Humidity and Hydration

Hotter temps are here, all over the place. Well, unless you are reading this from the Southern Hemisphere. In that case, you'll have cooler temps, but perhaps drier weather, which still plays a vital part in hydration status...Hmm. Only took me TWO sentences to get off track....
Alright. We've all heard it: drink plenty of water! drink more water! thirst is often confused for hunger. drink water instead. Drink, drink, drink! Never be more than an arm's length away from some refreshing water! Drink smart water. Drink skinny water (seriously?). Drink vitamin water.
Ok. Not really. that smart, skinny, and vitamin stuff is just BOGUS. One of my favourite commercials on tv now is one where there are a buncha girls playing soccer and the coach tries to get them to drink some sugary crap-laden beverage. one smart alec says something to the effect of "if we lose water when we sweat, why not just drink water?" GENIUS AWARD!!!!!!
except that it isnt' that easy.
we've all heard about dehydration. who has ever heard of over-hydration, known medically as 'hyponatremia'? Although not as big a problem with the general population (think: chip eaters), athletes can be prone to this condition. Let's take some time here to learn a bit about it, how it can impact you, and what you can do to help prevent it. (short version: balance).

The most basic definition of hyponatremia is 'low salt levels in the blood stream'. Salt is essential to live. It serves many purposes in the body from transporting water into and out of cells to nerve conduction. Water 'follows' salt, too. What? Yep. If salt leaves your body (urine, sweat), water goes, too. If you take in too much salt (Chinese food, bar snacks), you drink more (or at least your body wants you to drink more). This is one reason that people with high blood pressure are often told to limit salt. It willlimit water (fluid) retention and thus lower blood pressure.
Let's assume that you, as an athlete, eat the 'proper' amount of salt for YOU. With your normal intake of nutrients and water, your body enjoys a nice balance. Now you workout/run/whatever. Sweat your thorns off. Just drippin' wet all over the place. You drink water. Lots of it. But then you don't feel so good later. Kinda spacy, maybe a little clumsy, disoriented. Not a dehydration headache (ouch! been there!), but just not right. So you drink more water. Why not, right? Welll.....
If you replace water without replacing salt (and other electrolytes like potassium), you run the risk of hyponatremia. You create a dilution in your blood that has a very low concentration of (let's say) salt. Not good.
I learned about this the tough way. I was on a training exercise with the military at Ft. Somewhere, and we got a call for a medivac for a soldier who had gone down in the field. We all suspected dehydration, so we pumped him full of IV fluids. FAST. he was disoriented, slow to move; we were getting a bit nervous. then after we found out that he hadn't eaten ANYTHING yet that day, and had been drinking water by the gallon....we put the two together. yikes. a tough lesson all around, but especially for that Joe. he'll not make that mistake again in a hurry.
So how do we avoid or prevent it? Balance. Experiment. There are almost as many 'sports drinks' out there as there are readers of this blog. ok. wait. maybe that should be reversed. anyway, there are only a handful that are actually WORTH anything to your body. Mostly they are worth something to the company's bottom line, and not to your health. shame, but true. I am not going to badmouth any specific brands (Powerade would get really mad at me if I did. So would vitamin water.) (whoops).  and they aren't the only ones. Here's my most basic tip. READ THE LABELS. Electrolytes are important to replenish here, NOT things like HFCS, SUCROSE, SUCRALOSE, ORANGE DYE #5, etc, etc....just DON'T do it.
I have found that a product called NUUN works well for me. My son (5), loves it. I dilute it a bit for him, but he really likes the lemon lime and triberry flavors. I don't work for Nuun, but i do like their product, their company, and their engagement with amateur athletes, so i don't mind talking them up.
I also like GU Chomps, but if i eat while running, i tend to choke, so.....i need more practice.
CLIF Bar makes a CLIF SHOT that is pretty good, too, and comes in all sortsa flavors.

Optimize your intake for maximum output. Simple. The more you know about the way your body works and what works for your body, the better off you will be. I welcome suggestions for other topics as well.

