Let’s see, how to explain this. Have you ever… gone on a sort of… pre-long run food buying spree… like, way in advance… without planning it?
Now that I’m officially training for the Baltimore Marathon, I gotta get those mega-long runs on the docket. And I have – I have a 15 miler, 17 miler, and 20 miler laid out on the calendar. For my normal long runs – say, 9-12 miles on average – I don’t usually require much beyond a pre-run snack and some water, but these big’uns need a bigger sustenance commitment.
There are lots of ways to do it: water, sports drinks, gels, chews, gummy bears, pretzels, honey… a lot of peoples’ boats float a lot of different ways. I have found I perform well with Swedish Fish, so I bought one box for my 15 miler, just to start things off. So far so well measured.
Then last week I was doing my weekly Target grocery run. I was in the candy aisle to grab some 90% dark chocolate (TRY IT!!!!!! YOUR TASTE BUDS WILL EXPLOOOODE) and happened to pass by the theater box candy. Well, I’m here and thinking about it, I thought, so I might as well grab two more boxes for 17 and 20.
That simple act opened the floodgates. In the drinks section for some seltzer, I saw Body Armor sports drinks were on sale. I usually go with PowerAde since that’s runDisney’s MO, but what the hell – I grabbed two bottles without hesitation.
Over by the peanut butter, I was picking up a canister of chocolate PB2 when I saw that Justin’s individual nut butter packets were on sale as well. What an amazing mid-run snack that would be for my really long runs!! I said to myself, even though this is something I’ve never tried. Well, I will now! Into my cart went two peanut butter-and-honey packs.
And, uh, here’s all the stuff I hadn’t planned on buying for runs some of which aren’t for another month:
Will it all be actually good for my long runs? WE SHALL SEE.
Do you ever impulse-buy food in the name of training? What are your favorite pre-and mid-run snacks for long runs?
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