How to Escape the Summer Running & Fitness Trap

Summer can feel like it should make fitness easier, but the reality is the opposite: aggressive heat, heavy humidity, pop-up storms, travel weekends, later dinners, and the kind of schedule blur that turns one late night into three. I call it the summer fitness trap, and if you’ve been stuck in the “I’ll restart Monday” cycle, this is your reset with a plan that actually fits real life.

We build a summer minimum you can keep even on messy days, using the good, better, best approach and “exercise confetti” (small pockets of movement that add up). I share simple anchors for consistency, plus practical ideas for mobility, strength snacks, and protecting your time without becoming rigid. If you want summer running tips that respect safety and sanity, we also talk about pacing by effort in heat and humidity, why your watch is not your boss, when the treadmill helps, and how run walk intervals can make training feel doable again.

Long runs get their own survival guide: how to split a long run strategically, how to fuel and cool down between sessions, and how to keep the whole process fun enough that you want to show up. We also cover hydration for runners (water earlier, electrolytes when sweat demands it) and simple nutrition support with protein, fiber, and snack strategy that travels with you.

If you want extra structure and community, I also share what Camp Runamuk is and who it’s for. Register here. 

If this helps, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who’s struggling in the heat, and leave a review so more runners and walkers can find these summer consistency tools. What’s your summer minimum going to be?

Transcript

The Summer Fitness Trap

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Hey friends, welcome back to Extraordinary Strides. It's Coach Christine here, and today we're talking about something I like to call the summer fitness trap. You know the one. Summer starts to peek around the corner, the days get longer, the sunshine lingers, and suddenly we convince ourselves that this is going to be the season where everything gets magically easier. We imagine more time for walks, more time for our long runs, more time outside. Of course, we think that there's like this beautiful bounty of summer harvest, so we'll have more colorful meals, and of course, we're gonna get our hydration and our stretching done, right? And not to mention that strength training. But somehow a fully balanced life with chilled watermelon waiting at the finish line is kind of what we envision. Well, that's a great vision. And I'm not saying that it's not possible, but tends to happen that summer actually shows up and it's already been knocking on the doors of many of you. The heat is aggressive before the sun actually even comes up. The humidity is doing unpaid emotional labor. It's definitely playing the starring role here in Florida. The rain rolls in exactly when you plan to run, and I know this to be the case because I have guided messages from you from quite a few of you saying, Hey, I was gonna go out for my run, but it's it's raining right now. Travel weekends start multiplying, kids need rides to camp, work schedule shift, office workloads often get heavier because everyone else is on vacation, so they are putting it on your to-do list. And suddenly that I'll have more time and summer plan starts to look a little unrealistic. So today we're gonna talk about how to rescue your summer before it runs away with your momentum. Now, this isn't about being stricter, this isn't about cutting out every fun thing, this is not about being the most disciplined person in the room while everyone else is enjoying ice cream and pool time. This is about how to add support, how to add smart movement options, how to add hydration, protein fiber. I mean, it's a lot, right? Adding snack strategy, flexibility, but also how to really make this fun by leaning into friends, community, and structure. So, with that said, my friend, this is also at the very heart behind Camp Runamuk, my 30-day virtual summer camp experience that kicks off June 1st. Camp Runamuk is built for runners, walkers, run walkers, movers and shakers, and grown women who want consistency, community, cabin team fun, weekly wellness focus audio runs. The list goes on and on and on. Just you have to trust me, this is truly a fun adventure that you don't even have to pack your gear for, and you don't need to worry about mosquito spray. But this episode is not just a commercial laced up in hiking boots, my friend, or trail running boots. This is going to be a very practical summer survival guide. So hang out with me here because we're gonna talk about heat, humidity, how much slower you should plan to go this time of year, how to split those long runs without feeling like you failed, and how to keep movement going when you travel, because fitting wellness into office days and kid camp logistics can feel like a lot. And this is really going to help you to make fitness feel fun enough that you actually want to keep showing up. So if you haven't already, let's get laced up, let's get out there, and of course, let's talk about rescuing our summer one smarts sparkly step at a time.

