Posts Tagged ‘hydration’

Time for a video with some actual value.  This one is a demonstration and comparison of hydration belts and handhelds. I thought it might be worthwhile for those folks that haven’t yet dealt with the different methods for carrying water/sports drinks, especially the newbies, but even for the experienced souls who might not have considered all the options.

As always, the production values suck (I need to buy a proper light) and I did it in one take because it was too long to want to do again, lol, so please excuse any Alzheimers moments.

For the moment, I’m linking it directly to YouTube because I need to start getting some YouTube love in their rankings, so if you guys and gals want to help out, please rate the video or even comment there – that’d be super cool.   Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this one!

Handhelds and Hydration Belts – A demonstration and Comparison

Today was a sopping 15-miler progression run averaging 8:25s with the last couple miles at 7:45, closing a 67-mile week.  Hallelujah…my legs are still feeling fab!

I had to smile at how different marathon training is this year as opposed to last.  I feel stronger and the heat doesn’t seem to bother me as much.  I mean, I still hate it and always will, but it isn’t wiping me out at all.  Granted, I think this summer is cooler than last, but I’m leaving later in the day than last year, so I end up running in the same temps.

One big plus is that I’m drinking a lot more during the day so my little 12oz Amphipod handheld has been enough (had to refill once today, though).  I’m sure I’ll be pulling out the 20 oz one as the runs lengthen or I start doing the trail again, but for now, I’m doing fine bringing less.

I was also much more gel freaky in last year’s marathon cycle.  I’d take them on most runs over 90min along with an S-cap if it was really hot.  This year, I’m not feeling the need for gels yet and I keep forgetting to take an S-cap.  I guess it doesn’t hurt that a 15-miler today is about 18 minutes faster than last summer so I spend a lot less time in the heat.

Free Running Clinic this Tuesday, the 28th:
My friend Lara goes to Excel Physical Therapy here in Philly and told me about this free clinic on Tuesday where they tape you and critic your form – but you have to reserve.  I’ll be there…can’t wait to get some form pointers (just hope it’s not all about Pose).  Anyway, here’s the dirt:

Tracy Peal Sr, certified Pose Method running coach, will video tape your runnning form, discuss proper movement patterns to become a more efficient runner and will also analyze your form. Excel Sports Physical Therapists will be on hand to consult with you regarding any aches, pains or concerns you have. Tues, July 28th at 6:30-8 1616 Walnut st, Philly.  Call 215-545–8717 to reserve.

I’ll close with a big shoutout to Jim who did a great job today at the S.F. Marathon – Yay Jim, woohoo!!   Also a couple woohoos for RDR and GAT on the sub3:20 thread (my new RW hangout) who ran S.F. as well.  Lastly, here’s some safe travel wishes to the above-mentioned Lara and her man, Jeff.  They left yesterday on a 350-mile cycling adventure that ends at a huge beer festival in upstate NY – swell payoff, huh?

I hope everyone’s had a great running week and that this one is even better.  Later, kids!

Before we get to the ugly (not my tendons, btw, so no need for panic), I’ll touch on yesterday’s 17-mile LR, my longest this cycle.

It was a warm day for this unacclimated gal (67 degrees and sunny) so I carried my 20 oz handheld and for shits and giggles, wore my HR monitor because  I was curious to see how the longer run + warm temp would affect my HR.

I refilled the handheld once, so ended up drinking 40 oz of water.  I also took a gel half-way through because I hadn’t eaten a lot that morning.   End result: average pace 8:28 and a lovely avg HR of 70% HRR.  And this includes the last two miles at 7:53 avg.

Now on to tendon talk.  A couple months ago, right before her bike racing training season started, my great friend Lara (who you might remember has run a couple races with me when she’s not being cyclist extraordinaire) got a chest infection.  They figured it to be pneumonia, so they gave her the antibiotic Levaquin.

Within three days, her achilles had swollen up to where she couldn’t walk on it, couldn’t even stand on it.  Turns out she came this close to a ruptured achilles from that stupid fucking antibiotic.

She was put in a boot for 3 weeks, went back to the doc when her three weeks was up but, as she feared, was told to stay in the boot 3 more weeks.  It’s still not better, swelling up as the day progresses.  It’s been a horrible, horrible situation, ruining her training season completely, so please folks, be careful when a doc gives you Levaquin, know that tendon ruptures are a potential side effect.

The other story has to do with Nick and his half-brother, Leon.  They were in Cozumel this last week on a dive trip and on the third day, Leon fell on a slippery path near the hotel room.  He ended up tearing all the tendons on the front of his leg above his knee and had to be rushed to the hospital where they put a cast on him, not realizing he would be cutting the trip short and going home the next day.  When they discovered this, they said “you can’t fly with a cast” and had to remove it, leaving Leon in intense pain.

