Messing Up My Electrolytes Again
Yep. I’m pretty good at this. Usually it’s because I forget to drink enough before / during / after exercise. Or I drink the wrong kind of stuff (Guinness may well be good for you, but not during a race!). But this one was a whole new experience in incompetence for me…
… I was a little late home from work, and in a hurry to get out & do my long run in time to be back for supper. So I was in a bit of a rush as I mixed my fluids to go into the fuel belt. I use High5 Zero - a fruity-flavoured electrolyte drink with no carbohydrate, which comes in tablet form.
You mix one tablet per 500ml of water - so simple that a child couldn’t get it wrong. Except I put one tablet into each of my two 250ml bottles.
At my first drink point, I realised my mistake at once. It should taste lemony, but not that lemony!
What to do? If I drank this mix would I end up a total mess after a few more miles, my tongue lolling out and my stomach complaining about the pH imbalance created by all this salt? Should I turn for home, fix the problem and start again? Should I just do the run without drinking?
In the end, I passed a garage, and popped in to use their facilities - tipping half my fluids away and topping up again with sweet, clear tap water. After that, the run went brilliantly, with an overall pace that would give me a sub-100 minute half marathon. It seems that getting an extra 1/2 hour of sleep a night is suiting me!
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 03/05/2010
- Total Time: 1:47:40.00
- Calories: 1638
- Distance: 14.1 miles
- Average Pace: 7:38.02/mile
