Fresh from my confidence building weekend, I actually ran a hill workout yesterday.

I haven’t run a specific hill workout since the half marathon we ran in February. I have run “improvised” hill runs just during my regular runs.

I guess I have some hope of not only trying to finish but also getting into the 3:30 finish for my marathon. Thus it makes it easier to suffer the pain of a workout rather than just trying to rack up the mileage.

Beet Root Juice

One thing I have been doing that I think really helps is drinking beet root juice. I read about this a month or so ago and so I set out to try some. Publix has it in stock in their juice section. It comes in a 500 ml bottle and so I just drink a whole bottle down at one time. The taste isn’t bad. It tastes sweet, but has a beet aftertaste (I wonder why).

I realize psychology has a lot to do with performance in running, so I have given it some time before I wrote anything. I have some 3 out of 4 weeks (about 2 bottles a week) and here are the results:

• Week 1 – Drank beet juice – Ran a 5K in 22:08 and then the next day ran 17 miles at a 9:15 pace.
• Week 2 – Didn’t drink beet juice – Ran 16 miles in 9:30 – crashed – jogged/walked 2 miles – walked 2 miles.
• Week 3 – Drank beet juice – Ran 10 miles on Saturday and 20 on Sunday (Sunday’s pace was 8:53).

Of course these are my own observations and correlations, but I do feel a difference with the juice.

Yesterday I was dragging. I didn’t recover properly from my run on Sunday. I came home from that run and eat popcorn and oatmeal cream cookies. I paid for that indiscretion. Mentally and emotionally I was a mess after my run and into yesterday. I was grumpy and in a fog. I decided to go out and get some beet juice as it also has a kick after I first drink it. It did help, but I was still dragging. By the time I got home though, I got out to run in 95 degree real feel temperature and had a great workout. 10 repeats up the hill and 6 miles overall.

The beet juice has nitrates that help with performance. But for me, it seems to stop “The Voice” that tells me to stop. I didn’t hear that voice at all on Sunday and I didn’t hear it yesterday either. I was tired and thirsty after my repeats and my running slowed down, but I could have gone further if I had some gatorade available. As it was, I thought it better not to overdue it and take a chance of getting hurt.

So that is my “unsolicited review” of beet root juice. I write from experience and I have no health degree, so take it for what it is worth. As for me, I’ll be drinking beet juice at least for the next 2.5 weeks. 🙂