Mmmm, gooey

So, since I started my maybe/maybe not half-marathon training 2.5 weeks ago, I've run about 36 miles. Woot! That's about 15 miles per week, and this weekend starts the longer runs. Since I nearly passed out the other day from overexertion and not properly fueling myself, I decided it was time for some sports nutrition type stuff. Enter Gu (or, in this case, CarbBoom, but same difference really). If you've never had the pleasure, Gu and its ilk are energy gels, meaning that they're little packets of carbohydrate-heavy gel that you take before and during long runs. Although they don't taste all that bad, sort of like a melty sweetart, the texture is problematic. Most of my friends are aware of my texture problems, meaning that I don't eat bread pudding, no matter what it tastes like, or tofu, or other foods falling into the mushy category. It just grosses me out. Well, Gu-type products have a texture roughly approximating that of Vaseline. In order to get it down, I basically put as much as I can in my mouth and quickly gulp some water to wash it down. Tasty, huh? However, the little packets do really work, and I went for a long run today without any of the jelly-legs feeling that I was experiencing the other day. So despite my aversion to the texture, the benefits of not feeling like a bowl of Jello far outweigh my problems with melty-Jello-like texture.

Today's mileage count: 4.1