Our Legs

How did the new guy (me) get the longest leg?

Complaining about our assigned legs has become a way to pass the time while waiting.

Waiting To Start

We are somewhere between Huntington Beach and Corona at a runner exchange point waiting for out first 6 teammates to arrive. Our first runner in van 2 should take off around 11am. My first leg isn't until 12:30 or so. Should be good and hot.

Shown is the line of vans arriving for the other teams.

Also first time I've posted to the blog with email. Hope it doesn't look too bad.

Running The SoCal Ragnar Relay Today

This morning I'll be joining 11 team members that call themselves "Sole Train" to run just over 203 miles through southern California in the Ragnar Relay. It should take us somewhere between 25-35 hours. The distance I have to run isn't huge, just under 20 miles split between 3 legs, so this seems to be more about endurance as we'll be operating on whatever food we can pack with us and little sleep.

The team has chosen to run for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which is a good cause, especially for me as I found out recently that a co-worker was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. If you have a few minutes and a few dollars, a contribution to the Society would be appreciated by people more than you know.

Assuming we pass the pre-race safety training (and that is a big assumption), by the time this blog goes live our first runner will be on their way while the rest of us pile into two vans towards the next leg of the race.

Pray for our safety and sanity. And for random Domino's Pizza delivery people to get lost and dump pizza our way.

Run Barefoot Or Die

 

Sometimes Technology Gets In The Way

I wanted to run some intervals on Tuesday so gathered up my normal running gear and my interval timer and headed out. I didn't even make it to the driveway before the tech conspired against me.

Somehow the last time I used my GymBoss interval timer I left it in single timer mode instead of dual timer mode. I messed with it for a few minutes and almost left it behind. However, I really

wanted needed to run intervals, so I headed back in and went to my laptop upstairs and reviewed the PDF instruction sheet I scanned into Evernote. Tap tap press-hold-tap and spin counterclockwise on my left heel, and done. Dual timers. Good to go.

I get outside and turn on my GPS watch so I can capture my distance. It hooks up in about a minute and off I go. 30 seconds later, my 6th generation iPod Nano starts talking to me, and not in a good way. I usually listen to the Wall Street Journal from Audible during weekday runs. The Nano kept insisting on lowering the volume and speaking over the narrator to tell me the program title and chapter number. I finally got the Nano to reboot and that fixed it. It does that about every 3-4 months and drives me nuts.

Sort of makes me want to run with no tech at all. Still, 99.5% of the time it works just fine. After all of that, I felt better after my run than I have in weeks though, so maybe getting my blood pressure up before I finally took off was a good thing.

Maybe not.

Pocket Fuels As An All Natural Alternative

When going for long runs, I have to refuel. The human body generally only has enough stored energy to keep the body going for about three hours. I'm always looking for natural sources of energy to keep going. Even going that long without refueling is asking for trouble.

5 Flavors Of Pocket Fuel 

Some of the more popular choices for runners and bicyclists include Gu Gels and Hammer Gels. Those may be entirely fine, but honestly I cannot understand the ingredient label. Here is the label from one of the flavors of Gu for example:

Maltodextrin (Glucose Polymers), Filtered Water, Fructose, Roctane Amino Blend (Histidine, Leucine, Valine, Isoleucine), Ornithine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (Okg), Sodium Citrate, Citric Acid, Potassium Citrate, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Sea Salt, Caffeine, Contains Preservatives [Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate], Natural Vitamin E, Oleoresin Paprika (Natural Color).

Some of those words scare me a bit. There may be nothing in the world wrong with them, but my rule of thumb is, if I don't know what it is, I don't eat it, and to eat the above would require me to spend about half an hour on Wikipedia researching before I was comfortable with it.

For almost two years, my go-to running food has been the "gels" by Honey Stinger, as well as Honey Stinger Waffles. If you look at their nutritional information (PDF file) you will see some pretty big words in the ingredient list, but most of those are the chemical names for various vitamins and minerals. I still love Honey Stinger products and will continue to buy them buy the case.

I wanted some variety though and came across Pocket Fuel in the April 2012 issue of Trail Runner Magazine. The article listed 5-6 natural and organic nutrition options. I immediately ordered three of the products and am trying to get a sample order of the rest that has a variety of flavors versus having to order 6 of one that I might not like.