More Daylight Does Not Mean Time

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One of the biggest summer traps is believing that more daylight automatically means more time. And technically, yes, absolutely it does. The sun is hanging around longer, but your actual life may not uh really feel that much more open. Later sunsets can mean later dinners, it can mean later bedtimes. I know that so often happens, longer social evenings, more family activities, more travel days, and more. I'll just do it after this one more thing moment that currently turns into bedtime. Again, I get it, right? It's such a wonderful time of year and you want to make memories, but that can also mean that your schedule gets a little wonky because the day may look bigger from the outside, but inside your actual schedule, well, every hour already has some sunscreen fingerprints on it. That is why summer consistency cannot depend on the fantasy of unlimited time. It's just not gonna happen. Your energy isn't going to magically appear just because there's more daylight hours. Because summer also feels the way transitions feel. In the fall, winter, and spring, there may be firmer anchors around work, school, training, meals, or bedtime. But in summer, those edges blur. One week looks vastly different from the next. One weekend they can turn into a mini trip, and then one late night becomes three. And then, of course, late nights mean that those morning workouts are a little bit easier to skip, and then you get into the I'm just gonna restart on Monday loop. Again, trust me, I hear this frequently. The challenge is not that summer is bad for fitness, the challenge is that summer asks you to build consistency with very different tools than the one that you use through the regular schedule of fall and winter and spring. So instead of assuming that you're magically gonna have a whole lot more time, start by assuming that your time will need more protection. That does not mean that you need to become rigid or cranky or unavailable for fun. It means you decide ahead of time what matters enough to keep it in the mix. And maybe it's three movement days a week, maybe it's a daily walk or two strength sessions per week, one longer run, or really focusing and prioritizing hydration before your lunch. The point is not to try to do all of it. The point is to choose what helps you feel most like yourself, help you feel like you are making that continued investment and traction into your fitness and your schedule. Now, a summer plan needs those anchors, not just wishful thinking. That's really what it comes down to. Again, I feel a lot of messages of folks thinking that next week or tomorrow or Monday, our days are gonna magically have a whole lot more time. So they think that there's gonna be a lot more of that. Let's get it in. We can do in five workouts next week. We could do six workouts next week. But an anchor is going to help you be able to see that it's something simple that roots you in the here and now and helps you connect to the habit even when the day is not ideal. So let's see. It could be a little bit of that exercise confetti that I would love so much. It might be that 10-minute walk after coffee, a strength snack before lunches. It's called habit stacking, friends. A mobility break before bed. I'm a big fan of these. I just had a call with an athlete where we know you don't have all the time in the world. She's got a full-time life, she's got things that she needs to do. But that mobility, those stretching sessions, they don't have to be these dedicated hours upon hours of time. It could just be as simple as during a meeting, pop up your standing desk, do a few quad stretches, get in a little standing supported pigeon pose. I do that a lot during my meetings for the records, and just kind of really build it in into those points throughout our day and our schedule. It could also look like being more flexible regarding your travel and what your fitness looks like during that time. You still need to create that structure. You still need to have that structure that you're honoring, but being flexible about how you go about it when not everything shows up the way you would like it to. Because really waiting until life settles down is not a strategy. Summer is beautiful, it's joyful, it's social. I want you to get out and make memories. I also want you to be able to do that in a way that really still prioritizes your goals, your focus, your fitness, and your wellness. Because it's probably not going to organize itself just around your wellness goals on its own. You're going to have to give a place for those goals and that structure to live. So don't force the fitness into every single corner of your life. You need to add a few simple supports that help you to keep moving, to help you keep fueling and hydrating and recovering in the middle of the season that you actually have.

