Lucozade Sport Super Six: keep going lass

Interesting discussions around salt intake - I suffer terribly from cramps on long runs especially when it is hot - so much so that when I was once competing in the very hilly 'man v horse marathon' I was completely disabled with cramps in what felt like every part of my body and some lovely chap came to my rescue with some sodium tablets.  Ever since then, when its very very hot, I use rehydration sachets (buy from the chemist) and any other time, the Hydrate product that you have tried.  The source of my cramp problem it materialises is that I am what they call a 'salty sweater' (the benefits of working for a Sport Drink is that you get to find out these random little things about you).  This was music to my ears as it means I have the license to intentionally add salt to my products!

For the avoidance of doubt, Tess tells me that my ramblings yesterday about salt are in fact accurate....       Gold Star for KGL then, just need one from Steve now

Just a quick point, might be of interest to some folks - the Saturday times did an article the other week on sports drinks and said the salt (sodium) content was good for runs over 10k.  They also printed a recipe for "homebrew" sports drink, which I've tried a couple of times and does the trick for me (and costs buttons!):

200ml full sugar squash

Pinch of salt (~quarter teaspoon)

Plus 800ml water.

It tastes better cold... Article

When I ran for my local running club the coach there often told me to up my salt intake as I was suffering from weak ankles running on the grass and cross country.

PoppyRed Salt is vital to the human body. I think its the sodium that helps regulate body fluids. It also helps cells absorb nutrients. To try and completely eradicate it from your diet is probably not advisable.

I always have a twist of the salt cellar on potatoes and pasta with black pepper of course! A little of everything won't hurt you

Tracy swapping things round is ok as long as you keep to the basic principles but give me a call if you want to alter anything drastically!

For the long runs I would suggest

week 2: 90-100 mins slow (11:00 - 12:00)

week 3: 110-115 mins  slow (11:00-12:00)

week 4: 2 hours to 2 hours 10 slow (11:00 - 12:00)

week 5 fast 90 mins

re salt - you don't need too much added as it's in so many foods and too much can cause blood pressure problems etc but you do need extra in hot weather.

I use a product called lo salt instead of normal salt, which has 66% lerss sodium than regular salt so it's slightly more healthy but has the same taste.

Thanks for the advice, SaintJason.

 Steve, I don't eat any food which has salt added to it (I make my own muesli with no-added salt oats, don't eat bread, etc), so I probably do need to consider introducing it in some form into my diet.

Tess is the "expert",  I'm only translating what she told me into something I understand!   

Steve - thanks for that,  I will change my "master schedule" to your new long run suggestions.  It would however help me enormously if I could do the "fast 90" on week 4?   

 I will benefit from running with someone else for that run to keep me moving at a faster  pace and I go on holiday half way through week 5.    Would it be ok to swap week 4 and 5 long runs around?     

 In the meantime, I might try and fit  my easy run in tonight after all!   Just to be clear, I wouldn't dream of changing anything drastic -  - this is too good an opportunity to even consider doing my own thing!!     Many thanks for your advice and support so far...I can't believe I made it to the end of week 1 in one piece!! 

Hi Tracy

Like DT your brave enough to write your food diary, I dare'nt admit to mine.  On the subject of salt apparently Chinese takeaways are full of salt so they must be good for you, or perhaps I've got that wrong. Must make a point of reading the packet before I pop it into the microwave.

Everyone is making me feel guilty about my diet, starting tommorrow I'm going to shop for healthy food and take time to cook it, perhaps the boss will let me home early if he wants his tea.

Love seeing all the pictures and videos, have'nt got round to sorting out my camera yet but it's on my priority to do list.

Enjoy your run tommorrow, shortly going out on a 60 minute easy just waiting for the weather to cool.

Tracy

If you want to do the fast 90 minute week 4, then I would adapt it slightly as I would like you to try and get a slow 2 hour run in before you run faster so this is now (looks like a punishment for swapping around!):

week 2: 90-105 mins slow (11:00 - 12:00)

week 3: 115-120 mins very slow (11:30-12:00)

week 4 fast 85-90 mins (sub 11s or faster)

week 5 2 hours to 2 hours 10 slow (11:00 - 12:00)

Never..... never.... surrender          Bring it on

Did my easy run will report on it shortly when I've freshened up.  Can I come out of the naughty corner now?