He went straight to the hospital in Spain (where he lives) where they operated and now it appears he’s going to have to remain on his back for a couple months.  Horrible news.

So Nick was left all alone for half his vacation, but at least he got a couple more days of diving in.  But the thing that I loved about this story was when Leon was at the doctors office he was telling Nick it felt like there were worms in his leg (the loose tendons).  I thought that was sublimely disgusting.

Now for my running schedule this week:  Last week was a new mileage high, 68 miles, and I’ll be doing the same this week.  Today is an easy 7 with 10 hill sprints, then tomorrow’s a speed session (4 x 1 mile@10k pace w/3 min. recoveries) but with 20mph winds forecasted, I’ll likely move it up a day (when there’s only 15mph winds forecasted, ugh).  Friday is a tempo combination (3×10min @ Half/10k  pace w/2min recoveries), and on Sunday another 17-miler with “last 15 minutes Hard”.

So that’s my story, Morning Glories, have a great week of running yourselves but I’ll see you back here in a couple days.

I’m tired. Even with my day off on Monday, I ended up with 60 miles for the week.

It was also pretty dense as far as workload. Every other day had something: Wed had the fast fartleks, Friday had the 6-mile tempo run and today was a 15-miler (my longest run in a while) that included those same fast fartleks, then 2 miles easy, 2 miles “hard”, cooldown.

I started out quite slow today, 9:15s, knowing I was going to have to produce some energy midway through. When the fartleks started (15×1min on, one min off) I gave up the idea of shooting for 5K pace and was satisfied with doing them at 10K pace. It was still tough, I felt the fatigue of the week in my legs, and as I was running the fartlek portion, I was already writing my blog in my head about how I bagged the “hard” section, because just finishing the run was hard enough.

Then wonder of wonders, I’d completed my fartleks, almost done with my 2 easy and ready to ignore my Garmin beep signaling the Hard portion, when Kev appears on a bike next to me (Kev’s the guy I mentioned in last Sunday’s race report). He asked what I was up to, I said I was supposed to do 2 hard in a couple minutes but planned on bagging it, he said “I’ll pace you”. And he did!

It was so much easier having him there to chat with, I was able to do that part of the workout without thinking about it and while it wasn’t officially fast, I got a couple 8:07s out of it (hard enough considering I was planning on skipping it entirely). Thanks, Kev, much appreciated!

The only aggravation was I’d brought my 20oz. handheld and a gel but halfway through the run I knew I’d be dying for water at the end if I had to wash a gel down too, so I skipped the GU. It wasn’t missed, though I definitely could have used more water, here’s hoping the water fountains get turned on soon.

See how I’m already bitching and moaning about water and it was only 65 degrees? I’m doomed, I tell you.

Looking ahead, tomorrow is easy with 8 hill sprints, Tuesday is Hill Repeats (8×1min. uphill @ 5K effort w/jog-back recovery), Wed-Fri is easys with some strides, 5-mile race on Saturday, then 15 or 16 on Sunday. I don’t know if I mentioned it but I’m also doing a 5K the weekend after that (might as well start getting all my PRs lined up).

So that’s it for now, time to wash the salt off. Have a great Sunday night, folks!

In only the sweetest manner possible.

Yesterday was a rest day and I spent it moping around the house, thanks to Sunday’s MP run. I had started questioning everything I’ve been doing and my marathon goal and laughing (derisively) at my previous “I’m going to be all circumspect about it all” since I clearly was being anything but.

Then today comes and it’s the weather I’ve been wanting for months now, a luscious 65 degrees. Haven’t seen that temperature since my Yellowstone vacation. Pfitz calls for a GA run, which couldn’t have come at a better time because I wanted to just run, no strings attached, no speed stuff or percentage-induced brakes, just run the way you run when it feels good.

I knew I’d likely be pushing it to make up for Sunday because I’m childish like that, so I strapped on my HR monitor to keep me honest. All I can say is YIPPEEE!!! I’m not the slug I imagined myself to be.

Splits were: 9:11, 8:50, 8:39, 8:35, 8:28, 8:26, 8:19, 8:00 for an average of 8:34. I wasn’t even trying to make it a progression run, it just happened! Lol, I can, and will, relax now.

What else is on the agenda for the week? Well, this is a cutback week, so it’s a bit less mileage but tomorrow is my first VO2max workout on this plan and I’m excited! Haven’t done intervals since April and these are my favorites, 600s (long enough to test you but short enough to enjoy it). The difference with these, as usual with “keep ‘em movin’” Pfitzinger, is he’s couched it between some extra miles, so the workout is 8 miles with 5×600 at 5K race pace w/90 sec. rest.

