Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Running Kit

One of the important considerations that us pancreatically challenged folk have is how to carry all the neccesary paraphenalia that we need to keep us safe while excercising. If your going to be active you need to make sure you have everything you need to stay safe as we all know the potential for hypos that excercise brings. For some sports its easier as you can leave everything in one place (field sports, pool swimming, gym etc.) but for others such as running, you need some way to carry it around with you. I've heard this called various names including a 'What if bag', 'Hypo bag', 'Sugar kit'.

Here's what I carry for normal runs of up to 1 hour.





1. Running Belt - This one I picked up around 6 months ago and it has a decent size pocket without being too bulky. Some belts are designed for simply carrying keys, money and maybe 1 gel and are a real squeeze to get much else into. Also, it has a wide adjustable strap so it doesnt pinch.

2. Glucose Meter - My day to day meter is a Accu-Chek Aviva Expert which is great but quite big and heavy. So I've a separate Optimum Exceed meter that I keep in my gearbag just for running and cycling. The Exceed is fairly basic and its small and light and fits easily in the running belt.

3. Lancet - the Accu-Check Muticlix is great as you can load 6 needles in it so you can get a few days without changing it.

4. Test Strips - I normally keep about 5-10 test strips in the running belt. The Optimum test strips are foil packed and flat so they take up no space at all. 

5. Sports Gel - for runs up to 10k I'll take 1 sachet of High5 isogel with me, as this will get me through 10k fine. These are great since they are pre-diluted and you can take them without water. Each gel is 23g carbs, and they taste ok too. The downside is that they are bigger sachets than the non-dilyed gels (powergels etc.) so they take up more room.

6. Hypofit Gel - otherwise known as Hypo-Stop, Glucostop etc. it is a very fast acting almost pure glucose gel. This is my emergency backup in case things go real low.

7. Money - because you never know when you need to run into a shop for a Lucozade. Or a coffee and cake. Or ice-cream ...

8. Wrist ID-Braclet - this one from Vital ID is waterproof so can be used swimming or no problem if you forget to take it off in the shower. Name, Medical Info (Type1 Insulin Dependant), Blood Group, Emergency Contact No.

9. I'll always run with my iPhone on my arm as well - mainly for the music but also good practice to have a phone from a safety perspective particularily if your going somewhere off the beaten track.

For longer runs I'll either use a bigger belt (to fit more gels) with a water bottle holder, or maybe even a small Camelbak with hydration bladder and a couple of pockets.

So what does everyone else use? Anyone got any good bits and pieces that they can recommend?

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