I’m training for a big bike ride, 100-miles, that will be on June 4th, 2016. It’s the Tour de Cure Twin Cities. I’ve had type 1 diabetes for almost 35 years and I’ve worn an insulin pump for about 22 years. I’ve been wearing a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (cgm) for just about two years non-stop. (I love it!)
One of the most challenging things about riding 100-miles on my bike is what to do about nutrition and hydration as I manage my diabetes. Over the years, this has been no small thing to figure out. I feel extremely lucky that I’ve met some gifted, compassionate medical people who additionally have training in exercise physiology. Matt Corcoran, MD, who runs Diabetes Training Camp, worked with me in 2003 and 2004 as I prepared to ride 400 miles across the state of Colorado in one week.
Marcey Robinson, MS, RD, CSSD, CDE, BC-ADM and Jennifer Smith, RD, LD, CDE, worked closely with me as I prepared for and successfully did a half Ironman, a full marathon, recovered from a mastectomy and got back into endurance athletics. Both Marcey and Jennifer are Registered Dietitians, and they both know food well. They both deeply understand endurance athletics, and when we collectively ran Camp WILD as part of TeamWILD Athletics LLC, Marcey and Jennifer both raved about one particular product: Skratch Labs.
Along the way, the founder of Skratch Labs, Allen Lim, PhD, came and spoke at Camp WILD. He’s the real deal sort of man. He’s kind, humble, and he’s wicked smart! He likes real food. And Skratch is just that: Real.
It’s what I’ve been putting in one of my water bottles on my bike since they started about four years ago. I love the Exercise Hydration Mix with lemons + limes and the one with raspberries. If you’ve ever had the oppor
tunity to ride with me, you’ve likely been subjected to one of my fairly convincing mini rants about Skratch Labs!! I am such a big fan because it tastes good, it’s real food, no processed crap in it, it doesn’t mess with your intestinal system, which is a BIG deal when exercising, and Skratch is a small company based in Colorado. Over the years, I’ve convinced quite a few people to use Skratch products. To my knowledge, all of them are quite happy they made the switch.
You can imagine the big rousing happy dance that I did when I found out that for 2016, I have been selected to be one of their Taste Agents! That means I get to rant and rave to my hearts content! I’ve already convinced the five women doing the 100-mile Tour de Cure with me to use Skratch products! In addition, we are planning to cook Portables from the Portables cookbook for our long rides. All of us like eating real food, and we are willing to cook it!
I hope you consider trying Skratch Labs in your bike bottle this spring and summer. If you do, please let me know how you like it!
As we cook rice bars, I will be sure to take pictures and show you how we wrap them! If you’d like to get the Portables cookbook, here it is. My guess is you will be super happy you got it!
Happy Riding to all!
