I made a pretty big mistake today on my long run (I'm up to 18 miles- yay!) . I didn't stay hydrated enough. I brought water with me, but didn't refill any of my mini water bottles when I had a chance. This made for a very rough last few miles and slowed me down quite a bit. Dehydration can cause a number of unpleasant things (besides the obvious one-extreme thirst). For me it causes really bad muscle cramps, a general feeling of exhaustion, a pretty nasty headache, and nausea. In case you couldn't tell, I have plenty of experience with being dehydrated during training and races.
So, how can you make sure you're staying hydrated?
1) Bring water with you on middle to long distance training runs. Some people just carry a water bottle (for me that doesn't work-I like to run with my hands free). I usually use my camelback for cycling and a hydration belt for running. It is essential to have some form of hydration during trail races, where aid stations are not as plentiful as during road races.
2) For longer runs, try to plan your route near a place where you can stop and refill your water bottle/camelback/hydration belt. Then refill it, even if it isn't empty. That's what I did wrong on my own training run today: I saw that I still had some water and decided it would be ok not to stop and refill. I was wrong and then suffered the consequences.
3) Drink Gatorade or another sports drink as well. During races, I grab a cup of Gatorade as well as a water about every other mile starting around mile 14. During long training runs, I fill up one or 2 of my mini water bottles in my hydration belt with Gatorade.
4) Drink about 4-6 ounces every 20 minutes during exercise.
5) Make sure you are hydrated before you even start!
Yay hydration! :-D
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