Got Sweat?

Today I was supposed to do a two-hour run, but this nagging foot injury has me somewhat sidelined. Instead I headed to the gym for two hours of aerobic action. Strapped on the iPod and hopped on the elliptical trainer between a couple of the regulars (so I assume). The retired male contingent generally gives younger men the cold shoulder in these situations. Not sure if it’s ‘cause they think I should be at work “paying my dues” or if I’ve somehow upset their daily equilibrium. Then again, maybe they’re just threatened by my good looks. :-)

But I digress… This ended up being an unintentionally important training day. I determined my “sweat rate.” Ya, I know, pretty disgusting, but also extremely important. I should have done this long ago.

In two hours of jumping from elliptical-to-treadmill-to-elliptical-to-treadmill (AAAAAARG!!!) I lost more than five pounds of fluid. Holy dehydration, Batman! Just think how much fluid I’ll need to ingest at Ironman! Needless to say, I’m definitely planning to make use of all aid stations on race day. As they say, hydrate or die...

A side note – When I was about 1-hour and 50-minutes into my sweat-a-thon WGAL News 8 sportscaster Mike Hostetler stepped onto the treadmill next to me. That didn’t last very long. He moved a couple machines away when he realized he was in my spray zone. :-)