June 2, 2019 HMC Footnotes
Watered Down Health
Alan Tichenal, Ph.D., spoke at today’s clinic about hyponatremia, a condition in which sodium levels in the blood become too low, causing serious neurological problems.
Endurance athletes such as long-distance runners should be aware of this condition, as they are prone to loss of sodium though sweat over long periods of exercise time. While we do need to replenish our fluids along a run, drinking too much water may create that low-sodium imbalance. So, it’s important to know your own fluid intake needs. Dr. Tichenal recommended a simple method to determine about how much water to drink by weighing yourself before and after a run to find the amount of fluids you lost through exercise. Converting that weight to how many ounces of water you’d need to replace it will give you a good benchmark idea to keep you from over-hydrating.
Sports drinks are marketed with claims of replenishing electrolytes. This may give the impression that consuming such drinks instead of water would prevent low sodium levels from occurring. But, they don’t have enough sodium in them to keep up with sodium lost on a long run. The original sports drinks tried to add enough salt, but the flavor wasn’t popular, so they lowered the salt content to make it more palatable.
Power pretzels were recommended to help provide you with salt and carbohydrates along the run. The straight, thin pretzels that are easy to carry in a ziplock bag as you go for a run are a good type to bring, so you can eat a few at each water stop.
The main thing, as with any other activity, is to train carefully and be aware of what’s happening with your body. The first symptoms of hyponatremia are cloudy thinking, headache, or wanting to throw up. These are signs that something isn’t going well. If something is feeling off, don’t ignore it.
Check out Dr. Tichenal’s “Got Nutrition” daily tips for more information about nutrition at:
http://www.gotnutrients.net/index.cfm. You can also sign up for email notifications to get these daily tips sent to you.
The Little Things
Week 13. I’m sure you’ve heard it, or of more impact, you’ve felt it – Summer is here! While this period of time brings longer days that allow us to get our training in while it’s light, it also brings hot and humid conditions that challenge our training.
There are many trying things that happen under these running conditions, but the one thing that really rubs people the wrong way is chafing. Yes, chafing comes along when the distance increases, the heat is up, and we’re running in sweat-soaked clothes for hours. It’s a time when the rule for men is not to wear white before Labor Day, because the bloody nipples show too easily. It’s a season when you think you may have escaped the dreaded chafing on that last long run, until you get into a shower and let the water flow down your backside. Yes, the answer to the question that appeared in your head once thoughts could reform after the searing shock subsides a bit is – “you can chafe there.” You can chafe in many places you never thought of before you became a long-distance runner.
Luckily, there are allies in the this fight against friction, your newest foe in your battle for fitness. Running stores carry a wide variety of anti-chafing products. Your fashion conscious runners may go for the ones that don’t leave behind any white sticky mess on their clothes. Smell-aware people may choose scented alternatives and throw in some powder for good measure. Old school runners may be waiting on the sale at Longs to pick up petroleum jelly on the cheap. It’s all about what works best for you.
As you train, you will discover that different outfits cause chafing in different ways in different places. Consider it a new area of training. This is when you learn to cover any likely places that will rub you raw, so you can prevent it on race day. It provides a very personal roadmap to finding the right outfit for race day, and make sure that once you find the right outfit, you wear it to the marathon. Even if your best friend suddenly shows up with a brand new shirt so that you can be matching BFFs in on race day, refuse to change your planned gear. If they don’t understand and insist on your compliance, pick a fight with them for a minor reason that you can apologize for right after the marathon. Post-race, bring them a bottle of petroleum jelly as a peace offering. They’ll need it after they ran in that new outfit.
Welcome to this new realm of personal awareness that has been brought to you by marathon training. Everything you learn as you move closer to achieving your goal of finishing the Honolulu Marathon, is knowledge you’ve earned and should be proud of. This particular time will be one you can look back on fondly as the time that you persevered in the face of adversity and also learned to gently pat yourself dry with the towel after you turn the shower off.
Safety Reminders
- Stay hydrated on the road, whenever you run carry water or stop at water fountains. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty, drink water regularly along the route.
