In the old days, before I went to bed, I made an intricate mix of green tea, honey and lemon juice in an ice-tea machine so it would be ready in the morning before my run. So sure that the green tea made me run better that I lugged that old tea machine with me whenever I traveled to a race or even a pleasure trip.
Nobody knew how to make the tea the way I liked, I reasoned, though a few places came close. If I can recall correctly, the Adams Mark in Clearwater, Fla. had excellent ice tea.
I still have that tea maker and a taste for good ice tea with the right amount of honey and lemon, but I don’t really make it any more. These days, the magic elixir to make me run better every morning comes from Kind Coffee in Estes Park, the stand at Lancaster’s Central Market owned by those guys with interesting facial hair and t-shirts with pithy sayings, or Starbucks everywhere.
Coffee, baby. Coffee.
Apparently, while sitting in the press box at Citizens Bank Park, I wrote about coffee and caffeine as a performance enhancer, so I won’t delve to deeply into it again. However, I wonder what is going to happen when I dial down the training in late November and December…
I’m hooked, huh?
On another note, the Gatorade and Red Bull mixture I have been testing on occasional long runs is not only beneficial to the running, but delicious, too. I was extolling the virtues of the sugar-free Red Bull I drink with my sister recently and she was right there with me.
“You should try it with vodka,” she said.