Running Thread

[MU82]

I'm curious what people do for hydration. As I'm increasing my distance (I ran five miles the other day - unthinkable for most of my life), I am starting to wonder at what point I will need to worry about water while running. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm slow...so 5 miles was an hour. And it's summer, so that's a lot of sweat. I've done enough other activities over the years to know that waiting until you're feeling thirsty can be too long.

So, two questions: 1) at what point do you start making sure you have water on a run? 2) What do you use?

I'm honestly not looking forward to having to deal with this issue because I don't really like carrying much when I run. I bought a belt to hold my phone, ID, and key, but don't really want anything else. But, I also want to be smart and safe.

Hell, I drink 16 oz of water when I have to drive for an hour!

[StillAWarrior]

When I was doing marathons my general rule was anything over an hour bring water and anything over 80 minutes bring Gatorade or something with electrolytes.

Depends on your routes, but when I was in the suburbs I did loops and put my drinks on the ground somewhere. If I was in the city I'd park my car near the trail and run out and backs in each direction from my car, stopping at my car to hydrate. I could never carry anything but my phone without losing my mind

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I'm now extending beyond an hour and that's what got me wondering. I'm balancing a couple preferences here (or at least what I believe are my preferences...I've never done any of this before). I don't think I'm going to want to carry anything, but I also like doing out and backs in the national park here. Just for the variety, I'd prefer not to stay so near my car, but that might just be the best option. Maybe I'll try 1-2 miles south on the trail I've been running, back to the car, then 1-2 miles north, and back - at least that way I'm not just doing a couple laps of the same terrain. Or I may try a handheld and see if drives me nuts. I really don't want to deal with a vest and I don't think I need nearly that volume of water.