Keeping Hydrated

az2wp0sye65487

So I want to start gradually building up my distances over the next few months...

Current training run distance is 10K - which is fine. I find I don't need to take any water/drinks with me once I've been drinking water throughout the day.

I'm just wondering about longer runs though. When I start increasing my distances over 10K I reckon I should start taking water with me. The thoughts of carrying a bottle isn't very appealing, more annoying to be honest!

Does anyone here use the hydration backpacks? or the belts that hold water-bottles?

If so, are there any pro's & con's to each? Thanks!

DULLAHAN2

check this out

Sosa

I have a water belt but rarely use it anymore,generally on long runs i drive out a bit of the route and leave a bottle on either side of the road and have one on the way out and vice versa.
Works well for me but maybe not possible for you.

Brianderunner

I usually stash them in a bush somewhere for my Lsr's which usually involve 3/4 mile laps. Carrying a water bottle in my hand is a dsaster for me, i reckon it costs me 10/15 seconds a mile. only problem is remembering where i've hidden them.

robinph

I have a Camelbak belt for my long runs.

Aimman

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

check this out

OMG Thats so American, couldn't get past the first 2 mins with all the subliminal 'Yes We Can' messages, lol.

Steviecakes, While its still reasonably cold, you'll be able to do long runs with needing water, but once it starts to warm up, you'll find yourself needing it more. You can train yourself to become less dependant on water, but it gets harder as you move into summer.

I have the Powerbar water belt that holds about 500ml between four small bottles and I can strap gels to it with elastic bands for the LSRs. There is also a velcro pocket in the front for keys and money, so its a handy Lara Croft belt when out on training runs. The down side is looking a bit weird running along the road and if you put it under your top, you risk getting chaffing on your back from the friction (and then trying to tell people that it's not carpet burn! ) The only problem is that I think they are about €25 at the moment and if you lose a bottle, it can be difficult to get a replacement (I stocked up on a few spare bottles at one of the DCM expos).

I've only used it a couple of times this year, because I was experimenting with energy fluids for a race coming up, but I imaginge as the temperatures increase, I'll need to have it a bit more with me for the long runs, to avoid carring a large bottle, or stopping into a shop.

az2wp0sye65487

I was looking into hydration packs on the internet, and some of them are expensive! So at the weekend I picked up this in my local Tesco - for only €12!

So I'll experiment with this for a while and see how it goes!

robinph

Should do the job. Mine is just a waist belt with the long tube for drinking through, make sure you do up all the straps tight enough so that you don't get any friction from it moving about. Got a couple of burns on the back a few weeks ago which was not fun.

TFBubendorfer

I do own a water belt, which hasn't seen the light of the day in at least 2 years, and I have a few water bottles that aren't used much more often either.

I regularly run 20 miles without bringing water with me. I always make sure to drink plenty of water before I go out, and since I do my running early in the morning it is always cool and the sun isn't an issue.

I hate running while carrying anything around with me, and I haven't noticed an improvement in my training runs on the few occasuions when I did. It's entirely possibel to run much farther than 10k without water.

robinph

I need to have something to wash down the gels with, and somewhere to keep them too.

In races though I'd just have the shorts stuffed with the gels and then as I'm not wearing the camelbak I instantly am a couple of kg lighter.

In the Woods

I've learnt the hard way that it's better to hide bottles of water / club energise than leaving them out in the open.

On 1 occassion, I went to grab my bottle of water as I was passing, only to notice that it was a slightly yellow colour. Smelt it before drinking, pretty sure someone pissed in my bottle (don't even want to consider the logistics of it, it was just a 1 litre volvic bottle).

A few weeks ago I left 2 bottles of water out and when I was passing where they were, there were five 10-12 year olds drinking them. Not the smartest thing for a group of kids to do, drinking a random bottle of water. Still, I'm sure I was up to worse at their age.

Back to the old routine of hiding drinks before the run.

average_runner

What i did last year was the following:

Trained in the Phoenix Park, did a loop of 7 miles. Car was parked at start/end of loop. Would stop at the car, take a drink of luzoade sport and top up my water bottle. Water bottle is the ones with the handle on it, great things. Also had a gel belt on my arm and I was grand.


Year before i did the drink belt thing but hated it. Think the belt thing made me think i needed it in the marathon so i used it, last year ran without it and was much better