Run Lil' Mama Run: 4th Day of Christmas!

Friday, December 14, 2012

4th Day of Christmas!

On the 4th day of Christmas Lil' Mama gave to me...a bottle of Sportlegs! I honestly can not live without these things. I use them at least twice a week, leg day and on Saturdays which is my long run day. I did a write up on them many moons ago that I am going to use. Rest assured I have been using them for almost 2 years, not a mere month which it says in the write up.

What, doesn't everyone decorate their Christmas tree with Sportlegs (they are in the lantern)? I should really start a decorating blog ;) You can pin that if you want!

Sportlegs were stuffed in their stocking with care! Kobe just read that and told me that I'm "so weird!" Whatever! He'll really think I'm weird when he gets Sportlegs in his stocking.

I’m sure we have all been excited to go out running but soon after we begin we realize that our legs just don’t want to cooperate, they feel like they weigh 100 lbs. There is no better way to ruin a perfectly good run than to deal with tired legs.

...A month ago I found Sportlegs, I decided to take them on my “leg day” I got done with all of the squats, lunges and a whole array of hard stuff. I then headed into a spin class. I found myself going crazy, I couldn’t feel any pain or discomfort in my legs, usually it is quite difficult to do a spin class or run for that matter after working my legs. I was flying and it felt awesome. (Here's a little side note because what is one of my posts without one? Today I'm going to a spin certification workshop. YAY, now the only questions is will I be brave enough to actually teach a class? I guess we shall see.) After the 45 minutes of spin I headed out for a quick little run. I did a 5K faster than ever before. I then went home and took another pill to help lessen any soreness that I could have inflicted upon myself. The next day I was sore but it was not near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The next Saturday was my first 18 miler of the year that was NOT to be completed on the treadmill. I woke up and took Sportlegs. Two weeks previous to this one I had gone on a 17 mile run outside and by mile 14 I just wanted to blink myself home…I was DONE. This time though was a very different story. I felt AMAZING! I think I could have run all day long, my legs weren’t tired at all. I didn’t have anything holding me back. In fact, once I got home and drank my protein shake I went on a 4 mile walk with my kids.

You will feel that good...no joke!

The good thing about Sportlegs is that you don’t have to take it every day there is no “loading” where you have to take it for a few weeks in order to start noticing its benefits. You take it 1 hour before you start exercising and again after your work out is complete, if you want to help ward off excessive soreness.

I have also started taking them mid-run if I am doing a really long run, like longer than 16 miles.

Here is what Sportlegs.com has to say about the science behind their amazing product:

Lactate, commonly called lactic acid, is turning out to be seriously amazing stuff. Science no longer regards it as a waste product of anaerobic exercise, as was thought for most of the 20th century. Lactate is now recognized as a key carbohydrate muscle fuel source which muscles produce, exchange and consume both at rest and during exercise. And it's the primary ingredient in Sportlegs. What's alternately termed the Lactate System or Lactic Acid System is now recognized as the primary source of energy for short-term "sprint" activities. Since most competitive sports are nothing more than sequences of sprint activities, lactate remains a focus of current research. For instance, during exercise, it's recently come to light that your blood may actually transport more lactate than glucose to fuel muscles (20). At rest and during light exercise, your muscles balance lactate production and consumption, producing just as much lactate as they consume (21). But kicking up the pace upsets the balance: If you want to keep reading go to their website.

Do you want to know what Nie Nie (that's me) looks like when she drops her Sportlegs at mile 15 of a marathon? It's not pretty!!! I had cramped quads for the last 11 miles of a marathon, NOT FUN! I almost picked my Sportlegs up off of the nasty road but didn't know what kind of disease I would get so I just left them there, not sure that was the best choice! If you want to read the race recap it is HERE!