Hydration, Seafair Volunteers, Pacers, July 3rd, 4th

As we get into the warmer weather and longer runs in preparation for fall events I get asked a lot about the importance of hydration. Well to start with I think that people generally drink way to much water. I mean everywhere you look people are toting around gallons of water. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t drink water but it seems to me that some drink water just to drink water. I think a
good rule of thumb for that is if you’re thirsty then drink water if you’re not you probably don’t need it. If it’s warm and you plan to run drink some before you go and after you get back. Obviously the length of your run will dictate how much you’ll need. I just want to make sure that you aren’t over hydrating which can lead to a bunch of problems. To help you with this here is a link to guidelines posted by USA Track and Field on hydration - Training Library - Hydration.

I think a run of 1:15 or more is one where you think about a little hydration and maybe a GU break as it’s nice to take some GU (or whatever your gel of choice is). As we go through the summer and Fall most of your long runs will be at least that long or most will be longer. Now many of our runs have water along the way as they go through parks with water fountains in them. If you want to know where they are hiding I can share with you where they are.

If everyone was training for the same event and running the same routes every week we could set up water stops along the way but most like having the flexibility of picking their routes so I leave it to people to come up with their own methods of hydration.

Another method of staying hydrated is to carry water or whatever you choose. There are several ways to do that and several devices designed to do that. Which ones are best I couldn’t tell you. (heck remember I think hydration is over rated so why would I carry one and besides I know where the water is hiding on our routes) I would ask around the group but it seems that most are fine with a basic belt that holds a water bottle and has a pocket or two for Gu and anything else you might need.

Luckily we live in an area that is blessed with generally cool dry summer weather. I’ve lived in a lot of places and trust me we’ve got it pretty easy during the summer. Generally if it’s humid here it’s cool. So we don’t get back from runs with wrinkled fingers like I have on long summer runs from my mother’s house in Florida. Mostly the weather here in the summer is moderately warm with low humidity which makes training and doing long runs ideal. One of the reasons we do our long runs early on Saturdays is to make sure that we beat the heat if that day will be on the warm side.

Ok let’s enjoy our summer runs and remember to be hydrated but make sure to not over do it.

Seafair like last year is asking me for volunteers. They need 20 people as course marshals. Last year we had people step up and help out. Last year most from the group where on the last mile of the course where they were able to torment me as I struggled to finish the race, I believe that is where they plan to post you again, so come on out and you can do it again. If you’re interested please let me know ASAP.

Pacers I will be sending out a major update on plans for the race early next week. So keep an eye out for it.

Since next Tuesday is July 3rd and I’m sure many of you will be sneaking out of town and feeling very sad that you might miss the workout and Wednesday is July 4th holiday so we won’t be meeting in Kirkland, I’m moving the July Pace run (Time Trial) to the following week. Oh Happy, Happy Day.