I absolutely love Hammer Nutrition products and I’m excited to be a sponsored athlete, which gives me some additional opportunities to share the love — like freebies!
This month, I’m giving away a little sample kit of some of my favorite Hammer products! Included is orange-vanilla Recoverite a nocciola Hammer Gel (hazelnut-chocolate), each of the four Endurolytes Fizz flavors, a water bottle, some stickers, and copies of The Little Red Book and 5 Secrets of Success for Endurance Fueling!
My first introduction to Hammer products was with their Endurolytes, an electrolyte replacement pill. I’m a very salty sweaty runner and summer in the Ohio Valley is like running in a sauna.
I also use the Hammer Gels to fuel my marathons and longer runs, and also use those before runs as needed. When Hammer introduced their new “ultra” gels recently — peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate and nocciola — I figured out I could also put those in my oatmeal or squeeze them on to apples and other veggies! I’m excited to experiment with other gels this way, too. My favorites are raspberry and apple-cinnamon, but I haven’t had any that were bad. Hammer Gels are made with long-chain complex carbohydrates for smooth, consistent energy release. There’s only a trace of sugar, so no wild insulin spikes causing “sugar high” and “sugar crash.”
And, the product I couldn’t live without: Recoverite. It …
- Restores muscle glycogen
- Helps rebuild muscle tissue
- Reduces post-exercise soreness
- Made with natural ingredients
I also love these Endurolyte Fizz tabs, which give you electrolytes without carbohydrates or sugars. It’s an effervescent tab with a light flavor.
To enter …
Post in the comments the biggest obstacle you face in achieving your athletic goals this year and how you’re planning to overcome it!
One winner will be randomly selected Feb. 1 and I will contact you for mailing information, so be sure to check back!
It won’t help you win but this is a good time for me to encourage you to follow me on social media …
- Instagram @tracyfgreen
- Twitter @tracyfgreen
- Facebook (athlete page, new!!!)
And remember, use me as your referral and save 15% on your first Hammer Nutrition order! Just use this link!
TGRUNFIT 
So, I’m not super familiar with Hammer, but used it during a marathon or two when it was on the course.
However, the peanut butter flavour looks awesome.
My biggest obstacle that I can forsee so far this year is my marathon in Feb. I’m going to try and PR (not just PR, but BQ as well), so I’m really working towards that goal in my training and nutrition. I’m still thinking about what to do about my race nutrition (do I go buy a few gels to bring with me? Should I go without anything and risk hitting the wall?). So yeah. After that, my biggest challenges are figuruing out what to do with my time after the marathon. I need a new goal!
Love this! Definitely don’t risk it and not take anything! Even the pros are consuming calories, just usually in liquid form. I’ve always preferred (10 BQs later) to carry my own gels so I know exactly what I’m getting and can have it when I want it. (I usually take three — miles 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22.) I also can’t stomach caffeinated gels so carrying my own helps me prevent that. Check out Hammer’s great guide here: http://www.hammernutrition.com/downloads/SOS.pdf. Keep us posted on how the race goes and what you decide to do after! Good luck and thanks for submitting!
The biggest obstacle I face this year is staying healthy in preparation for a half trail marathon and a 50k later this year. Last year I struggled with shin splints and couldn’t seem to recover as quickly as before. So I am taking extra measures this year with recovery, downtime and compression sleeves. I actually received a tip (from you I think) about icy hot in water and freeze this. Then use to massage along the shin. I’ve been doing this and will continue to until the pain is gone. I e also been using Hammer Tissue Rejuvenator. I’m hoping this helps out along with anti-inflammatory medicine. Happy running!
A lot of the time shin splints are caused by either adding too much mileage or speed too fast, or from shoes that don’t work appropriately with your individual biomechanics. Make sure you’ve been fitted by a trained staff person and that you’re replacing your shoes every 300-500 miles. The compression sleeves and any sort of icing and massage are definitely good ideas. The Tissue Rejuvenator is also a great idea. Keep it up!
In all honesty, my biggest obstacle I face this year is a fear of my past. Having been a competitive runner from 6th grade up to sophomore year of college, followed by a couple 3 hour marathons, one of them Boston in 2011, running was much more than a hobby to me…it was my sport, it was my passion, it was my “thing.” Then some amazing things happened in my life: I married an amazing and loving woman and we welcomed our first little dude 2 years later. As you can imagine, priorities changed but certainly not for the worse! But to say I “took a break from running” would be putting it calmly…I flat-out gave it up for almost 4 years. I tried hopping back in, peppering the past few years with 1 to 2 days per week, but never consistently. And when I would, those easy 8-9 mile weekday runs through Seneca and Cherokee were replaced with 2-3 mile donkey-trots through my relatively flat neighborhood. Such a long break does not do your slow-twitch muscles any favors (that and the donuts…yea those probably didn’t help either).
But now I have a goal…the Derby Mini. It’s difficult for me and seems silly at times to simply have a race be my goal, given that in the past PRs, finishing position and truly competitive aspirations dominated my goals. I can remember encouraging people who were new to running and their goal was to “just finish.” I’ve had to accept that I at this point in my running, I am that person. The last time I ran the Mini was in 2006, just after I quit track and XC in college, and dropped a 1:19 and finished 17th overall. That will not happen this time and it’s been hard but I’ve come to terms with that. And as encouraging as my past marks can be, hoping that deep down that runner will resurface, they also makes me fearful. Fearful that the runner I want to be again is gone. I know I have to accept that as a possibility…but I keep telling myself that’s all it is…a possibility, not definitive. The silver lining to all of this though is I’ve learned to enjoy running a little more and truly appreciate the work it takes to compete. I hope never to forget that again! Good luck to everyone out there!
As someone who has come back from an injury, I totally understand that feeling. After running a 3:10 marathon and not being able to run one for 2.5 years, that first one back was disappointing. But it still felt good to know I could still do it. I had to not compare myself to the runner I used to be, but to just be grateful I could run again. As I found my motivation again and started training more seriously, I’ve surprised myself. The changes in my life have made me a stronger and more resilient runner, one more capable of pushing herself. Getting back into it is hard, for sure — just stay focused on why you fell in running to begin with!
WINNERS! This month’s Hammer Nutrition giveaway pack goes to Wanderwolf, but I want to thank Brad and Vandy for participating in my first drawing, so I’ve got a little something to send your way too. 🙂 Email your name and mailing address to me at tracyfayegreen (at) gmail (dot) com!