fitgeeks | Jul. 16th, 2010

When I run, I like to wear a watch that has a heart rate monitor built in. Unfortunately, I hadn't been doing that for a while because the battery in the watch was getting low enough that it couldn't detect the chest strap it uses to gather data. I also normally eat some Jelly Belly Sport beans when I run long distances because I sweat a lot. I mean, a lot. Like 4-6 pounds of water difference according to our bathroom scale. Unfortunately, I ran out of those a while back and haven't made a trip to the store where I buy them because I'd only been running 4-6 miles at a stretch, which isn't really long distance running in my book.

Anyway, I finally replaced the battery in my watch and monitored my heart rate while running. It was higher than I like to see it, but I figured that was just due to my not having paid attention to it which always causes me to run faster than I should when training and thus elevate my heart rate. Except it kept creeping up each time I ran even when I was being good about running slowly (over the course of about two weeks). Usually it gets better instead of worse. It should also be noted that I've been doing a lot of yard work recently and the temperature finally picked up. I think you all see where I'm headed with this.

It all came to a head on Wednesday night. I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping hydrated, but that night I had wine. Nothing heavy, actually a pretty mellow night as far as drinking went. But let's just say I had "stomach issues" that night. So I got some Gatorade yesterday and drank a big glass. Today when I went running, my heart rate was about 15-20 bpm lower than it was when I went running on Wednesday, and it always came back in to my preferred range after a hill or whatever.

Ok, ok, body chemistry, you win this time. I've learned my lesson. Turns out electrolytes aren't optional.