Product Review: Fuel Belt

Hi!

My long run was all the more exciting today because I got to use a new addition to my running kit. I recently purchased a Fuel Belt brand bottle belt. It is the four bottle version in red. I know that many people have already used this product, but I have not. As described a few blog posts back, up until now I have used a North Face belt that holds a single 20 ounce bottle. I have only used it in training since I had been using Gu. For races I had been carrying the Gu in Race Ready shorts and drinking the water provided by the race. Recently, I have switched to using Perpetuem by Hammer. Although it is possible to mix this into a sort of a paste, this option doesn't sound too appealing to me. So, I will need to carry the mixed fluid with me through the race. While the North Face bottle belt has worked for many a long run so far, it is a bit difficult to get the bottle in and out of the holster. So, last week I went to my local Fleet Feet and purchased the aforementioned Fuel Belt.Obviously, I haven't had a lot of experience with this belt, but so far I really like it. The bottles are secure, but still fairly easy to remove and replace. The belt doesn't jostle or move around much and it is very light. Although each bottle is smaller than my single bottle, I have 12 more ounces than with the single 20 ounce bottle. This allowed me to do my entire 18 miler today without refilling. I also think the smaller bottles were easier to drink from while on the run. So far, I have no complaints except that I was a bit between sizes and I think the belt size I ended up with is just the tiniest bit too big. Oh well. I had heard a few people complain that their arms hit the bottles when they swung, but where the bottles end up around my waist this wasn't a problem at all. There is also a small pouch on the belt that I didn't use today, but that I could see being useful for items that I occasionally carry like lip balm and cough drops.

Verdict: Love it and look forward to many beautiful long runs together.

Happy Running!

Jen

Lazy Ass Blogger

Hi!

I've been pretty terrible about blogging the past few weeks. My running was not going exceptionally well. Last week I had some sort of stomach virus that prevented any good running of any kind. I did get some miles in (albeit slow and partially doubled over with stomach cramps). I did get a good 17 miler in on Sunday though.

I have a few product reviews to do, so I need to get back on the horse!

Happy Running!

Jen

Spring has sprung - weather brag!

One last thing for the day-this weekend has been awesome weather-wise! I ran in shorts and a t-shirt both days. There is hardly anything better than those first few "shorts-wearing" runs of the season. Woo hoo!!!

Jen

Fail: Homemade Hand Water Bottle

As promised in my previous blog post-the explanation of my homemade (actually home-modified) water bottle FAIL. I have a North Face water bottle belt which I normally use for long training runs. I did have to modify it with by cutting it and sewing some elastic band in because it was way too difficult to get the bottle in and out while running as designed/manufactured. It works pretty well, but sometimes is still a pain to use while in motion.

Recently I had been thinking about the hand held type water bottles that people have. They have a strap on them so that you can strap them onto your hand and not really have to grip the bottle. I do not own one of these, but we had another bottle with a strap on it lying around. I think Joe got it as a gift at some point, but we had never used it. It does have a hand strap, but not one that can be tightened. Being the engineering genius that I am ( ::laughs::), I decided to try to simulate a tighter strap by taping around the bottle and strap. This resulted in a quite ridiculous looking water bottle, but it was tight to my hand and seemed like it would be OK. See here (you get a bonus since Butler the Great is in the background):


This was not a good idea. As soon as a mile from my house, my hand was starting to get very tired. At 1.5 miles, I turned back to go switch to my bottle belt. There is no way I could have survived 18 miles holding onto that thing.

This Week in Training & Long Run Pace

Hi!

I had a very solid training week this week. One thing that I've been thinking and reading a lot about is long run pace. I've been so happy about my blazing fast long runs the past few weeks, but I was also well aware that running long runs that close to marathon race is not generally recommended. My initial opinion was that if I could maintain that pace, why not? The more I read though, the more I was realizing that these fast long runs could be compromising the quality of my training the rest of the week and also increasing my risk of injury and just plain burnout. Obviously, these are not good things. Another thing pointed out by Pfitzinger in Advanced Marathoning is that you want to train yourself to be on your feet for the length of time it will take you to complete a marathon. Assuming that you only train up to 20-22 miles, you will need to run long runs slower than marathon pace to accomplish this. McMillan's running calculator says that for a marathon time of 3:40:59 (BQ Baby!), long run pace should be done at 8:57 to 9:27 minute per mile pace. I tried very hard to hit this today. I was very, very close with a 8:55 minute per mile pace. I was happy with that.

I messed up my Tuesday run a bit. I thought it was supposed to be 10 miles with 4 miles at 15k-1/2 marathon race pace, so that is what I did. The tempo portion was supposed to be 5 miles, actually. Still, it was a very solid workout.

Saturday I ran a 5k race that supported the local high school track team. This was not in the schedule, but I felt like I would benefit from this sort of race and it was a good cause. I ended up running faster than expected. My finishing time was 22:38, or a 7:25 mpm pace. This is definitely a PR, although I had only done three 5k's prior to this. Two were in 2005 and the last one was in 2008 or so and was part of a Corporate Challenge. I did that one purely for the t-shirt and it was a Personal Worst. Joe ran with me and paced me. The first two miles felt great. The last 1.1 were hard, but not terrible. I ran a pretty even pace and was the second female finisher in the "Adult" age group (there were just three age groups: youth, high school and adult). The first place female finished about 4 minutes ahead of me!!! I had seen her doing her warm-up and knew that she was either doing her warm-up way too fast or was just an ass-kicker. It was the latter.

My long run today was pretty good. My legs were a bit sluggish from the 5k effort, but I wasn't sore. I felt good throughout. I unsuccessfully tried a new water bottle set up. I will post about it in my next post. I saw a lady running (apparently a fairly long run since she had a Fuel Belt) and picking up litter along the trail. A noble cause indeed, but I think I will stick to running while I'm running.

Weekly Summary:

M: Rest + 3 mile dog walk
T: 10 miles with 4 miles tempo (8 mpm pace)
W: 5 miles recovery (slow)
R: 10 miles general aerobic
F: Rest + 4 mile dog walk
Sa: 5k race (7:25 mpm pace) + 4 mile dog walk
Su: 18 mile long run (8:55 mpm pace)

It's crazy to think that I've completed a long run of 18 miles already and the marathon is still about 15 weeks away. Uncle Pfitzy is a killer!

I hope everyone's spring marathon training is going well!

Happy Running! (<----I realized this week that "Run Happy" or something similar is Brooks Running's slogan. I somehow doubt that they will care though.)

Jen