Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Coaching, running, and a Nuun review (keep your habit on)

This past Friday, our girls Varsity and boys Varsity both took home 2nd place team trophies! We were such proud coaches! They were such proud runners!

Girls places: 3, 5, 10, 12, 18

Boys places: 7, 12, 17, 24, 26

Our freshman boy, C, ran another PR (Personal Record) of 17:22! He is currently ranked the 2nd fastest freshman in the state of Colorado. AND HE’S ON MY TEAM! It’s truly amazing the potential he has. I think he’s oblivious of what he’s capable.

Last week, at one of the state’s fastest courses, our Senior girl, T, broke the school record by running a 19:16!

On the homefront, E and I decided to train or our half marathon (coming up in 8 weeks) by running during the week with the high schoolers and getting our long runs in on the weekends. As E was out of town this past weekend, I ran a 10 mile solo on Sunday morning. It was unexpectedly windy and there were huge hills in miles 3-5, but I maintained an 8:48 pace, and negative split, despite all of this.

10 miles; 1:27:55; 8:48 pace

Mile 1: 8:54

Mile 2: 8:56

Mile 3: 8:58

Mile 4: 9:32

Mile 5: 9:31

Mile 6: 8:40

Mile 7: 8:17

Mile 8: 8:28

Mile 9: 8:25

Mile 10: 8:09

I tried Citrus Fruit Nuun, the electrolyte-enhanced sports drink tablets, for the first time. I usually drink Cytomax on my long runs, but had heard so many positives about Nuun, that I thought I’d give it a shot. The night before a long run, I always prep my fuel belt. Two of my bottles are filled with water, two are filled with an energy drink. One to three gels, depending on my distance, and perhaps a few Shot Bloks or something. I filled a bottle with 16oz of water, dropped the Nuun tablet in, and let it do its fizzy thing. After it “unfizzified”, I decided to go ahead and take a sip, so I knew what to expect the next morning. At first taste, I was immediately reminded of Emergen-C, the Vitamin C super energy booster that’s in the form of a fizzy drink mix. Or, I like to think of it as Vitamin C Alka-Seltzer. I refuse to take Emergen-C because I can’t stomach the flavors or smells. Nuun has that same “sharp” flavor to it that makes my nose scrunch. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this on my long run.

I typically don’t drink anything until 3-4 miles into my long run. At around the 4 mile mark, I tried the Nuun. It still had that “sharp,” Emergen-C flavor to it, but I did appreciate that it wasn’t overly sweet as some of the Cytomax flavors tend to be. At mile 5, I took my Powerbar Chocolate gel with water. Then, sipped on the Nuun off and on for the trip back.

I can’t say I’m overly impressed with the Nuun. Maybe it’ll just take me some getting used to. Perhaps I should try a different flavor. Who likes Nuun? Why? What flavors?

My next “try”: salt tablets.

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