Well.... so much but best laid plans.   I've been relegated to the back of the bathroom queue by the men in my life (husband and son in case anyone is getting any other ideas!!)  so, here goes, food for today....

7.15 am, cornflakes and skimmed milk and fruit smoothie

9.00 am, coffee

10.30 am, small granary roll, boiled egg, water cress and fruit yoghurt, finish 500 ml water started am.

1.00 am, cheesy mushrooms with garlic bread, 6 oz steak and chips  (departmental pre wedding lunch, I was going to choose something really healthy but then thought no, I'm going to choose what I would normally choose!)   and 500 ml water, but I did pass on the birthday cake/kit kats and various other treats flying around the office.

3.25 pm, Large Orange and a banana,  500 ml water.

4.30 pm, 500 ml water

6.00  pm  half a lucozade energy bar, 500 ml body fuel  

7.00 pm - 60 minutes easy run with 500 ml lucozade hydrate

soon - pork chop sandwich.  Only having it to get rid of the taste of lucozade and to have some post run carbs and protein.

and later I'll have my obligatory low fat horlicks before I go to bed....  zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Run report next ..... 

Just as last week, I found the "easy run" harder,  although my average heart rate of 151 didn't indicate that - it was the lowest average heart rate I have ever recorded on a run so I must be getting fitter already, either than or my heart monitor is up the creek!  

I was tired, mainly because of the heat (no windows to open at work), the unusally big lunch and it's tired week anyway.  I did have a power nap before I went out and it was still about 23 degrees whilst I was running!

 I did the same route as the long slow run on Saturday but in the other direction and without the added on bit .  My ankles/calfs felt tight for the first 3 miles and I seemed to find it difficult to pace at the 11 minute mile level - it was either somewhere between 10 and 10.30 or 11.30 and 12.00.  However, the miles splits do indicate fairly even splits overall.

Mile 1 - 11:17

MIle 2 - 11:12

MIle 3 - 10:46

Mile 4 - 11:01

Mile 5 - 10:54

remainder - 4:56

Total mileage covered - 5.42, average pace 11:05,  pretty much spot on where I needed to be.

Once my ankles settled down, I started to get the "floating along" feeling and kept a relaxed posture and steady pace, naturally increasing my speed on the steady inclines.    

I stopped exactly on 60 minutes, figuring that the schedule says 60 mins, so I may as well save my energy for tomorrow's tempo run and use the last quarter mile or so to walk and warm down before my stretches.   I could have comfortably gone on though which was encouraging considering how difficult I found the first couple of miles.

 Right I think the bathroom is free now so I'm going for a nice soak in the bath   will catch up with everyone else has been up to later.    Tarar a bit!

Re Lo salt - it does have lower sodium but its potassium levels are just as high as normal salt. My mum has kidney problems and her doctor has told her she'd be better off having a smaller quantity of sea salt. She's not happy, she loves her salt!

KGL, I'm very jealous of your steak (not so much the chips though). I love meat but current financial woes mean I can't ever buy it. That said, it's the club BBQ on saturday so I will at least get some pseudo meat in the form of dodgy burger or sausage .

Hi Tracy,

when I did the Merida 50k mountain bike race last year at Penrith there were salted crisps at the food stations obviously the organisers must know some thing.

I have been using the Lucozade Hydrate which has sodium in as a recovery drink and Lisa Hacker from Lucozade said it was her fav' too.

Could you please E-mail the exercises for my tendon plus the info about uploading pics/vids, thanks .

Talk about small world, St. Jason's bro-in-law lives in Storth a couple of miles out of Milnthorpe.

Great running.

D.T.

I am really pleased you have been thinking about and passing on my advice (the hydration detector thingies are called osmoreceptors, but it is the concept that is important!) Depending on the weather, intensity etc. the average lady will sweat ~600ml and ~3 grams of salt per hour, which blows government guidelines of 6 grams a day straight away! The hydrate should be spot on for this on a hot day and the hydro active for a session of less than an hour on a typical English day. You know the rest.

Sending Multi-Vits tomorrow - let me know if you run out of anything! Well done Tracy you are doing brilliantly