I’ve touched down a little bit on this in my last post – you need fuel, energy to keep you going when you train. I try to get most of the energy from what I eat and from getting decent amount of sleep. I aim to get at least eight hours of sleep when I’m training; even 30 minutes longer sleep than usual makes a big difference.
When it comes to energy on the go, everyone is little different and is good to experiment and find out what suits you best. Generally, for a run up to an hour I don’t take anything else with me but water. For longer runs of around 90-120 minutes I will mix an electrolyte drink and for anything over two hours I’ll have gels and water. I have noticed that if I run in the morning, I am quite often hungry so I’ve started carrying energy bars or jelly beans with me. Personally, I much prefer running after work or at lunch time and my long ‘morning’ Sunday runs very rarely start before 11am, unless it’s a race. Surprisingly I have no problem with getting up early for that; I did a 28km race starting at 7am last year and loved it.
If you are training for a marathon or half-marathon, find what works for you when you are out and about as realising that some gels give you stomach cramps on the race day is not something I would wish you to experience.
Eva Marasca 