Ran St. Louis Peak this morning. St. Louis Peak is a nice 12,241 foot high peak behind Byers at the head of St. Louis Creek. There is rarely any people on the peak, and with the possibility of hooking St. Louis up with either Byers or Nystrom to form some really nice alpine loops, this is an excellent run. I want to park at the Deadhorse trailhead and make a loop out of St. Louis Peak, Bills Peak, Byers, and Bottle. Hopefully next week, as I've been waiting on a hip-belt from Ultimate Direction now for a little while. As it is, no pictures, but here are some of the run to St. Louis Lake, which is the same run except for the last 1.5 miles. The St. Louis Peak run is about ~13+ miles with 3,612 feet of elevation gain, and another 3,612 of loss. It took me 2:27 today at a casual pace.
On another note, a recent study has been published looking at body heat storage and consumption of either hot or cold water. This is particularly important for trail runners or endurance athletes. The study looked at how well a body got rid of heat (heat storage) during physical activity after consuming either hot liquids or cool liquids. They found that the body got rid of heat better after drinking the hot liquids, primarily due to thermosensors in the esophagus/stomach. So, for trail runners or endurance athletes, this means that drinking air temperature liquids during a race or training is actually better then drinking iced drinks. We all know that when we are running, nothing tastes better then an ice cold drink, but as this study seems to indicate, that might not be the best in terms of actually cooling the body down. Instead, we should be drinking air temperature liquids (or even slightly warmer) so that they will trigger our thermosensors to release heat from the body (via sweating), allowing us to stay cooler longer. This can prove to be critical during a race, especially if it is hot out. Something to take note of. Here is the link to the study, called Body Heat Storage During Physical Activity Is Lower with Hot Fluid Ingestion under Conditions that Permit Full Evaporation.
