Prime

Gatorade G-Series drinks

So it's been a full 3 weeks since I got myself back out and running on the road...and it took that long to feel good about running again. In the big picture, it took 10 runs, but then again...it took 10 runs.It's very discouraging when you get to a really good place doing anything and then have a huge set back.

I was almost feeling a little desperate trying to figure out how to prepare better for my runs, which in reality, I suck at big time! I'm never really well rested, hydrated or fueled. It's no wonder things were going downhill - fast! Then, the Saturday we took a trip to Alpenrose we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up some goodies to bring to the races and I grabbed a big ol' Gatorade Perform. Because I ran that morning I decided I needed something with some electrolytes. Then after I drank half of that bottle I decided to check and see if Fred Meyer had the other drinks that are in this drink series. (FYI - I did find the Prime Pouches at FM this past weekend).

My first search was unsuccessful, which was a little bit of a bummer. So I didn't think of it again until Tom and I were walking around Target on my lunch break one day last week and I found the "G series" there. So I grabbed myself one Prime (Mixed Berry) and one Recovery (Berry). I'm not that good at fueling myself for activity, so this would be an interesting test.

This past Saturday morning I was up bright and early and getting ready to run my 4 mile run - so I got my Prime out and dumped it into a glass just to see what I was putting in my body. It wasn't half bad. It was easy to down and there really isn't a whole lot so it was perfect. Then I waited for 15 minutes and took off.

I spent the whole run wondering if I actually felt different, I did feel better and not achy or anything. Oh, just a FYI, this run was also after a day of not hydrating well, didn't necessarily get a good nights rest OR fuel that great...we went to Alpenrose the night before and stopped at Albertson's to get some Fried Chicken and Jo-Jo's. Yeah, that's good nutrition! Anyway, with all that information floating around in my brain, I was wondering how I might feel.

Oh, another thing - the purpose of the long run is to run it slow...very, very slow...but steady, not walking slow, but almost. It's hard to run really slow...try it sometime...it takes a lot of thought to keep the pace down.

Anyway, here I am making my way down to the new intersection at the Library by Fred Meyer and I'm realizing that I'm feeling really good. Craziness...How long will it last? When should I plan to stop and walk? Do I need to stop and walk? I decided that I was feeling so good that I probably could make it to the light, then make a decision.  I get to the light and my goodness, I'm STILL feeling really good. Not possible. Is it because of the Gatorade? Because really, that's the one thing that IS different and I'm actually feeling really good.I figured at one point that I would start to get tired and achy, so I decided to wait until that happened and then take a walking break. I'm chugging along and I'm more than half way back to our house and I'm STILL feeling really good. Very interesting...okay, I'll keep running. You know, you get to a point where it's just silly to stop and walk because the finish (home) is so close. Well, I got to that point and decided it would be wimpy of my to stop and walk because I was within a mile of our house - I know that running that distance isn't that hard so I continue to plug along.This was nearly unbelievable because I actually ran the whole route. The week before when I did the 4 mile run for the first time I finished a minute faster (with walk breaks), but I felt not so great when I got home. On Saturday I felt so good! It was amazing! Now I'm just plain giddy - I had a really great run and had a decent time.

Time to recover. So I pull out the Gatorade Recover drink and the first swig I took was NAS-TEE!Okay, so I drank half the bottle and decided that it was just too gross to finish. Blah. I then decide that I'm going to switch back to Chocolate Milk. Best recovery drink...EVER!

I have to ramble on just a little more - this morning I did a 3 mile run and had a Fierce Grape Prime which was blue (grape is purple in my book) and Chocolate Milk for recovery - and felt really good again! As I was running today, I had a revelation. I think in 3 weeks of running consistently, my body and finally decided to cooperate with my mind and let me become a runner again - also, I like to think that the Gatorade Prime is helping that much more!

It feels good to be improving instead of standing still or going backwards. I'm looking forward to the running events that I have in mind to do this year. At some point I think I'll actually think more about nutrition and all that other good stuff. Right now I'm just happy to be doing something at all!


That's my story and I'm sticking to it

I like the way this looks...consistency is EVERYTHING!