Sunday, October 16, 2005
Status
Since I haven't seen any recent postings, I was wondering how the rest of the "Tucson 1/2 Marathon Gang" is doing on their training???
Just to give an update of where I am at, today I broke the 8 mile mark for the first time. It was also the first time I tried the so-called energy gels. I ran the 8 miles in 1h25m; that included 4 walking sections of about .1 miles each. Am I way behind everybody else in their mileage or am I right on track?
Back to the energy gels, since it was the first time I tried one I want to give my opinion on them and gather some comments from people who have tried them. The one I tried was the Car-boom gel. This is the one included in the goodie bag for the 8K race. People had already warned me to have plenty of water available, so I did make sure I had plenty left. I took the gel right after the 4 miles turn around point this morning. The first sensation was pretty bad. The consistency of the gel is off something not meant to be ingested, plus the sugar rush in the mouth was not pleasant either. As for results of taking it, I didn't feel any big rush of energy or anything like that. What I can say though is that I felt the same way after finishing the 8 miles this morning as I did when I fisnihed the 10k (6.2 miles) last week during the Old Tucson Studio race. So from that, I guess it did work because I felt the same after 8 miles as I did after 6.2 miles without it. The only discomfort I had was not stomach cramping (which I heard is common), but I did feel some movement either in my stomach and in my intestines that I typically don't have while running. It didn't prevent me from keeping my pace or anythign else like that.
Back to training mileage, how is everybody doing based on the training schedule? Ihave been running less than 10 miles a week because of lack of time, but at least last week I did make 16 miles, and 8 from today should allow me to reach more than 16 during the week (btw, my week starts on Sundays, not Mondays like the training).
Wow, this is my first post ever to a blog... and definitely way too long. I will make sure to keep it shorter next time.
-Julio
Just to give an update of where I am at, today I broke the 8 mile mark for the first time. It was also the first time I tried the so-called energy gels. I ran the 8 miles in 1h25m; that included 4 walking sections of about .1 miles each. Am I way behind everybody else in their mileage or am I right on track?
Back to the energy gels, since it was the first time I tried one I want to give my opinion on them and gather some comments from people who have tried them. The one I tried was the Car-boom gel. This is the one included in the goodie bag for the 8K race. People had already warned me to have plenty of water available, so I did make sure I had plenty left. I took the gel right after the 4 miles turn around point this morning. The first sensation was pretty bad. The consistency of the gel is off something not meant to be ingested, plus the sugar rush in the mouth was not pleasant either. As for results of taking it, I didn't feel any big rush of energy or anything like that. What I can say though is that I felt the same way after finishing the 8 miles this morning as I did when I fisnihed the 10k (6.2 miles) last week during the Old Tucson Studio race. So from that, I guess it did work because I felt the same after 8 miles as I did after 6.2 miles without it. The only discomfort I had was not stomach cramping (which I heard is common), but I did feel some movement either in my stomach and in my intestines that I typically don't have while running. It didn't prevent me from keeping my pace or anythign else like that.
Back to training mileage, how is everybody doing based on the training schedule? Ihave been running less than 10 miles a week because of lack of time, but at least last week I did make 16 miles, and 8 from today should allow me to reach more than 16 during the week (btw, my week starts on Sundays, not Mondays like the training).
Wow, this is my first post ever to a blog... and definitely way too long. I will make sure to keep it shorter next time.
-Julio
Comments:
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You are ahead of me. I took 2 weeks off due to vacation, work and a nagging head cold that filled to overlowing with boogers. I am back up and going now and doing 4,4 and 7 this week.
I agree for the most part on the gel stuff. The taste and mouth-feel is gross. I know in the tri-races I did in the past I felt like it helped after the pool phase. The near drowning leaves me kinda wobbly on the bike and I think the caffiene boost leveled that out a bit. I did notice some stomach cramping once but hard to say if it was attribtable.
You mention 'movement' in your stomach and I wonder if that is common. I don't think I would describe a sensation of movement but (forgive me for being indelicate) on longer runs an almost overwhelming need to (technical term) 'drop a load'. Honestly this is my main logistics concern for the race. I will have to pre-spot the port-a-potties. Not trying to be gross but does anyone else have that problem on long runs?
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I agree for the most part on the gel stuff. The taste and mouth-feel is gross. I know in the tri-races I did in the past I felt like it helped after the pool phase. The near drowning leaves me kinda wobbly on the bike and I think the caffiene boost leveled that out a bit. I did notice some stomach cramping once but hard to say if it was attribtable.
You mention 'movement' in your stomach and I wonder if that is common. I don't think I would describe a sensation of movement but (forgive me for being indelicate) on longer runs an almost overwhelming need to (technical term) 'drop a load'. Honestly this is my main logistics concern for the race. I will have to pre-spot the port-a-potties. Not trying to be gross but does anyone else have that problem on long runs?
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