Build Your Summer Minimum

SPEAKER_00 8:30

So let's go into what that looks like. First and foremost, what I want you to do is build your summer minimum. Not your maximum when everything is perfect, the minimum. The minimum that you know that you have to commit to for you to stay focused. Now, when I ask athletes to do this, one of the first things that they do is that they commit to all of the things. I don't want that. I want you to think of good, better, best. When life is at its absolute most opportune, that's when you can fit all of those maximums or above the minimum efforts. Of course, we want that as well, and those do happen. But sometimes we have to scale it back to what is good enough for the day-to-day, and then allow that to be that starting point, that foundation that we build on for those better and best days. What that may look like is that you decide that every day I'm gonna get in 10 minutes of a walk. Every day I'm going to prioritize my hydration before lunchtime. Every day I'm going to figure out five minutes peppered out through my morning and five minutes every afternoon to do a little bit of mobility. Because what you want that minimum, that summer minimum to be is that even on a messy day, I will find a way to support myself. It's quite literally the antidote to the all or nothing thinking that will stick you in that perfection trap of not getting anything or any traction going. Your summer minimum should be small enough that it almost feels too doable. Let me let you settle in with that again. It needs to be where you almost think it's not enough. In this world where we want to do the 75 hards, or we want to do these really tough challenges where we're doing it all and yet we feel defeated when it doesn't happen on the third or fourth day. I want you to think of what can I do? What can I commit to? It feels almost easy. The point is if your minimum movement promise is 60 minutes every day, it's likely gonna fail the moment travel, heat, rain, or work chaos. And let's not forget that summer sickness that enters into the chat room one way or the other. But if your minimum is 10 minutes of intentional movement, you have options. You can walk, you can stretch, you can do mobility, you can complete a strength snack, you can march in place, you can take a short runner walk. That allows you to build off of it. If you're having those days where you're just lacking in motivation, but you are saying, yes, today I'm going to honor my summer minimum of getting in my 10 minutes. You may find that 10 minutes on that run or 10 minutes with your yoga can stretch a little bit longer. You're feeling a little bit better about it. So exercise confetti is going to be one of those most useful summer strategies. It removes the pressure of needing one perfect block of time. Five minutes here, 10 minutes there, a walk around the block, squats while dinner heats up, or mobility while the coffee brews really does create a strategy that helps keep you moving. And let's not even talk about the fact that exercise confetti is just basically a really fun way of approaching NEAT, which is non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And anyone who is at all thinking, I would like to have maybe a bit more of just well overall wellness, or you're looking at prioritizing how you maintain your weight, it comes through neat, that non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which we just like to make it a little bit more fun and call it exercise confetti around here. Just keeping your body moving without those dedicated blocks of runs or strength training. And just like you can create minimums around your movement, you can do that for your hydration, your nutrition, and your recovery. Your hydration minimum might be that you want to just confirm, like you get a glass of water every time you get a cup of coffee. Or it might mean that you have a protein minimum that you focus on. This is actually a conversation I had with one of my girlfriends earlier this week where she's said that she knows she needs to get in more protein, but the thought of a hundred percent tracking all of her macros just seems like a slippery slope for her that she doesn't want to go down. Okay, I see you, my friend. We don't have to get into a My Fitness pal, we don't have to get into a calorie app and track all of the things. But if what you know is that you need a focus on more protein, can you just do a quick mental math and look at making it something that you add 30 grams of protein for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner? That right there is a great way of just making it a summer minimum without it being overly complicated. How can you add it in in a way that works well for you? And if you're thinking 30 grams for three meals sounds like no way that's a minimum, that's my maximum. Okay, can you start with committing to 30 grams of protein for lunch or 30 grams of protein for dinner? Think about how it works for you. It's gonna look vastly different for different people that are listening to this, but what can you do to make that commitment? Instead of just wishing about it or thinking about it, how can we commit to a minimum that works well for us? For me, I particularly love, will always love, having a focus on protein and fiber throughout my meals, which for me looks like adding more produce or adding in just intentional protein sources. Again, it's gonna look very different. The goal is not to lower your standards, the goal is to build standards that can travel with you. So if you are stuck on vacation, living your best life at that all-inclusive resort, and you have a wonderful individual who's bringing you a beautiful little fruity drink with an umbrella on it, you still know that at dinner your minimum is to add in that 30 grams of protein. So maybe you order fish at dinner, or maybe you already had your water earlier in the day, or you're gonna commit to drinking a glass of water every time you have a fruity cocktail. Who knows? Maybe it looks like you're gonna just have a mocktail. But again, making it work with the enjoyment of summer is really how we're gonna get into this. And why that works is because what it does is it really, again, I'm gonna reiterate, you cannot get stuck in this all or nothing. It minimizes that all or nothing. Instead of saying, screw it, I've already had four fruity cocktails, I'm just gonna go all out and indulge. It lets you have a pocket of a baseline, a guideline, a guide rail, if you will, to just make sure that a part of how you are structuring your vacation or your travel or those days that are a little bit more flexy or loosey-goosey still has a pocket of wellness that continues to help you to move the needle to where you want to be. Also, there's a lot of beauty of just having routine and structure. So it lets you bring that pack that's routine and structure in a really easy, flexible way. So again, I feel like the minimum that good, better, best, and focusing on what we can do day-to-day that is good enough no matter what the day throws our way, helps to act as a safety net. So it's not our maximum. We could always go a little bit higher if the day allows us to or we choose to. But the reality is that at least it lets you have something that you set your guidelines and you set your standards on so that you can keep

