Week 5: A girl's gotta eat

The start of fuel experimentation

A selfie I took while running to memorialize eating this gel only seconds before I choked on the final bite. This served as the perfect reminder of why I am writing about my training block as opposed to creating more visual content…

We’re back to hard training in Week 5. I am thrilled to report that this was the first week I broke 40 miles since March, 2022. On the flip side, I bailed on one workout and rode the struggle bus through another. Still, the increase in mileage signals that things suddenly feel more real. As such, I am beginning to turn my attention to fueling, an area I’ve neglected historically. Continue reading to learn about what products I am testing, as well as how I am responding to my workout bonks. As always, I’m ending with a few odds n’ ends, including an exciting lab-work update.

📋 Total miles: 45.4

• Monday: 4.8 miles (recovery + strides)

• Tuesday: 7.4 miles (failed interval workout)

• Wednesday: 6.0 miles (easy)

• Thursday: 8.8 miles (45 easy, 30 tough min at [almost] marathon pace w/ breaks)

• Friday: Rest

• Saturday: 12.2 miles (easy)

• Sunday: 6.3 miles (“treadhills”, 3 x 10 minutes at 4%)

---

🍌 Hunger games

From here until the final taper, no long run is shorter than 2-hours. Therefore, it’s time to get serious about fueling. 

To be fair, I could have thought about this earlier; every run 60-minutes or longer should ideally include fuel. But I’ve always been a bit too casual about this aspect of marathoning. In fact, in all of my past half and full marathons, I’ve only taken the gels that were handed out on the course. To the seasoned racer, that’s probably the most chaotic thing they’ve ever heard. 

So, as of this week, I’m experimenting with a range of gels in the hopes of crafting an optimized fueling plan.

Gels are concentrated sugar and electrolyte solutions (typically fructose, glucose, or maltodextrin with salt) designed to be absorbed quickly into the bloodstream to give you a boost of energy. Eating gels is like refilling with gas on a road trip, minus the part where you get to stop the car while at the pump.

Since eating and running at the same time isn’t my forte, I have the following criteria for the ideal gel:

• It’s easy to open

• Consuming it doesn’t make me gag or choke

• I feel less bad once it hits my stomach

(Sounds delightful, right?)

After thorough inspections from my quality assurance team, these gels and electrolytes got a pass.

On Sunday night, an order from The Feed arrived at my house containing a variety of gels for me to test.

The first set of gels that I will be testing are from Maurten. These gels are the most technical available on the market. If you see a runner with all the gizmos and gadgets, a souped up Garmin, and sneakers that look like they belong in the future, they’re probably fueling with Maurten. It’s honestly too gross to eat if you’re casual about performance (in my opinion). Maurten makes a hydrogel that’s supposed to be flavorless, but is vaguely sweet — think of it as the worst dessert ever. True to its hardcore nature, Maurten reminds you on their website that “adding flavors will not aid your performance” (subtext: that other $#*% is candy). You may be wondering if these gels are so gross, why am I using them? And that’s fair. I find Maurtens promising because they are quick to eat, fast-acting, and the caffeinated version is like a lightning bolt of energy (in the best way). I am sort of hoping that they’re not The One™️, though, because they’re over $4 a pop. With one gel before and one each subsequent 45-minutes, that’s $20+ on fuel during the marathon — let alone all my training runs — that I don’t even want to eat.

On the far other end of the spectrum is my other trial gels from Spring Energy. Whereas Maurten touts cutting-edge science, Spring Energy focuses on recognizable staples. For lack of a better term, it’s baby food for endurance athletes. What’s particularly intriguing to me about Spring Energy is that the gels range from 100 to 250 calories. There are times when I am deep into runs and feeling depleted where the idea of what amounts to a liquid meal sounds kind of great (the flavor is called “Speednut” and includes berries, basmati rice, banana, hazelnuts and mint, among other ingredients — tasty!). I am very hopeful about these packets, but mindful that they’re quite big and may take a while to eat on the run. The longer I am consuming, the more likely food is to go down the wrong pipe — disaster zone. We shall see.

The branding and vibes for these two gels could not be more different.

The last package of gels was a variety pack that includes one sample from many popular brands. There are a few isotonic gels (ie gels that contain lots of water for hydration) like SIS, which I want experience with since they are a sponsor of the NYC Marathon and these will be the gels available on the course. There are also highly concentrated gels like Gu Roctane, which I already know I hate because they’re so sticky and gross. The one I am most excited to try is called Endurance Tap, made solely from Canadian maple syrup, ginger, and sea salt.

Will I go with the utilitarian Maurtens? Will I want the real food goodness of Spring Energy? Will I choose maple syrup? Only time will tell — and then of course I’ll let you know.

---

🙃 Failed workouts

On Tuesday, I attempted an interval workout and it didn’t go to plan. I set out to do 8, 3:00 segments alternating between 10k and 5k pace with 1:20 rest between each rep. I ended up completing 2 of the reps before bailing on the 3rd. On Thursday, I was supposed to start with 45 minutes easy and end with 30 minutes at marathon pace (7:30/mile). I essentially made the latter part 3 x 10-minute repeats because I had to stop three times in the final push to collect myself.

Some weeks, runs click, and others don’t. I was bummed to have these two failed efforts coming off the heels of a strong Sunday long run + race combo where I held pace with ease. Reflecting on it charitably, I know I am capable of doing these workouts in the right conditions. This week happened to be the warmest in SF yet and I was on my period (we don’t believe in stigmas at this Substack). In a less virtuous moment, I literally named a Strava run “how am i going to hold that for 26.2??” — because sometimes angst alleviates.

If there’s an improvement moving forward, I want to get better at stepping back to an effort I can hold to complete the workout as written. I was so focused on pace for both of these workouts that I missed the chance to practice sustaining comfortably hard efforts — regardless of the time on the watch.

---

---

🧳 Odds n’ ends

Obsessing over: The World Championships in Track and Field. This track meet is like my Super Bowl, except it’s 10 days long. I thought about traveling to this year’s meet in Budapest, Hungary after spectating last year in Eugene, Oregon — a trip of a lifetime for this track nerd. Instead, I plan to watch every minute of action on Peacock. I could probably write a book on how much I love track and field (I have a strange obsession with the hammer, for example), but I’ll spare you from that epic. Instead, I’ll offer that every event has a storyline with dynamic athletes. Pick one day to tune in and I promise you’ll see something inspiring.

Last year's World Champs were truly 10 straight days of track joy. (📷: Owen A)

Wearing: New shoes. On Wednesday, I went to my local running store to get a new pair of trainers for workouts. I went in with high hopes for a recent New Balance release, but ended up falling for Saucony Endorphin Speed 3s (even in an ugly colorway, so you know it’s real). I don’t remember the last time I owned a Saucony shoe — excited to see how they perform. 

Preparing for: Marathon logistics. This week I picked my expo pickup slot (Saturday morning), transportation to the start line (the 5:30 am Midtown bus), and bag drop preferences (no thanks, but I’ll take the poncho, please!) on the NYRR website.

Excited about: My ferritin test results. Last week I told you I was supplementing iron after returning a less than ideal test result in June. I’m happy to report that after two months of consistently taking my iron, I’m back in range! Woohoo.

With that, we wrap Week 5. A reminder of the ever-present invitation for feedback on this blog — I am very open to input. Drop a comment to let me know what you’d like to see more or less of.

Lastly, I am so touched by the new additions to my fundraiser support squad every week. You’re lifting me, but more importantly making it so that more students get access to computer science. Every little bit counts.

Onwards and upwards [in mileage]. See you next week!