I started increasing my liquid intake Friday. Mostly with water. On Saturday I drank Gatorade, the low cal kind. I am not crazy about the taste of water after about one litre so I chose something I would drink more of.

Sunday morning I ate toast with peanut butter and 1/2 banana for the trip into my run. Also I had myself a cup of coffee, something I normally drink in the morning. During my previous long run I only consumed about 1 litre of water. This week I topped up with gatorade and refilled along the way. I probably drank 4 bottles over 3.5 hours. On the advice of a seasoned marathoner friend of mine I took along a fig newton which I ate at the 12 mile mark. With about 3 miles to go I popped a Powerbar gel. That was it. I ran steady and finished strong.

Around 13 km we began a trail of undulating hills. My left knee felt cold as did my right. My left foot is still not recovered from months of metatarsal pain, so I know I favour it, and probably pronate more than the other foot. At the turn around, I was losing steam. For breakfast, I ate only a small bowl of cereal, grabbed some power gels and off I went. Big mistake. I was starving 12 km into the run and the power gel was making me wanna vomit.

To make a long story short, I cut my 29 km back to 25 km. Walked probably 3 km of it. Felt crappy. So what to change moving forward:

Preparation:

1) Don’t take time off from training without expecting to slip backwards in fitness.
2) The day before, don’t quaff beer and eat fried foods
3) Hydrate the day before and eat healthy
4) Don’t stop stretching each day . . ever!
5) Don’t go out fast and blab to your running mates about your holidays. Conserve your energy
6) Wear the damn compression socks that really prevents calf muscles from cramping from lactic acid
7) Eat a proper pre run breakfast, not just a snack
8) Don’t overdress, but don’t undress either. Being cold and miserable is not fun!
9) Go back out there. Remember we all have setbacks in training. Such is the life of the runner or cyclist.

For Mac & Garmin users, check out Rubi Track The UI is slick. There are lots of useful stats. Plus, it looks like I can publish some of the data in .png charts (like the one above) to my blog.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.