runner thread

[RickF]

A buddy of mine and I ran 10 miles Tuesday night after work. We found water at a drinking fountain in a park at mile 5. I can do 6 miles without water but if there is water available on the route I'll drink every 2 or 3 miles after the first 5. for longer training runs I take a fanny pack with two bottle holders. I wear it in front so it doesn't bounce so much.

[psycobill]

Do that all the time. Works the ol' forarm muscles more though. One arm just doesn't swing as far as the other does. Besides if you trip, get get sometihng to "land on" erm... right

Amen to having an extra cushion for falls... The trails around my house are littered with double fist sized rocks and I typically take 1-2 falls on long runs, and my Nathan water bottle has saved my mitts on several occasions

[RdC]

You join SP then post a helpful comment leaving a promotional link to support said comment. I can sleep better tonight knowing I could have 5 oz of h2o on my wrist during my runs. FYI-If you only run 30 minutes you don't need to take any water with you.

I run daily in the morning about 30-35 mins. I always wear my wrist water bottle to avoid dehydration.
___________________
wrist water bottle | promotional water bottles

Just curious, at what distance do you need to take water? Is water the best choice?

I just started running in 3 miles in the mornings and recently built up to including some pretty gnarly hills in that 3 miles. I've been thinking I should start taking water to get me to a more respectable mark (say 5-7 miles).

[psycobill]

Just curious, at what distance do you need to take water? Is water the best choice?

I just started running in 3 miles in the mornings and recently built up to including some pretty gnarly hills in that 3 miles. I've been thinking I should start taking water to get me to a more respectable mark (say 5-7 miles).

I typically start carrying mine when I run up to an hour or longer. It also depends on how hot it is. if its in the middle of summer I almost take it with me on any run! Personally I think water is enough until you start getting upwards of around 2hrs running, then you may want some sort of endurance formula mix to replenish salts, maltodextrin and such and such stuff that your body starts needing to keep going. Also, Gels work great for me on runs that last over 90 minutes.

[builttospill]

Also depends on the humidity for me. When running on the east coast where it was quite humid, I would routinely go well over an hour without water. The only runs where I always drank water mid-run (I didn't carry it, I knew where two drinking fountains were) were on runs of 2 hours or more.

But that was a humid climate and I found I got less thirsty. Out here in the dry west, I don't think I could go 2 hours without water, at least not on warm or hot summer days.

Either way, I would say you're probably okay without water up to 5 miles or more, but everyone reacts differently, so you should probably try it both ways and see which you prefer.

[Deleted User]

You join SP then post a helpful comment leaving a promotional link to support said comment. I can sleep better tonight knowing I could have 5 oz of h2o on my wrist during my runs. FYI-If you only run 30 minutes you don't need to take any water with you.

I run daily in the morning about 30-35 mins. I always wear my wrist water bottle to avoid dehydration.
___________________
wrist water bottle | promotional water bottles

Just curious, at what distance do you need to take water? Is water the best choice?

I just started running in 3 miles in the mornings and recently built up to including some pretty gnarly hills in that 3 miles. I've been thinking I should start taking water to get me to a more respectable mark (say 5-7 miles).

You should be putting fluids in your body every 20 minutes and food in your body every 45-60 minutes (power bar, pretzels, salt of some sort, etc). 3-5 miles (or 40-50 minutes) is sort of the cutoff where you dont need to carry water.

When I run marathons (and halfs) I carry a belt with four little water bottles. It allows me to mix it up with straight water, gatorade, emergen-c, etc... sort of a running bar-tender (see link). It also has a little pouch for car keys, $, gu's, and powerbars, etc... It doesn't bounce up and down too bad (especially when its empty), but I have a big ass, so that may help to keep it in place!

http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/FBL103/

Good luck!

[RickF]

When I run marathons (and halfs) I carry a belt with four little water bottles. It allows me to mix it up with straight water, gatorade, emergen-c, etc... sort of a running bar-tender (see link). It also has a little pouch for car keys, $, gu's, and powerbars, etc... It doesn't bounce up and down too bad (especially when its empty), but I have a big ass, so that may help to keep it in place!

In an organized marathon or half-marathon event I don't carry my own water. There are typically water and sports drink stations at every two or three miles. I only take my fanny pack on training runs that are longer than 10 miles if there is no easily accessible along the route.

[RickF]

The L.A. Marathon is only one month away. My running buddy and I did a 26 mile practice run today on the Santa Ana River bike trail. It was his first time running more than 10 miles, he did very well finisning in a little over 5 hours.

