Posts Tagged ‘gels’

It was a banner week for online supplies.

Tuesday I received my Hammer Gel variety pack and how cool to find all this free stuff included with my order – it sure took the sting out of the shipping costs (basically nullified it). They sent me samples of all their flagship products; Perpetuem, Heed, Endurolytes, Recoverite and a Hammer Bar, plus a book on nutrition and some other paper stuff. Very generous!

Yesterday I got my order from Zombie Runner; a clip-on gel flask, 6-pack variety of Carbboom gels plus a Strawberry-Banana Powergel.

From reviews and user accounts all over the web, Carbboom is very popular for not being too sweet and pretty thin, as well as not needing water (people say the same about Hammer as well). Powergel, on the other hand, has a lot of haters so I wouldn’t have ordered any but the flavor I got seems to be very popular and supposedly “tastes like yogurt”, so what the hell? Plus, powergels have more electrolytes than other gels, so that would save me taking an electrolyte supplement.

Given all these goodies, I decided to take my flask out for a spin today with a new taste sensation, Orange/Vanilla Carbboom. It has some caffeine but not a whole lot, which is good because I didn’t know how I’d react. I’ve avoided using the port-o-pottys on my route all this time and I’d like to keep that record alive.

The flask is pretty cool, quite light, though the plastic clips on the back are straight up hard plastic, unlike my clip-on pocket, which has these rubber grips attached. Jogging in place with the flask, I could tell there would be slight bouncing, so I wrapped the clips in padded medical tape which worked perfectly, keeping it more snug to my shorts and more comfy on my skin.

I added a touch of water to the gel for easy swigging, took a handheld, my music and I was out the door for a 10 miler. I didn’t bother with the S-caps because it’s possible that they increase my water needs and I didn’t have a lot with me today so didn’t want to get stuck. But back to the gel adventure…

I’m such a dork when I have new anything, I can hardly wait to try it, so it took all my inner strength not to sample the gel at mile 4. Around mile 6, I took a swig. Not bad, a little tart almost, not exactly yummy, but not gross either. Cool.

Then I waited for that energy boost I knew was due to me. And waited. And waited. Hmmm… they say these things give a noticeable surge, but that didn’t happen. Shit. I wanted to get high on my run!

Of note: I didn’t eat anything before the run, as usual – 1/2 a cup of coffee is all I can get down at that time of day. I do, however, snack almost till bedtime and high carb crap at that, pretzels and jelly beans usually, so maybe that covers my bases better than I think. Or maybe I would have been more uncomfortable without it, I’m just going to have to keep testing to figure out what my physiological response really is, if any.

Either way, it’s inevitable I deal with this before the marathon and even though that’s not till October, my best case scenario is to have a few gels I can choose from, not just have one or two I can stomach. To that end, the flask is a great little gem, improving the consistency and concentration of any gel I’ll stick in there, so a major thumbs up to the flask. And no sticky fingers!

On non-running news, got a great new voiceover client yesterday, educational stuff for PBS and the like, which is what I enjoy doing the most, so it was a fun session. They liked me a lot, so here’s crossing fingers for more work with them. Also, last week one of my commercials played during Jeopardy! I was in the other room and Nick yells, “come here, come here.” We have DVR so we can rewind the TV, the better to hear myself ad naseum. Actually, I wasn’t too bad, only rewound it 3 times…you would too.

You know that old adage, “Never try anything new on race day”? I’ve reinterpreted it to mean, “Do lots of new stuff on all your training runs.”

Today I:

1. Brought 2 handhelds (40 oz. total)
2. Took S!Caps (electrolyte supplements)
3. Took 2 gels
4. Diluted said gels in one of the bottles
5. Peed standing up on a usually well-populated trail
6. Stopped at a gas station for more water (20 oz.)

To start with, even though I set my alarm for 5:30am (scorcher today), the stupid cat started talking loudly at about 4:30 (damn attention whore), so I got up at 5:00, giving me about 4 hours worth of snooze. This was the only thing lacking in today’s adventure.

Oh, that and the fact that in searching for a bathroom I’d seen on an online trail map, I stopped to ask a guy if he knew about this mystery bathroom but forgot to turn my Garmin back on for a chunk of time, so my planned 16 miler became 17.15 (I was being stubborn…did not want to go back home with less than 16 on the display of my Garmin). Turns out the maps that are actually on the trail show no sign of that bathroom, so the Wissahickon Running Club needs to update their website. Too bad, as it would have been a well-situated place for water bottle refilling.

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about gels and how to deal with them, and spurred by my love for the clip-on pocket, I just ordered a clip-on gel flask. I think that’s the perfect answer because I could dilute them to milkshake thickness as opposed to the original snot consistency, avoid sticky fingers (which is an annoyance every time I open one of those suckers), not to mention I won’t have to open them on the run or look for a garbage can when I’m done and who likes sucking foil, anyway?

