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5ksandcabernets: My last word on El Scorcho

5ksandcabernets

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

My last word on El Scorcho

So I've had 36 hours to dissect my performance at the El Scorcho 25k last weekend...
 
36 hours to figure out why I cramped, why my pace went from 8:20 to 9:20 to 11:20 in a space of three miles....
 
And my thoughts keep taking me to my diet.
 
The race was at midnight. I had my last sizable meal 28 hours earlier: two big bowls of spaghetti and two glasses of wine.
 
I woke up Saturday not hungry at all and had to force myself to eat some rice and an English muffin with honey and peanut butter around 9 a.m.
 
At about 1 p.m., I had a salad with cheese, salami, ham, walnuts. And a cup of coffee.
 
At about 5 p.m. I had an apple, a banana, and some peanut butter.
 
And that was it until the race.
 
Funny thing. Now that I remember, my stomach was growling as I lined up for the race. I thought it was just nerves.
 
No, stupid. I. Was. Hungry. And I hadn't had a lick of salt all day.
 
So when things started to go haywire at Mile 7, it was, it had to be, because I was out of fuel.
 
My mistake is that I kept drinking water and the electrolyte drink the race organizers had on the course, Nuun, which had Zero Calories.
 
What I should have done, in hindsight, was brought some of my Accelearade to make a carb shake. It has 21 carbs, 5 proteins, and tons of electrolytes. When I got home, I kept drinking water and Gatorade trying to hydrate (I lost 6 pounds of water during the race) and nothing made me feel better until I had to Accelerade.
 
So a lesson learned. Can't wait until the next long race.

8 Comments:

Blogger B. Kramer said...

Ick, those funky race times can screw with your fueling plan. My condolences. Good lessons for next time. Cheers!

July 23, 2008 at 3:52 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

I'm so used to just having a bowl of oatmeal before I run a race of any distance - I have no idea what I'd do if I did an evening race! Sorry you got thrown off :(

July 23, 2008 at 4:50 PM  
Blogger Victoria said...

I have no idea when I'm going to learn how important staying up on the caloric intake is. It seems to be a lesson the universe needs to beat me over the head with before I'm going to really get it.

July 23, 2008 at 5:46 PM  
Blogger Kevin said...

viper - yeah, bad race time. but things probably woulda been worse if it was in the morning because then i would not have eaten anything.

laura - oatmeal, i love, but can only eat it with milk and me and milk before a race is like republicans and democrats: dont get along. but i need to think about eating something beforehand.

victoria - i think im learning my lesson as well. eat. eat. and eat some more, especially with all these miles i am putting in. but sometimes you eat so much you just wanna get sick. its fun trying to figure it out, of course.

July 23, 2008 at 7:12 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

Kevin, why can't you have oatmeal made with water? Alternately, could you maybe use almond milk or soy milk or some other non-dairy milk? I know what you mean about no dairy before a race, but I wonder if those would work or if they'd still be too creamy.

July 23, 2008 at 7:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sometimes, I think we should come with gas gages. "Oh I'm on empty."

I've done this myself. Lesson learned. Thank god it was just slow... and nothing more dramatic.

July 23, 2008 at 9:29 PM  
Blogger Kevin said...

Laura, I used to eat oatmeal with water and would add some raisins and it wasnt bad when i was a kid. then i got all high-fallutin and figured out how good it tasted with milk. maybe i need to back to my roots.

nat - yeah, i wish i had one of those runner fuel gauges. but you know, i have one in my car and sometimes run it till the hand is past 'E'

July 23, 2008 at 9:40 PM  
Blogger Rich said...

Dude! That could be it. I was still eating at 9:30 that night.

July 24, 2008 at 9:51 PM  

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