Some new toys

This week has had some ups and downs - I have been waking up in the night with an aching hip and both ankles in pain so I decided I had to find myself a chiropractor.  Thankfully the chiropractor I had seen in Auckland earlier in the year had given me the name of someone to see here, so off I went to see him.  Apparently the band between my hip and knee is wound up very tightly and the chiropractor also said I was standing on a 'lean' so needed a few adjustments so I can stand up straight again.

Anyway I have my running programme now for the next four weeks which is the most challenging part of the marathon build up and with the distances building I decided to try a new toy to help reduce dehydration issues:

The camelbak worked really well and I carried 1.5 lites of electrolyte (nuun), stopping after one hour 40 mins to refill it with water and to eat a chocolate gu. 

Another challenge is working out which products are best - I heard my chocolate gu has caffeine in it and my other electrolyte tablets have sugar.  Who knew there was so much to look out for!

Anyway, the good news is that I ran 19 kms this morning in 2.15 which 3kms further than I ran last week on my 2 hour run and I was a km ahead of schedule.  

So what was different today? It was 3 degrees cooler than last week at 7am although the temperature steadily rose as the morning progressed.

Also, usually I run without having breakfast but today I had a banana before my run and then the chocolate gu at the hour 40 mark.  I also took on 2 lites of fluid - 1.5 lites of which was electrolyte.  I will review all this information as the marathon date gets closer to make sure I have the best day out I can (and it may well be a whole day out at my current pace!)

So it's off for a massage this afternoon now that the hard work has been done for the day. Awesome!