RUNNING 101: DRINK UP!

I’m sure you’ve heard it before:  “by the time you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.”  This is true, not just in the context of exercise, but just going about your everyday business.  So imagine how much more critical it is when you’re working out, pushing your body physically as well as mentally! 

I have been working on a series of blog posts for some friends who are looking for running tips for beginners, and I hadn’t planned to start with hydration, honestly.   But I was just having this conversation with my daughter when I saw this post on Facebook:Dehydration - Leading Cause of Training Injuries.  Any mention of training injuries and/or hydration is sure to get my attention!  I'm completely on board with the need to hydrate, but I had never thought about it CAUSING injury.  Interesting... and it makes sense!

My daughter will be running her first half marathon with me in Walt Disney World in January, and will be training in New York this summer.  I was encouraging her to try out my Camelbak before she heads back to school.  While there will be plenty of water stations along the race route in Disney, running longer distances in Central Park means she’ll need to carry and/or buy water for longer runs. 

I always run with a 20-25oz. water bottle, even just to run a few miles.  I feel 100% better running when I’m well hydrated, and I find the Camelbak bite valve really helps steady my breathing if I’m ever struggling.  The couple of times I’ve run without water have reminded me how much it is totally worth it to me to carry it every time I go. 

For distances over 6 miles, I love this Camelbak HydroBak. 

It holds 50oz of water and is very “low profile”—I hardly notice I’m wearing it!  I will say, I usually run with music, and was kind of surprised at a recent race when I wasn’t wearing headphones (there were 7 awesome bands along the race route!) – the thing really makes quite a bit of noise jostling around back there.  With apologies to other runners along the way who might be annoyed by the noise, I’ll just be turning up the music because having my own water supply is a must!  My longest run so far was 16 miles, and I’ve yet to finish all 50oz. of water before I’ve finished. 

If you can’t stand to carry water with you, there are other options, you just may need to get creative.  I have friends who drive out ahead on their running route and stash water bottles along the way.  On a recent 10-miler with my younger daughter, we stopped at a grocery store on the way and bought a couple of water bottles that she carried in a backpack.  She doesn’t mind the backpack, just doesn’t want to carry a water bottle in her hand.  Everyone’s a little different, you just have to figure out what works for you.
 

How much water should you drink?   More than you think, I promise!  Take your weight (in pounds) and divide by 2.  That’s the number of ounces you should drink each day PLUS whatever you drink while you’re working out!  So, if you weigh 100 lbs., that’s 50oz. per day, just for starters!  During your workout, recommendations are all over the place, but the “average” seems to be about 8oz. every 15-20 minutes.  For an hour workout, I usually try and finish a large (24oz) water bottle, and then drink another after I’m done.
 

Don’t like the “taste” of water?  Experiment.  Add some lemon, lime, orange, or cucumber to a pitcher of water.  Try it with or without ice—I’ve found that I actually prefer water without ice with a little lime.  (Our family’s drink order at restaurants, which is really all just waters, has become quite complicated lately: water, water with a lemon, water with a lemon and no ice, water with ice and two lemons… ) If you prefer bottled water, try different brands—there really are differences!  For a little flavor, my favorite is Hint water—it’s a little spendy, but you can find it on sale, and there’s no added sugar nor artificial sweeteners—it just tastes awesome!

If you're not a big water-drinker, I'm guessing your next question is, "what about other drinks?"  I know, I know... I'm a coffee drinker.  I had given it up completely and even made an overnight drive to NYC without it!  The aftermath: 

Then this horribly cold winter plus recovering from injury, I had to have my coffee.  I'm hooked again.  I love my coffee.  But I don't count that toward my water intake. In fact, because coffee tends to DEhydrate you, I actually drink more water to compensate for the coffee.  (And with summer slowly making an appearance, I plan to try and cut or drastically limit the coffee again soon!  shhh... don't tell my barista!)  As for sodas, sugary drinks or "diet" drinks... there are so many good reasons not to, but if you must have them, really try and limit yourself, and don't count those toward your total water intake. You might surprise yourself and find it easier to give those up if you're already drinking so much water! (That's how I got away from coffee.) 
  
With it warming up here (finally!) it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re getting enough water to drink.  If you’re thinking you’d like to start running or get into an exercise routine, I’d say this is the best place to start: drink your water!  Get yourself a water bottle and get into the habit of using it every day.  It costs you nothing and takes no extra time out of your day, so you can start NOW, even if you’re busy at work, away on vacation, recovering from an injury, whatever.  There's really no reason NOT to drink plenty of water.  You will notice a difference in just a few days, IF you really stick with it!
 

So there you go—Running 101: Step One—Drink Up!! 

Give it a try for a week and let me know how you do!!

choose happy

If I could give everyone one bit of advice about starting any kind of fitness routine, it would be this: do something that makes you happy! 

I’m not kidding.  I know everyone has different opinions on things like this, and this is just mine.  I’m not qualified to give medical advice, but other than talking to a doctor, I think this is the most important thing you can do to put yourself on a path to success.

I am not a “run through pain” kind of girl.   Never have been.  And I didn’t start this whole journey by lacing up my running shoes and running a 5K.  FAR FROM IT!  If I had, this whole deal would have been over LONG ago.  As a matter of fact, I only started working out because I needed to lose some weight (OK, a LOT of weight) and I can’t stand to diet!!  But before I even started working out, I had to get myself to a place where I could just make time to do something every day—something for me. 

