Alameda Runners – Get After It!

My list of items to review is starting to back up so I decided to get out do some reviewing.  I started out with a 1 hour weight lifting session this morning followed by a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast.  This left me pretty hungry before my lunch time run.  About an hour before my run, I ate a Lemon Honey Stinger Waffle.  The first time I had a lemon waffle.  I liked it every bit as much as the honey and vanilla waffles.  I have to admit that I was pretty hungry and in the middle of a stressful morning so the peace and the lemon waffle worked magic on me.
I carried an Osmo sports drink with me for this run.

The Osmo sports drink goes down really well.  Of all the sports drinks that I have tried, Osmo is the easiest to drink, by far.  I drank it cold on a very hot day.  Within 30 seconds of taking a drink, I could feel myself starting to sweat.  It goes down well but it left me thirsty after taking a drink.  The feeling went away after a few minutes but it was odd to feel thirsty right after drinking.  I ran for about an hour and drank a 24-ounce bottle of Osmo during the run.

My thirst was satisfied and I did not feel like drinking anything after the run.  I usually toss down a 24 ounce Gatorade after a run.  Today, I left it untouched.  The Osmo sports drink is low calorie so I carried a gel with me on today’s run.  Lisa from Osmo, tells me that calories should not be consumed from liquids.  That is something that moms have been saying for years.

I carried a Honey Stinger Organic Pomegranate gel and I loved it.  I don’t know if it was because I was hungry or that it was just good.  I usually take a gel and choke it down and hope it stays down.  The Honey Stinger tasted good, went down well and stayed down.  I don’t know how the Honey Stinger will work for long efforts but it does pass the short term test where I can eat it while tired and it stays down.  It also helps that it is mostly organic.

The Osmo sports drink and the Honey Stinger gel are both worthy of a serious trial.  I will be doing 3 hour runs again in September.  I think I will put these two products to the test during a big run.  The reason I try new products on a long run day and not a big triathlon training day is the distance from my car or house if something goes wrong.  Crashing on the bike when you are 50 miles and a big hill away from your car can make for a very bad day.