Speaking of "Performance Enhancers..."

So I've been running pretty regularly for about 5 months or so, and (as is typical for me when I find myself getting habitual about something) I've become fixated on the various paraphernalia and minutia associated with the activity. Things like socks, for example, used to be a fairly cut-and-dried topic for me, but now it seems like a much deeper subject with myriad considerations, draw-backs, pros, cons, pitfalls and choices. I've read whole articles just about socks, and it was (en)gross(ing) stuff.

I thought running would be different from past fixations (see also: camping, knitting, biking) simply because it didn't seem to call for any extra stuff. I figured I could be spartan about the whole enterprise because it seemed like the most simple activity. "All you really need is a good pair of shoes," I says, "no fancy equipment or gym memberships or anything...you just go outside and, uh, start running." Well, theoretically, sure. But for me any activity worth pursuing is also worth reading up on, and everything I read about running entails having extra things, just for running--and after a few times out I found myself fantasizing about things like socks.

It all started when I visited a running specialty store to have myself fitted for those shoes. The weirdly friendly high school track kid who worked there informed me that I "supinate". I had never really thought about how I walk before, but of course, after a definitive diagnosis, now I think about it all the time. I read up on "pronating" (the tendency of the foot to roll either inwards or outwards during a stride); one thing lead to another and before long I was knee deep in information: interval training, electrolytes, "technical" clothing, hydration, proper form, singlets, pace, and "energy gel," among other things.

I immediately discounted any of the mathematics--I'm just not going to try and figure any of that pacing and interval stuff out (typical, everyday sorts of math tends to give me hives, so nevermind anything extra). But then I started wondering about the others, especially "energy gel." Initially I found the idea of eating something while running repugnant--I'd get nauseous during a run in those first couple of months, and weird viscous ooze in pretentious little pouches seemed not just ridiculous and unnecessary, but ill-advised. Still, Runner's World magazine is always going on about the stuff, so I was intrigued enough to buy one and keep it in my desk drawer.

About a month ago I finally took it out on a run with me in my pocket--it was another week before I got the nerve to actually try it. I hadn't eaten anything in a while before I left for a 6 mile run and I was actually getting hungry, so it seemed like the thing to do. It was Powerbar brand gel in a strawberry banana flavor that I can only describe as "obnoxious;" my first tentative taste nearly made me gag. I ran for a while with the resolution to not eat the remainder, but after a few minutes I actually felt a surge of energy! I gulped down the rest, and all that sugar (10 grams!), caffeine (25 mg!) and carbohydrates (27g!) were going to work, mainlining into my bloodstream, showing me a giddy vision of a performance-enhanced, ginseng-fueled, power trip-y Valhalla that turned the rest of my little run into a Mountain Dew commercial.

So needless to say, I'm hooked on the stuff now. I've also found better flavors, mostly in the "coffee" flavored realm, although the above-pictured GU brand "Chocolate Outrage" is both delicious (kind of like a cake frosting, in both taste and texture) and curiously named (I like when a product is given an ambiguous name that can be easily misinterpreted: "You call this chocolate, sir?? Outrageous!"). I'm limiting my intake of energy gel to longer runs only--I'm a bit nervous about developing a new co-dependency--and no more than 2 per week (although I'm planning on carrying 2 or 3 with me during my impending half-marathon in the Spring). Besides being nervous about eating too much of this stuff (and maybe elevating weird chemical levels in my body or something), I also want to avoid developing a tolerance, thus minimizing that beautiful, lookit-me-Imma-runnin'-machine! effect. Afterall, the last thing I need is to be out in the streets, chasing a dragon.