- Use sunscreen as directed on the bottle (30 SPF or higher) and wear sun-protective clothing because we’re out there in the sun for hours.
- Run single-file to share the sidewalk and road with other people.
- Run defensively. Watch out for cars and bicyclists. Give them room and don’t get into an altercation.
- Run with other people and if you run at night be sure you’re visible with lights and reflective clothing.
Pink Group (10 minutes per mile)
By Hao Yang
The Pink Group started at various times and locations this morning and did 8 to 10 miles. Our monthly distance goal is 10 miles for the month of June. We had Hao, Andy, Hong, Caasi, Ben, Horacio, and a few other runners in our group, today.
Next week is the Bus Run. Please be at the clinic at 7:15 a.m. if you plan to go. For those who are not going to the bus run, please check the Honolulu Marathon Clinic Pink Group Facebook page for other options.
Homework runs:
2 -3 times 60min+ runs during the week.
Thanks to all the table duty volunteers who provided delicious treats today!
Happy running!
Silver Group (10:30 – 11 minutes per mile)
By Carl Silva
The Silver Group jumped to 10 miles on this breezy, blue-sky day. Runners included Trieu, Jerome, Gene, Liz, Glenda, Bethany, Steph, Tiffany, Michael, Matthew, Lawrence, Ryan, Henry, Melissa, and Carl.
Our route took us out to the “phone booth” and back to the park. When we made it to the invisible phone booth, just past Waiholo Street, the group was told about how there was a phone booth at that spot about nine years ago. It made an excellent point of reference for the clinic members, to tell them where to turn around at the 5-mile mark. However, like a lot of things, change is inevitable and the phone booth was removed. Every so often, though, someone will mention it. So, now Silvers are in the know.
June 9: First Bus Run. $3 per rider. If you haven’t signed up for the bus run, some Silvers will be meeting at Waiholo Street at 7 a.m. to run out to Maunalua Bay to meet the Bus Runners. Bring water and your supplements if you use them.
June 16: 10-mile run. Meet at Waiholo to leave no later than 6:30 a.m. so the group can make it to the Clinic by 7:30 a.m.
White Group (12 minutes per mile)
By Russ Uchida
Five White group runners took on June’s first Sunday run of the month. Everyone’s personal schedules (vacations, ekiden, mother’s day, other marathons) have made for a pared down group of runners at varying conditioning levels.
This week, our usual leader Richard volunteered his time to oversee the snack table. He was joined by Jeff and Andy. Thank you for the great array of snack foods! It really hit the spot.
Our list of White group runners who were missing from this week’s run is longer than our total number of attendees. This week, we missed the presence of Violet, Danell, Helen, Shawna, and a few more. While their absence was missed, we were happy to have Elena back from her grandmotherly vacation in San Francisco! We were also joined by Edee, who, for scheduling reasons, completes half of her early morning run before the clinic and joins the group for the other half of her run. Jaime our steadfast regular and John (returning back for an abbreviated run) rounded out the count of runners to five (5). We were also fortunate to catch up to Blair and Vic on our trek up Diamond Head just before the first water stop. We hope that you will join us very soon.
Last but not least, the White group also had Sam watching over us as he drove by making sure we had no medical emergencies!
With humidity in the air, the group held a steady relaxing pace to ensure completion of the 8 mile route. Since many runners had missed the last couple of weeks, we decided to break in to June with an 8-mile run.
Congratulations to Richard for participating in the Ekiden run. Congratulations again to Elena, a new grandmother! A welcome back in advance to Danell, who is returning from a very envious trip to Hokkaido that was jam packed with great pictures of an array of tasty food and steamy hot pork ramen! So lucky! Please share your Japan stories on our run!!
Great to slowly get the group back on track. We will see you all on Sunday. Meanwhile, do your homework!!
