Today seemed to be a good day to start blogging again because I did my first 20 mile training run. I tried out a few new things today and I'm happy with my "research." Here are the new training techniques:
1. I stuck to proteins yesterday. I'm big on carbs and have been known to stockpile bread before a race. I've never had any issues with this, but for the sake of science I tried to keep the carbs at a minimum yesterday and loaded up on protein at lunch and dinner.2. I stuck to sports drinks on the run. I didn't bring any GU with me and avoided the drinking fountains I usually stop at. I read an article about avoiding mixing sports drinks, GU and water and wanted to see if sports drinks would be enough.
3. Drinking more on the run. I can usually do up to 15 miles without water or GU, even though I know it's not a great strategy considering I ate/drank ferociously throughout my first marathon. I brought both bottles (10.5 oz) on my fuel belt and followed the "drink when you're thirsty" advice. (That sounds like common sense, but oftentimes during a race you grab the cup of water or GU because you think it will make you feel better and you'll do anything to distract you for a few moments.)
Today's run went better than expected. I've been sluggish lately from all my bouts of illness so I didn't know if I could complete the run. I started off pretty fast, closer to a 9:00 pace, and didn't get tired until about mile 10 when I was hitting lots of hills. At about mile 11 I took a little walking break and had about 6oz. to drink. For the next 4 miles, I was perfectly fine, like I had a second wind, despite the really big hills at this part of the course. It felt really good and I was really surprised. I stopped at home around mile 15 to drop off my arm warmers and my fuel belt and headed out for a few more miles. I felt much lighter without the belt, but I was really tired. I turned around at mile 17 to head home and I was shuffling all the way home. It was sloooooow. I was starting to feel every footstrike and I even got dizzy when I stopped at a light. I eventually made it home and quickly proceeded to fall apart. Thank goodness for protein shakes and ice baths!
In my opinion, all my experiments seemed to work really well for me. My performance was far better than it should have been (based on my training lately). I think the biggest one was sticking to a sports drinks. I know I will get hungry during the marathon, but I really want to avoid the sugar (and potential sugar crash) of GU so I have a few ideas to try on next weekends long run. Thank goodness I survived today, although I will be feeling that run all weekend long. Fun.
