Hunger, Haribo & The Long Run

Being a vegetarian, albeit a less than stringent character, my healthy calories can sometimes be slightly harder to come by than digging into a dense steak dinner. As the mileage amps up during a training cycle I find myself constantly trying to catch up to my hunger needs. Healthy eating is important to me - it’s been a part of my life - almost my entire life - and while I VERY much enjoy the occasional bag of funyuns or handful too many of oreos, I’ve been a clean living sort as long as I can remember. Clean does not mean low fat. I eat cheese, butter, eggs, peanut butter, nuts by the large handful, granola, etc... But largely what goes in my mouth fits the standard definition of real food. So as the miles creep up and my calorie needs begin to multiply I run into the great food dilemma of a 1st world middle class life.... To powder and supplement with bars and gels or try to consume whole food for all my needs. I used to joke around with my brothers that my beer a night habit was calorie and carb loading in an all natural liquid way. But beer cannot really effectively be consumed on the long run, other than those rare marathon occasions when it’s super warm and the frat boys are out in force with their coors light and smiles. (Yes, my brothers and I did share a warm, crappy beer at mile 22 of last years St. Louis Marathon). And quite honestly I don’t have time to concoct organic home recipes for on the go running, so I do, often, find myself forking over cash for gooey food-like substances.

So far in this new training cycle I haven’t run long or far enough to justify a fuel on the run carry along, until this past Sunday that is. I knew I had a long run, 20 or so miles, on the schedule, yet I had forgotten to address the fueling issue until late Saturday night. In a pinch I ran over to Walgreens and purchased a bag of Haribo Gummy Bears. These candies are a childhood favorite of mine. I vividly remember my first time with these chewy, sweet confections. I was 8 years old and my family went to a German Fair. There was music, games, dancing, fun of all sorts, but the highlight of my trip came from a little booth giving away free samples of these treats. I savored my tiny little bag of gummy bears for three days, popping one in my mouth at a time. I thought they were the best things I had ever tasted. I simply couldn’t believe how good they were, and I wanted to delight in them as long as I possibly could. Since that time I have harbored a love of the gummy bear. I certainly never anticipated that love crossing over to my fitness needs.

Yet on Sunday morning, I popped open the bag, threw a handful into a smaller plastic bag, laced up my shoes and headed out for a beautiful, long run. An hour or so into the run, I tossed half of the gummy bears in my mouth, filled my belly with a few swigs of water and continued on the path. While not the same jolt of energy from an accel gel or gu, the gummy bears did their job and kept me from crashing. After my 2nd hour running I polished off the small bag of gummy bears and made it back to my front door with energy to spare. I’m not sure if it is the increased fitness from several weeks training or the magic of the black forest delight - either way my week ended on a high note with an easier than expected first crack at a long run, and gave me some hope that I can get back to form for this season! Looking forward to building on this confidence and energy for the next few weeks.

Miles Run: 50 +2 hours yoga