13 days to go: Gel testing

This weekend was a combination of parkrun on Saturday and a two hour run today. First, parkrun was 24:58 – which feels good though it is rather off my recent times (which are more like 24:15) but on the plus side, average pace is sub 8 min miles and psychologically feels like I can get through 100 miles in around 25 hours on the race that is coming up in just less than two weeks time. I have long felt there is a relationship between parkrun time and how long it takes to complete 100 miles. I am not quite as conditioned and trained as would be ideal, so am pretty sure I am going to be slower. I do have 32 hours though to complete 111 miles of the canal – so hopefully I am in with a shout of finishing. Completion is my aim, and my system will be to keep moving forward as consistently and sustainably as I can until I reach the finish line.

Sunday I went for a couple of hours run in the heat of the day while testing out gels and some active root ginger drink. Usually I wouldn’t bother taking energy or drinks for a two hour run, largely because I have never really fancied much on a shortish run like that. I found that I actually looked forward to trying gels and comparing them.

I tried a couple of Torq gels (lemon drizzle and Rhubarb & custard) – both delicious. I also tried a Hammer gel – orange flavour. It wasnt unpleasant – but it was thicker and I didnt enjoy it so much. I think I will order some more Torq gels. A variety of flavours I also tried an active root ginger drink – that was lovely – so I will probably take those sachets for the race.

My two hour run had me cover 10.5 miles – and I was getting faster during the run. My HR was a little higher than expected though – imagine that might have something to do with the heat (it didnt feel like i was working hard).