feuling your body during a mini

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innerfashionista
innerfashionista Posts: 451 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Labor day weekend I will be walking in my first mini marathon. I've got a hydration pack so I'm okay for liquids. My concern is having enough energy in my muscles to walk the full course. I've seen packets of liquid energy but I'm not sure if they work. All you long distance runners, what do you use to give your body energy while you're on the course? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

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  • Ree_Chatelain
    Ree_Chatelain Posts: 229 Member
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    bump
  • lisab42
    lisab42 Posts: 98 Member
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    Gummy bears work. So does honey.
  • littleluvbug
    littleluvbug Posts: 137 Member
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    I have used the GU energy gels...they taste nasty but are effective. Right now during my marathon training I am using Jelly Belly sport beans, they are much more tolerable to the palate!
  • wjassell
    wjassell Posts: 104 Member
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    I have used the GU energy gels as well the orange is the only flavor I get as I cant really stand the others.
  • lisab42
    lisab42 Posts: 98 Member
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    And I recommend that you give anything new a try before the actual race. The GU upset my tummy so badly that had I used it during my marathon I probably wouldn't have completed. So before your actual race, during one of your longer training sessions, try your fuel out to make sure it doesn't have any adverse effects. Good luck on your race :flowerforyou:
  • mowu
    mowu Posts: 245 Member
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    I expect a mini marathon to be about 20-25 km and you say that you will be walking which I will expect to b e5-6 km/hour so the below advise are given with my own experiences on those distances (march trips of 25km a day on 2 consecutive days).

    Your main concern is hydration - keep water with you at all times and fill up at any stations along the route. Food is somewhat secondary as your heart rate will be under control an probably around 60% of max pulse which puts you in the famed "fat burning zone".
    Which only means, that you are not pushing yourself extremely hard which in turn means that your body has the time to convert some of the energy stored as fat to more easily accessible energy (glycogen), so you can keep going longer than if you were at a higher heart rate (in which case the conversion woudl be too slow to replenish the glycogen depots from the fat depots).

    With that in mind you won't need the easily accessible sugar gels (usually maltose which is easy for the body to convert into glycogen). What I've done on my trips is to bring a sandwich (hold the salad, pour on the meat) and some fruit (I like bananas). These keep me full and as stated at about 60% max HR your body should easily be able to convert the food to energy.

    If however you plan to run or push yourself well outside the ~60% pulse zone I think some kind of easily accesible carbohydrates would be worth considering.
  • Bakins929
    Bakins929 Posts: 895 Member
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    I used them when training for a marathon and on longer runs (those over an hour), but that was many years ago. I think it was either Cliff Shots or PowerGel that I used. If I recall correctly, CliffShots had some better flavors. They do work as they are pretty much 100% carbs; like 80% complex and 20% simple so they are a good source of fuel. Some have caffeine, some do not. I liked the PowerGel Tangerine Double Caffeinated.

    Since you are walking it and will not be depleting your reserves as quickly as running, you may want to consider some other sources like granola or trail mix, in addition to the gels. It will fuel you as well as the gels and a lot of people dislike the gel flavors. I think the main advantages of the gels are they are light in weight, quickly eaten without chewing, require little or no water to ingest and don't sit in your stomach any more than water does. Since they are fairly cheap, you may want to try them on some of your training walks to see how your body reacts to them.

    Best of luck on your mini!

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