Saturday, May 17, 2008

A new and unpleasant experience...

Late this afternoon, following a nap, I took off my Spiderman pajamas and finally went out for my long jog. A couple things where different regarding today's outing.

First with the temps in the high 80's I decided to use my water holster.



It has a second bottle to pour a gel pack into. Which brings me to the second thing I tried today. I planned on using power gel to see what I thought of it. All I can say is, be afraid, very afraid. These might work for other runners but they are absolutly not for me.
I think even Nancy Reagan would advise everyone to "just say no"



I had two packs. I took the first one about twenty minutes before setting out and let it work into my system while stretching and briefly responding to an email from "sambycat." (Still need to write you back again dahling)

My goal today was 10-12 miles. The first 7 went fine. It was about this time that I took the 2nd gel and followed it up with water. It was at mile 8.2 that the darn stuff 'attempted' to come back up on me. Believe me when I say it was bad enough going down the first time. Shortly after that my intestines began bothering me. Nothing painful, just a lot of uneasiness. I slowed to a walk for nearly an entire mile while it passed. I was finally able to resume jogging and finished with 11.6 miles in the bank.

Perhaps a different gel brand might be better. But with the way I felt. I do not believe I will experiment again prior to DAM to DAM. I tried the Power Bar brand.

Also one other new thing happened. Near the end of my run, it felt like I had somehow picked up a rock in my right shoe, just between my middle and next smaller toe. I toughed it out and when I was done and checked my shoe I found...nothing.
Somehow that toe must have become crowded and was getting friction from the next toe.
Guess I'll start gliding my toes too.

11 comments:

Matt said...

Just say no to gel packs. There AWFUL!!! I think the drugs would be less deadly.

[rich] said...

LOL - I made the same mistake 2 years ago during a half marathon - about mile 6 I thought I'd treat myself to an energy boost, but ended up treating everyone to some pavement pancake (a very wet one at that). I've never touched the stuff again, I would rather lick a slug.

sambycat said...

rub the gel pack on you toe, eat the body glide. it works for len testa dahling

Jeff W said...

Nice one dahling...LOL

Thankfully gel did not shoot out my nose.

Rae! said...

They are nasty. For the 13k we had, a bottle of water we carried, gym, chap stick,id.

Jeff W said...

Holy Cats Rae!!! You carried an entire gym? LOL.

Seriously, I tried Quench gum a couple runs back. My thought was it would help keep my mouth from becoming dry. Instead I almost choked to death.

DebWDW said...

I'm going to carry a Luna bar with me in my pocket, in case I feel like I need a boost. I was going to try a gel too, but my stomach's pretty sensitive. I think I'll stick with what works.

Jeff W said...

Deb,

I need to check my eyesight. I thought you wrote I'm going to carry a Tuna bar. That would be as refreshing as a Sea Perch Pop Up from Passamaquoddy. Yuck!

I assume a luna bar is a brand of protien bar.

MikeF. said...

Ok who know's what movie this quote came from: "We'll have the luna fish." Anyone anyone?

Rae! said...

Hahaha I meant gum and I use the extra polar ice.

sambycat said...

for some weird reason, i had jelly beans in my wee fanny pack (the fanny pack itself was wee, not the actual fanny) at the half... note to all - those hanfull of jelly beans melt when in contact with body heat and then you just have colored goo.