For the past few years I have used Nathan handheld bottles for my hydration needs. These have worked well, and carried me through my first 50k quite successfully a few years back. This summer has been especially brutal in Florida... high heat and lots of humidity, day after day, week after week. I have begun to think about running another Ultramarathon and thus started looking for ways to carry a little more water on my runs while training in the heat. Looking ahead, I might have a chance to run in the mountains this fall so I also wanted to be able to carry a little more gear with me if desired. This led me to investigate hydration vests and packs.

I am generally a minimalist runner and want to have the least amount of gear (and weight) possible.

Many runners are happy with their hydration packs and bladder systems. After asking around, there is a bit of care that needs to be taken with them to keep them clean and keep them from "growing stuff" in the drinking tube, etc. Most modern bladders seem to be fairly easy to refill (think moving through aid stations quickly), but overall it seems that bottles / flasks would be a little easier to deal with.

I did try on a few small bladder hydration packs at the local stores and they just didn't feel great to me.

Based on a number of favorable reviews and the fact that the vest was reported to be wearable shirtless, I purchased the Salomon S-Lab Sense Ultra Set Hydration Vest which comes with two soft flask bottles.


Image credit: salomon.com


Image credit: salomon.com

My first run with the vest was very short but I did test the pack running shirtless and felt confident enough to try shirtless on a longer run.

My second run with vest was on one of those hot humid Florida days where absolutely every single square millimeter on one's person becomes drenched with sweat from head-to-toe. I wore the vest shirtless for 13 miles. It was "fine" running shirtless but I did notice the roughness of the fabric a bit and was definitely more susceptible to hot spots when I wore the pack shirtless. However, it is nice having the shirtless option since this increases airflow across the midriff, chest, and lower back. After 13 miles I put on a compression shirt underneath and just felt "aaaahhhhhh" as the pack completely disappeared on my body. I stuck with the compression shirt underneath for the remainder of that run (21 miles total).

My third run was during an all-morning rain and I ran the entire way (20 miles) with an Under Armour - Alter Ego compression shirt underneath as seen here:



The Salomon vest combined with compression shirt is definitely my preferred setup for long trail runs.

The running hat pictured above is by Outdoor Research and has a nice feature of mesh across the top of the head that is a separate layer under the top of the cap.

One thing I didn't notice until after I looked at my photos is that the bottles, when completely empty and left hanging out of the pockets, gave me a "Fembot" look. Next time I will tuck the bottle tops back inside the pockets.

The 2016 Gainesville "Thursday Night Lights" track meets begin on the evening of June 30. Cone Park Track will be host to track and field events for children and adults of all ages.

The cost is $1 admission at the gate to cover the cost of Timing and Starter.

Questions?

Contact: Coach Larry Holsey of the Gainesville Striders track and field organization

Dates: June 30, 2016

Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Location: Fred Cone Park - East University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641 (Google Map)

The schedule provided by Coach Larry Holsey is available as a PDF for download here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4BFIg0rntkSUVZaOHhkZUJ2NDA/view?usp=sharing

 

I have reproduced the schedule below for convenience (as in, I'm not an official source, I am just sharing the information I have been given)...

 

Running events

6:10pm 60 meter hurdles 10 under

6:20pm 40 Yard Dash All Ages (Football Ready)

6:30pm 600/800 meters All Ages (choose one or other to run)

6:45pm 100 meters All Ages (blocks allowed)

7:15pm 4x100 relay All Ages (mix and match is allowed)

7:45pm 1500 meters All Ages (2 heats)

8:00pm Sprint Medley All Ages

8:15pm Sprint Medley Adult Ages (Coaches/Parents)

8:20pm 300/200 meters All Ages (choose one or other to run)

8:45pm 3200 meters All Ages (1 heat)

 

Field Events

6:30pm Long Jump 8 and Up (Two Jumps)

6:30pm Shot Put All Ages (Bring your own implement)

 

This past weekend my friend Richard G. and I went to the local track to take some video of our running forms.



Here are two videos of my running, both edited with the OpenShot Video Editor.

The first video was taken on a GoPro Hero in 720p mode, with the camera at the end of a selfie stick while the camera operator rode a bike:




The second video was taken on a Nexus 6P smartphone in high FPS mode with the phone in stationary stable position (on a chair with Play-Doh to hold it in place). I believe the occasional jerkiness comes from the editing / conversion process and is not visible in the original video.



Edit: Front and rear views in slow motion, note the trialing left leg issue and the twist of the left foot on lift-off, crossover gait tendencies:



Here are some additional static images taken via frame capture of the GoPro video:

Racing a 15k three weeks after running a full marathon PR is not ideal. I managed to squeeze in some speed work and felt remarkably recovered on race day of the 2016 GATE River Run.

This year I once again rode the charter bus provided by Florida Track Club which is just one of the nice perks provided by the club.

I don't have much to report. It was another warm year. I ran faster than last year but not my fastest on this course.


Photo by Speedy Banana

My RunFlix race video:



The rest of this report is mostly photos.

A little over a month ago I ran the Ocala Marathon in a bit under 3:19, or 7:35 minutes per mile.

For the Five Points of Life Marathon, I was planning for even pacing of 7:10 - 7:30 per mile, hoping to earn a Boston Qualifying time (BQ) and run a personal best. I also thought that if I had an exceptional day I might finish in the top 5 to earn some prize money.

My final time was 3:12:14, or 7:20 per mile, which improves over my previous personal best marathon at Five Points last year and accomplished all of my goals (except for prize money).

A confident start:


Photo by Five Points of Life (via Facebook)

My first half ended up being a little faster than the second half but splits were pretty consistent. I resisted the urge to push the pace. A good portion of the race included the company of Rob Robins who I know through various ways. The first part of the race was relatively cool, and even as the sun rose higher and higher we had some cloud cover until about mile 15. Heat is always a potential adversary in Florida and we started seeing the carnage of the warm day after about mile 15, with quite a few people coming back to us. We saw at least three runners ahead of us stop to walk. We plowed on at the same consistent pace and kept moving up in the standings.

Somewhere near mile 20 the aid station was located just past and sort of behind the relay exchange tent. When Rob and I ran past there was one guy standing there with one cup of water. I grabbed the cup and there was no way for Rob to get a water without turning around and running back for it. We yelled some angry words. They need to fix that layout next year and maybe give just a little more training to the aid crews. Since it was really warming up by this point I shared the water with Rob. It must have helped since Rob soon started to pull away and I wasn't able to keep up.

Miles 24 onward were very hard for me due to full sun and heat. I'm pretty sure we were warmer by the finish than this year's Olympic Trials in L.A. I pushed on and didn't completely fall apart, with my last couple miles in 7:40ish pace. I took 5 or 6 energy gels total. I took water at every aid station and what I didn't drink I poured over myself for cooling.

Congrats to Rob Robins who is an endurance machine, running his first marathon in 3:10:11. Rob finished 5th and earned some award money. I finished 6th overall and took 1st Masters.

Relieved at the finish:


Photo by BB Action Photo

More pics follow...