If you want to watch a video from Web MD on the topic, click here.
Thanks for reading.
Be Well,
Gene

some catching up to do

I have not run since last sunday, so if you are interested in reading about me running, skip this post. Better yet, when you log off, go do some plyometric skipping. you know, 30 yards for height, 30 yards for distance, lather, rinse, repeat. And maybe some hopping.
Alrighty then.
A long, long time ago, back in the spring, i think, I signed on to test a shirt over at Stink at Nothing. As soon as i got the shirt, i started using it. I used (actually, still USE) the shirt as a t-shirt under a dress shirt, as a running shirt, and while moving tons and tons of dirt this summer while building the amusement park in our back yard. Through all of it, the shirt held up fabulously. I noticed that one side (right) didn't really smell, while the left side did get kinda stinky. While shopping for kid's flip flops this summer, we ended up choosing 2 pair of flip flops that use the same Agion technology that is in the shirt. I haven't gotten close enough to them to see the level of stink, but I am not grossed out like i have been in the past, so.....win!
I wore the shirt during the VT Remembers 10k back in September. Here's a picture from that event:

the boys were pretty shagged after the event, so we camped out in the shade for some time. meanwhile, my sis and i hammed it up with our NUUN bottles. maybe someday i'll ask them to 'sponsor' me. does anyone have any experience with NUUN's sponsor program? they do events, groups, individuals, etc. hmmm....

What's on tap for the fall, you ask? well i plan on ramping up my indoor running. i think that i am in a good place mentally to be getting to work early and going for a run on the dreadmills. i'd like to try a spinning class or two, but am totally 'afraid' that i will get addicted....

I have been asked by two women who i work with to help them to make healthful changes in their lives. i was surprised by the first inquiry, and doubly surprised by the second. my wife doesn't think that i should be all that surprised. if i thought about it for very long, i am sure that i would agree with her, but i just like to be surprised, so...i'll leave it at that.

it carries two things for me; fear and excitement. both trigger very similar physiologic responses, to no surprise that i feel both, right? good. so. now i'm a role model. i guess i have been for a while, but now it has turned into something.

very interesting. i'll keep you posted.

I am also thinking of getting my town to host a 5k race in concert with their 250th b-day celebration next year. what's more, i want to start a c25k program for adults, with the 5k race being the goal for the program. could be one of the hardest things that i have done, but i am very excited about it!

well, that about catches you up. thanks for tuning in, and feel free to offer advice in the comments, or send me an email and give me pointers about organizing a race from the ground up (hint hint, Barefoot Neil Zee...)

peace, yo!

Trail Run today!

This afternoon i grabbed a buncha water, a liter of NUUN, and my trail shoes and headed out to Hanover, NH, to run along the Appalachian Trail. I usually run on the Vermont side, but today I wanted to shake things up a bit.

I readily found the trail head, nicely tucked behind the soccer practice fields
for Dartmouth College.
(why did blogger mess up my formating???) anyway.....
looking at the woods from the road, the hill is nothing to get excited about. weeeeellllllllll........as soon as the trail ducked into the treeline, it went up. i mean UP. and then up some more. a met two middle aged women on their way down, and they kinda gave me a crazy look (i have that effect on most people). i stopped to catch my breath and debate with myself about heading back down and just doing laps around the soccer field, but i trudged on. the trail mostly looked like this.....i was trying to keep up the old addage "run when you can, walk if you need to, crawl if you have to, but never, never stop". well..... i did stop, and not just to take pictures. i was getting my butt kicked on the ups. downs were find, flats were good, but the ups were mad! one of them has a ROPE with knots tied to a tree so that you can lug yer sorry carcass up. no joke. here's the picture. when i first looked at the picture, it looks FLAT. well....it isn't. on the way back, i had to use it to get down. honest.
anyway, i kept running, thinking that i was making pretty good progress. i checked  in with Teri (Garmin), only to find out that she was on a smoke break not tracking.  anything. she was still back....i dunno where, but NOT with me. when i look at the map she produced, it is if i was teleported along the trail. i HATE IT when this happens. i made sure that she was doing her damned job working properly, and ran along. things were going great, i was drinking at fairly regular intervals, and was able to take in the sights. i never knew that there were so many rocky cliffs 'back there.' if i was still into bouldering, it would be a fantastic place to spend a day. the trail started to level out, and my knees were happy. through the trees i could see a large open area, but couldn't see it very well. the trail turned toward it, and BAM! suddenly there was a wooden walkway going through a marsh. Cat-tails and such were about 8 feet tall. i trusted the bridge, and walked to the other side. once there, i looked at the time, and realized that i really needed to turn around and head back. i hadn't reached my goal, which was the road crossing, but my time hack was up, and i turned around. before i walked back across the walkway, I shot this picture.