[395guy]

The L.A. Marathon is only one month away. My running buddy and I did a 26 mile practice run today on the Santa Ana River bike trail. It was his first time running more than 10 miles, he did very well finisning in a little over 5 hours.

Hey Rick, all the best to you and your buddy on March 21 at LAM. I'll be there too. I had sworn off this marathon years ago (too much of a circus) but since it's under new management, I thought I'd give this new Stadium-to-the-Sea route a try. I hope it's cool and possibly overcast, but I don't want a strong on-shore breeze. May all the miles seem downhill with a tailwind...

[RickF]

The L.A. Marathon is only one month away. My running buddy and I did a 26 mile practice run today on the Santa Ana River bike trail. It was his first time running more than 10 miles, he did very well finisning in a little over 5 hours.

Hey Rick, all the best to you and your buddy on March 21 at LAM. I'll be there too. I had sworn off this marathon years ago (too much of a circus) but since it's under new management, I thought I'd give this new Stadium-to-the-Sea route a try. I hope it's cool and possibly overcast, but I don't want a strong on-shore breeze. May all the miles seem downhill with a tailwind...

It was definitely a circus, but I enjoyed it. The course was good but the organizers need to improve the whole starting line staging area. My finish time was 4:19. I ran with three other friends from work the fastest runner of our group finished in 4:06. We all finished within a 22 minute window between 4:06 and 4:28.

[Tonka]

Do that all the time. Works the ol' forarm muscles more though. One arm just doesn't swing as far as the other does. Besides if you trip, get get sometihng to "land on" erm... right

Amen to having an extra cushion for falls... The trails around my house are littered with double fist sized rocks and I typically take 1-2 falls on long runs, and my Nathan water bottle has saved my mitts on several occasions

Just sounds kind of funny. Are you a clutz? I think I would have to stop running if I took a couple headers on all my long runs. Just teasing, I don't do much trail running and I can see how it could happen.

[Deleted User]

When I run marathons (and halfs) I carry a belt with four little water bottles. It allows me to mix it up with straight water, gatorade, emergen-c, etc... sort of a running bar-tender (see link). It also has a little pouch for car keys, $, gu's, and powerbars, etc... It doesn't bounce up and down too bad (especially when its empty), but I have a big ass, so that may help to keep it in place!

In an organized marathon or half-marathon event I don't carry my own water. There are typically water and sports drink stations at every two or three miles. I only take my fanny pack on training runs that are longer than 10 miles if there is no easily accessible along the route.

Rick... congrats on LA. I did it too, but you did beat me by a few minutes! ... but this illustrates why I carry a water belt... the organizers of the water stations were terrible and the bottlenecks were rediculous... you had to wait to get through the water stations cause the volunteers keft creeping in to the running area to hand their water off. Most of the water stations, I just ran around and filled up my water belt (mile 12 and 19) from nice people on the side of the road (made it super quick)...

Glad I did LA but I won't do it again. I prefer less crowds... FYI, Napa is a great marathon...

[Haliku]

Anyone running the Greenland race in CO on 1 May? I'm in for the 50k. Cheers!

[RickF]

The Dude,

Congratulations back to you!

I agree with you on the topic of the water stations. Especially in the last third of the course. Even when I didn't want to stop for water, the whole pack of runners would get jammed up at those bottlenecks. In the big picture, I don't think it really added to my overall time. If I had more energy after mile 20 I could have held my 9 minute pace longer.

The bigger challenge was at the starting line staging area. There were still shuttle buses and cars trying to get in to Dodger Stadium at 7:24 a.m., the target starting time. Then the 50 person-long lines for the porta-potties were backing-up into the course. And why was the starting line area so small? The starting line didn't come close to having enough room for 25,000 runners.

I really enjoyed it but I would like to share some constructive feedback with organizers.

[Deleted User]

I agree with you on the staging as well. What a cluster!

The bathroom situation was attrocious... im all for peeing in the bushes, but to pee in the hospitality tent or in a coral at the starting line... that's getting rediculous... my favorite was the people pissing on the buildings in Downtown LA... great examples were setting...

I took a bus from Santa Monica and we made it in about 50 minutes, by our bus driver was very ambitious with lane changes, driving on the shoulder, and the like...

Apparently people were abandoning their cars on the 110 and just walking up to Dodger Stadium which only added to the mess... anarchy at its best!!!

I gotta get out of this town... it's getting too much for me...