I started out walking.  One mile a day with my kids. (sometimes more, but most days, just one was all we could squeeze in.)  I didn’t have grand visions or plans, I was just trying to do something EVERY day.  My goal wasn’t to lose weight or get in shape, it was consistency.  Some days it was a struggle to find time, some days it was cold, or rainy, and a couple of days there were even TORNADO warnings (hello, NC in springtime)  We called them “tomato warnings,” we laughed, and we walked anyway. And we’re always busy and on different schedules, but we stuck with it, and after 4 months, while I didn’t lose a single pound (in fact, I gained more weight!) it was a great “exercise” in making a plan and sticking to it!  It was also an experience in feeling good about doing something just because I said I was going to do it.  It was nice to be outside every day, it was good to be moving every day—neither of these things were part of my routine at the time.   And I got a TON of positive feedback from friends on Facebook! 

I’ll tell you this:  if you want to make a change in your life, announce it on Facebook.   Then, when you’re having a bad day and think about giving up, you also have to think about all those people who cheered you on, and know they’ll know you’re giving up.   If you’re like me, that’ll be enough to keep you going. 

It may sound silly or too simple, but all that positive feedback – first from others and eventually in my own head - was the first piece of the puzzle for me.  From there, I had just enough momentum to get myself into the gym.  And I didn’t start out with weights or in yoga class.  It was blinders on, straight to the elliptical, the only thing I knew how to do.  It had taken me a while, but I got to where I could last an hour on one (it doesn’t happen overnight, but I kept at it every day, just 5 minutes, then 15, then 30… ).  It does happen a lot faster than you’d think.   I did nothing but that elliptical for 4 and a half months.  And I didn’t love it at first—you’d see me, on that elliptical, watching Food Network, checking Facebook, texting friends, anything to keep my brain happy while my body worked.  Over time, I got to where I loved the feeling of working hard and sweating, and all I needed was music to keep me motivated and happy, but it took TIME for me to get to that point.  In the process, I lost 25 lbs. and that’s about when I started running. 

Even when I started running, it was going to be a “one-time” thing, just to get me through a day in NYC where I had no access to a gym.  I was just looking for a one-hour work out, something more challenging than a walk.  Just for that one day, nothing more.  And just to do that, I needed EXTENSIVE instructions on how I was going to do it, what I’d be thinking about, how I’d make it a whole hour.  I’m talking PAGES of Facebook messages from a very patient friend.  It took me an hour to run/walk 3.5 miles, and it never occurred to me that I’d start running.  It never occurred to me that I’d fall in love with it. 

After I started running, a friend suggested we run 5K.  Ask anyone I talked to back then—it was like I was training for a marathon—I was just that anxious about the whole thing!  I look back now and laugh, but I remember being terrified and worried about every little detail.   I remember a friend who runs marathons saying, “Oh, I love 5Ks, that’s such a fun distance.”  I could not even wrap my brain around that statement.  I was worried about where I was going to stretch, should I “taper” before the race, (I couldn’t even bring myself to call it a “race” back then!!! and taper… if you’re a runner, just try not to laugh..), what if it rained that day, what if they wouldn’t let me use my headphones, what was the crowd going to be like… (600 runners.  At my first half marathon, there were over 20,000…) But I ran with a good friend, which made it FUN!    

A couple weeks after that first 5K, I signed up for a half marathon.  And that’s when I had to change my training plan.  No more elliptical trainer between running days.  So I tried yoga.  Let me just say, for the record, if I was “not a runner”, I was even less a yoga person!  But I wanted something to do on my non-running days, and by now (this was November—11 months into this journey, 7 months of regular workouts, and 45 lbs. lost)  I was feeling much more confident about a lot of things…  Not that I was good at it—I wasn’t.  But I was in a much better place to laugh at myself.  And I had spent the last 11 months realising that I was good at some things, even if I wasn’t good at everything.  That first class, I amused myself (and some others, although there are those who are pretty serious about their yoga… I had to get it together!)  I was the clueless one in class.  But every week I came back, I got a little better.  And eventually, more new people showed up,  and after a while I wasn’t the most awkward person in the room.  In fact, while I’m not naturally very flexible, I’ve got excellent balance—better than the regular instructor.   I’ve gotten better since then, although I still have to work at anything that requires flexibility in my hips or hamstrings.  But I’m a LOT more flexible than I was just a few months ago, and tonight, I got to class a little late and happily took the spot in the front of the room (you know, the one no one else wanted). 

My point in all of this—if you’re in an exercise class and you’re just spending the whole time feeling awful, quit going.  If you’re running and you hate it, stop running.  If you’re lifting weights and it bores you, try something else.  Find something that brings you joy, and makes you happy where YOU are now.  You won’t always be where you are now, but you won’t get anywhere making yourself miserable.  I don’t believe in suffering.  You’ve got to know what makes you happy, what motivates you, what will make you want to keep coming back.  And you don’t have to do everything at once.  Find one thing.  And later you can find some other things.  Just make sure that whatever you’re doing, it’s something that makes you smile.  Otherswise, what’s the point?  

(and if there’s anything I can do to help you find a place to start, please let me know in the comments!)