How to Have a Dehydrated Run

Common running questions people ask include: 'How do you stay hydrated?', or 'How do you fuel for a long run?'  Others ask, 'How do you get faster?' or 'How do you do speedwork?'  Then they realize that I have no idea what I'm talking about so they ask someone else. 

But the #1 question people ask me, consistently, is: 'How do you have a dehydrated run?'  I know this is a very important thing to learn about running.  It's just like some opinions on the fueling thing: it's better to teach your muscles to go without water so when they get water they're sooo happy.  Right?  Right everyone?!

So here's how everyone can learn to be an awesome dehydrated runner like me.  It's super easy.  Just follow these 6 simple steps.  And send me $19.95 plus shipping and handling. 

1) Go to Vegas for the weekend.  Vegas is key to making the dehydrated thing happen.  You can try to recreate the effects of Vegas but it will be difficult.  Make sure that you run during the middle of the day when the sun is high. 

I'm in Vegas - Check.  In all the times I've been to Vegas INCLUDING living there this is the very first picture of me at the famous 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign. 

2) Stay up way too late.  Since I normally go to bed at 10pm (after having already fallen asleep on the couch, yes I'm a huge party animal), staying up past midnight counts. 

 

Staying up until 2am (SO late for this old lady!) playing poker might be a mistake.  Look - there's Molly and I's names up there!  We're famous. 

 

I had to laugh and take this picture.  This is what the sports book at Excalibur looked like around midnight.  Not going to lie, I was jealous of them.  

3) Drink one too many glasses of champagne.  This is KEY in the whole dehydration thing.  Do not, I repeat DO NOT skip this step. 

 Isn't that the most adorable little tiny bottle of champagne you've ever seen?  We had to buy it.  It was too adorable to leave behind.

4) Stay on  your feet ALL. FREAKING. DAY the day before.  If you want to make it worse, wear Glitter Tom's that give you the worst blister of all time. 

  

 I walked all over freaking Europe the day before. 

5) Fatigue your muscles by participating in handstand competitions.

I determined myself to be the winner in this handstand competition.  It helped that I could just barely touch the ceiling with my toes.

6) Don't drink water.  Ever.  No matter how thirsty you are, see Step #3 and drink champagne to fulfill your thirst instead.  After all, you don't want to get that Legionella bacteria Luxor had in their water.  Definitely don't bring water on the run either.  That is key. 

Further exhaust yourself in grueling punching- and Thriller-related photo shoots. 

And there you have it!  You too, like me, can be a dehydrated runner and can run 6.2 miles and suffer for every-single-minute of those 54 minutes!  I also sadly ended up using this for my 10k for Running with Spatulas' Virtual Race because other attempts to actually "race" it totally failed.  Yes I'm having some issues with running.

An alternative title for this post should have been The Thirsty Games: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor.

Ever had a dehydrated run?  Do you have any tips to add to this list that I missed?  Has this ever happened to you?   

A Very Hungry Vegas Trip

Yesterday I talked about my Vegas Shenanigans, but now let’s talk Vegas food, since last weekend seemed to revolve entirely around eating, my favorite pastime.  Our friend lives in Juneau, Alaska and they have ZERO restaurants or fast food except McDonalds so every time he comes to visit we’re on a mission to eat at Taco Bell, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, etc.  It’s ridiculous and we often make fun of him.  Except now he has some ammo on me because this weekend I did the exact same thing!

Vegas is so strange because I always feel like I eat huge meals and eat extremely poorly (there’s not an apple or carrot stick in sight after all), but I really only eat one meal a day, so maybe it balances out?  

So without further ado... my reviews of my one big meal a day in Vegas!

Our first stop on Friday after touching down in Vegas: Cane’s (also called Raising Cane's).  Have you had it?  We fell in love with it when we lived in Vegas and unfortunately the west coast hasn’t been blessed with this deliciousness.  They sell chicken fingers, fries, and Texas toast exclusively, and they do a freaking good job of making those things.  Sounds like a very healthy meal right?  

 Heart attack Deliciousness on a plate.

