Energy Drinks, Powerbars, Gels and more

So this past week (early August) my wonderful wife and I went to a running store to ask a few questions about what I would need for long distance running. The guy was very nice and patient with me not knowing anything about running, but introduced me to Energy Gels that I can eat before and during long distance running to keep my energy up as well as an energy powered mix drink that does the same thing. Apparently for my body type I would need to consume 250-300 calories every hour to replenish what I would be losing in my running. That ended up being 16 oz bottle of drink and 2 gel packets per hour (which I should be running at least 6 miles each hour). So for the 11 mile run on Saturday I got 4 gels for my buddy and I to "enjoy" (I use the term loosely). I gotta say it is a very strange texture. I guess since it is called a "gel" its texture is just like it sounds, but the flavors are a little too strong. I had Tropical and it was awful, as was the Orange my buddy said. Halfway through around mile 6.5 we tried our second helping of gels which for both of us tasted much better. I mean it was still a gel, but much more tollerable.

The energy drink however, was not good at all! Not only did it taste weird, it make me sick. Over the past few weeks I've been able to add Gatorade to it to help the taste and pleasantness of it, but that first time was horrendous. I'm not sure if it helped, but we were able to run for all 11 miles so it didn't hurt.

The next week my buddy hosted and he had a powerbar. It was different, but not as difficult to get down as the drink or gels were. However, I had eggs for breakfast so add the powerbar on top of that and there was way too much stuff in my stomach for a good run. I felt like I was dragging the entire way. This was the 12 miler and the week before the half marathon. Around mile 11 besides my ankle aching pretty bad, my knee started hurting as well and I had to stop to walk for a quarter of a mile to regain my strength. So I learned not to eat that much before running, but at least I didn't lose the contents of my stomach during the run.

As far as the last run before the half goes, I was concerned that I had to walk. I was also concerned now that I had knee and ankle problems. This doesn't bode well for the half. Maybe it was all a fluke and everything will be peachy for the half. I guess we'll wait and see. Gotta run.