I have a bad habit of running my long runs on weekend mornings without breakfast and with only a bottle of dilute Gatorade with me. As a new, slow runner this isn't a problem at lower mileage. On the weekend, I did my first 5 mile run (on a treadmill, thanks spring snow) after eating an orange. Everything was fine until mile 4-ish. then I started slowing down and had to walk more and more. That last 3/4 of a mile was kind of awful.
I thought that it was just because I'm getting used to running longer and further. My husband, often smarter than I am, suggested that maybe I should try food and/or Gu before and/or during my next long run.
I'm not really a breakfast person at the best of times. I'll choke down a bowl of oatmeal with some cinnamon and fruit because it's healthy and filling. But I rarely take the time to do that before a run, and it seems like that may not be the best choice pre-run anyway.
So, off to the Running Room I went on Sunday morning (my local running store is further and not open on Sundays) and I came home with a variety of energy bars and gels to try out.
Now if only we could avoid getting 4+ inches of slush on Saturday mornings. I'm still a fair weather runner and running that long on a treadmill is painful, even if I do get plenty of time to watch HGTV.
How do you fuel for long runs?
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