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Hydration Help

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Hi, I'm Tina!

I’m the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). I use macros and functional nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.

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weight loss

Hello, hello!

I got my 8-mile run in yesterday. Hooray! I actually nixed my 13-miler even before starting yesterday’s run because a friend of mine offered to accompany me on Saturday morning, which sounded like a lot better plan than running 13 miles alone.

Running buddy + Saturday morning + fall = THE BEST

There’s just something about fall running, isn’t there?

morning run on the south shore

Ok, back to yesterday’s run”¦

So, I headed out for 8 miles. I planned to run 4 miles away from my house and then 4 miles back on the same route. Everything went well until I started to get incredibly thirsty about 3.5 miles into my run.

reebok_one_cushion_sneakers_

I didn’t bring any water with me, which I realize is a wicked bonehead move (<— totally something my mom would say), but let me explain.

First and foremost, I hate having a lot of stuff with me when I run. Gear bouncing around and hanging off me just drives me nuts. Not a fan. And I guess I was part camel in my marathoning days because I’d run for 10+ miles and not drink anything at all. Even in more recent times, 8 miles just wasn’t a distance that I typically needed to hydrate during.

Long story short, water didn’t even cross my mind yesterday until I was dying of thirst. I wasn’t even at the halfway mark yet, and I still had a little over 4 miles to run, so I knew I needed water or I wasn’t going to make it.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon a Dunkin’ Donuts on my route. It was like an oasis in the distance! The nice people there gave me a cup of iced water, and I chugged it right down. Water never tasted so good!!

Dunkin' Donuts water

I felt so much better after drinking some water, but the feeling didn’t last long. I only made it another 2-3 miles before I was super thirsty again and all I could think about was water. My pace slowed down a ton, and I even walked a couple of times. I just wanted to drink something so bad. I don’t think I’ve ever been so thirsty, and it definitely affected my running.

Anyway, I survived 8 miles and learned an important lesson: bring water on long runs even if you don’t think you need it.

photo (5)

Ok, I need to figure out this hydration stuff for my remaining long runs. I’ve tried all sorts of hydration options in the past, but none of them ever really worked for me.

Fuelbelt

My Fuelbelt is currently my favorite hydration option, but I don’t love it. I hate how it bounces around, so it’s awkward and uncomfortable. I just feel like I’m always adjusting it, which is annoying and slows me down. I guess I might have to suck it up and start using it for my last few long runs.

fuel_belt

Hydrapack

I wore my Hydrapack on a run once and it lasted about 10 minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore. Having something strapped to my back while I was running just wasn’t my thing. It felt awkward, restricting, and made my back feel especially hot and sweaty.

IMG_0003-500x3755

Handheld water bottle

I haven’t tried a handheld water bottle on a long run yet, but I’ve done the old carry-a-water-bottle-in-your-hand-thing, which is an okay option, but it gets really annoying at times. My grip gets tired, so I keep switching hands every 1/2 mile or so. Maybe I’d get used to the handheld water bottle since it’s sort of stuck to your hand?
hand held water bottle
[source]

Water stops

My current method for hydrating, which, as we know doesn’t work all that well, is setting up water stops at my house. I’ll plan a stop at my house into my running route, so I can rehydrate. This works for the most part, but I can’t run too far from my house, which is kind of annoying because I run the same couple of routes over and over again.

water_stop_at_home

Question of the Day

How do you hydrate during long runs? 

P.S. One of my friends at Reebok passed this job posting along to me, and I just wanted to share in case you or someone you know might be interested: Senior Manager Global Social Media & Editorial.

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