"GU" should be renamed "EWW". But it works.

While the kids are in their post-breakfast-pre-starting the day-cartoon daze, I figured I'd take this rare , quiet opportunity to post a blog about week #3 in marathon training's long run.

This mornings run was "ehh". Not good, not bad, just ehh. But it was a run, which is good, so overall we are in the positive. I got off to a late start because I was waiting for my body to give me a good session in the bathroom. Pretty gross, I know, but let's face it, nothing sucks more than being a few miles into a long run and desperately looking for a bathroom. Or a bush (fortunately I've never had to use the latter...yet). You all know what I'm talking about, don't turn up your nose like "I can't believe she is blogging about poop!". heh heh.

So I decided I wanted to drive down to the beach to do my long run on Ocean Boulevard. It's between 9-10 miles of sidewalk from one end to the other, and early in the morning isn't overrun with tourists yet, so it's a perfect, scenic run. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot I realized I left Coach Garmin at home. arrrrrg! I was scheduled to do a 9 miler, but I'd just have to wing it.

The first two miles were not the best. I was in a mood from missing Coach Garmin (just goes to show you how much of a mind game running can be!) . The inside of my left knee hurt, and the instep of my right foot hurt. My mind was quickly crashing as I grumbled to myself "maybe I can do this another day". But I realized today WAS the day; Rich was home with the babies, and I have to work all week. It's now or never. So I trudged on.


I got to what I *thought* might have been about 4.5 miles (turns out it was only about 4.05) and decided it was time to fuel. On my quest to find the perfect race day nutrition, I'm giving a little bit of everything a try. Today's plan was the amphipod full of lemon lime nuun, and a GU. Now, I've tried many different energy gels in the past, but it's quite apparent I've never tried "Tri Berry" flavored Gu before. Because if I had, I certainly wouldn't have tried it again. *shudder*. The poor man walking in the oncoming direction was in for a real treat. I opened the gu and proceeded to squirt about half into my mouth. I try so hard to take it like a shot of alcohol so I don't have to taste it, but that's not exactly what happened. That nasty stuff sat on my tongue about 0.0001 seconds too long, and I started gagging. It was all I could do to swallow it.

Let me tell you, horrible tasting fake berry gu + lemon household cleaner flavored nuun water = barf. Don't worry I didn't, but for a second there, I thought i was going to lose it all over someones perfectly manicured, lush green oceanfront lawn. Ewww. I managed to choke down about 3/4 of the GU before I threw it in a beach access garbage can and went on my way.

The second half of the run was fine. I ended up walking for one little stretch (maybe a minute) around mile 6. The more I've been running, the more I feel my cardiovascular fitness coming back. Today, i was never gasping or wheezing in that fabulous out of shape way. I felt like I could run at that pace (which is a mystery , grr) all day. My legs however, are in a different boat. They are the ones that are in need of this distance training. Around what I'm guessing was mile 5, they just started to get angry. Not really crampy, just sore and tired. I would feel myself slowing down, so I had to force my body to push further and drag my legs along, haha.

Got home and used the "Daily Mile" with Google maps to map my run, and turns out it as only 8.11 miles. About a mile short. Que Sera Sera, I guess. I will put in a few miles tonight with the boys in the jogger to compensate.

Today's cliff notes of the nutrition experiment:

-I am currently 1 hour post run , and have yet to have any stomach issues with the Tri Berry Gu, other than the fact I almost lost the contents of my stomach trying to consume it, because it tastes so bad. I did feel that it gave me energy for the second half of my run, but I'm hesitant to give it a passing grade having only taken one. Next run I may try one pre run (in a different flavor by all means) and one every 45 minutes to see if the quantity has an affect.

- Nuun. Loving this stuff. Other than the lemon-lime household cleaner taste (or what I imagine lemon pledge to taste like, haha). I am not getting the post run headache and chills that I so frequently used to get after long runs. I've heard that some of the other flavors are much more enjoyable, so I might have to order some!

I am thinking the Gatorade/powerade PLUS energy gels are what were really bothering me. Just too much sugar! We will see, as this experiment continues!

And one thing before I go...someone is always having some sort of blog contest, and I'm always entering since us runners can never have enough goodies and gear, haha! Erica over at "I run Because I can" is giving away some great stuff, so go check it out!

Hope everyone else had great runs this morning!