My part of the world is not exactly flat, but it is not exactly hilly either. There are hills, and some are pretty steep, but nothing with more than a mile of ascent. Still, as I blogged last week, I have found a hill to run up that is a bit of a monster! 650f of ascent over 1.6 miles: a 7.6% average gradient. Not really much, but for this part of the world I will class it as a mountain!

I tackled it again yesterday (with Andy) as part of a 16 mile loop (strava here) and it was a lot of fun. It didn’t hurt as much as last week, but it still hurt, and I was still pretty slow. I think walking would have been quicker at one point…

We set out at just before 6am (which with the recent clock change means it is not so dark at that time) so there is not really much time for breakfast. That said, I had a banana, an avocado and a 33shake chia gel.

I made a couple of gels up the night before and left them in the fridge. This was a significant improvement on my earlier experiments with these gels, where I made them up and only left them for 10 minutes to so.

I am quite new to using gels of any description, I guess I have never really needed them, and that they are sugar based has really put me off. So the 33Shake ethos are ingredients work well for me, a small amount of coconut palm sugar is all the sugar you get.

Using them on the run has taken a bit of getting used to – but they are nowhere near as hard as a conventional gel to swallow. The Chia Gel actually tastes good, I mean really good. And from a power / energy point of view they got me through a long run and I still had plenty in my legs, so I think they are doing what I need them to do.

As my distances start to creep up, I need to continue to work out a balance of real food and easy and quick to eat real food (I class the Chia Gel as an easy food, but its a very easy and quick to eat real food).

I also need to find a rich and or generous benefactor to help fund my running habit (that or find some things to sell!)

Running Stats update

In October I ran 125 miles (38 down on September)

In Week 44 I ran 38.39 miles over 5 runs. Quickest average pace 7:26/mile, slowest average pace 8:54/mile

Events entered: 1, the Hope24 run in May 2014 (a new page will be coming for this event…)