3 miles and a gel review

Yesterday only called for 4 miles, which I was happy about since I didn't have much time. I left work at 3:30 (a half hour late due to having to make up time for being late...thanks, alarm clock!) and had to swing by the hair salon to enter the raffle for a free cut at this Friday's customer appreciation night. Seriously? Can I not just do this over the phone? OH....I get it. By requiring my cheap ass to go in in order to enter you hope that I won't do it, and will instead just pay for my haircut like a normal person. Well you thought wrong! I have no money as of late (ok, I never do but anyway) so any chance at something free is good. Besides, I have been lucky lately, so who knows? We will find out Friday, when I drink my fair share of free wine and eat far too much free cheese and pretend to browse products I am not going to buy*.

Then I had to stop by the local running store, Varsity Sports, to get some gels in preperation for Friday's 14 miler. Now this should be quick and easy, right? Gel selection for me, however, is rather painstaking after my bad experience with Gu Triberry. So I deliberated for an inordinate amount of time before selecting four different gels. I'll let you know how they all go. Can't remember exactly what I got (and no, not all for Friday!), but I think I grabbed a Gu espresso, a Clif Shot double espresso, a PowerGel in chocolate?, and a Gu Rocktane in vanilla orange. I am the least hopeful about the Rocktane, but it's supposedto reduce muscle soreness post run, so we'll see. A little pricey, I think (over $2, can't remember) but I'll let ya know if it's worth it.

So by the time I got home it was 4:45, and I didn't get out the door until 5. So I had about 20 minutes of daylight. Great. So the 4 miles changed to 3. Then the Garmin wasn't charged...so I just glanced at the clock at 4:58 and headed out. I tried to keep some speed, and think I did okay because the clock said 5:23 when I got back. The second hand was about 5 seconds further than when I left, so I estimate about 25:05 for the three miles. Not bad for me, who has immense trouble really picking up the pace unless it's a race. So quick workout in and still time for the Biggest Loser!

Now as for the product review...a few days ago on my 9 mile run I had Clif Shot Gel double espresso. I am hoping to try all different kinds/flavors of gels to settle on some that I like. The flavor of this was ok, though I found it more reminiscent of molasses than espresso. Maybe that's from the brown rice syrup base? I shouldn't have read the ingredients because that definitely turned me off, though I do like that it's 90% organic. I think caffeine in gels does help me, so I liked that part too. I definitely felt a little boost, but it didn't sit as well in my stomach, however, so I wonder if I will find that true of every flavor? I would basically say it ranked under Gu chocolate (my favorite) and PowerGel vanilla (second favorite) but above Gu triberry. It was thick like the Gu gels, which is ok, but I actually prefer how the PowerGels are a little more watery. I'm excited to try the PowerGel chocolate, because I think I may like that best. I'm still keeping my eyes open for Hammer Gels, but haven't found them yet. More to come on gels Friday when I try the Rocktane!
* I feel the need to do this at places like Sam's Club and Costco too. I'll eat a sample and then feel obliged to peruse the box intently as though I'm seriously considering buying it...I wait until the sample-passer-outer starts talking to the next victim and then quickly drop the box and move on...