Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Classy Stashing & How to Improve Your MOOD!


Last night my mom made turkey dinner for our New Years day dinner. I fueled up on tons of veggies (went back for seconds - who can resist stuffing?!), then made a veggie burger patty a couple hours later. When hunger comes a knockin', I can't ignore it! One thing I loved about this dinner was the green beans. While they are available (mostly) year round, we don't purchase them a lot. I never even think about adding them to my meals, but I like to switch things up so they will probably be making an appearance on my plate more often than not.

I woke up this morning with a dull soreness in my legs from yesterday's 13km run. I knew I wanted to get some miles in before Brandon and I headed off to Nanaimo to spend some gift certificates from Christmas, so I forced myself to get my gear on and lace up after my usual bowl of oatmeal. As much as I didn't want to - there is something about the couch that feels so, so good, but so, so lazy - I forced myself to get out there. I knew I would feel 100 times better. After yesterday's run, I fell in love with running along the trails in town all over again, so I soon became eager to get out there.


I completed a 5 mile point-to-point route today, and stopped once to stretch out my calves. As I stopped, my legs burned, and I could feel the warmth of my face as I reached up to adjust my headphones. Running is one of those sports that kicks your ass, makes you hurt, but makes you feel invincible all at the same time. I thought about how I've come with running in the past few years. Sometimes it's a love hate relationship, but 99.9% of the time it's all love. Nothing but love for you, running!

After some stretching, I popped a Nuun tablet in my water and began to foam roll.


I am looking forward to purchasing some other flavors of Nuun in the future. Each tube comes with 12 tablets, and so far I have used three. I think. Anyway, I find that I'm not quite as thirsty after I guzzle my 1L cup of water with this electrolyte supplement. It quenches my thirst and also replenishes the sodium and potassium I have sweat out during my run.

On the topic of fuel, this is what my fuel stash currently looks like:


Yes, it is stored in a Tiffany's bag. I'm all about class, folks.

The honey stinger gel and Nuun tablets are the newest additions. If you haven't tried the chocolate gel shots (by Clif OR by PowerBar), I strongly urge you to do so. They taste like chocolate frosting, which is a nice kick of sugar when you're trucking along during a half marathon. The vanilla flavor is also super tasty and is similar to vanilla pudding. Some other fuel sources I'd like to try are jelly beans (made by Jelly Belly! So cool) and gummy candies. The PowerBar gummies above are similar to Gushers. Remember those junky snacks? They are chewy on the outside, but they have a fuel gel filling inside. The only downside to these is that it is quite a big bag to pack along with you. However, other brands have them in smaller packs, so I'll be on the lookout for those.

I hope you are all enjoying the week so far! I just finished icing my legs, so I think it's tea time. I've got a chill on!

2 comments:

  1. I can't stand chocolate powerbar!! I've trialed a lot of gels, and on the longer runs, the easier they are to eat the better! the choc ones and all of the GU brand gels are always way too thick for my liking!

    I'm curious how long your runs are and how much fuel you take in on the go?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very true! I prefer the Clif gels overall, but I'm a chocolate lover so anything will do!

      My runs vary in length since I don't follow a training schedule right now. I try to have one longer run per week, then a handful of easier paced runs as well. If I am running a shorter distance (under 5 miles), I typically just eat breakfast and then go. If I am running over that or into double digits, I'll bring a gel or two to keep me from hitting the wall. During my 5 miler this morning I didn't take in any fuel and still felt strong when I finished.

      Delete