About.com is a chock-full of useful information, just a while ago, I came around their Hydration 101 article which basically tells you how to keep yourself hydrated. I think this is useful not only for the runners but everyone, I think we tend to take keeping ourselves hydrated for granted because its dangers doesn’t manifest itself in an obvious way.
The article contains valuable information which, I think, isn’t that well-known:
- You know you’re hydrated if you urinate at least 6 times a day in large volumes
- Drink 16-24 ounces of water before your run to make sure you’re well hydrated
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Weigh yourself nude before a timed training run, and then again after. One pound of weight loss equals 1 pint of water loss. Calculate your sweat rate and use this to determine your fluid needs during a run or race.
- After your run, you should drink 20 to 24 fl oz (or 2-3 cups) for every pound that you lost
And then, there are those that are really obvious:
- Alcohol dehydrates you and you should never drink this before a major run because it is never fun to run with a hangover
- Don’t drink too much water before your actual marathon, otherwise you’ll have to do stops to go to the bathroom. Obviously, this will hurt your time, and who wants that?
- A healthy person’s urine should be of light lemonade color. Erm, now that’s a juice I don’t want to see for the time being. 😛
How do you keep hydrated during your runs? Care to share any tips? 🙂