Photo by McKay SavageHave you ever been out for a run, opened your water bottle or taken a sip from your hydration pack, and discovered that the water is either frozen or so warm that it is unpalatable? On those days when it is really cold out or really hot out, you need to be sure to keep hydrated but it presents its own difficulties.
There is an easy way to moderate the water temperatures, though, so that the water remains available for a longer period of time over the course of your run.
Up until this past year, I rarely carried water with me and never really had to deal with this sort of situation. My first 50k trail race brought home to me the need for carrying your own water, and I purchased both a handheld water bottle and a backpack with a water bottle similar to a CamelBak but manufactured by the North Face. As such, I have had to rely on others for advice when it comes to carrying water.
When you are running in extreme hot or cold temperatures, here are some easy steps that you can take to keep your water potable.
- Start with hot or cold water. If it is hot out, put some ice cubes or partially freeze the water before setting out. If it is cold out, use lukewarm water.
- Ditch the water bottle. Using a backpack style hydration pack with a bladder instead. In both hot and cold temperatures, it takes longer to freeze or heat a larger volume of water. In the heat, holding a water bottle in your hand is going to warm it up faster than wearing a bladder inside of a backpack on top of your clothes and in the cold you will not be carrying a lump of ice that will freeze your hands.
- Position the pack appropriately. In the heat, keep the pack outside of your shirt. In the cold, you can wear the pack in between layers to provide some added insulation.
- Clear the hose after each sip. Once you are done drinking from the pack, blow air back into the hose. This will push the water in the hose back into the bladder where it will be slower to heat or freeze. It will also prevent you from losing access to the water in the bladder if your nozzle freezes because there will be less water to block it.
- Don’t blow too much air back into the hose. If you blow too much air back into the hose, the air will get into the bladder and the water will slosh around as you are running. Not that that will cause any problems, but it can be a little annoying.
That strategy should work pretty well for most conditions that you would run in.
I learned the tips for running in the heat from Jack Pilla, who beat me by about 15 minutes at the Pisgah race. I learned the cold weather tips yesterday from Ian Parlin. We ran out at Bradbury Mountain on the trails and Ian carried his water with him as he planned on running twice as far as I had been planning on. He got to test the air in the hose trick, which worked out pretty well for him.
I plan on experimenting with my hydration pack on my next long run, as my last few have left my mouth pretty dry by the end of the run. Running in the snow is a lot more work than running on the roads (and a lot more fun.)
Do you really find a need to keep your water cool? I live and run in some pretty hot temperatures and find that I really don’t care if the water is cold or not. I often will choose warmer water after a run as opposed to cool or cold water.
As long as the water is not hot (more than 100 degrees) I don’t mind it not being cold.
I have never found an opportunity to need to keep my water cool, no. But, I’ve only been carrying water on my run for about 3 or 4 months now. Before that, I either did without or found some while running or left some in opportune places before I started the run.
According to Jack, though, he had run a 100k last Summer that had temperatures north of 100 and he had trouble drinking his water because it wasn’t palatable due to the temperature. I assume that he knew what he was talking about.
I used to do a lot of hot weather running back in the day. I now do a fair amount of hot weather biking. Living in a hot climate, I’m used to my “cold” water being warm. That water would have to be pretty hot to be a problem. It might not taste that good, or encourage you to drink, but you can still drink it when you need it. It’s at least available.
Down here in south Louisiana and south Texas we freeze our Camelbaks because they keep us cooler running or biking. The ice starts melting almost the moment you take it out of the freezer. If you don’t have the chance to freeze the pak (hotel stay), you can fill it full of ice cubes and fill in water to top it off. I take cold water out of the tap and swirl it with more ice cubes to make it as cold as possible to keep the ice in my pak from melting as soon as I add water to it. That works almost as well as freezing the pak.
I can see where cold weather running could be a big problem if your water freezes. That makes your water unavailable, period. I would be much more concerned about having water I can’t drink because it’s frozen. The warm water technique you described sounds like the ticket.
Best of luck on your long runs whether hot or cold weather!