An Experiment of One

Since the Disney Wine & Dine Half was my first race, i discovered the running board on a popular Disney message board.  If you have never been to the DisBoards, then this is a great place to go.  They not only talk Disney races, but discuss other running related things as well.  There are all sorts of people on this board.  First time runners, runners like myself who have just gotten into it recently and running coaches.

Every time a topic comes up about how to hydrate for a race, fuel for a race or pace a race, his comment is always "each of us is an experiment of one".  What this means is that what works for one person might not work for another.  Some people can run with very little fuel, some need fuel more often than others, and the type of food each person can handle might be different.

I can say that I have tried all sorts of combinations over the past two years.  Started out with the energy beans and Gatorade.  I then moved onto energy chews and watered down Powerade, but I just did not feel like that was really doing it for me either.

My current long run regimen goes something like this.  For the record, I have a fuel belt with four 8 oz bottles that comes along for the run.

• Chocolate chip Clif bar and half a glass of Powerade about 30 minutes before heading out
• For the first four miles, I only drink water each 1.5 miles
• At mile 4, I take a strawberry/caffeine Clif Shot Gel washed down with some water
• After this I alternate water and non-watered down Powerade every 1-1.5 miles
• I'll continue with he gels every 3-4 miles, and if I am within four miles of finishing my run I take nothing.
• When I finally finish my run, there is nothing better than a big, cold glass of chocolate milk.

I only follow this if my long run is 10 or more miles.  I ran 7 miles this morning and only took along my water and Powerade.  If I had been running 10 miles, I would have taken one gel at mile 4, and then only water and Powerade after that.

I will say that the gels took some getting use to, but they have grown on me over the past few weeks.  However, this regimen seems to be working for me at the moment, and I will be sticking with it through my summer training.