Hydrate Days Early (if not perpetually)
Once you start a run or a race, your intake of water and electrolytes are pretty much just to try to keep up. On a hot day, that might not happen. So, if you don't start off well-hydrated, and as or more importantly, with sufficient electrolyte levels, you're already, um, well, screwed. Sorry about the language, but speaking as someone who's taken that fun ambulance ride after a race, "screwed" is a really apt word.
Really, you should be getting 2-3 liters of water a day anyway, but at least make sure you're doing it for a couple of days before a long run.
But here's a twist for you - more runners die from hyponatremia, having abnormally low blood sodium levels, than dehydration. So, drink, but don't guzzle water during the run, and use some electrolyte supplements.
The USA Track and Field Federation published an advisory concerning proper hydration. It's a little dense, but we all need to be well-informed on this. Here's an important bit:
To ensure proper pre-exercise hydration, the athlete should consume
approximately 500 to 600 ml (17 to 20 fl oz) of water or a sports drink 2 to 3
hours before exercise and 300 to 360 ml (10 to 12 fl oz) of water or a sports
drink 0 to 10 minutes before exercise.
Nutrition
Like hydration, nutrition should be an ongoing, consistent thing, but let's be serious - I ate fried pickles, steak fries, and beer for dinner last night. Some days are like that. As the mileage gets longer, you'll start to find some benefit from regulating what you eat in the day or two before your long run. Really, the ideal time to get some carbs in you is a couple of days before a race or long run (not, as Michael Scott might instruct, minutes before the run). The night before, having a moderate amount of pasta is a good thing. Avoid overeating (why I don't cook for myself the night before a race or run anymore), and I'd suggest avoiding eating a lot of grease, or using a cream sauce, etc.
Eating a big salad the night before a run not only will fail to give you the stuff you need, but is likely to cause other problems... You know what I'm talking about. And, there's nothing wrong with having a beer or glass of wine, but too much of it will jack with your stomach in the morning, too.
On the morning of your run or race, ya gotta eat. Lots of you say you don't want to eat in the morning. Well, your body sure as hell wants you to, if you're about to make it run eight or more miles. Some of us may get by not eating much for a shorter run, but I know for me, and most people I know, you start running seven or eight miles, you need some fuel.
What people eat is highly individual, but you want carbs that you're going to be able to access fairly easily, but that won't burn up immediately. Most people go with a bagel with a littel peanut butter or cream cheese (if your stomach is OK with oil or fat that early), toast, or oatmeal. The timing of this is important... we'll get to that later...
At some point, you're going to want to take in more nutrition during your runs, but I don't think you need energy gels or anything for distances less than 10 miles, unless you're my 310 pound friend Tom, who probably burns through a stack of pancakes getting to his car to go to the run. If you want to bring a light snack for during the run, you might experiment with that. One friend brings "fruit leather", which sounded disgusting until I was starving on a run one morning.
Pooping and Peeing: Everybody Does It, and It's All About Timing
Here ya go, the promised (and apparently highly anticipated) bit about doing what you do when you do what you do.
#1. As in, Number One. Not as much of a problem, clearly. Most of you have figured this out by now, but here's a few points. Don't drink too much too late at night, or you'll have to keep getting up. For races, plan time to hit the long lines at the porta potties right before the race. When you're running a half marathon or marathon, try to use the facilities, but the fact is, the first mile or two of every marathon or half marathon I've seen has been lined with, uhh... urinators. Do what you gotta do. If you're chasing a time, and you gotta go... well, let's just say that people won't stop to... go. Then, they'll throw water on themselves when they can. If you do this, I don't want a post-race hug, and I jsut don't want to know about it. You better be qualifying for Boston or the Olympics to justify that, and if that's the case, you need a better coach, anyway.
#2. Here's where you get into issues. The night before a long run, you need to eat early, so the whole process can get moving. Before a 7am start time, I'll ideally eat a good dinner at 5:30 or 6:00, or at least no later than 7:30 or 8:00. Getting enough water helps, too. Then, in the morning, as soon as I'm up, I eat, to get what are hopefully the final stages of that process going. I plan my run morning schedule so I can have an hour between eating and, uhh, hopefully, delivery of the ordinance over the intended target (which is your toilet, and not a nasty porta-potty).
If you're on a long run and gotta go, just do it as soon as possible. Waiting will just make things worse, and mess up your run. I have more detail here, but just, please take my word for it.
Pace
Many of you keep talking about wanting to get faster. That's understandable and admirable, but dangerous and quite possibly counterproductive. The majority of you are still beginners, at least in terms of running distances over three to five miles. When you start running eight, ten, or more miles, it's a whole different ballgame.
Just. Be. Patient. Every single coach I've had, best to worst, has hammered that into me. Focus on running the distances, running them at the right effort level, keep making it to the weekday group workouts, and you will, eventually, get faster. If I'm doing my job, and you're doing yours, the speed will come. If you try to force it, if you run all your runs obsessing on your watch, you're missing the objective of the run, and you aren't even necessarily as likely to get faster. If you want to understand why this is so, check out this article by Greg McMillan.
When you come out on Tuesday or Wednesday, those are often your days to drop the hammer, but even then, you have to trust the workout, and run the proper paces. Then, I do expect to see you working hard. But otherwise, be patient. What good is a minimal increase in speed if you burn out or get injured and can't use it?
After the run
Again, now that we're getting into longer mileage, and even more demanding quality workouts, you have to take the responsibility of doing the little things after your runs, and really, every day, to take care of yourself. These things may be small, but they will make a tremendous difference in your recovery, and therefore, your ability to run again and stay injury-free.
- Stretch - When you're done with the run, just go ahead and stretch immediately. Stretch while you chat and drink water. I always forget or do the "I'll stretch at home" thing, which virtually never happens.
- Eat - Getting the right mix of protein and carbs in your body within the 35 or 40 minutes following your run will dramatically impact your recovery. Here's another great article by Greg McMillan, about post-run nutrition. Again, a lot of people don't feel like eating right after a run. Chocolate milk is supposed to be a good option for those people, or, believe it or not, a Slimfast shake.
- Take an ice bath - Unpleasant? Hell, yes. Effective? Hell, yes. Ask Jean or Matt - I think they'll both attest to how much better their recoveries have been lately when they took an ice bath. And if it's good enough for Paula Radcliffe, it's good enough for me (mmm... Paula...). Anyway, dump enough ice in the tub to really drop the temp into the 40's or 50's, and get in for 10-15 minutes. Wear a sweatshirt so your top half doesn't suffer. Drink some hot chocolate or coffee or whatever. In the winter, when I know the pool is cold enough, I'll just go get up to my waist in it, hang on the edge, and make phone calls. Lots of people like Barton Springs - it's better than nothing, but not really cold enough. Yes, there are some disbelievers out there. That's all I'm going to say about them, though. I will also point out that I found a disturbing number of people post videos of their post-run ice baths on You Tube. I did not watch any of them.
- Stretch again - Most of us run, stretch a little, maybe sit around and eat and talk, then get into our cars and sit with our legs bent up to get home. Within that first hour or two, we usually are doing everything possible to let our legs get tight. So, if I can remember to do it, I like to stretch again once, even twice, over the next few hours.
You should all be at the point, incidentally, where you call yourselves runners. You've earned that by virtue of your work, commitment, and sacrifices. Every single one of you are out there working hard for hours and hours every week. You've all made alterations in your routine, and very real sacrifices, to train. Don't let it all get derailed because you don't take a few minutes to stretch, or do footdrills, or throw down a breakfast taco after a run. Build these things into your routine, and be a student of running, learning the how and why of these things when you can. It's what runners do.
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