A tall glass of soy milk for me, please, and an ice water with a pinch of salt on the side for my friend. I couldn't keep up with TNG's fast, but 48 hours without eating was a new and interesting experience for me. The big surprise was how much time passed before I really felt it. I felt hungry a few times, with borborygmi, but nothing more intense than I occasionally feel anyway. Walking home from the metro station last night I hit the wall. This was the feeling, familiar from long runs, that I thought would arrive sooner. I felt lethargic and out of sorts. I made it home and stretched out on the bed to rest, but didn't feel better and my heart was still laboring. I had decided in advance to quit if there were any symptoms besides hunger, so I quit after 48 hours, finally indulging the fantasy of eating warm bread that had been frequently on my mind. _refugee_ gave the wise advice to get medical advice before experimenting with an unusual and unproven nutritional habit, which I didn't do. I rationalized that I was starting out in good health, would not be driving, and would never be far from medical services if needed. I also reasoned that we should get a doctor's advice before eating half a pizza, but nobody does because we know what the advice would be. If we accept doing things we know are harmful sometimes, we should be willing to try things that might be harmful, or might be beneficial. I didn't notice any big difference, besides the loss of 4-5 pounds which I expect to return soon. I did some reading and learned a lot, mostly from two articles on a site that promotes what I would describe as a fad diet, though it was much more informative, objective and less ad-ridden than WebMD.
When I fast, I do the Master Cleanse. Basically you reduce your intake to nothing but this water, cayenne pepper, and honey mixture. It's weird, but you get used to it quickly. The key thing is that the honey gives your body some sugars to run on, the cayenne tricks your body into thinking it is getting food, and the copious amount of water cleans ter tubes right out. The longest I have done it was close to 2 weeks - maybe 10 or 11 days? - and it is amazing. Your body goes through several distinct phases, where it is working on different stuff. The results? Well, weight loss is an obvious one, of course. But portion control is a big one, too. We don't realize (in America) how ridiculously huge our portions are, and how little of that we really need to eat to be healthy and well fed. There's also a lot of stuff that happens with your colon when you are basically just drinking fancy water, and your body starts searching in all the dark corners for more nutrients. Things come out of you that you are REALLY GLAD are not still inside of you. If you get the book on the Master Cleanse there are whole sections on poop and ... well ... the less said about that, the better. I'm gonna be launching into a new Master Cleanse possibly next week. (Gotta plan ahead for these things, ya know.) I really need to kick start my body to drop a few pounds before the wedding.
On the topic of long runs and nutrition, what are your opinions and practices around energy gels on long (say, more than ten mile) runs? Hitting the wall was new to me last weekend, so I'm going to give them a shot this Saturday. My practice hiking is to take gummi bears or jelly beans, so I think my body will handle the sugary gels ok.
I don't have any great solutions, but wouldn't attempt anything longer than a half marathon without carrying supplemental fuel. Sports drinks have plenty of sugar, but there's only so much liquid you can keep down. Clif Bars are energy dense, and the varieties are not equally nasty. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut is the one I find most tolerable, but I carried two of them for 30 miles and never ate them at the 2014 50M. Gels are about as good as it gets. I recommend trying a few flavors and only carrying something you know you don't hate on a run you care about. I have to plan a schedule and keep an eye on the clock or I will postpone them. If there are no aid stations, I would aim for a gel every half hour or so, followed by fluid. The Clif Shot package has a strip to keep the tear-off tab connected to the packet, which makes them a little less annoying. I keep some gels spiked with caffeine in reserve for late in the run. Like with Advil, I never feel sure that the drug makes much difference, but sometimes it really seems to help and that is good enough. If it's a warm day or a very long run, electrolyte capsules are also essential. Succeed S!Caps are popular and have worked well for me.
A schedule makes a lot of sense. I felt good with nothing beyond water for 14 miles Saturday, then bam, hit a wall. That's too late to do something about it. I'll have to work out some plans. I have a couple Gu gels I'm going to try this weekend. They have sodium, but it's way less than an S!Cap (a product new to me). I read some Gu reviews yesterday saying they feel the caffeine helps. One more thing for me to experiment with.