life without flexibility and that really sucked.
will keep you posted on my swim. i cant wait to get into that pool 
DM
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PRE-SWIM EXPERIMENT THAT WAS A LESSON LEARNED:
well, at least i tried. now i know that the pre-bolus before i turn off my pump is very necessary. in fact, i will be going back to my old pre-bolus of .5 units. i had a great flat line today, but it was quite high. i had no drop, no crash, but only a little lowering of my BGs .
i swam hard and strong for two hours. i had the lane to myself for appox 1.5 hours!!! yay, what luxury. i was in pig heaven (or fish heaven 
).
here are the stats: ( and this will show you why i need that higher pre-bolus)
at 11am, i turned off my pump. my BG was 116. i did not bolus at all. BUT, by 11:30, my BG shot up to 134 so i decided to take a very modest bolus of .3 units. at 1pm, when i was about to leave for the pool, my BG had gone up to 143, and when i arrived at the pool my BG had risen to 156.
1:30 BG 156
2pm BG 155
2:30 BG 138
3pm BG 144
3:30 BG 130 then, as soon as i got out of the pool, i bolused 2.5 units to replace lost basal. then i walked very briskly home. this was a 15 minute walk and when i was home i tested again and i had come down to a BG of 110.
i bolused again at 4:20 for my 2 Boost Shakes 1.6 units, and waited 15 minutes before chugging them down. i am very eager to see how my BGs are throughout the evening and over-night.
since i began swimming again, post-surgery 3 month long re-coop, my body is changing back to the way it was before from after my surgery. i am very busy changing basal rates and ICRs.
it is shocking to me how much exercise impacts my need for insulin as well as how much more effective insulin works on controlling my blood sugars. this is now very very obvious to me.
when i began this thread, all i wanted to do was swim for an hour about 5 days a week. i didnt know how to do it; i didnt know what to expect; and i based my swim program on my idiot endos instruction (big mistake). it was here, at FUD, that i learned that i could swim for hours without struggling to drag myself out of the pool with a BG of 30. there is always so much to be learned. and i am not saying that it is all about being D; i mean that in life itself there is always more to learn if we choose to put ourselves to the task.
a long time ago a sage elder shared with me this wonderous advise: when asked how one gets self-esteem, the answer was “by doing esteemable acts.” i understand the meaning of that now. and it has proven to be priceless.
will keep you posted on how my BGs go throughout the evening and over-night. everyone has always suggested to me that i set a lowered temp basal for over-night, but dont worry b/c it has proven over the past year that it is utterly unnecessary.
signing off,
DM
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I know you generally just jump in and start swimming hard. But doing a little warm-up before you start pushing yourself will allow muscles to prepare for the activity, and gives the body time to mobilize fuel stores for the activity. Warming up slowly raises your heart rate and increases blood flow to the muscles. That will allow the delivery of more oxygen and will help metabolize lactic acid, which is also a fuel source.
By gradually increasing oxygen delivery to your muscles with a warm-up period, your body will be better able to buffer the lactic acid build up in the muscles when you actually begin pushing harder.
The end result of a more thorough warmup will be that your body will not need to immediately pull glucose out of your blood to fuel the swimming, and you will have less of a drop.
Try it for a month and see what you think.
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i will deff follow your suggestion. i am soooo sore right now that i ended up taking some Robaxin for the pain. (i am ordering the tart cherry juice tomorrow evening). tomorrow will be a slower day for the first 1/2 hour. i am planning to swim for 1.5 hours.
hopefully this will help my swim as well as my body post-swim.
Are you getting the pills or the juice? I really like the juice a lot. I hope you will try it some day.
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i’m ordering the pills.
AN EXPERIMENT IN PROCESS #1:
i am trying to figure out how to stop the crash that i have in my first 1/2 hour of swimming. it is consistant, every time i swim. i get in the water after 2.5 hours of no basal. then i swim 1/2 hour, by which time i have been on 0%basal for 3 hours. after the initial drop, i level off and plateau and stop dropping significantly. i can swim hard without worry that i will go low. in fact, i think that the lowest i’ve ever gone is 70.
for yesterdays swim, i experimented with giving myself a .3 unit bolus before turning off my pump. but i spiked, and although i had a total flat line and did not crash at all, i remained high throughout my swim. today, i bolused .5 units and the crash happened. Eric thought that perhaps i should swim slowly and warm up for the initial part of my swim and see if that helped ward off the spike. it didnt work. at least it didnt work today. i crashed anyway.
tomorrow i will experiment again and give myself .4 units when i turn off my pump. maybe that will be the secret number. i am really working hard on this formula and although i have seen great progress, i have not seen much consistency where i can nail down a formula that is reliable. i must constantly be flexible and make decisions on the spot of how to handle this or that. to tell you the truth, it is easier figuring out the formula for eating pizza and having a flat line than it is figuring out the swimming situation . (but i would like to add that my pizza formula did take a long time to figure out. so, perhaps with more persistance and experimenting, i will nail this down.)
a quick look at the stats:
2pm BG 147
2:30 BG 114 took 1 Gtab (well timed, i believe b/c i was off all basal for 3 hours already)
3pm BG 103
3:30 BG 80
so thats about it for today. after trying the .4 bolus tomorrow, more will be revealed.
signing off,
DM
1 hour later:
eric just came up with a very interesting idea. since i consistently crash during my 3rd hour off the pump, why not try a longer wait time before i jump into the pool. that would put me at the time that i always plateau with my BGs. i will definitely try that experiment out !!!
