Coach Tip - Training In Heat

Most endurance athletes (serious and casual alike) know the important role hydration

plays in health and athletic performance. But what you don’t know can hurt you –

drinking too little or too much during intense exercise can be dangerous.

Dehydration: Too Little of a Good Thing

Keeping the body properly hydrated with the right fluids is essential to safety and performance in an endurance event. The fiercest competitor an endurance athlete faces is dehydration.

The first obvious sign of dehydration is thirst, but things can quickly get worse. Dehydration not

only hampers performance but also increases the risk of heat illnesses, such as heat exhaustion or potentially deadly heat stroke. The good news is that dehydration and heat illness can be prevented and performance improved simply by following the right fluid-replacement plan.

Signs of dehydration and heat illness can include:

• Headache    • Fatigue     • Dizziness     • Nausea     • Muscle cramps     • Weakness    

• Irritability     • Vomiting     • Heat flush     • Abnormal chills

Hyponatremia: Too Much of a Good Thing

While it’s important to drink enough to remain hydrated, overhydrating by drinking too much can

lead to a condition called hyponatremia, which is serious and sometimes deadly.

What is Hyponatremia?

Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when the level of sodium in the blood drops below

135 mEq/L (138-142 is normal).* Symptoms of hyponatremia usually begin at blood sodium values below 130, with values less than 120 resulting in a serious medical emergency. Exercise-related hyponatremia is thought to be caused by overdrinking. Although rare, hyponatremia can result in seizure, coma, and death, so it is vital that athletes learn about the condition and how to prevent it.

Who’s at Risk for Hyponatremia?

Anyone who drinks too much and does not adequately replace the sodium that is lost in sweat

risks hyponatremia, but certain people should be especially careful:

• Endurance athletes – those exercising more than four hours

• Athletes on low sodium diets

• Beginning marathoners who tend to be slower and are hyper-vigilant about hydration

• Athletes who overhydrate before, during, and after exercise

• Salty sweaters – those athletes whose skin and clothes are caked with white residue after  

 exercise

Symptoms of Hyponatremia

Watch for a combination of these symptoms, especially if you or somebody you know is at a

high risk for the condition.

Signs of hyponatremia can include:

• Rapid weight gain    • Swollen hands and feet     • Confusion     • Dizziness     • Nausea

• Throbbing headache     • Apathy     • Severe Fatigue     • Cramping     • Bloated stomach

• Wheezy breathing    • Seizure

Seek emergency care for hyponatremia victims. In most cases, they will be treated with:

• An intravenous solution of a concentrated sodium solution,

• A diuretic medication to speed water loss, and

• An anti-convulsive medication in the case of seizure

The Winning Hydration Plan

The best way to prevent both dehydration and hyponatremia is to learn the right way to hydrate.

Use the following tips to create your own hydration game plan:

• Drink to Stay Hydrated, Don’t Overdrink —

Your fluid-replacement plan should be designed to minimize loss of body weight so that you avoid dehydration during exercise but prevent weight gain from excess hydration during training or races. A good way to gauge your hourly sweat rate is to figure out the difference in body

weight plus your drink volume. For example, if you lost 11/2 pounds (24 oz) during the training, and drank 12 ounces, you should try to drink 36 oz (24 + 12) each hour during similar-intensity

training and racing. In this example, drinking 9 ounces every 15 minutes would do it.

Overdrinking dramatically increases the risk of hyponatremia. It is vital not to overdrink before a

race, because doing so can lower blood sodium even before the race begins. Also, don’t overdrink during or after the race!

• Maintain a Salty Diet

To make certain you replace all of the salt lost during training. During a long race (e.g. more than four hours), consider eating salty snacks such as pretzels, especially if you are a salty sweater.

• Favor Sports Drinks

 During long distance or intense training and competition drink sports drinks to help keep your

 Body hydrated, fueled and salted. The flavor of a sports drink will encourage you to drink

 enough to stay hydrated, the carbohydrate energy will fuel your active muscles, and the

 electrolytes will help replace some of what is lost in sweat. But remember don’t overdrink any

 fluid!

