12.15 Miles in the Bank - 5-13-2012 by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

12.15 Miles in the Bank - 5-13-2012 by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

Well, today was my last long training run prior to the Sunburst half marathon. I am very happy with this run, I got the 12 miles in that had eluded me the last couple weeks and had plenty of "juice" left for the 2nd half.

As many know, I have frequently had GI distress after my long training runs and for several weeks have had what I thought was kidney pain as well, primarily on the left side. So much so that I thought it could be a kidney stone and have a note about it on the list of things to discuss with my Dr. the next time I see her.

During this past week I was doing some reading on the Hammer Nutrition website and came across 2 things that I thought could apply to me.  First off was an article about the carbohydrates in their products. The article stated that using other fuel products that have sugar in them with their products that do not have simple sugars causes the body to have the inability to effectively use the carbohydrates in their product. Of course, they would like athletes to use their products exclusively.  Well, I checked and the other products that I have been using do have sugar.

The second article was about fluid and electrolyte replenishment. It stated that many people inaccurately believe that they should try to replace all the fluids and electrolytes lost during an exercise session during or as close to the end of the session as possible. They explained that this approach was wrong because the body can use these items faster than it can replenish. The excess fluid ends up sloshing around in the gut and the excess electrolytes end up putting strain on the kidneys as they try to process.

For today's run I used all hammer gel and the result was excellent.  As I said earlier, I still had gas in the tank at the end of the run and no GI distress or kidney pain after.

You may have noticed that my run started at 5:48 this morning. I made an effort to get out and get going before the sun came up. The Sunburst half starts at 7:30 AM on June 2nd so I am still hoping for an arctic cold front to be blowing through South Bend that morning.