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NERVOUS EXPERIMENT :
well, i did what eric suggested yesterday: i stopped my pump for 3 hours before getting into the pool today. when i left the house, my BG was 119, however, when i arrived at the pool my BG had gone up to 129. i trusted the fact that i was on 0% basal, not having IOB since 5:50am, nor any basal left in my system. i was planning, based upon all of these experiments, that i would have reached my “plateau” point and that i would not crash, but would remain as flat line as possible.
here are the stats:
1:30 BG 129
2pm BG 125
2:30 BG 97
3pm BG 94 bolused 2.4 units manually
3:30 BG 98 bolused 1.6 units for protein/carb shakes (2)
i did not have to take any Gtabs during my swim. this was a major accomplishment
now i just need to vent a little:
i love what i am accomplishing. i love swimming. not only have i worked hard for it, but i continue to work hard at it. today i woke up at 5am in order to eat a hearty breakfast so that i would not have any IOB 4 hours later. then, i had to wait 3 hours, to get the darn basal insulin out of my system. we are talking a total of 7 hours of time doing absolutely nothing but waiting.
i have got to find something to do during these hours that is productive. i cannot just lie around half asleep watching television. it makes me feel angry that this is the price to pay for 2 hours of swimming laps. a 7 hour prep, for 2 hours of laps. ugh. i could punch a hole in the wall just thinking about it. i know i tend to come off as happy-go-lucky most of the time, but as a human being, it can be very frustrating. so much depends on what my BG will be, how it will work…it has a mind of its own sometimes. i am forever having to be flexible and make quick minute adjustments. this has nothing to do with being a diabetic. this has to do with the circumstances of my life. and it angers me. okay; there. i vented.
thank you all for listening to my BS. and please continue to cheer me on; it means the world to me. it keeps me going, trying, experimenting.
signing off for today,
DM
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Not following your thoughts here.
Doing nothing while waiting to swim has nothing to do with diabetes. You can turn off your pump and then do whatever you would normally do while waiting. You don’t have to just sit there.
If your complaint is that you want to swim in the morning but you have to wait for the IOB to be finished, that’s a bit different. Do you want to swim right when you wake up, before breakfast? We could arrange that if you want to try. It would just be a disconnect, take a small carb amount as needed, and start swimming. And then you would eat breakfast after you are done.
Anyway, lots of different ways to do it.
But as it is now, It takes you about 15-30 seconds to turn off your pump. I think that is the time you should consider as prep time. Anything else you do in the 3 hours leading up to your swim is your free time, you aren’t required to just sit and do nothing while waiting.
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i know, i know… i just need to find myself a new system to fill this precious time. the timing that i am using now allows me to get into a pool that is not over-crowded with people waiting their turn for a lane. the max in each lane is 5 people. that in and of itself is wicked. thats what happens in the mornings (before people go off to work) and then from 4pm on it is almost impossible to get a lane. (4pm is childrens’ time/ family time/swim classes time) 5pm on until 10pm is all of those who come after work.
i have my timing down pat. i am in the pool by 1:30 and out by 3:30. the pool is virtually, for the most part, empty. its absolutely luxurious. no bumping into other swimmers, no waiting for a lane, no noise. it is blissful. its a treasure. (I need to keep that up front and center. all i am really waiting for is bliss. and that is precious.)
okay, eric, you talked me out of my resentment i will take up a new hobby. maybe i will start knitting a sweater for my husband 
.
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…or something for me…
I turned off my pump 15 minutes before my run today and then answered your post while waiting. Then I ran. I don’t consider it wasted time.
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thanks for putting things into perspective. what color would you like your sweater to be?
how was your run?
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I’ve been thinking about learning how to make a mosaic. There are so many beautiful colors you can use. Doesn’t it look fun??
Congrats on the successful swim!! Your numbers look perfect.
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I’ll second the masters team recommendation from @Chris. Probably the most efficient way to improve everything you listed. Its generally a mix of people who swam in high school(me)/college and adult onset swimmers/triathletes… I only go sporadically but I enjoy it and feel better when I do.
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@daisymae, can you expand on this a bit more and analyze it in more depth for us?