Adjust Running For Heat And Humidity

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moving up. All right, my friend, this is the hardest one. This is the one where I feel like I'm fielding every single one of my athlete check-ins during this time of year. Is truly a I hate running. I'm too slow, it's too hard, it's just not fun when it's this hot, when it's this humid. I feel like I've lost all my fitness. It's tough. Summer running is going to ask a lot differently from you. It's gonna ask for a different kind of confidence. It's gonna be the confidence that you're going to have to use. It doesn't come from I'm able to crush all of my workouts at all of my paces that are assigned to me. It is more about having that confidence of I'm gonna keep showing up, I'm gonna keep being consistent. I know that the weather is gonna do what the weather's gonna do, and I can't control it, but I can control my mindset, I can make my adjustments to protect my efforts and to keep me on the trajectory of working towards my goals. So let's talk about what that looks like. When the temperature climbs and humidity enters the chat, it's you know, it's here in Florida year-round. Your body has to work harder to cool itself. I think we know that, right? That means your heart rate is going to spike a little bit sooner. Your breathing is gonna feel more labored, especially when you feel like you're filtering out that humidity, that wetness from the air. And your usual pace is going to feel incredibly spicy, even when you're not doing anything wrong. So, this is where I want you to know this is not a moral failing of you and your running. This is just the way that summer physics work. It's science, my friend. It's not drama. So let's keep the drama to a minimum by thinking of automatically knowing that come summertime, you are going to need to slow your pace by anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes or more, depending on the temperature, the humidity, sun exposure, hydration, your fitness, how well your body personally handles heat. Not every two people will be exactly the same in terms of how they handle and process heat. There could be two people who live in the same region, experience the same kind of training, have similar paces, but maybe wildly impacted very differently by the heat and humidity. So don't let those standard charts be the way that you specifically focus on your training. Let them be guides again on how to best assess your training and how to adjust for you to continue training through summer. For some of you, it may just be that you need to head indoors to the treadmill. And there's nothing wrong with that. For some of you, it may look like not signing up for fall races, knowing that summer is a bit more challenging, and spending summer more firmly rooted in cross-training or strength training. I do caution against having those total off seasons from summer or from any time of running, unless if you're injured, just because it can make it more difficult to get back into the structure of running again. But again, that is just something to take into consideration. Maybe it's instead of training for a full marathon or a half marathon come fall, you make this your season to focus on shorter speed sessions inside on the treadmill. One of the things that I really do want you to take into consideration though, is that your effort should be really what kind of rules the roost in terms of your training during summer. So if your easy run is supposed to feel like a four out of 10, your summer easy pace is likely going to shift versus what it looks like in those cooler temperatures. So again, you may need to slow down, you may need to add run walk if you're not using it, you may need to shorten your run intervals if you're already using run walk. You may need to, and please do, if you can, choose the shadiest route available to you. Um, but thinking of those different tools or tactics. So I would say the top tools is if you have a treadmill, use it. I am gonna ask you set it to a 1% incline, maybe even sometimes a little bit more to help mimic outdoor conditions. Do you know that training exclusively on a treadmill will not necessarily translate to an outdoor race if that race has more heat or humidity in terms of being acclimated? However, you will still maintain your fitness and that's always a good thing. But you want to shift to effort versus exclusively pace or use a little combination of both. This is a great time to really keep more mindful awareness of your heart rate, not letting it spike too much, not going too long or too fast or too far, so that your heart rate is constantly working in that upper four or even those fives for those long runs. It could also really mean, again, planning for our long runs to look very differently if you do have a 10k or a half or a full that you're training for. So let's talk a little bit about how you can do that. First and foremost, what I really want you to know is that your watch ain't your boss. Your body is. Your watch is there as another marker, another metric, another guide, but your watch is not there to run the show. Really, I want your body to be the best parameter that you use of figuring out what's best for you. So let your effort, your safety, and your recovery matter as much as your pace. Walk breaks are not a failure. They're not a failure anytime in the year, but especially in summer. They are a tool. I want you to use them often. They help you to manage your heat, they help to lower the intensity, they help to keep you moving longer and further, and they reduce the spiral that happens when the workout starts feeling harder than expected. Summer is a big time around here where a lot of my athletes, including myself, can pull back our run walk intervals to 30 30s or maybe. Maybe even 1530s, whatever it takes to help us to manage getting our heart rate nice and easy and keeping us moving and going. Now, I also want you to take into consideration this is what I discussed earlier, what makes summer a little bit harder. While the days are longer, they're also hotter. So there are less times in the day that you can get out there where the weather may be at your favor, where it is nice and cool and maybe not as humid. So you need to take that into consideration as to how you are structuring your training, and that can be a bit more challenging with those long runs.

