I was deeply & confidently incorrect when answering a question about gels/marathon nutrition this weekend. tldr; I was like “6-7 gels is a lot for a marathon and seems like it would be really hard on the stomach, 1-3 should be fine” but apparently textbook advice truly is 30-60+ grams of carb/hr.
Which left me baffled–how many gels are you guys taking in on a half/full? I ran my marathon PR on <1 package of Cliff Shot Blocks plus a Gatorade or water swish-n-spit every 2 miles at aid stations. And I mean yeah, I was fighting severe leg fatigue in the last few miles, but isn’t that just… part of the marathon? Or was that an entirely unnecessary thing that I put myself through? I also asked my (much larger than me but similar speed) partner what he plans on doing at his upcoming marathon and he said he plans on bringing 3 gels (each gel has 18g of carb), but only plans to take 2 unless there’s some sort of catastrophe. I didn’t go out of my way to reach out and ask random other people I’ve trained with how many gels they usually take during a marathon, but like… you can only fit so many gels into spandex short-shorts and a crop top??? And I feel like I’ve never seen people around me with gels bulging out of all available stash spots.
Are we all just fucking stupid? Have I been fighting through crazy long run/long race leg fatigue for like, no reason whatsoever? I just assumed that’s like, in the cards when you sign up for long races.
You do you nutrition-wise–whatever works works. But man the idea of needing to take in that many energy gels is… truly horrifying.
Unfortunately a light powdery dusting is how I slipped and broke my wrist last March–the light powdery dusting is fine and all, except that it very easily conceals small not-obvious patches of black ice! Regular ice covered with a small dusting? No problem, still easy to see, and still has reasonable traction. Black ice covered with a small dusting? Slippity-doo-dah!
tldr; I bought myself a treadmill for black friday this year…