Besides that, I’ve got a 5 mile recovery the next day, then a day off, then 8 w/strides and then supposed to be 14 on Sunday, but I’m bumping it to 20, which’ll make it my third 20 so far.

Other than that, time to put my creative thinking hat on again, it’s time to work on new designs for Fish Pie and maybe now that I’m not moping I could actually come up with a couple cute ideas. We shall see.

Oh, and I wanted to mention some positive things about what I learned on my MP run this Sunday. I learned that I will be using the gel flask for the marathon, even though I’ve been using the foil packets for most of my runs these days. It’s much easier to deal with than packets and the dilution aspect will surely be appreciated as the hours tick by and my tummy wants less sweetness. The only downside is the little extra weight thanks to the added water and that it’s localized in one spot, but that’s a fair trade-off.

Another observation: I drank less on the MP run than I usually do. I carried my handheld, which I’ve been considering taking to Steamtown, because I do love being able to drink when I choose, but now I’m thinking that since my gels will have a bit of water added to them in the flask, it’s less critical that I have liquids on me and when I’m concentrated on pace, I don’t sip so much anyway.

Thank god I have PDR beforehand is all I can say, because I usually get all nervous around water stops, to the point where I’ll skip a stop I should use to avoid dealing with it, so it’ll be important to have another practice session before the big day. But who knows, I love my handheld, maybe we’ll do the big race together. Lol, it’s something to ruminate over for the next couple months, anyway, and we all know how I love to ruminate…

Tip for the day: If you wear a water belt or carry a handheld and you find the nipple is sticking, just rub a little vegetable oil on it or give it a squirt of Pam and work it up and down a few times. Works like a charm.

Today was a 15. The plan called for 14 but I’ve been adding a couple miles to my long runs and since this weekend is my first MP run and I’ll be damned if I’m going to make that any tougher, I figured I’d leave that as is and just add one measly mile today. No biggie, just stating this so if you’re doing Pfitz, you don’t wonder why my schedule looks a little weird.

I left at 6:30 and a few minutes after, it started pouring rain which lasted for maybe 15-20 minutes. It was wonderfully refreshing but I wasn’t thrilled, considering I had a long way to go in wet socks and shoes. But when the unexpected happens, you just have to chalk it up to something that could happen during the race, and deal with it. The wet socks didn’t bug me till mile 13, but once I got home, me and my pruney little toes were delighted to get those shoes off. Avg. pace for the run 9:22.

Do people ask you the same questions when they find you’re a runner? I always get “What about your knees? How are they doing?” which I find charming, as if that’s the only thing that can go wrong with a person’s legs, and “What do you think about when you’re running?”. This last question always leaves me stymied. I think about everything and nothing. I’m always “thinking hard” whether I’m sitting quietly or running, so it’s just more of what I’m always doing.

Today, one of the things I was thinking about is failure. I have this want: a want to BQ, to finish the marathon strong, and all I can do is train as well as I can and hope the weather and my body allow that to happen. But it’s true for a lot of people that, when looking at their training, are set for a successful marathon when something unforeseen happens that dashes that hope to the ground. At least for that day.

So I’m working on being prepared for failure, at the same time I’m working at succeeding. I want to cover all my bases and be circumspect if this time, it doesn’t go my way. I italicize “this time” because I really like italics, but mostly because when I signed up for Steamtown, I thought of this first one as a test to see if marathons are even for me. Now that I find myself thoroughly enjoying the training and the long runs and, well, everything about it…I know this is the start of a long love affair with the marathon.

But it spooks me to hear the constant warnings given to new marathoners, “don’t make a goal your first time, just enjoy it, blah blah blah”. It’s almost as if you’re expected to fail. Which doesn’t make sense to me if you’ve trained correctly (ie. using a proper training plan and fulfilling all the required workouts and paces). What is it about a first time marathon that makes a well-prepared runner blow-up? I know it happens and could happen to me as much as anyone.

Which brings me back to what I was thinking about on my run today, preparing for failure. It’s probably not a smart thing to do in that it could mess with my head too negatively, but I’ve been imagining what it will feel like to not get my goal. In a way, this takes a pressure off, because my thinking self can relax and just know that blow-ups happen and the next marathon will, hopefully, be a chance to redeem myself.

Can you believe I’m already imagining the funeral for my goal? Yet all my paces are perfectly on track, no problems with any of the runs so far, but still…learning to give myself a break just in case.