I’m still trying to figure out the cramps, but it’s tough because they don’t happen unless I am pushing hard for 12+ miles, and I don’t do that very frequently.

My summer goal is to work on my 5k time and hopefully get under 20 minutes. Once that happens, I’ll start seriously thinking about a fall marathon. I’m leaning toward Philly or Memphis at this point, but we’ll see what happens.

I found salt to be my issue as well in my long runs – even as low as 12 miles, I notice I get the headache, nauseas feeling… though I haven’t gotten leg cramps. I had a salt problem at the Austin Marathon – ended up eating a potato dipped in salt and felt immediately cured. Now, my support team hands me pretzels and cheezits for the second half of the marathon…

Post-workout salt consumption is important too if you are rehydrating with water.

I just did Vermont City and was thinking of CapeCod in the Fall as well. Its supposed to be a hilly course, but a beautiful one! Philly is supposed to be a well run marathon as well. Good Luck with training this summer!

Happy Trails,
Darcy

I didn’t worry much about dehydration until just recently. The leg cramps during my marathon really made me think about what could be causing the problem. I do notice that a lot of my friends don’t drink as much as I do when running. For example, my friend Todd, who is a 3:00 marathoner, rarely drinks during long runs (even > 2 hours).

The other thing that scared me a bit was a chapter in a running book I’ve been reading that says your performance declines 3% for each 1% of body weight you lose to dehydration. Not good!

I don’t bring water/Gatorade unless I am out for more than an hour, or 1 1/2 hours if it’s cool. Though I have been making an effort to stop at water fountains even on these shorter runs.

I haven’t tried Cytomax or really any other sports drink than Gatorade. I’ve actually cut back on the Gatorade not because of any performance reason, but because they make my water bottles sticky and hard to clean. If I put Gatorade in them, I have to clean them immediately after I get home or nasty black mold starts growing.

I did buy some Succeed salt tablets, but I haven’t tried them yet. I’ll let you know once I do.

I haven’t research dehydration much… although I was worried about it when I ran the Big Sur marathon relay and drank like 2-3 liters of liquid after my 7 mile run… unfortunately, there wasn’t a bathroom for another 2 hours as we sat on the bus that followed the last of the full marathon runners and it was painful on my bladder (I seriously could barely walk to the port-o-potty at the finish line) people probably though I was a full marathoner with sore legs.

I have been researching testing supplements though – Have you tried Cytomax versus Gatorade? (I’ve never liked Gatorade, I drank Ultrafuel when I was in high school). I like it better than Gatorade myself. I usually add more water to dilute it though.

Other supplements:
Sportslegs – helps avoid the lactic acid burn… I found this back in 2003 and now I see it at running stores/triathlon sections.

For protein shakes I like Muscle Milk – chocolate, cake batter, or cookies and creme – tastes like a milk shake

New stuff I just started trying last week – Recovery-ease and Energy-ease… I definitely think Recovery-ease works after about 2 weeks of trying it… basically make you less sore the day AFTER a hard workout so you can keep training. I’m not sure about Energy-ease yet though (haven’t used it as much).

I did the (buy 2, get 1 free). so if you want, I can send you a bottle.