So it’s been a few days since I posted. Usually I utilize a portion of my workday to write my posts but this week, with the holiday on Monday, has been crazy busy. Off the chain busy, even. And I still am going into the office tomorrow (Saturday! I know!) to get caught up. I hate working into the night and would much rather just spend a couple hiurs tomorrow afternoon in the office when it’s quiet and I can supercharge my productivity rather than work until 7 PM each night during the week. Anyway, Annie has an audition in New York tomorrow so she’ll be gone all day anyway. Once I drop her at the bus station, I’ll watch the WVU vs. Marshall game at 11 (WVU is going to give those hicks from Huntington a good ol’ fashioned whoopin’) then go for my long run of the week. Or maybe I’ll get up and run before taking her to the station. We’ll see.
Anyway, the crazy work schedule has meant that my posting has been put on the back burner, unfortunately. Hopefully I’ll be better about that next week. Now I’m home for the weekend with lots of time on my hands.
So, Tuesday I didn’t run because I was picking up the new futon from my friend’s place. It’s awesome and I like being able to lay down while watching TV. Killer.
Wednesday I was back in the saddle and did my usual 3.85 miles. However, Wednesday was a crazy day. I was running late the entire day it seemed. I left home late for work, which meant I didn’t grab my breakfast. I had 45 things to do before lunch, which helped me forget to eat breakfast at work at all. Then I had to leave to go to my annual cardiologist appointment at Hopkins around 12:30 and didn’t get back to the office until 3:30, which made me have a healthy lunch of a Vanilla Crisp Power Bar and some store bought Gatorade. While that tided me over until 5 PM, it was not the best thing to eat as an actual meal. So I finally left the office and got home to go to the gym. I was starving so I ate a rice cake with peanut butter to make sure I didn’t pass out while running. I also took the store bought Gatorade to the gym with me.
Overall, it was not a satisfying run. I felt sluggish the entire time and out of sorts, despite running at my usual pace, etc. Moreover, the store bought Gatorade made me feel kinda gross. As a result, I thought this would make for a good topic of this post. But first the rest of my training.
So Wednesday was OK and Thursday was much better. I ran almost the entire distance at 6.1 mph (9:50 min/mile pace) or better, which is great. I was tired by the end, but hey, I’m taking my sweet-ass time getting faster and it’s helped keep the injuries at bay so whatever. I ran at 6.1 mph until I hit 2.75 miles, then I hydrated and ramped it up to 6.2 mph for a quarter mile, increasing 0.1 mph each quarter mile until I got to 6.5 mph for the final stretch. Not bad. Tonight I decided to take off because I’ve run everyday this week save for Tuesday.
OK, so to the main topic of this post. As many of you know, there are myriad options available for hydration in addition to the traditional water. For many of us, water is great, but can be boring or not enough to replenish all the fluids and such that we lose while running. Personally, I am somewhere in between. If I had my druthers, I’d take both water and a sports drink with me on my runs. Once I get to the distance point where I think owning a hydration belt is warranted, I will do this. As a side note, one of my greatest fears is to be running with a hydration belt and have someone ask me what it is. I need to be able to say something awesome like, “It’s a hydration belt I use for my long runs. Today I’m doing 12 miles so it’s really useful,” or something else that would elicit admiration and awe in my interlocutor.
OK, back on track here. For my runs now, I just have Gatorade. Yet here we are presented with another choice: store-bought or self-mixed. Many sports drinks come in these two varieties (still many others are available in only one medium). Gatorade is one of these companies that offers the store-bought (pre-mixed) and powder. Several months ago, when I was just starting to seriously run, I read an article that suggested using a sports drink over water since it replenished more than just simple water in your body. I liked that idea, but didn’t want to blow a ton of money on buying the store-bought Gatorade, so I went to the Wal-Mart and got myself a big can of the lemon lime flavor Gatorade. That’s right, the original stuff. One scoop makes 32 ounces, which is enough for most run distances. This works out to one can of powder making approximately 100 or so 32 ounce servings. And the can was about $8.00. That means that you could drink 32 ounces of Gatorade a day for a year and spend roughly $30, allowing for variations of price. Not bad considering one store-bought 32 ounce bottle costs like $1.50 or something.
Anyway, I have been very pleased with this simple solution. It quenches my thirst, puts valuable electrolytes back into my system, and tastes really good. Since then I hadn’t really had store-bought Gatorade until Wednesday. I decided to compare the two tastes, so I bought a bottle of the regular lemon lime flavor for consistency. The store-bought stuff tasted so sweet and sugary, I only drank a few sips before putting it down for fear of going into diabetic shock. I decided to see how it tasted/helped during a run, so I took it with me to the gym later that evening. It did not help and tasted like sugar water with extra Splenda thrown in. Not only did it not really make me feel quenched, but the stickiness of the drink made me feel worse! It made my lips all sticky and I got some on my hands, which was gross. I only took a few drinks out of necessity and then waited until I got home to get a big glass of water. After I cooled down later that night I finished the drink (no use in wasting good money spent on the thing.)
So, my scientific analysis has lead me to conclude that the powder is a better solution for me. For one, the store-bought stuff’s first ingredients are fructose (sugar) and high fructose corn syrup (sugary sugar syrup), whereas the first ingredients in the powder are potassium something or other, which is basically an electrolyte. No wonder I like the powder better. I’m sure there’s a reason for this disparity between Gatorades (maybe the fructose allows for longer storage in liquid form? I don’t know) other than the fact that mostly athletes or wannabe athletes such as myself are buying the powder and thus don’t want sugary drinks for fear of going into a deep coma 6 miles into a run.
Anyway, I won’t be buying store-bought Gatorade again, for sure. However, by no means does this mean store-bought stuff is not worth using. If you don’t like the bitter taste of the powder (personally I really like it when I’m running), then the store-bought stuff is for you. However, if you don’t like the stomach cramps that sugar can bring on while running, or the stickiness of sugar while running, try the powder.
Or you could just use water.
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