Posts from February 19, 2008

What is "handheld hydration," you ask? It's a water bottle, dummy! Actually, in running circles, it is more than just a water bottle—it's a water bottle with some sort of sleeve or strap around it, for your hand to fit through. This allows a runner to carry the water bottle in their hand, without having to hold on to it.

As the distance on my long runs has increased I've found myself wishing that I had some water towards the end of my runs. In the last couple of weeks, I started taking a small Gatorade bottle with me on my long runs, but I would get tired of having to hold it throughout the run. So on Sunday, before going out for 6 miles, I stopped by our local Luke's Locker to pick up a handheld hydration system—the Quickdraw Plus, from Nathan Sports.

Overall, it was pretty good to run with. The Quickdraw Plus has a zippered pocket for storing small items (like my car key), an adjustable, and a reflective strap for a customized fit. The one downside was that my hand got pretty cold holding it for the first half of the run, as I had ice in the bottle, and had put it in the freezer for a while before my run. To help combat this, I switched hands often during the first mile, and then switched once per mile during the the rest of the run.

Have you used a hydration system while running? If so, what kind?

Just a couple of quick items:

• Comments are enabled, though I am not finished mucking around with them.
• My Recent Runs - I've added a new page at the ol' site—My Recent Runs. It lists information about my 10 most recent runs (runs where I used my Forerunner 305). The data is pulled from MotionBased.com, and includes links to more details at Motionbased, as well as to Google Maps and Google Earth.