Fast Running Blog

I am trying to get back on track after a lower leg injury. The come-back has been exaccerbated by a chronic low back injury. I am determined to run 6 days a week and build my mileage back up, and I am running into a snag and need some training and hydration advice. I am an ecologist and I spend long, hot days working outside. For example, last week on Thursday, I did my run at 4am and worked from 6am to 9:30pm, some of that time in a car and some in the sun. I drank about 90 oz of fluid from 6am to 3pm and peed once (yeah, TMI). I had a major headache and low energy the next day, and I believe it took me two days to catch up with the hydration. Tomorrow, I will repeat the same story, run early and work intermitently in the sun and try to hydrate. This is only working outside for one day.

My question is: June 15-19, I will be at a field site working outside in the sun from 7am until dark (around 8pm) for four days in a row. Right now, it is about 94F here with humidity above 80% and it will only get hotter and more humid. I can't afford to get behind in my hydration, and what I am doing now isn't working. How do I run each morning, get myself rehydrated, and then return to work outside day after day? When I run in this weather, I sweat so much that the water pours off my shorts, down my legs, and sprinkles out of the toes my shoes (TMI, I know) by the end of the run (4-6 miles). Then when I work outside, I am pretty much soaked all day. (I wear a huge straw hat and lightweight, protective clothing and sunscreen - which incidentally makes me hotter and sweat more). There is very little evaporative cooling occurring. We do have a four foot diameter fan that we run off a generator, that I periodically can stand near. Should I try to run, or forget it for those four days? I am the project leader and must be there regardless how I feel.

BTW, if I drink gatorade or any drink with salt in it, I throw up -- making matters worse. I am what you would call "salt sensitive." I have tried Endrolytes, and they settle fine. I just thought of those. I'll try those tomorrow.

Please give suggestions...
Thanks,
Lulu

I would go out and jog 2 miles on those days at about 12:00 pace early in the morning.

Some ideas for electrolyte replacement:

- water with sea salt
- pickle juice from sea-salted pickles
- Ultima
- EmergenC

Also eat a lot whatever watery fruit and vegetables taste good to you during the day . I like cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and bananas.

To try this out, I ran really slow yesterday just as Sasha suggested, however, I ran further than he suggested for next week. It was painfully slow. When I started I wasn't sure I could run as slow as he suggested and not be nine months pregnant (I ran ten faster than that a couple of weeks before Bubbles was born). Eventually, I ran slow enough. At one point I was running 12:15 miles! I worked all day in the sun and got home at 10pm. I drank around 130 oz total and ate bananas, carrots, nectarines and other things. I didn't get as dehydrated as last week. Thanks for the suggestion Sasha! I feel fine today, just a bit puffy from some of the salt I consumed yesterday -- I am very salt sensitive!

Wow, your working conditions sound brutal! Another electrolyte replacement product you may want to try in addition to the ones Sasha suggested, is Nuun tablets (www.nuun.com (http://www.nuun.com)). They have no calories whatsoever, no carbs, just electrolytes. They come in convenient tubs of 10 tablets, so it's easy to carry and you can always just drop a tablet into your water bottle.