Split Long Runs Without Guilt

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What I want us to talk about is how to split your long run and how to make smart adaptations. This is a little scary for a lot of folks in terms of splitting their long runs, but there is a lot of value in it if you are running in unsafe conditions because of heat or humidity, or just because of time commitments or storms. So I want you to hear this as well. Just like I said, that walking brakes are not a failure, splitting your long run is not a failure. There are ways to make it smart and even strategic. I want to let you know here that a split long run is still going to support your endurance, especially when the goal is overall time on feet. It also helps to support your aerobic volume and maintaining consistency. For example, if you have eight miles planned, you might want to do that early wake up, do five miles early in the morning as soon as it starts to get really warm or hot, or just that you know that you don't have enough time. You're gonna go back out there in the evening and you're gonna head off and finish up those three miles later on the treadmill, maybe, or maybe you do get outdoors, but it's a little bit cooler of a window. If you're training by time instead of mileage, you might do, let's say, 60 minutes outside and then 30 minutes later as a walk or run walk or an easy spin. You do want to, if at all possible, when you are splitting your long run, do the larger segment earlier and then the shorter segment later. I've trained very successfully for multiple races this way. Marine Corps 50K and Sydney. I swear by the split long runs, I've had athletes that have had some of their best, strongest marathon training seasons and actual strongest training from splitting their long runs. It is a viable tool to use. Now, when should it not be used? If you're training for your first endurance race, it could be a little challenging for you to see how splitting your long run will pay off for you on the race course that day. There is a lot of that mental need to know that you can go the distance. So you may be judicious as to how you use it. Potentially you just pepper it in when you have to because of travel commitments or again, unsafe weather conditions, maybe once or twice throughout that training season. Maybe it's not something that you do every single week. However, there are ways again to kind of pepper it in regardless of what you're training for. Now, one of the ways that I can tell you that if you do not want your split-long run to feel like it's because it's a failure, that you just couldn't go the distance, you just couldn't hang. The best way to do it is plan for it. Be strategic about it. Know that this is part of what you are doing. So decide ahead of time which part is supposed to be accomplished. The first part really needs to be your main endurance block done early while the sun is still pretending to be polite. It doesn't pretend to be polite around here at all. But the second part could potentially be that you know that you're gonna do that more as like a lighter easy movement, more recovery pace miles on the treadmill, and really in your mind define what that looks like before you even lace up, before you even put your training clothes out or your gear so that you're ready to go the next morning. Now, another thing that happens that you should take into consideration between fueling and cooling between those two sessions. Please don't stay on in your sweaty clothes all day long. Change out of those wet, gross, soggy clothes, cool your body down, eat something that has a really good ratio of carbohydrates and protein, rehydrate. See, my friends, I'm doing a little bit of that pigeon pose right here as I'm recording this. We really can hop in mobility no matter where we're at. But um, that supported pigeon pose, if you don't know what I'm talking about, it is so good. Okay, but you want to eat something with carbohydrates and protein, you want to rehydrate, you want to consider electrolytes if you sweat heavily. Um, do not treat the second session like punishment. Treat it like it's truly just part two of a training day that you were smart enough to modify. I love what I love about splitting my long runs. I am more intentional and more aware of my nutrition and my hydration between those split long runs, and if I would have just gone out and done my, let's say, 18 miles at one fell swoop. The reason being is because I know that I still need to be very mindful of my food intake because I'm going to be running later that day. So I know that I need to fuel appropriately, I know I need to hydrate appropriately, and I also know that that spicy margarita that's calling my name may need to wait until I'm completely done with my training cycle or my training session. Maybe not a great kind of cool little idea to have a spicy margarita in between those two sessions. So again, it gives me that added impetus of staying the course towards my longer term goals. And I think if you use it strategically, it could work for you as well. Now, again, there are some things to take into consideration before you add this in every single week. I would say that it should be on when the conditions really align for you to try it out. Unless if you're working specifically with a coach that has per those parameters in place for you. So one of the things that you could look at is the heat index if it's above a certain level, a stormy forecast, maybe because there's some tropical storms lingering or two, travel timing. This works really well for vacations for the record. Or again, a family schedule that makes just a full block unrealistic. That happens a lot this time of year as well. So decide ahead of time what you need, create that guideline, that minimum, remove some of that emotional drama. You are not giving up, you're choosing the version of training that keeps you moving forward.

