Importance of Hydration

 Went on a hike to Mount Monadnock this weekend. The first thousand feet up were the hardest. My feet were in pain and I was huffing and puffing. I could push through the huffing and puffing by going slow and steady. But the pain in my feet was debilitating. I had been on a juice cleanse for the last few days before the hike. The day before the hike, I stopped the cleanse abruptly out of fear that I would need to pee while on the mountain. So essentially I started the hike dehydrated. Luckily I was carrying almost 2litres water. So 1000 feet up... after taking a few breaks, I decided to drink water and see if that helped. Miraculously, it did. The pain in my feet went away. Over time, as I climbed more,  I was able to go up easily. To protect my knees as much as possible, I was using my core to pick them up as much as possible. And that was helping. I was still huffing and puffing. But I think the hydration helped with that too. And I realized how much we underestimate the importance of water. It made me think that maybe if I hydrate before I go running, it will improve my running performance.  It's a good experiment to try out. 

The one thing I couldn't figure out was how to protect my knees while climbing down. I had trouble compared to other people. And I think it's my knees. I need a way to climb down on rocks without bending my knees too much or putting too much impact on my knees. Maybe I need to climb stairs up and down as an exercise to strengthen my knees. Not fast or aggressively, but just to add repetitive movement of the same kind so my knee joint gets stronger in that regard. Yet another experiment to try out. :)