Water, Water Everywhere…

Bill Brown June 5, 2008

The other day, I found out the hard way that running in hot hot hot weather sucks the life out of you.

I drove to the Sacramento River Trail feeling fresh, having recovered from my sprint triathlon the previous weekend, and I was ready to get back to my old running schedule. I did three miles the day before and felt great, so I thought I’d bust out an easy ten. Five and a half miles later, I slowed to a crawl, and then to a very frustrated walk.

I couldn’t believe it! I was dying before I even hit the five-mile mark! My legs felt like lead, my mouth was bone dry, and I was ready to heave all over the trail. Then, as it usually does, the obvious smacked me on the head. It was freaking 95 degrees outside and I hadn’t had anything to drink before I ran! Lovely. Chagrined by my lack of judgment, I managed an achingly slow half-mile shuffle to the Pathfinder (and yes, I did see the irony of suffering from dehydration while running along side the Sacramento River).
Luckily for me, the price to pay for my negligence was a bad workout. If I had decided to do the secluded a.k.a. no-help-if-I-passed-out 9.5-mile loop I would have been hosed.

Feel free to learn from my mistakes. Since things tend to heat up a tad in the summer, keep these tips in mind:

1. Try running in the early morning or late evening, when it’s cooler. Duh. But if you can’t:

2. Wear as little clothing as you decently can, with emphasis on “decently”. You know who you are.

3. I usually drink every 30 minutes or so, but when it heats up it’s a good idea to drink every 15-20 minutes. There are a lot of portable hydration systems that make drinking on the run a lot easier, so it might be a good idea to look into.

4. Try chugging a few cups of water about 30 minutes before you run, just to get a good amount of water in your system.

Luckily, your body knows how to keep itself running in hot weather if we give it a chance to adjust. When it gets wicked hot, blood moves towards the skin to cool the body, forcing your circulatory system to work harder to get enough blood going to your muscles. After a while your body learns to distribute blood more efficiently to both skin and muscles. It takes about 10 days for your body to adjust to cooling your body more efficiently, so take it easy for a bit until you start to get used to it.

So don’t give up if you’re hating life as the weather changes, just take some precautions and take it easy for a bit.

And if you see me lying face down on the Sac River Trail, just roll me into the water. I’ll be fine.

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