Thursday

It's Thursday! The Runner's Lounger Take it and Run question for today is from JillWillRun:

It's the morning of your weekly long run... what do you eat and why?

I have struggled with this. I don't want something too big. It can't be time consuming to make. I almost always do my long runs in the morning and I wake up extra early to make sure I eat at least an hour before I run, preferably closer to two hours. It also can't include bananas. For some reason bananas don't sit well in my stomach if eaten before a run and I end up getting side stitches. 

My usual meal is a bowl of cereal (MultiGrain Cheerios are my favorite), a little milk, and some blueberries on top. This has worked well for me for some time now. If I'm on the road for a long run (or race) I will bring a bag of dry cereal so I don't have to worry about buying milk and keeping it cold. I don't like to eat a lot. My main reason I eat at all before a long run is to get my stomach moving and help me go to the bathroom. This is crucial for me or I will have a lot of pain during the run. 

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Last night I met a couple friends out at the Ridge for a 5 mile hilly run. It was a great night and a fun run. Our average 9:57 min/mile. It was challenging but felt good. 

Tonight was an easy 4 mile run with a friend I haven't seen all summer. We run the Cleveland Marathon together in May (first marathon for both of us) and then she went away for the summer so it was nice to catch up. We had plenty to talk about and it made the 4 miles zoom by.