Hey Guys! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I spent much of this weekend relaxing, decompressing, getting organized and studying. It was exactly what I needed to do and I feel so much better starting out this week. Can I tell you? It was amazing to sleep in, make coffee and breakfast and just enjoy the day. I loved Team in Training and running with them but it was really nice to have an entire weekend with no plans and nowhere to be. I also have taken the whole week since the marathon off to recover. I’ve really enjoyed the break and can tell my body is thankful for it. I’m still debating about taking one more week. My initial plan had been to take 2 weeks off to rest but I’m craving yoga so we will see.
Before the Boston Marathon I was approached by Gatorade. I was pretty excited to receive an email from them since I’ve bought Gatorade products for years and years and have always used Gatorade as one of my forms of hydration for all of my races. I think if I were to go back and tell my 15-year-old self standing on the pool deck drinking Gatorade before her 100m Fly race that in 10 years I would have this blog, receive an email from Gatorade and get to work with them I wouldn’t have believed it. When I opened my inbox and saw the email it was definitely a moment as a blogger where you think ”wow this is so cool” immediately followed by “never did I ever think I’d be receiving an email from Gatorade”! I was even more excited when I found out there was a giveaway for my readers!
On Friday afternoon when I was at the Boston Marathon Expo I stopped by the Gatorade booth for a Sports Nutrition Feedback Session. I was given the opportunity to meet with Matt who is a scientist with Gatorade and ask any and all questions I may have about the Gatorade product line. Lucky for Matt I had LOTS of questions. Their new line is very detailed and I always wondered if I was using the products correctly. Matt was so nice and answered all my questions.
Matt and I at the Gatorade Booth
My first question related to the heat that many runners were going to have to face on Marathon Monday. We spoke a lot about how many runners would lose much of their salt content. Lucky for us, the Gatorade Endurance Formula was provided along the course. This formula provides more than 2x the salt, and 3x the potassium that regular Gatorade provides. It’s recommended that runners and athletes alike should replace fluids so it is equivalent to their sweat rate. For example, if you lost one pound for every mile you run you have a very high sweat rate. You should be drinking about 16 to 24oz. of water to replenish what you’ve lost. Matt and I then got talking about the entire product line and how if used in combination it can help to aid athletes with high sweat rates. We talked about the products in the Pro line but Gatorade also offers the original series, a fit series, and a natural series to meet all your needs. Here’s a breakdown of the Gatorade Pro line and how each product can help you perform your best:
Prime.
There are two products in this line. The Prime Drink which contains 110mg of sodium and 30mg of carbohydrates. You would drink this about 15 minutes before the start of your run or the night before. The idea behind this product is it increases your sodium and carbohydrates to help you perform better for longer. It also contains Vitamin B which helps converts carbohydrates to energy.
The Carb Energy Chews are similar to Shot Bloks or Gu and can be eaten before a workout or during for those long training runs and race days. A package of 4 chews will provide 120 calories, 105mg of sodium, 50mg of potassium and 31g of carbohydrates. Coming from someone who was downing straight salt during the Boston Marathon I can tell you, I would have much preferred these. I tried some at the expo and they were delicious! The texture was very smooth and it made them easy to swallow. They kind of tasted more like candy than chews!
Endurance Formula.
Like I said early, this formula provides 2x the sodium and 3x potassium of regular Thirst Quencher Gatorade. The benefits of this are that it will help replace your electrolytes you sweat out but also helps to maintain fluid balance. When I first tried the endurance formula I noticed the salt and was nervous about using it on race. With the high temperatures during the Boston Marathon the extra salt tasted delicious and I didn’t mind it one bit!
I should also note that if you look at the servings you will only get 14g of carbohydrates in one serving. If you do the math to determine how many grams of carbohydrate per hour a runner should consume you’ll find you’ll likely need more than 1 serving.
Body weight in kilograms (BW in lbs/2.2) X 0.7 = grams of carbohydrates per hour
So for a 140 pound woman, that’s about 40g of carbohydrates per hour which is just over 2 servings of Gatorade. Something to keep in mind as you determine how to fuel your body for success.
Gatorade!
Recover.
My first experience with this product was after the Chicago marathon and I was not ready for the taste! The drink contains both protein and carbohydrates so the taste is not like typical Gatorade. It has a consistency of regular Gatorade but is designed to help replenish your glycogen stores and promote protein synthesis in your muscles. Both of which will help you to recover quickly and will make those sore legs feel better much sooner! The drink contains 8g of protein and 20g of carbohydrate, 105mg of sodium and 40mg of potassium.
I plan to use the full line of products when training for my next marathon now that I feel more comfortable with how to use each. I think it would help aid with hydration and additionally recovery. Recovery specifically is something I could focus on. And speaking of marathons Gatorade has offered to give away 1 Entry to a Rock n’Roll Marathon of the winners choice! (note: the giveaway is just the entry fee and does not include any travel or additional expenses) Check out the complete list of Rock n’ Roll marathons here.
To enter, leave a comment telling me about a win from within moment! Gatorade believes that athletic achievement is driven from the inside out. An example from a win within moment is pushing through the wall at mile 22 of a marathon to PR! Or for all you Boston Marathoners, pushing through the heat and stress and finishing that marathon!
For an additional entry you can tweet the following (be sure to leave a comment telling me you did so!):
@LiveRunLoveYoga is giving away a Rock n’Roll Marathon entry courtesy of @Gatorade! To enter visit http://wp.me/p1E9ET-JL!
Entry closes Wednesday April 25th at Midnight! I’ll randomly select a winner and announce them on Thursday!
Do you use the Gatorade Pro Series to help hydrate you for your training runs and races? What is your favorite flavors of Gatorade? Have you tried the Recover drink? Do you like it?
