Caffeine-free?? Well no actually.

I had a recent bad experience with electrolyte drinks tablets. I use them to flavour water with out all the baddies of those tasty but sugary sports drinks or bottled fruit juices, and with a little more variety than plain water. It was a case of not putting the 2 and the other 2 together and coming up with the right answer.

After a long period of using them I noticed that they were affecting my mood, and that I was looking for them through the day if I wasn't able to have regular drinks for some reason feeling my attention flagging. Then the penny dropped, I looked again at the ingredients list and pondered over the mysterious bag of tricks that was listed as 'green tea extract'. Fabulous stuff for weight loss I gathered... and so is caffeine I mused. I checked the manufacturers website, looking long and hard for mentions of caffeine (or caffeine quantities moreover) and found no mention whatsoever.

Now you could at this point be thinking me naive, and I suppose yes I was crediting the makers with perhaps too much in thinking that they would use an extract derivative that was caffeine-free believing that otherwise they would think to state it was a caffeine drink. Long story a little shorter, I eventually looked up a few manufacturers and only found one that made it abundantly clear up front which of their tablets were caffeine containing and which weren't... which leaves me drinking Nuun electrolyte drink. No bad thing given they have more flavours than the first company I tried and are equally widely stocked.

All I can say as any kind of summary is "thank you Nuun!", as someone who finds caffeine throws their sleep patterns, and to a mild but measurable extent affects their mood it is good to find a company that simply puts relevant information there for all to see.

I never did get anything back from one company I emailed with the simple question "can you tell me if there is caffeine in your product?", customer service is a whole other realm of gripes.

WoW: Racing nervous? I can recommend a blog post for that

Rather than wittering on Wednesday I have swapped in a recommendation Wednesday (which isn't as catchy, but might be more informative).

I saw this post by Amanda on her blog / website RunToTheFinish this week....

9 Best Ways to Manage Race Day Nerves 

My most noticeable race day nervous sign is yawning! I start to yawn to get more oxygen probably as a result of not being very relaxed in the start pen. Those around me must think I've either just popped out of bed or actually find the whole race thing quite dull.

While I'm at this recommending thing an older post that caught my eye a while back that encompasses a lot of what Amanda's blog is about...

61 Lessons from 2000 Blog Posts 

Some blogs are just a mine of information, advice, good vibes, and so are worth recommending.

I am finding my way back into my blog after quiet a while away, and trying to find a bit of computer / life balance. So my next mission is to track down some images to brighten the place up again.

Keeping things simpler

What my 'new' plan boils down to is mostly just keeping things simple. The five point plan from my last post kind of sums it up, in essence I am getting back on the move in as many ways as I can without focusing wholly and solely on running. The main reason being that I had noticed an all around loss of strength and flexibility in doing other things, even to the point that the more linear process of running was suffering, evidenced by my string of injury niggles.

All this is great, and "d'uh!" common sense. It was all too easy with the time pressures of life to think "if I keep the running going that's fine. Running is all I really need to be able to run anyway.". Seductive as that type of thinking was I now realise I had utterly conned myself, three weeks of swimming has reminded me just what I'd done to those other important muscles (I really was troubled by how bad my swim strength was that first time I got back in the pool).

So from here I am going with the K.I.S.S. strategy - "Keep It Simple Stupid!"

Progress on those five things:
1) Parkrun - done.

2) Swimming - actually been doing twice a week :-)

3) Gym going - not yet, I am giving the pool another week at least before swopping in the gym session.

4) Eating well - Most of the time (better than none of the time).

5) Running consistency - I have been in touch with my training buddy and we've even gotten back out on the road.