Make Training Feel Fun Again

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Now we did talk quite a bit about how to split the long run, but what we didn't talk about is how do we make this long run or any of these workout aspects really super fun. Fun is going to be part of the strategy. And if you can't say that it's going to be fun or exciting, you at least need to make it where you know that it's somewhat rewarding during the process, not just afterwards. And utilizing fun as part of your long run training or any of your training is going to be truly one of the best strategic tools you can use in your toolbox when it gets to getting things done. It's not just fluff, it's actually not the opposite of discipline. For many people, fun is a reason they keep coming back long enough for consistency to take root. So if you're having trouble with consistency, fun may be at the real foundation of what you need to add more to. It could be that you need to really change our mindset about movement feeling like punishment or another thing in your to-do list, because when it does, it becomes easier to avoid. So movement needs to be feel connected. Maybe you need to connect to music, community, curiosity, play, encouragement, a little bit of sparkle. I've mentioned several times that for my long runs, I really, really like to split them up into loops. If I'm going into one structured long run, again, let's use 16 miles as an example. Instead of running one eight miles out and one eight miles back, I will do four loops of four. And I use my car as my aid station. And in my car, I will have a cooler that has all of the fun that I could always want. So it has hydration for me to refuel my bottle with. So here in Florida, pretty easy where I'm at, I can wrap my runs around the local publicized, pop in there, use their water, bottle over fillers. I can also grab an electro hydrating drink, electro light hydrating drink like a coconut water, or you know, a pickle pop or two can maybe help you go the distance.

Hydration That Actually Works

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Which brings us to the very next topic of conversation of our summer minimums: hydration, hydration, hydration. If you really want to make your workout feel more difficult, if you want to feel like you have less energy, if you want to feel more tired, if you want to feel more sluggish, if you want your heart to have to work harder to pump blood while you are getting in activity, then by all means skip this section and don't worry about your hydration game. But if you do want more energy, if you want to be able to cool your body more effectively, if you do want to feel a little bit more energetic throughout your day-to-day, then this is truly going to be foundational. It is truly one of the most simplest approaches that you could have to your support and your structure for summer. Now, why I said simple, I did not say it's necessarily the easiest because we tend to forget. And also because our bodies are still demanding more fluid because we're sweating more, it can be harder to actually get it in, right? So when you are working out during summer, and I already mentioned your heart rate's a little bit higher potentially, you're also sweating more, that impact can show up as more headaches, fatigue, crankiness, dizziness, poor recovery, poor sleep, or those runs in workouts just feeling harder. So hydration is, and I've said this before, I'm gonna say it here again, it is not something that you do only during your workout. If you're asking me what you need to do for your hydration during your workout, I hope that means that you already know what you're doing for your hydration the rest of the day, the rest of your week. If you're waiting until just your workout to hydrate, then it's already much too late. The first shift you need to really take into consideration is to hydrate earlier. So hydrate throughout the week, but also hydrate while you're early on in the run. A helpful summer habit is to drink water before lunch. I actually really would love for you to get in the habit of drinking a glass of water, maybe even before your morning coffee. Keep your water bottle canteen or glass of water visible. Add electrolytes when you know that sweating, heat, and duration are going to need for it. And electrolytes are especially useful when you're sweating super heavily or running longer, exercising in the heat. What does that look like for you? Well, there is no one formula fits all. So, what I ask is for you to be mindful of, and I know this is gonna be a new weird one, but your urine color and your urine output. If it's tending to be clear or very, very pale yellow, it's likely possible that you're hydrating a bit too much. You need to add in more electrolytes to support you if it's going into the darker colors and shade. Then, my friend, you likely need to add in more water. Maybe if you've been taking in too much electrolytes, pull back on the electrolyte usage. So that is probably one of the best markers that you can utilize without getting some fancy dancey um monitor. That is the way to go. Now, one thing that I do want you to know is that I am not the believer that coffee automatically ruins your hydration. We don't need to villainize this beautiful cup of coffee that we have, but coffee should also not be the only fluid that you invite to your party every day. And if you're inviting coffee and those spicy margaritas with no water in between, we are giving ourselves a recipe for a disaster. So let's please pair our coffee judiciously with more water and hydration that actually helps us in all of our goals. Now, for me, hydration is very much something that we connect to our mood and our food choice. I love how I feel after having my cup of coffee. I love being able to enjoy a mint-infused cocktail during summer. But I also want you to make sure that you are hydrating to support your body and your wellness. So while it may not be glamorous, while we feel like this is the easy thing that we should be able to do, it is something that's often forgotten about quite easily. So let's add it in. Let's make sure that that's something that becomes part of our summer minimum staples.

