On losing 6.5 pounds in less than three hours.
It’s such a beautiful afternoon sitting out on the porch with my laptop.
It was a lovely morning when I set out on my long run. See my husband and I signed up for RunDisney’s Tower of Terror 10 Miler. Again.
Ten miles doesn’t seem so far and it’s at night so it couldn’t be that hot, right?
Well, 10 miles was way too far and the heat and humidity kicked our rears last year. It was miserable. We thought we were going to spend the night playing in Hollywood Studios.
We basically chased down a medic Tylenol with a beer and sat like bumps on a bench for two hours afterwards.
I was determined to return in the fall of 2013 better prepared for the heat and humidity. My husband took a little more convincing but eventually he signed up too.
So I’ve been following this plan where you run more than the 10 miles a few weekends. I ran 13 miles a few weekends ago and today I ran 14.5 because that was on the training plan.
Actually, I ran/walked them from the start. I’m not running much these days so I knew to take it easy. And I was fine till mile 11.
That’s when calories to fuel my forward motion ratio tanked.
I kept going but was unable to run for the last mile and a half.
I’d start trying to run. Run 30 secs then think — I can’t run another step.
When I googled “photo of hot runner”, this is what pulled up. It works though. I definitely shut off and melted.
Weighed myself when I returned and I was 6.5 pounds lighter than when I woke up this morning. No wonder I felt dead.
I’m re-hydrating on the porch as we speak. Funny. I didn’t think I looked six pounds lighter — but I felt like doggy poo poo.
We shall see. The race is a few weeks away and I’m supposed to do one more long run.
So better drink up.
All you exercisers. How do you stay hydrated?
Do you run with a water bottle? On these hot days, I make sure I drink a TON the day before. then the morning I go out to do a long run, I start with a big glass of water or gatorade. Then I take a bottle with me. (Love my simple hydration bottle). And immediately after, I have a glass of room temp gatorade. For some reason it’s easier to go down than when it’s cold. Don’t make yourself sick. You’ve got the ToT for sure. You can do it! I have friends from Gwinnett Co running it too.
Eep. I have my first half in exactly one week, and this didn’t help my nerves. Eeeeep.
It’s funny Jana. The two marathons I’ve trained for — I’ve gone out early and had an energy bar and water stored for the later miles. I just didn’t think 14 miles was that much. For me and the conditions today — after 10 a.m. — I was wrong. One thing I didn’t mention was that I had drank a bottle of water before weighing myself (before jumping in shower.) I was really surprised how quickly I went to “E”. But I’ll definitely be better next time. The last race was so humid. That’s what zapped me. Also this morning I hadn’t eaten anything. Runkeeper said I had burned almost 1500 calories. I’ll definitely not be running 10 miles on a stomach without any food for 12 hours.
No Greta. On race days, you have adrenaline gushing and I do choke down a bagel and water before. I think it was poor hydration and low blood sugar. Thankfully, I’ve never had that happen on a race day. So excited for you. Your first half marathon is soooo awesome. Enjoy the thrill of it.