Today's Run: What I Ate and What I wore + Clif Shot Bloks

This morning was my big 9 mile run! My first training run that long since April 9th. I tried to make sure I was hydrated before bed by drinking lots of water and some coconut water. When I woke up I had some more water, and a little almond butter on a graham cracker.

When I woke up it was about 71 with 76% humidity. As I was going to be out on my run for a while (9 miles at an easy 11:52 pace), I brought along some water and some brand new Clif Shot Bloks that I picked up at the store yesterday to try for the first time. Last night I filled half of a 17 ounce bottle with water and froze it over night. I topped it off with cold water this morning right before my run (The ice was totally melted by about 50 minutes into my run).

Here is the package of Clif Shot Bloks I got yesterday. I have not typically snacked on anything during my runs (with the exception of some Sport Beans by Jelly Belly that a friend gave me for the half marathon in April), but when I was training in the winter for my last half marathon, most of my runs were in the afternoon/evening so I had time to eat a real meal a couple hours before hand. Running in the morning, I only have a small snack before heading out - like pb or almond butter with a graham cracker or a banana.

Because it's warmer and my runs are getting longer, I wanted to try bringing something with electrolytes on my run. I bought the Strawberry flavor (without caffeine- several flavors do have caffeine though) for $1.99. I don't need any help increasing my heart rate over the course of a long run!  It looks like you can buy them on Amazon in a box so that each of these packs averages out to $1.50 instead.





There are 6 'bloks' inside. A serving is 3 pieces, 100 calories.
70mg sodium, 20mg potassium, 24g carbs.

They look like big fruit snacks, and they taste like them too.
(very similar taste to Target's Market Pantry strawberry fruit snacks)
They are a little chewier though, I'd say.

I put 3 in a ziploc bag and stuck them in my zippered shorts pocket.

Over the course of my run, they did not get melty or goopy or anything else from the warmth of being near my skin and just being outside in the warmth (I had an issue with this previously with those Sport Beans). I ate one at about 3.6miles, another at 5.85 miles, and the last at 7.6 miles. I followed each 'blok' with a swig or two of water.

I can't say if they "work" or not, and even if there is some kind of placebo effect, that's ok with me. I got through my run, all 9.04 miles of it, at an 11:40 pace. I got out the door before 8am. It was upper 70s with 66-67% humidity for the duration of my run. Assuming they actually replace some electrolytes and do their job, I would definitely buy these again. The flavor was good, I like how they weren't messy, and they were easy to stash in my pocket.

Here was my running "outfit" for this morning:

Lululemon Zoom Singlet, Speed Shorts, and my Run:Baseball Cap.

When I got back from my run, I made a smoothie with about 1 cup of frozen sliced banana, filled the container to about 8 ounces with O.N.E. coconut water, added about 4 ounces of blueberry lowfat kefir, 2 tbsp of finely ground flaxseed, a handful of fresh blueberries, and a couple large strawberries. I made it at about 10:30 (just within an hour of having come back from running) and I felt full until about 1:30ish/2:00.