Protein Fiber And Smart Snacks

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And speaking of staples, we're gonna go right into the camp provisions, if you will, that you need to plan for for every summer. Protein, fiber, and your snacks. Because while a lot of us do find that summer is easier to eat a little bit healthier, because there again, there are some beautiful bounties of produce available. There's a lot of great summer farmers markets. Because it is a bit hotter, we are going to naturally crave those really water-loaded produce items. It also brings along, like I've mentioned, more travel, more mini little outings because everything is nice and you want to get out there and enjoy the day or the area. Also brings in a lot more summer barbecues, it brings in a lot more summer parties, pool parties, um, and those vacations can all be pretty sneaky. So, again, creating your summer minimum regarding your nutrition, super beneficial. Thinking of adding in that protein, that fiber, and even how you are judicious about your snacks throughout the days and the months ahead with it. So I want you to know that protein is especially important for you if you're running, if you're walking, strength training, or trying to maintain energy through a full summer schedule. It does not have to be something that you are aiming for a huge amount of protein that you're like you are disciplined every single second and you're writing it down. I don't want you to be paranoid about it, but I do want you to make those choices that help you. So Greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, protein smoothies, protein smoothies after those summers runs are so wonderful, especially if you add that coconut water into it with some really beautiful produce. Oh, such a great way. Turkey sausage, tofu scrambles, protein oats, there's so many beautiful ways to get in our protein. We know it's kind of like the buzz. There's nowhere that you can go now that doesn't have protein um splashed all over the wrapper somewhere. But thinking about where to get it in and how to really keep that showing up for you. And then fiber, we're hearing more about now, which is wonderful. But fiber is that quiet powerhouse that helps you in every aspect. Um, so you're gonna get that from fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and of course those higher fiber carbohydrates. This helps to help you feel full, helps you with your digestion, helps you with steadier energy. So a great way of having that is thinking of like maybe how do I add more veggies to my sandwich, or how do I add chia to my Greek yogurt in the morning, or how do I get in a little bit more fruit for those snack strategies. So thinking ahead of how those minimums can be set up that best work for you because I don't want you to think of removing all of the summer fun. This isn't a time for you to completely say no to ice cream to say no to all the cookouts or no to vacation dinners, but it does mean of how we can still really judiciously add these other components in so we could still have that bit of fun throughout our summer.