All in all a great run. Using the accurate data from the return trip, it was a 6 mile out and back. next time i will leave earlier in the day, and be ready for dem dar hills!

another run, another lesson

they say a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
well.....did i mention that i went to public school? in rural Vermont? (graduated with 27 others. so...to be in the "top 10%", you had to be either Valedictorian or Salutatorian. yea. not me. (but i DID finish in the top 10!). but i am already digressing.....
Monday morning (yesterday) found me out and running again, before work. was considering a familiar loop that goes DOWN hill from the house, flat, up a short, steep hill, flat, then long gradual hill (the kind that isn't a hill in a car, but IS when you run. first time i ran it, i was like, what? who put this hill here?), then short, steep up, then short, steep down. about 4 miles.
but instead i went UP to begin, then a series of short, steep up and downs for 2 miles, longish slight downhill for almost a mile, then steep up up, flat, down, long steep up, short steep down, then home. (those of you raised Catholic may feel the urge to make the Sign of the Cross now. feel free. i have basically described your actions during Mass. (sorry, Mom, no offense!) Amen.)
so, it turned into a 4.8 mile slug-fest with a side of hills. i also experimented with water. or rather, withOUT water. i didn't drink anything before i went out, nor did i eat. i didn't take a bottle with me. when i got home, i showered and got ready for work. popped a Clif Shot Blok, dropped some NUUN into a water bottle, and went to work. about an hour later i was still exothermic. big time. so i drank more. then some coffee. then some more water.
cue the massive headache. throbbing. from temple to temple. can't shake it. banana. nope. cranberry juice (whoops! diabetic variety, "be back in a minute!") still no relief. it was nearly 2 pm before i could shake it. and i was still pouring off heat like a mad person.
so tomorrow (today) when I run, i will pre-hydrate. and take water and NUUN on the run. and have some in the truck for when i get back. and a banana.

 (thank you, Lisa, for embedding this in my pea brain forever.)

3 Things Thursday

hmmmm, i have my sister joining in on this fun, too, and every TTT she sends me a text with her 3. good times!
Even though ttt has passed, and I am late, here are my 3 for the week:
1) a son who prefers NUUN over gatorade. tie this one in with another who prefers G-2 over soda, and yet another who would rather drink FUZE over anything else. sure, they indulge in the rare cola beverage, but most of the time it is berry-juice, milk, water, or the above mentioned drinks. WIN! (kudos to Tracey here, too. her bevie of choice is coffee with Vanilla Nut creamer.)
2)  good feeling when i realize that one of my opinions is validated by people in the know. recently i did a blog post about milk. i think i received more comments on that one (including the ones on FB) than any other posting so far. nice! conversationsn prompted me to be reading...uummmm......DAMMIT, what is the name of that book.....OH! "food revolution" by John Robbins. totally validated. WIN!
3) my lofty running goals. 2 half marathons this summer, a full marathon this fall, and a few others sprinkled in between. in the spirit of 'right place, right time', i am participating in a fun race with some folks from England. a while back i won a giveaway from ncrunnerdude for audio products from AudioFuel which i reviewed here. To save you the time, I really like their product. I like house/techno music, and i like to run to music, so WIN/WIN! ANYWAY........i was on the Devil's Playground Facebook a few days back, and AF announced that they were looking at having a race to see who could run the farthest while listening to the same 25 minute sound track. A dozen or so of us jumped on board, and today (yesterday) I downloaded my track.  should be a great time!

so there you have them, my TTT for this week. cheers!

