ATTQOTD:
All about the 3 inch shorts with split sides. Allows me more freedom of movement. A back zipper used to be a must, but I don't carry my gels with me during training runs for very long and I'm slowly attempting to phase out gels completely for racing.
Question for those who fuel during runs: what do you use? I don't drink water during my runs (luckily live in a humidity free, temperate climate) and don't typically fuel either. But that lead to a serious boinking during my first half. Did fine with Honey Stingers on my next half. But was wondering if there was a better alternative. Do I always need to drink water with a gu/gel?
For during races, I use
E-Gel. I believe it was McFlurry John that recommended them some time ago when I was a lurker, and they really fit the profile of what I'm looking for in a gel. For carb consumption, keep in mind the following. It takes 1 oz of water to absorb every 2 g carbs. So if you eat 24 g carbs, then you need to have 12 oz of water available in your body to properly absorb this. The body bests absorbs the water in smaller doses than one large dose (i.e. better to take in 3 oz of water every mile, then 12 oz of water every 4 miles). Typically, when people get "gut rot" or "gut cramps", it's because they don't have sufficient water to absorb what they just consumed. The body in response will actually pull water from your leg muscles in order to absorb the carbs in the gut (stomach has precedence over muscles during running, who woulda thunk it?). Which in turn actually dehydrates your muscles faster, then if you had consumed no carbs at all.
Now, the 1 oz water to 2 g carb ratio is under ideal conditions. If you were to run a race in hot/humid conditions which caused a higher sweat rate, your need for water goes up because you need the water for your sweat rate AND the carb absorption.
With all that being said, you're planning on running a half marathon in about 1:40. As long as you go into the run near 100% carb capacity in your muscles (i.e. you taper prior to the half marathon), then you don't need any carbs during the half marathon race. You have sufficient carbs in your muscles to likely run about 15-17 miles at half marathon pace before you'll bonk due to a lack of carbs. This is true for almost everyone for halfs. Now, this isn't to say you might not need some electrolytes. But again the needs of electrolytes for a race lasting 100 minutes is pretty minimal above the body's normal storage unless you're dealing with some extreme conditions. Here's an example data set:
For my weight (160) and VO2max (64), I would need to run at 83% VO2max to deplete my carb storage in 13.4 miles. That would be a 1:20 half marathon for me (my PR is a 1:38). So this is to illustrate the limiting factor in me running a 1:20 is not my carb consumption but rather a bevy of other factors.
The "bonk" you encounter during your half was more likely caused by two other reasons:
1) Insufficient training of muscles for the endurance pace held during the half
2) Pace was too fast early in the half leading to a build up of fatigue by product in the muscles that the body wasn't able to clear quickly enough to maintain pace
I'm also doing the Rock and Roll DC half in March since I got it for $50 so I'll treat that as my race for time and the Star Wars race for fun.
I got super behind and just caught up on the 30+ pages that I missed.