Travel And Office Day Movement

SPEAKER_00 38:10

And last but not least, making our travel fitness actually work for us. I automatically want to break out in song of let me show you the world with our magic carpet ride. But that's the beautiful thing of summer. There is more travel, whether you're doing road trips, you're having more stay cations, or you are heading overseas or internationally or doing air travel, it can throw a crimp into your day-to-day. So, what we want to do is think about how you can get those workouts in during your travel fitness. Maybe what it looks like is that you are more active during your travel vacations, you're booking those excursions if you're on a cruise, you know what ahead of time the hotel gym's setup and what it looks like. Or you've got a few YouTube videos that you've got in your back pocket that you use for whenever you're traveling that you can do with just body weight. So I like to pack the resistance bands. I have them literally right next to my desk at all times, so I can use them in between my sessions, or again, easy to find for me to pack up. But maybe if you're doing a road trip, it might mean that you're packing a jump rope or that you're packing a kettlebell. So again, thinking of how to make that happen in those little pockets. It could look like when you're on a road trip where when you stop at a at a rest area that you're jumping rope for five minutes, or you're doing some squats, or you're getting out and walking around the parking lot. But of course, again, what the goal is, is just to get it in in a way that works for you and still allows you to make those beautiful memories of your vacation. And last but not least, it is those office days juggling your schedule. Now, one thing that I think that comes to mind is there is a sense of cabin fever. We don't want to necessarily be inside when it's so beautiful outside. But it also does mean that with that, all of our colleagues and worker and co-workers are taking a lot of time off, which means that you have more on your schedule to handle at work. It could also mean that because things are loosey-goosey with kid camps or what your kids are doing during summer, that you are quite literally having to field all of that in addition to your work, in additional to a regular day. So this is where you really need to have that movement plan that fits the life that you actually have during your work days. That can mean that those mornings are going to have to be more protected, or that your evenings are going to have to have a pocket of time for you to get out, or that your lunchtime means that you're gonna get in 20 minutes of activity. Again, figuring out how to make it work for you so that you can already have a strategy in your back pocket for when these things inevitably come

Camp Runamuk Details And Sendoff

SPEAKER_00 40:53

up. All right, my friend, again, summer is one of my favorite times of year. Yes, even here in Florida, but what it really does is it allows us to figure out how to make flexibility about the means that we utilize to keep us going with the commitment that we have towards our wellness and our goals. And that's another part of why I love everything about Camp Run amuck. So Camp Runamuck is starting on June 1st. It's a 30-day virtual summer camp. Again, it is for runners, walkers, run walkers, movers, shakers, and grown women who want to stay consistent, want to feel better, and have more fun doing it. This is all about making movement fun. It is designed for the person who knows that summer can be full of good things and still make movement harder to prioritize. It's also for the person who wants support without pressure, cooker, energy, structure without rigidity and accountability. It feels more like a cabin spirit than a lecture. This is not, let me say this clearly: if you tend to sign up for challenges and stay quiet in the shadows, this is not for you because your cabin mates will be counting on you. And let me tell you, these team challenges are so much fun. And also, I love the little bit of team rivalry and team competition. So we have our cabins already lined up, just waiting to place you into it. And it is again something where I can promise you you're going to lean into some really wonderful team community support. Inside Camp Runamuk, you will have weekly wellness themes that are going to focus exactly on what we talked about today. We're gonna focus on hydration, protein, fiber, snack strategies, because those are the kind of habits that help active women feel more energized, better fueled, and more supported throughout summer. You're gonna receive weekly audio runs, cure a day playlist. We're gonna have lots of camp badges, lots of cabin team competition, group coaching support, and weekly prizes with one grand prize winner. The challenge is built to give you a reason to show up, a team to cheer with, a playful structure that makes consistency feel less lonely. And I want you to really think of this as a grown woman summer camp, but with a much better playlist and no mandatory canoe test. The cabin team competition is truly part of the magic. So if you know that one of your biggest fallbacks, one of the things that is most challenging for you during summer, I can promise you that the key cabin team is part of the magic of the motivation. Because once you're assigned that cabin and your cabin will work together throughout the month through movement with those check-ins, with the wellness focus, participation, and that team spirit encouragement. So you do not need to be the fastest person, you don't need to do every single thing perfectly. You do need to just be willing to pack your fun, pack your sparkle, and participate. My goal for Camp Run amok is very simple. I want you to feel like you had fun, you stayed more consistent than you would have on your own, and you moved your body in ways that worked for your life. It supported your Health with small practical habits, you felt connected to something bigger, and that you should leave with proof that summer doesn't have to derail your entire momentum. You should leave with a few habits you actually want to keep. And ideally, you should leave with at least one moment where you thought, this is absolutely ridiculous, and I love it. So Camp Runamuk does start on June 1st. Registration is $49.99 through Friday, May 29th. The final call pricing is $59.99 for the rest of the weekend because when those cabin spots do fill up, they are full, it is done. So pack your hydration, pack your protein, pack your fiber, or let us help you with those strategies along the way. All I ask is that you bring your sparkle and your willingness to show up. I have that link for Camp Runamunk in our episode notes. And I want to thank you, wish you all a very happy summer training season. And until next time, I want you to keep choosing your extraordinary one stride, one snack, one sparkle, and one slightly ridiculous camp run at a time.