Need advice for running/working in hot weather

[Lulu]

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

[Sasha Pachev]

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.

[Lulu]

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!

[Maria Imas]

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). 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.