Blue Group (12.5 minutes per mile)
By Val Ogi
The Blues did our first 10 miler. We made it to the Aloha Station beer cave to cool down and take this photo, no we didn’t drink any beer. It was nice to make it out there and get some Gatorade. Perhaps this gave us too much inspiration, two people got cramps, one side stitch, and one with severe calf cramping the last 2 miles. We tried a salt tab and mustard pack. Unfortunately, when we tried running it would trigger a spasm in the calf. When we got back to the park another member was feeling the effects from dehydration.
Hope all bring their gummies, bars, gels and whatever nutrition is needed for the bus run. Also remember sunscreen, sunglasses and hat for me, I had forgotten all of them, last Sun.
Thank you Andy, Jeff, and Rich for saving us with ice cold Gatorade, egg and tuna sandwiches, watermelon, mango bread and coffee!
Golden 14s (14 minutes per mile pace)
By Dean Takashige
Wow first Sunday in June..
We had a small group today but that didn’t stop us. We are working towards our goal of 8 miles for the month of June.
We learned today that we should not limit our salt intake since we lose a lot through perspiration. In addition to that the longer we are out on the road, as we drink more water this dilutes the sodium content in our system.
The main point to remember is listen to your body. If you don’t feel well let someone know..
Our route took us to the Kahala gas station and back to the park. We will continue to add about 30-45 minutes each month to our Sunday runs. So please plan accordingly.
This coming Sunday will be our first bus run. From our base at Kapiolani park we will ride the bus to about the 18 Mile Mark on the marathon route. We will get dropped off and start our run and head back to the park. The total distance will be approximately 7.5 miles.
Please be at the park no later than 7:15 a.m. The bus will depart at 7:30 a.m.
Have $3 in hand to pay for the bus ride.
Keep up your homework of an hour 2 times this week with a day off rest between training runs.
See you on Sunday…
Green 15s (15 minutes per mile pace)
By Lou Crompton
Our collective appreciation for the informative talk by Dr Alan Titchenal – and if he is reading this I want you to know I drank my water & Gatorade and ate power pretzels on our outing this morning… did not have any problems thanks to your advice.
Green Team had 12 in the corral as we departed for our 8 miler to start off June. Lou had several prizes / gifts to hand out – if you didn’t get one this AM, maybe next time you will get something useless – pardon, I mean a swell gift.
Today was a special day – we often get spread out over a couple blocks during our wanderings thru da aina, but today we did a great job of staying in a group. Congratulations to ALL green ones for finishing our free version of the Great Aloha Run. You did 8.1 miles in 2H 4M for a 15.4 m/m pace. Good job! And no one mentioned aches / pains at the finish! Yea… we’re getting healthier and fitter.
Muchas gracias to Jeff & 15 Staffer Andy for manning the refreshments table today. Next week is Bus Run #1 – we will start at Kal Hwy & HK Dr at the canoe halau and take 8.7 miles to return to our starting place. Green ones can already predict finish time.
Aloha!
Sweet 16s (16 minutes per mile pace)
By Annette Hayes
Thank you to Dr Alan Titchenal for educating us on the need to replace sodium during our workouts. Today was a good day to test our knowledge. It was a hot day, but the trade winds helped to push along.
As our time on the road becomes longer, and as the days grow warmer, remember to drink fluids to replace what you sweat out. Your body will also be using more carbohydrates and other electrolytes. Dr Scaff recommends “Power Pretzels” to munch on during or after your runs. Pretzels are easy to carry in a small ziplock bag. They provide carbohydrates and salt.
Thank you for the table volunteers who provide cool Gatorade at the end of the runs.
Our group today traveled along the Marathon route, to Triangle Park, down 18th avenue, to Kahala Park, and then to the gas station. We followed the same route back to Paki Park. Thank you to Jeff, Andy and Richard for the delicious array of snacks. Food to refuel the body is always welcomed.
Next week is the bus run. Come early with your $3 (donations are welcomed). Buses will begin loading at 7:15. We will get off the bus at Maunalua Bay. We will be walking back to the Park along the back end of the Marathon route, about 9 miles. There are few water stops along the way. Bring your own water bottle and remember to wear a hat and sunscreen.
Keep up with your homework.