The first one I've tried on the run is Pocket Fuel. My goal was to run 20 miles on Saturday and see how it went. The weather had other ideas though. It rained all day (one of the 10 rainy days we have here in southern California) and I don't like running for hours in the rain. The chafing risk is too high. So, I went for a 9 mile run, and no nutrition is needed for that. On Sunday though it looked like there was going to be a break so I decided to head out. After running 9 miles on Saturday, I figured 20 would be pushing it, especially with a race coming up this weekend. I decided 12-15 would be enough, so I gathered up my water, a 4oz pouch of Chunky Coconut Cherry Pocket Fuel and a few Honey Stingers just in case I didn't like it.

My backup fuel wasn't necessary. Pocket Fuel is almond butter based. Almond Butter is usually pretty thick, often a peanut butter substitute for those with peanut allergies. Pocket Fuel is thicker than honey, but not as thick as JIF. You are supposed to squish (technical term) the packet to ensure it is mixed up so I did that before leaving the house. This one also had coconut shavings in it and supposedly bits of cherry.

I say supposedly because I never tasted any cherry, or much coconut. I could tell there was a good bit of coconut in it by the texture, but the almond butter flavor overwhelmed all other ingredients. It still tasted good, just don't expect some sort of coconut cherry pie flavor.

Personally, that is fine for me. I don't like sweet foods when running. While I love Honey Stinger waffles for example, I cannot stand the strawberry flavor.

The packets are much larger than normal gels. At 4oz, you cannot stick these in the normal pouches that may have no problem holding one or two of the 1.3oz gels. The side pocket of my Camelbak XTC easily held one, and might have been able to hold two. I'll test that theory when I go for a longer run, preferably a 3-5 hour trail excursion.

Pocket Fuel is packed with energy. They typically have between 430-490 calories each and between 18-31g of carbs. Each packet also has around 600mg of potassium, which is the equivalent of 1.5 bananas. Finding natural sources of potassium in long exercise sessions is better than drinking many of the sports drinks, which are often loaded with sugar and artificial ingredients. The Chocolate Espresso pack even has 200mg of caffeine. While I generally shun caffeine, I've found it does have its place early in a run. I often consume Honey Stinger Ginsting gels early in my runs which has natural caffeine from the koala nut. Caffeine from naturally occurring sources is fine with me.

Best of all, the ingredient list for Pocket Fuel is something I can understand.

Dry roasted almonds, organic evaporated cane syrup, organic coconut, bing cherries, organic palm fruit oil, sea salt.

The packs have a easy to use screw on cap so you don't have to consume the entire thing at once like you do with the smaller gels that have a tear-away. You also must have water available to help wash it down, just like almost all other gels. This isn't because you can get sick, as with some other gels, if you don't mix with water, but just because it is so thick.

I still have 4 packets to try from a flavor standpoint. I am wondering though if I will be able to tell the difference. Had the label not indicated what was in this, I am not sure I would have been able to tell it had coconut or cherry in it.

That said, I'm sold. Once I burn through these other 4 flavors, I'll settle on one or two and start ordering by the box. I'll continue to use Honey Stinger, and perhaps one or two others from the Trail Runner article, but Pocket Fuel will definitely have a place in my backpack.

There Is A Right Way To Run

When it comes to sports and activities, there is generally a right way to do things. There is a right way to swing a golf club, a right way to throw a football, a right way to surf, a right way to swing a baseball bat, and a right way to consistently bowl a strike.

Wrong (left guy) vs Right (right gal)

Why then do a lot of people say "well, that is just how I run?" Now, there are different kinds of running of course. I am not talking about doing hurdles, sprinting or other track-and-field activities. I am talking about the kind of running most runners engage in, which is relatively leisurely running for distance, health or both.

Jason over at Barefoot Running University has thrown down a challenge to anyone to make an assertion that it is more efficient and safer to run the way most shoe companies would have you believe, namely:

• by having a long stride
• landing on your heel with your foot in front of you
• have a slow cadence, somewhere well south of 180 strides per minute, getting your speed instead by kicking out and leaping forward with each stride.

Note that no one is saying there is one way to run. You can run with a quick cadence, landing mid-foot under your hips and still modify your lean angle, how far you kick between strides, the angle of your elbows, etc. Some may be more efficient than others depending on your desired speed, the grade the hill you may be going up or down on is, and even the terrain. Note too that methods like Chi Running (my favorite) or the POSE method advocate slight differences, but fundamentally, they are the same, which is a fast cadence (180+ strides per minute) and landing with your foot under you, never in front.

Do you agree, or disagree?