But a gel flask would have been overkill today because I was already having to deal with 2 handhelds (which worked just fine, btw!). I even avoided using my clip-on pocket by designating one of the handhelds as my gel bottle, dissolving two vanilla gels into it before I left the house. It was surprisingly palatable considering how warm it was by the time I drank it.

I took an S!Cap before I left and one each hour for the next couple hours, then one last one after I hit the gas station for more water, because I downed most of that sucker in just a few minutes. I could have taken more of the caps – it says every 1/2 hour when it’s hot and it was 80 degrees out when I started – but since I was doing all this new stuff at once, I didn’t want to chance anything weird happening, like bloating up.

As for peeing standing up, it’s something I tried while hiking on vacation and it’s a quick and easy way to relieve yourself, even if you’re a girl. I also realized today that from that back, you can’t even tell what I’m up to, so how handy is that? Anyway, it was early and there were few people on the trail, so I thought, “why not?” Plus, I was literally soaking in sweat, so I figured if I missed, no one could tell, anyway. Lol.

So I ended up drinking 60 oz liquids on the run, plus 16 more when I got home. I’m happy to have finally gone to that gas station, it’s good to know that stopping like that isn’t a big deal. I’d always avoided it because it’s another street crossing and then having to stop the clock for the purchase is an annoyance (oh god…there goes my training!). Even though a water fountain was only 2 miles away, I’d been so good today about giving my body what it needed that it was a no brainer. Plus I was dying.

I won’t lie, it wasn’t an easy run as hot as it was, and I started faster than Pfitz’s “MP + 20%”, but I still managed to make it a progression run and my pace was good despite carrying both water bottles. More importantly, I didn’t experience any pains, twinges or aches anywhere the entire run. Fabulous!

As far as gels, they definitely helped, though I didn’t feel it as a burst of energy, likely due to me drinking them in 20oz of water – a slow and steady intake. It was a little too easy to drink though, I finished the gel/water bottle around the time I was supposed to take the 2nd gel. Also, I didn’t eat anything before the run, so that would have probably helped, too. Live and learn.

Once I got home, a frigid bath sounded downright luxurious, so I soaked the ole bones in cold water and then afterwards, ate the best hot dog I’ve ever had. It might be time for a nap now, but first…must kill the cat.

As the runs get longer and the heat gets hotter and wetter earlier, I’m finally starting to pay attention to the nutritional side of running. For the most part, I’ve been pro “train your body to go farther with less” (touted by a couple important running gurus), so gels and supplements haven’t shown brightly on my radar.

I practiced using gels a few times on long runs last Fall and learned that you need adequate water with them or you can get the stomach cramp of death. I also learned they can be sickly sweet and that chewy alternatives (beans and bloks) can be more annoying by glomming onto teeth with glue-like tenacity, not to mention the high choke factor. I did eventually find Hammer Gels were palatable without being too sweet and didn’t cause cramping, but since I wasn’t using them on anything less than 16 miles, water and maybe some Gatorade were my mainstays.

For the last few days, I’ve been voraciously reading everything on energy/fuel and now question the “train your body to go without” theory. I mean, why? If I can have a better run with some fuel, why not take advantage of it? The hard part is determining what really works and what works due to the placebo effect.

And then there is the whole electrolyte question, which I’d conveniently ignored until now, because the subject always made my eyes glaze over like a Dunkin’ Donut. No more! I thought lack of electrolytes was just responsible for making you cramp, but before that happens, it will start to zap your energy – especially if you’re a salty sweater, as I am.

Gatorade has electrolytes, but about 1/4 of what you’d need in an hour, plus it’s all acid and sweet and I know one day it will make me want to puke, and besides, who wants to train with whatever drink the race provides when water and a salt pill will do ya? So, after reading shitloads of posts in trail and ultra running forums, I ordered some S! Caps from Succeed. It was between them and Endurolytes from Hammer, but the S! Caps have more sodium per capsule so you don’t have to take as many. Hopefully I’ll get them before my long run this weekend. Experiment #1.

Experiment #2 was today on a sweaty 10 miler, when I finally put to use this handy removable pocket I got last year (super light, didn’t even know I had it on!). I knew I’d be out for an hour and a half which is an appropriate fuel-worthy amount of time. The problem is, I don’t get hungry on runs, sometimes it’s hard to want to eat, so I accounted for both sweet and savory by filling it with pretzels and a gel. I figured between the two, I might find one appealing.

Here I am today, in all my accessorized, sopping glory. This clip-on pocket worked perfectly and unless I find a particularly fetching pair of pocketed shorts, I’ll use it in the marathon.

I ended up chomping a few pretzels, and again, more cheers for the pocket…I didn’t even have to open the flap, just stuck my finger in and pulled out one at a time. Pretzels also happen to be a good high sodium alternative until my S! Caps arrive.

Looking ahead, Saturday is a recovery run, then Sunday I’m doing 16. The challenge there is that I’m opposed to wearing a hydration belt ever again, so it’ll be my first time running with two handhelds! Mark that down as Experiment #3. Watch out people, Mad Doctor in the house!