Today I introduce to you another new feature of my blog called Things I Like Thursdays. We all have our favorite things. Here is where I will talk about some of mine.
Let’s talk Luna bars. I first tried Luna bars in October of last year. I found Luna minis in the grocery store in a variety pack of Smores and Nutz Over Chocolate. I do love fun product names, and the fact that they were mini was even better! I’ve never been much of an energy bar/protein bar girl but since I’ve been running, I’ve dabbled into the world of all sorts of products I would have never given a second look at before. So with these, I thought with the mini size, if they were terrible I wouldn’t have much to choke down. To my surprise, not only were they not terrible, they were yummy! I would often eat one on the way to my favorite running trail just to give me a little extra umph.
Full size Luna and mini Luna
On the morning of my first half marathon, the Memphis St. Jude Half (more on that at a later date), I had my breakfast way earlier than usual. So I packed a couple of Luna minis to take in case I needed a snack while waiting at the starting line. My nerves were definitely in full force so I totally forgot about eating one. I experienced a MAJOR energy drop around miles 8-10 that day. It got to the point where I was barely walking and I wasn’t sure if I needed to sit down, vomit (TMI, sorry), drink more water, pour water on me or what! I had fueled and hydrated during the race the exact same way as I had in training, and I had never experienced anything like that before. I remembered the Luna minis I had with me and quickly tore one of the packages open. I practically inhaled it and almost instantly felt better. I was able to regain enough strength to finish in pretty decent shape.
I will say that it usually is NOT a good idea to do anything during a race that you haven’t done in training. At the same time, I was feeling pretty lousy at that moment, and my usual fuel source was not touching it. Plus, I had eaten one close to the start of a training run before so I was fairly sure that it wouldn’t cause another other problems.
Now I always take them with me on any double digit run. If I start to feel the least bit empty or weak, I eat one. I do this in addition to my other fuel, which some may argue is not a good idea. However, it has worked for me since then, and the whole purpose of practicing with something is to find out what does and doesn’t work for you. Oh, and I don’t just get the minis now, either. I like the full sized bars for a breakfast on the go. Pair them with an apple or banana, and they are quite satisfying.
Box of Lunas, notice the 9 grams of protein!
This is Nutz Over Chocolate. It’s like a nutty rice crispy treat with a chocolate bottom. Yum! I had one for breakfast this morning.
What are your favorite Luna flavors? Do you have a go-to product that has gotten you through a tough time?
Disclosure: Luna has not compensated me in any way for this post. All of these thoughts are my own and are not sponsored by or endorsed by Luna or anyone else.
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