Hitting the Century Mark Plus Unsolicited Gel Review

Wow, what week!  I was over the century mark for the week, but the highlight was pacing my daughter to a successful finish to her first half-marathon race.  Since it was her first race, we decided to play it safe and go out nice and slow.  The miles were clicking by and she was all smiles and chatty through mile 8.  She experienced a little IT pain at 9, but she was still not laboring, so we decided to let loose on the pace.  The final four miles were the fastest and we had great fun passing many of the people who were suffering from going out too fast.  (274 to be exact) A smart race and a very successful race.

I found a new flavor of nutrition this week that I couldn't pass up, Salted Watermelon from GU.  There are several brands of gels out there, all of them pretty much the same, just slight variations on the base recipe of sugar, refined starch and flavorings.  Personally, I prefer the Power Gels, just because they have a thinner consistency than most.  Certain brands are like choking down a 7 ounce package of frosting.  So I sampled two new gels on my long run today, lets start with GU Salted Watermelon. This flavor is part of their Rock and Roll series.  I consumed this one at mile 10 and I have to admit it was pretty good.  I would have preferred a little saltier, but it was pretty spot on with the watermelon flavor.  No problems in the stomach, but I didn't experience much of a lift.  There was no caffeine.  The second gel was the the Honey Stinger Acai Pomegranate which they boast as being organic.  This was the tastiest gel I have ever had.  This one had a little zip to it, a good consistency and a healthy dose of Green tea extract, which gave me a much needed boost at mile 15.  I experienced a noticeable lift from this one and will definitely use again.

The week was a big one, with 100.1 miles, a 1:33 13.1 on Tuesday, hill sprints on Friday and a 22.6 mile run in some nasty humidity today.   I will back off on the mileage this week and do some racing.  It's the Como Park Relays on Wednesday night and the MDRA 15k on Sunday.  If the weather is good I hope to run a 59 something.  

Happy Running!GU Salted Watermelon