Perpeteum & the Long Run

I've done a lot of things different on this marathon plan, but one of the most important has been switching from a wide variety of less expensive fueling systems to Hammer Nutrition.

Hammer had first been recommended to me by a local Ironman athlete who joined me for a few long runs last year. At the time, it was too late in my training to risk adding something new to the mix, but I've been using HEED and Hammer Gel for several months now.

(Side note: My Ironman friend told the about reading that Hammer was formulated well for diabetics. I found it a little strange that a non-diabetic would know this until I became a Hammer customer. Simply put, Hammer sends copious amount to education to their customers. While the material is always marketing their products, there's gobs of research and education in the newsletters. Impressive stuff.)

Until this past weekend, though, I'd never tried Perpeteum, which is the specific Hammer product for events greater than two hours. While HEED's dynamite stuff for up to 90 minutes, I was curious to see what Perpeteum would do for me.

Following the instructions on the canister, I made myself a multi-hour bottle of Perpeteum and took one sip every 1.5 miles. I supplemented this with a 16 ounce bottle of water, every 5-6 miles. The idea here was to put together a plan that would work for my upcoming marathon, where I won't have a road crew.

One of the things that I learned, though, was that mixing Perpeteum with other gels with simple sugars could be tough on the GI system, so I made myself a flask of Perpeteum in case my blood sugar got low. This worked perfect - my blood sugars hung out at 150 for most of the run, until they took a quick dip down to 80 near the end. I warded off the low by taking the flask and finished the run at 156 without using any fuels other than Perpeteum and water.

Most important, though, was my energy level, as evidenced by the graph. No lie: I've never felt better on a long run. Dave and I went to 21, even though the plan called for 20. The stuff's not crack, mind you, and I was tired by the end but I've got no doubt that Perpeteum is special stuff for going extra long, and I'm pretty stoked about my nutrition plan heading into these final weeks.