• Recognize Warning Signs of both heat illness and hyponatremia and learn to distinguish

 between the two. When in doubt, stop exercise, stop drinking and seek medical help fast.     

Coach's Tip - Running and Walking Your Perfect Marathon Pace

Running and Walking Your Perfect Marathon Pace

Adapted from: Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, by Hal Higdon

The simplest route to marathon success is to follow the so-called perfect pace that has the runner run or the walker walk at the same speed mile after mile for the full distance. Running or walking the right pace can speed you to the finish line. For instance, to run a 3-hour marathon, you simply run 26 consecutive miles in 6:52. Even pacing seems to work the best overall.

Coach Tom Grogon of Cincinnati agrees: "I want my runners to run at relatively even pace. Given this, they should view those who bolt out early as foolish people whom they will catch at the end."
If you really enjoy catching people, you can even try running or walking "negative splits." This means that you run or walk the second half of the race faster than the first half. The advantage of this approach is that at a time when most athletes are slowing down, you will be speeding up. You'll pass others, rather than have others pass you, which can be stimulating mentally.

 In picking any pace strategy, it's a good idea to know what you're doing before approaching the starting line. Here are some tips for finding the right pace: 1.) Choose a realistic goal. 2.) Believe in your pace chart: check each mile, making no changes in the first 20 miles (no matter how "good" you feel). 3.) At 20 miles, if you feel good, go for it; if not, hang in there. 4.) If the course is especially hilly, be prepared to make the necessary adjustments. Weather conditions also can affect your pace times. 5.) Carry your pace chart with you. This allows you to know how close you are to pace at every point in the race. 6.) Meeting intermediate time goals gives the runner or walker confidence and causes the miles to pass faster. You'll find it easier to run or walk using a pre-determined pace.
On race day, always consider that there are many factors that can affect your pace including wind, temperature and other weather condition, your level of health, hydration and nutrition and others.
Be careful about misjudging your own abilities and setting yourself up for failure on race day.  It's much more fun if you can successfully race your plan versus feeling that you have failed when you go slower.

The best pace-setting device inevitably becomes that in your own head. Experienced runners and walkers eventually know when to slow down and when to speed up. Experience thus becomes a major factor in marathon success as well as one of the fascinations of the race. Although ability and training certainly are major factors, the marathon definitely is a thinking man's (and woman's) race.

Running, walking or doing a combination at the correct pace for your ability level is crucial in the marathon, especially for the first time marathoner. It's so easy to start the race by going at too fast pace for which you are prepared. Your pace during the first mile oftentimes feels effortless due to the adrenaline rush and excitement of the event. If you run or walk the first mile or too fast, you'll pay dearly for the mistake in the later miles. A much better plan is to start out slower than what you hope to average and then run the middle miles at your chosen (hopefully realistic) pace. It's a better strategy to pick up the pace during the final miles when you know you can finish rather than starting aggressively. In the world of marathoning, there's no such theory as "putting the fast miles in the bank early in the race" and then holding on in the end. If you go that route, you will most assuredly visit the dreaded "wall" (the point in time when glycogen stores within the muscles have been depleted and as a result, the runner's pace slows considerably, oftentimes to a walk). During the marathon, constantly monitor how you are feeling, and adjust your pace accordingly based on your perceived energy level. Your past long training runs will enable you to do this.

Runner's Web has a wonderful tool, a marathon splits calculator, that enables you to key in a goal marathon time and view split times for shorter distances displayed in both miles and kilometers. Some texts have "race predictor charts" which will provide you with the opportunity to extrapolate from your shorter race times (e.g., 10K, half-marathon, etc.) a projected marathon times. Check out this great web site, MarathonGuide.com, for their "Race Time Predictor Chart". Use charts such as these as a guide in determining what pace you should theoretically be able to maintain for your marathon. The information derived from these charts is less-reliable if you haven't completed some training runs of 20 miles or longer.

