Weekend Recap, Long runs and dehydration

Let's start with Friday, which was a Rest day. I decided to make it an "active" rest day, so we took the Daughter and the Dog for a loooong walk. About an hour or so. It was awesome, and it completely tired out the dog, which in itself is awesome.

I did not account for this activity in my hydration, which came back to haunt me later.

Saturday I was up early and out the door for my long run. We were running in Mendon Ponds this week, on a notoriously hilly course. I thought I was ready for it. I had my handheld water bottle with a half a tablet of Nuun in it. I had an emergency Gu packet. I had a couple chews and some coffee on the way over. I was running with the 13 min pace group.

The run started off awesome, the pace felt good, and even when we hit some hills early, I was able to power up them without much trouble. I was able to talk and joke with the rest of the pace group, and was really enjoying the run.

About two and a half miles in, we were running along residential streets. You know the kind with those giant McMansions and absolutely no trees? Well it was starting to get kinda warm, and it was sunny. Our pace leader kept reminding us to Hydrate. So I was. I was sipin at my water and cruisin along feeling kinda awesome. Hot. Sweaty. But Awesome.

Around mile 4.5, we turned back into the park, with blessed shade, but cursed hills. Right around here, close to mile 5, I ran out of water.

This immediately became an issue. I was sweating buckets, and the hills were sapping everything I had left in me quickly.

I toughed it out for about another mile, and then, struggling up a long incline, I ran completely out of gas. I was way overheated. I couldn't seem to get my breathing to calm down. I dropped to a walk, and let the pace group pull away from me.

Not gonna lie, it was a low moment. There may have been a few tears of frustration.

A little while later I crossed the path of one of the coaches from the walk-fit group. He looked at me and asked if I was ok. I gave the so-so sign, and told him i'd run out of water. He handed me a bottle and told me to drink it. I took a swig and tried to hand it back. He told me to take it. About now, my brain wasn't working right, because I kept trying to insist I was ok. He told me to pour it into my bottle, he insisted. When I tried to open my bottle to transfer the liquid, there was a lot of fumbling and not a lot of progress. Which told me I was worse off than I thought. The coach helped me fill my bottle, then went on his way. He kept looking back to check on me though.

I remember looking down at my legs somewhere in here, and noticing that not only was every inch of my skin coated in sweat, but it was starting to actually run down my legs, and occasionally would drip from my elbows. I don't think I've ever been that sweaty on a run before.

I walked as quickly as I could, running the down hills when I could. I finished the bottle the coach had given me (I never got his name.) I was able to kick it back into a run for the last bit and finish out running, apparently about 30 seconds behind my pace group, and even less behind a couple of them.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who ran out of water. I talked to at least three people who had the same issue, and heard about several more. None of the people I had talked to had really trained in that kind of heat, and especially not in that heat on those hills.

As awful as the last part of that run was, I am really proud to have finished it out, and finished it out with a decent pace, even with the hills. I'm looking forward to the next long run, which will be significantly less hilly, and to which I will bring adequate hydration.

Sunday, I had a short run on the schedule, and was planning on doing it in the evening. We headed to the Zoo with a friend and her daughter in the morning. It was hot and sunny all day, and by the time we got home to put our daughter down for her nap, I was starting to feel all sorts of icky. I figured I was just tired, and passed out on the couch. The Hubs went upstairs after I had passed out and without meaning too fell asleep himself on the bed after lying down to "stretch his back." We didn't wake up until almost 4. So yeah, unintentional three hour nap mid day.

I woke up still feeling all sorts of nasty. I had a slight headache and I felt really warm. Turns out I was still dehydrated. I spent the rest of the day chugging as much water as I could, adding Nuun to most of it.

Obviously I did not go for my run. I decided three glasses of water into my re-hydration regimine to put Sunday's run off and run it instead on my rest day (monday.) I believe this was a sound decision, as I was still slightly dehydrated when I woke up this morning (I know right?!)

So lesson learned. Bring more water than you think you need.