Hiking with dh and Zeppy

[nwhiker]

This was not an unqualified success. Writing it up for future reference so I don't forget and dismiss how bad it really was.

For the longest time -fat and less fat- my routine had been wake up, go pee, brush my teeth, pour myself into clothing and low hikers and head to my wildland park for a walk on trail. I never ate before doing this. It wasn't strenuous hiking, but there were some ups and downs, and I truly never had any issues. Tea as soon as I get home. Breakfast is much later in the day but I'm not really a great breakfast person. For real hiking... well, I dislike eating before going out, but might manage something little, or on the trail I'll steal a bit of whatever trail mix or energy bar dh (or if relevant) the kids had.

Now, what with working the routine has changed a bit: tea, then bus to work, then as long a walk as I have time for. I didn't have many days of trail rambles in the park while on Zepbound because I pretty much started it at about the same time as I got started work.

Today we got up early and hit the road for Barclay Lake. This was my first "real" hike since starting Zeppy and this was different.

When we got to the lake, I hit my steps goal for the day, something that would often happen -same number of steps! when I was hiking in the wildland park. The trail was not hard, the elevation gain not bad at all.

But OMG, I felt like crap. I was shaking, nauseous, wobbly on my feet, I just felt awful. I tried eating some of dh's snax, but body did not want those, I'd get dry heaves, just awful. I suspect my blood sugar had dropped and I was pretty close, to use the cycling term, to bonking. Been there done that in long distance cycling, this felt pretty similar with one added thing: my vision would darken around the edges. I was afraid I was going to pass out several times. Every time I had to blow my nose, which with chilly air, was often, I'd get that blackness for a few seconds. Scary stuff when you're a few miles from the trailhead. This is not anything different from what I've done before, except, really, for the nausea that prevented me from eating some of dh's almonds and sunflower seeds, which might have helped a bit.

The hike in was short and fun. The hike out... much less so. I mean, everything else was great: I didn't bring and didn't need my hiking poles, my knee did fine, no cardio issues at all... just this horrid shaking lightheaded nausea thing. Finally made it back to the car. There I was able to eat half an apple and quickly started feeling a bit better.

So yeah. Hiking with Zeppy is... different. Normally, hunger would have clued me in that I really needed to eat, and I don't think I would have let it get that bad. I tend to forget that these medications were intended initially for diabetes, and probably have more impact on blood sugar than I'd expect. But yeah. It was a much longer slog out.

Basically, I am going to need to be more proactive about eating on the trail, something I've never had to worry about before. I'll probably pick up some Clif Bloks or some Gu. Gross, especially the latter, but I've used them cycling and they do help. I hope I can find some without "amino acids" or mega doses of caffeine, the market seems to have changed since the last time we were regularly long-distance cycling.

I'll note... I was never hungry during any of this.