Coach Tip: Dehydration - Too Little of a Good Thing

Keeping the body properly hydrated with the right fluids is essential to safety and performance in an endurance event. The fiercest competitor an endurance athlete faces is dehydration.

The first obvious sign of dehydration is thirst, but things can quickly get worse. Dehydration not

only hampers performance but also increases the risk of heat illnesses, such as heat exhaustion or potentially deadly heat stroke. The good news is that dehydration and heat illness can be prevented and performance improved simply by following the right fluid-replacement plan.

 

Signs of dehydration and heat illness can include:

• Headache    • Fatigue     • Dizziness     • Nausea     • Muscle cramps     • Weakness    

• Irritability     • Vomiting     • Heat flush     • Abnormal chills

 

Hyponatremia: Too Much of a Good Thing

While it’s important to drink enough to remain hydrated, overhydrating by drinking too much can

lead to a condition called hyponatremia, which is serious and sometimes deadly.

 

What is Hyponatremia?

Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when the level of sodium in the blood drops below

135 mEq/L (138-142 is normal).* Symptoms of hyponatremia usually begin at blood sodium values below 130, with values less than 120 resulting in a serious medical emergency. Exercise-related hyponatremia is thought to be caused by overdrinking. Although rare, hyponatremia can result in seizure, coma, and death, so it is vital that athletes learn about the condition and how to prevent it.

 

Who’s at Risk for Hyponatremia?

Anyone who drinks too much and does not adequately replace the sodium that is lost in sweat

risks hyponatremia, but certain people should be especially careful:

• Endurance athletes – those exercising more than four hours

• Athletes on low sodium diets

• Beginning marathoners who tend to be slower and are hyper-vigilant about hydration

• Athletes who overhydrate before, during, and after exercise

• Salty sweaters – those athletes whose skin and clothes are caked with white residue after  

  exercise

 

Symptoms of Hyponatremia

Watch for a combination of these symptoms, especially if you or somebody you know is at a

high risk for the condition.

 

Signs of hyponatremia can include:

• Rapid weight gain    • Swollen hands and feet     • Confusion     • Dizziness     • Nausea

• Throbbing headache     • Apathy     • Severe Fatigue     • Cramping     • Bloated stomach

• Wheezy breathing    • Seizure 

 

Seek emergency care for hyponatremia victims. In most cases, they will be treated with:

• An intravenous solution of a concentrated sodium solution,

• A diuretic medication to speed water loss, and

• An anti-convulsive medication in the case of seizure

 

The Winning Hydration Plan

The best way to prevent both dehydration and hyponatremia is to learn the right way to hydrate.

Use the following tips to create your own hydration game plan:

 

Drink to Stay Hydrated, Don’t Over drink —

Your fluid-replacement plan should be designed to minimize loss of body weight so that you avoid dehydration during exercise but prevent weight gain from excess hydration during training or races. A good way to gauge your hourly sweat rate is to figure out the difference in body

weight plus your drink volume. For example, if you lost 1 1/2 pounds (24 oz) during the training, and drank 12 ounces, you should try to drink 36 oz (24 + 12) each hour during similar-intensity

training and racing. In this example, drinking 9 ounces every 15 minutes would do it.

Overdrinking dramatically increases the risk of hyponatremia. It is vital not to overdrink before a

race, because doing so can lower blood sodium even before the race begins. Also, don’t

overdrink during or after the race!

 

Maintain a Salty Diet

To make certain you replace all of the salt lost during training. During a long race (e.g. more than four hours), consider eating salty snacks such as pretzels, especially if you are a salty sweater.

 

Favor Sports Drinks

  During long distance or intense training and competition drink sports drinks to help keep your

  Body hydrated, fueled and salted. The flavor of a sports drink will encourage you to drink

  enough to stay hydrated, the carbohydrate energy will fuel your active muscles, and the

  electrolytes will help replace some of what is lost in sweat. But remember don’t overdrink any

  fluid!

 

Recognize Warning Signs of both heat illness and hyponatremia and learn to distinguish

  between the two. When in doubt, stop exercise, stop drinking and seek medical help fast.