I don’t like fried chicken, so the fact that I love it indicates how good it is.  It’s not crispy fried, it’s very juicy and very tender.  The crinkle-cut fries are delightful and the Texas toast is amazing.  I hate coleslaw (and anything containing anything even remotely resembling mayo) so I’ve never had it, can’t tell you about that.  If you haven’t had Cane's yet, EAT IT!

On Saturday our big meal was at Stack, a fancy over-priced steakhouse at The Mirage.  First we decided to get dressed up and have a photo shoot.  The hotel door is a perfect back-drop for photo shoots, in case you needed some photography tips. 

 

Those evil glitter Tom's which I formerly loved gave me the nastiest blister ever that I fear will hinder my running this week.  I'm not sure I can ever wear them again!  Anyone want to buy Glitter Tom's in size 9.5?  Blister blood included.

Steakhouses are so not my style (or JMan’s really either, although he does love steak), but we went along to be a good sport for our friends.  I had a salad because I’m not big into spending $40 on a steak and it was underwhelming.  It was called the “garbage salad”, nice name, right?  JMan’s steak was delicious and melt-in-your-mouth tender, so I guess if you’re looking for a good steak this is your place, but if you’d rather spend less than one of your first-born I suggest looking elsewhere.

We started with this thing called "Hot Rocks" which was just that - really thin pieces of sirloin that you cooked at your table on a "hot rock".  It was entertaining, fun, and delicious, although for the price it should have come with way more than 6 pieces of beef to share 4 ways!

Mike got the rib eye and he said it was the best steak he'd ever had.  Clearly, as it's all gone!  So take his word for it folks, Stack has expensive awesome steaks.

On Sunday my big meal was at CAFÉ RIO!  After reading about Hungry Runner Girl’s many outings at Café Rio and seeing her delicious looking food, I was always so jealous that we don’t have one (the closest one is about 5 hours away in Couer D'Alene).  Well on Sunday I had planned to meet up with my long-lost teacher friends the Heathers (both their names are Heather, we all taught 3^rd grade together, and they are both amazing!), and when Heather #1 recommended eating at Café Rio I was immediately ECSTATIC to finally get to try this place.  It did not disappoint.  I was delighted with my fire-grilled chicken salad, with the hand-made tortilla being of course the best part.  I think its way better than Chipotle, though I’m sure my meal had about 1,500 calories and you can bet I ate the whole entire thing.  It’s okay though because it was pretty much the only meal I had all day.  

 This wasn't my food but it looks eerily similar!  source

And finally, the grand finale, on Monday we finally went to Hash House a Go Go.  After seeing this little diner go viral via the Man vs. Food TV show, I had always wanted to go there, but it’s off the strip and a hassle to get to and on past trips it just never happened.  Well now there are like 5 of them in Vegas and we had a car and time to kill before heading to the airport so we finally went there for the famous chicken and waffles.

We went to the one at the new M Casino, since I hadn't been there before either. 

It was good.  It wasn’t the most amazing thing I’ve ever had.  But here is what WAS amazing: BACON COOKED INSIDE WAFFLES!!!!!  Oh my gosh.  That’s the best idea EVER!  Why have I not thought of this before?  Eating bacon with maple syrup is a favorite past time of mine, so putting the bacon inside a waffle seems to be a natural next step.  I WILL be recreating this at home.  Only with crispier waffles, their waffles were too thick and not crispy enough.  And the fried chicken was TOO crispy (too much breading for my liking, as I mentioned before, I don’t really like fried things) and didn’t have much flavor.  At the very least it needed to be saltier and also probably include some of the sage flavor they were advertising.  I wouldn’t mind trying other things there but it wasn’t my favorite restaurant of all time. 

They do get an A+++ for presentation.

Finally, the coupe de grace.  GOLDEN SPOON!  When we lived in Vegas this was THE best place for  frozen yogurt.  Soooo good.  This was before the big uprising of self-serve Yogurtlands and Menchie’s, so Golden Spoon was ahead of its time.  I was sadly unsatisfied though, and I don't think I will be making a special visit here on any subsequent Vegas trip (and will stop begging them on their website to come to the Northwest).  I had 3 flavors: Peanut Butter Cup, which was as great as I remembered, Cake Batter, which was good but not fabulous for being a flavor notoriously done well by froyo, and Pistachio, which was so bad I didn't even eat it all.  You know it's BAD if Ricole doesn't finish it.