Global Warming my A$$ 6.66 mile race report

Oh, SNAP! I was almost done, and then remembered this is s'posed to be in the newspaper column format. Here goes:

Who: Me. Gene. Dad. Sonny Boy. Bonehead.
What: Global Warming my A$$ 6.66 mile race
When: Friday, 12MAR10
Where: Hartford and North Hartland, Vermont, Rte 5 south then north, along the 3cm wide strip of asphalt between the speeding vehicles and certain death in the ditches.
Why: "Because it's there."
How: Painfully, slowly, inch be ever-loving inch. errr...i mean....in my Adidas something or others (am i the ONLY one online who wears Adidas???), Darn Tough socks, EMS microfiber pants, GMARA.org tech shirt, and Brooks running jacket. Oh, and Under Armour hat. Garmin 305. TIME=57:32
whew, that was painful.
on with the show....
As usual (NOT "as PER" usual. man, i HATE that. per=as), i procrastinated trained VERY HARD for this race, and nailed it to the wall. Like Jell-o. Ever tried that? Ever heard that expression? (see, i can even procrastinate with a race report!)
I got to the venue right after work. I had tried to line up my diet to be conducive for an after work run, but then tragedy struck. I ate my salad for lunch, and then ate my yogurt and granola around 2pm, figuring on a nice 2 hour window between eating and running. WELL....then some techs from radiology came around and invited me down to their area to partake in some good eats from a birthday party. Luckily we were short staffed in the ICU and I couldn't leave to join them. "No problem! We'll bring you some shrimp jambalaya!!!) Tragic.
So i ate some. And then ate more. 3 small bowls later, (over the course of about an hour. gimme a break. i am NOT a Dyson. See? procrastinated AGAIN. i RULE!) where was I? oh, right. eating. again.
So now it was about 300. ut-oh. not what i bargained for, and we all know how eating too close to running can effect the run(s). If you are not sure, head on over to Beth's blog and read all about it. Luckily, Mother Nature was in my corner, and things worked out A-OK by 345. I drove to the parking area and got myself all set up with Teri (Garmin). Luckily there was ample parking nearby, and I didn't need to take the shuttle. This is a bonus, actually, because I don't do well sitting amongst strangers. Parking was here, at our new aquatic center. I know. It looks like an abandoned warehouse. Mind you, this multi-million dollar complex is a big thorn in the sides of town residents.

Upper Valley Aquatic Center

I am not quite sure why, but I felt compelled to take a picture of my shoes, socks, and shins. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is that picture. (Parents, please ask young children to leave the room briefly. Thank you.)

 Here is a picture of Teri before the race. Hardly seems nervous at all, does she?
I tried to take pictures during the race, but they didn't come out very good. Must have been my blistering pace that made them all blurry. The Vermont countryside isn't all that picturesque this time of year, anyway. Lots of mud, brown leaves and 'grass', bleck. There is about 3-5cm of asphalt between the white line and the edge of the pavement (budget cuts?), and then about a foot of unstable dirt between the end of the pavement and either the guardrail or a ditch. Let's just say "pucker power" and move along, shall we?
So out and back. I walked for about 20 feet at the 3.5 mile mark, and then again at about 5 miles. I felt REALLY STUPID both times, so i huffed along. Teri screamed at me to slow down more often than to speed up, except on the hills. It was good to hear that, so now I can adjust the pace alarm settings. LOVE IT!

All in all, it was a great race, and a fun idea. One of the best things was the parking, but one of the worst things was the post race feed and massage tent. I must have been REALLLY slow, because by the time i got back to the start/finish area, it had been cleared out. Nothing there but the tumble weeds. And my nuun.