Running and food

I used today's run to experiment with my fuelling plan for the upcoming 138 mile run.  A lot of runners use gels but they don't agree with my stomach and the thought of eating sticky syrupy goo for 8 hours or more is appalling rather than appealing.  So for now I'm trying to eat a small piece of real food and drink a couple of mouthfuls of water every mile.  The beep of my watch for every mile is a useful reminder to eat and drink.  

My current favourite food while running is boiled potatoes with plenty of salt.  And a can of full sugar Coca Cola after 20 miles.  I wasn't running quite so far today so I just took some dried strawberries and cherries, raisins, a sliced up date and cashew nut bar and some mini stroopwafels.  I had a bit of a disaster when I pulled the plastic bag out of my pocket at about 12 miles only to discover it had split and some of my food spilt onto the road - a treat for the local wildlife no doubt.

Once back home it was time to refuel.  Chocolate milkshake is my go to food for after a long run.  As I'd done a bit of baking last night I helped myself to a generous slice of greengage tart too.

Chocolate milkshake and greengage frangipane tart

One thing that struck me on today's run was just how heavily laden all the hedgerows are with fruit.  Not just blackberries, I also spotted damsons, yellow plums, plenty of sloes and some pears. It's going to be a good season for foragers.

Todays stats:
Distance - 15.17 miles
Elevation gained - 299 metres

Totals for the week:
Distance - 49.89 miles
Elevation gained - 1167 metres