Friday, February 13, 2009

Good, Bad, and Not Horrible

So as I'm ramping up the training, nutrition becomes more important. And I've been getting samples and single servings of a bunch of different products to try them out. I think I like the gel/block with water a lot better than the liquid supplement- they just taste bad after a little while, no matter what they are. So here are my lists so far:
Good
Lemon Sublime Gu- my favorite gel. Gus are good, but they're tricky about sneaking in caffeine and since I'm off caffeine, you have to be careful. Even their no flavor gu has caffeine!
Shot Blok Strawberry- my favorite block. And now it comes in a much better vertical package.
Gatorade Lemon Lime- the old standby but still good.

Bad
Clif Shot Vanilla- thick and disgusting. Cloying flavor.
Sport Beans Lemon- don't quit get the point of these and they taste bad too.
Accel Gel Orange- weird bitter aftertaste.
Cytomax Vanilla- spit this one out.
Puresport Purple Recovery in the add water bottle- this is a good idea, but nasty tasting and it didn't mix all the way even with repeating shaking. I think protein in a fruit flavored drink is just all wrong.

Not Horrible
Powerbar Gel Vanilla- a little too liquidy consistency, and they're also tricky about caffeine.
Endurox Fruit Punch- eh.
Heed Subtle Strawberry- nice light flavor, but the second ingredient is xylitol which can cause diarrhea- it's in a lot of high protein low carb products and I found out the hard way. It can also kill dogs, so that makes me nervous.

I still have a whole drawerful of other products to try, but I wanted to be able to keep track, so I don't keep buying the bad ones.

So the plan for the Austin Half on Sunday is to carry one, maybe two gu packets, either safety pinned to my shorts (since my new favorite shorts don't have pockets) or in my sports bra- they fit nicely under the upper straps, though they do get a little too warm and sweaty. I should probably be doing more than that because I'll be running for 3.5 hours or so, but with a good breakfast (whole wheat Eggo waffles with peanut butter and EmergenC), the gu, and then whatever gatorade/sports drink as needed, plus water, I think I'm okay.

2 comments:

F said...

OK, so you running the half tomorrow? I am going to try and look up where that goes and see if we can get to a spot somewhere on the route... Wheeeee!

everybody's entitled said...

Good luck! Are you going to church tonight for the special half marathoners' service?