#Juneathon Day 8 - rehab routine, ultra food worries, ultra worries generally ...

After yesterday's long run I thought it would be a good idea to do my ITBS rehab routine. That seemed to to go okay. Finished off with a good stretching session.

I almost always get post run munchies the couple of days after a long run, not a problem to sort out though :-) Not as big a problem as running nutrition.  

This ultra is presenting me with a real challenge as to what to eat? I can run a marathon with gels and water and that's fine but 30 miles of gels starts to become too much to stomach.  The gels really start to become too sweet.  So I figured I'd try Cliff bars. The problem I've found with them is that they are a bit too dry when you've been running for a while, tasty at the start, but when you've run a few miles they're like eating compacted muesli. I tried using them again yesterday. Half way through my run I munched on my Cliff bar and it sort of sucked all the water out of my mouth and was really difficult to swallow.  Now I know I was hot but I'm pretty good at staying hydrated, I just couldn't finish it, it stuck in my throat. I know some runners swear by them but they don't seem to work for me.

So what to do?  Today I ordered a new running backpack (I've found my trusty Camelbak too be a bit small) and the sales guy is an ultra runner (I think) and he says that he just uses ordinary flapjacks as they are more moist.  I shall have to try that.  Any other ideas would be really appreciated.

My Hokas have proved to be very successful, phew! On Saturday I felt my toes were a bit tight so on Sunday I tried using the thinner inner soles that were supplied with the shoes, perfect, relief!

I've also ordered some merino wool briefs but I won't go into details. Needles to say that I had a pair when I first started running and they were brilliant.  I've put off buyng a pair because of the price but now with the ultra coming up I think I need to take a little bit more care ... 

I also need a running hat, a light possibly white one. I used to have one but I lent it to my wife and have been fine up to now but I think I need one for the ultra.

This ultra is such a long way, sigh, 100km, I hope I can manage it, gulp! I'm hoping to do a 20mile+30mile back-to-back this weekend but I'm not sure how I'm going to fit around my other commitments, I'll have to see what I can do. After this weekend I start tapering.

My wife did another Zumba session so we're all on track for Juneathon.