Now it's back to apples and carrot sticks.  Boo.
Name your top 3 restaurants of all time!  GO!

Vegas Shenanigans

Remember when I got to go Disney Princess Half Marathon it up in Orlando?  Yeah, that was a blast and a half.  I’m STILL talking about it.  Well I got to do that, and JMan go to go to Vegas with his friends.  Except this turned out to be a couples trip, so I lucked out and got to do both!  I’m a lucky gal. 

So you may have already figured out from my super cryptic puzzle I gave you on Monday about Where in the World is Ricole Runs, this weekend we headed to Vegas for a little sun and fun.  Although the sun could have done a better job of impressing me the fun did not disappoint.  I didn’t work, I didn’t blog, I didn't refine my dissertation proposal, in fact I didn’t do much of anything except hang out with JMan and two of the funnest folks around, Mike and Molly, eat my way through Vegas, and read my book at the pool.  Although the weather was  far from ideal, on Sunday afternoon it was nice enough in the secluded (i..e, wind-free) area of the MGM pool to lay out for a bit.  A bit cold for any pool-dipping but reading and hot-tubbing happened

 

This is a really good picture of all of us.  Very flattering.

In case you didn’t know, we lived in Las Vegas a few years ago, but moved away in 2007, so I always feel really nostalgic when we visit.  It was where we lived for the first year JMan and I were married, after all!  Moving from Vegas to Seattle, the #1 thing I absolutely terribly miss is the SUN.  Obviously.  It is sunny there every single day, even when it’s cold (it can be deceiving, as it was on the last day when I dressed in shorts and a tank top only to find it was 50 degrees and very windy!). 

That's our adorable little house we used to live in.  Yes we pulled a "drive-by" and reminisced.  Stalker much?  Look at that blue sky!

Things I don’t miss though are the associated dirt and dust, nothing is green, and you never get that deliciously fresh smell the forests of the Pacific Northwest afford. 

A variety of different Vegas shenanigans happened.  

We all got our poker on at Bally’s (a bust) and Excalibur.  JMan and Mike played poker at pretty much every single casino in Las Vegas but Molly and I aren’t such big gamblers.  Gambling wise I lost $1 on slot machines and about $20 at poker.  Yep, I’m a high roller.  And you can bet I was devastated about that $20.  THAT COULD HAVE BOUGHT ME A 5K RACE ENTRY! 

 Slot-machines were pretty much the extent of our gambling.  I lost my $1 but Molly cleaned up.

Molly and I left the gambling to the boys.

 I got in trouble for taking this picture.  Look how stern that lady looks!

  

 Hat competitions happened.  I saw this hat and instantly called it the Blossom hat.  Agree?!  If you don't know what Blossom is we have a problem.

We stayed at New York New York and it was adequate.  Their pool was closed for maintenance which they failed to tell us when we booked the room or when we checked it.  They tried to appease us with 2 measly free drink tickets that we didn’t even end up using (which goes against my policy of not getting any and all free things!).  Very disappointing NYNY.  The plus from this I guess is that the MGM Pool (where we could go instead as it’s in the MLife Family) was waaaay nicer than the NYNY pool.

 Our room at New York New York.  Simple, but classy.  And don't forget cheap.  That's the #1 ammenity we look for in a hotel room.

"Casino-crawling" our way down the strip happened. 

Hugging horse-dragon statues happened.  Remember how I'm going to have at least two horses on my farm?  Well make those dragon-horses instead please.

And also hugging ancient warrior statues happened.  Yes I wear Nike's with skirts.  Deal with it.

And my very first ever trip to the famous Las Vegas sign happened!  Can you believe I'd never been here before?  I got duped by the lady ofering to take our picture "for a tip".  JMan and Mike were not amused by my naivety. 

Two thumbs up for a fun trip!

Now back to the battle of the exes real world challenge real world. 

Have you been to Las Vegas?  What's your favorite Vegas Shenanigan?  Where's your favorite place to stay and what's your favorite thing to do?