Fueling your way through a long run

I am always so amazed when I run with other people at how little they eat. On a short run, like 5 miles, eating is not an issue. Anything over 8 miles, you really should have water and somehting small. When you get into 20mile runs, you should be eating every 30-45minutes and drinking a fari amount of water with that. On my 20mile run this past Saturday, the conversation of pre-run eating came up. Everyone said what they ate, or what the didn’t eat. About half did not eat prior to running and the rest had a piece of toast or something to the same volume. I on the other hand would have (if I didn’t miss my alarm and oversleep and have to rush out the door) a plate of egg white french toast, a small cup of iced coffee, and depending on the length of the drive, half of a banana in the car and some Gatorade. What I would eat for breakfast was more than most consume on the whole 20mile run. Moving on, I watched how much people ate/drank during that run on Sat. I am amazed and jealous of how little others have to take in compared to what my body needs. I drank 24oz of water/Gatorade, 4 gels and a pack of Powerbar Gel Blasts. From the testing I did last year, I know that my body burns through fuel faster than most, so hydrating and eating needs to be a top priority. 

With all the different fuel sources out on the market, how does one choose what to use?
I have tried pretty much every gel out there. Some that were made with honey, chocolate or espresso flavored ones. Clif Bar makes a gel wrapper that is more environmentally friendly with the tear off top that is still attached to the wrapper. The one consistent thing amongst most/all gels is the thickness of the gel. It’s hard enough for some people to even consume the gel with chalky flavor let alone the strange texture when you are training. Recently I have found a new product that does the gels the best, Powerbar Gels! The packs are small enough to fit into your short pockets or up to 5 in my fuel belt back, but packed with enough gel that fuels you through your run. The tangerine flavor ones that I had were spot on. It did not have a chalky flavor, but more of a natural fruit flavor. Even better, you did not have to spend half of your time trying to squeeze every last bit of the gel out of the pack like you do with a tube of toothpaste. These Powerbar gels are just the right thickness to squeeze out without effort and go down your throat without feeling like your swallowing a booger! I also am in love with the Powerbar Gel blasts. I wrote about them last year, but I just tried a new flavor that rocked my world, Lemon!! I had to remind myself that they weren’t candy, but energy food! I did see that they have a Cola flavor. I think that will be my next one to try.

 
Fuel and hydration is a personal preference. Flavor, texture, the right protein to carb ratio, etc. The biggest piece of advice I will give is to try them all until you find the one you like. Try them during training and not in competition. The last thing you want to do is try a new energy drink or gel during a race and your stomach not like it and cause you to perform less than what you could have. Race day is about racing, training is for just that training. You train your legs to handle the pain of a marathon after 112miles on the bike, but you also train your body to consume 3,000 to 5,000 calories for a 12 hour event.

I am 3 weeks from the National Marathon. All my super long runs are done, and I am heading into the home stretch. We bought our first thing for the new house this past weekend, a beautiful farm sink. Can’t wait to get it hooked up...after we get the keys to the house of course!

Only a few more days till the time change and every ones lives will be happier. Have an awesome week!