29 August 2012

Hydration is important, duh....

Remember how yesterday I indicated that we were set to have a few hot and humid days this week?  Yeah, today would be one of them.  Has that ever stopped me from running outside when my heart is totally set on getting away from the treadmill?  Uh, no.

It was beautiful outside.  Absolutely blue and sunny.  How could I justify heading into the gym for today's run?  Well I couldn't, so I tied on the shoes, turned on the ipod and headed out the door for a late morning meditation session with the pavement.  Only one problem, I wasn't hydrated enough to take on the heat and humidity today.  Ooops. 

It didn't take too long for my body to let me know I screwed this one up.  By halfway through the run I could really feel the lack of fluids in my legs (or was that the fact that I was pushing out a pace too fast for my lack of hydration?).  All I know is that I was wilting...super fast.  I even took a short break in the middle of the run to try to stop my head from spinning, which sort of worked.

It's too bad I wasn't smarter.  Overall the run was good.  Aside from my hamstrings, the general weight of dehydration and the head spinning, my body felt okay and I was able to keep a decent pace up.  Had I prepared better for this run and taken in the right fluids in advance, I may have been able to hang in there for another five miles....however, I may have needed a second shirt because you could have totally wrung a ton of sweat out of the one I was wearing. 

Lesson learned?  We'll see.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  5.21
Time:   43:39 (average pace of 8:22 per mile)
Location:  Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  clearly not spectacular, but the pace was strong

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