Advice for half marathon
Hello fellow RNY'ers. I am currently trying to train for a half marathon. So far i'm doing ok. But the longer the distance the more water I need. Some people use these little packets of gel or liquid to bring back the eleytrolites. My concern is the sugar. I don't want to pop one and have a dumping episode!! Looking for direction. Thanks RNY family
Good Afternoon! I know each of us have different needs but when I run I actually prefer to not drink much during (just a sip here and there at the water stations during the 1/2's) and I carry a protein bar and string cheese in my pouch I wear so I have on hand if I need it. I know others have different ways they handle it but that has worked for me so far...my next one is coming up in November! Good luck.
What I do differs a bit from Emmiepie. I've run 6 half marathons. I actually dehydrate if I don't drink enough and it leads to really bad muscle cramps. So I make sure to wear a running belt that has either G2 or Powerade zero in both bottles (the sports drinks on the route are usually not the sugar free version) then I make sure I stop at every hydration station and drink straigh****er. When I was training for my first 1/2 (which I ran almost exactly 1 year post surgery) I asked my surgeon for advice (he's a runner). He told me to try shot blocks instead of the gels. He said I should be ok if I let them slowly dissolve in my mouth. Every run is different, but I find if I drink some water at every station along the route and have a shot block every 2-3 miles on the back half of the run, I'm good to go. I dump and I've never had a problem with the blocks. I would definitely try them out on a training run to see how you react to them.
edited to add: Each shot block serving is 12 g of sugar, but a serving is 3 pieces. I never eat 3 at a time so the sugar has never been a problem. I won't dump on 4g of sugar at a time.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!