Ron Bowman: Hi, I'm Ron Bowman, and today we're talking about tips for beginning trail running and next we're going to talk about the hydration gear that you might be needing for trail running.

First of course is the water bottle. The unique thing about trail running is that you need to carry your water, and your hydration, and your food with you. This water bottle is a typical 16-ounce water bottle, but it's got the attachment so you can carry it while you run.

And actually it's good for road running as well, but it also allows you the opportunity to put your keys or some energy gel or something like that along and carry with you. It's always good to have that so it fits nice in your hand so that you're not always tensing that wrist and fatiguing those arm muscles quicker than you need to.

The other thing that most people associate with the trail running are the Camelbaks. And there are many various types of Camelbaks. This happens to be waist Camelbak, it's got the bladder inside. This happens to be 40 ounce variety. They can come up to 100 ounces or down to 20 ounces. Some of them, I'm sure you have seen, wear on their back so that they are little higher on the shoulders. Some people like those, because it push the weight little bit higher up and it's a little easier for them to carry. This one I like, because it fits around the waist. You get it nice and snug so that it doesn't bounce. It's got pockets in it so you can add again GU or energy gels or candy bar or something like that as you run. The hydration tube just runs around your waist so that you can easily get to it without having to reach behind you for water bottle and distract yourself from paying attention to the trail that you are running.

So as you are running, it just sits lightly on your waist. Your hands are free to avoid trips or falls and you can quickly just go, open it up and take as much water as you want. It gets lighter as you run. Another type of hydration gear is the fanny pack as we call it and it takes a standard water bottle that fits in much like the one with a wrist grip on it. It also has pockets for additional items that you may want to carry.

And this one happens to have an application that you can put a flask, that you can put a GU or energy gel in so that you don't always have to carry the wrappers and things like that. again, the idea is to get it nice and snug around the waist so it doesn't bounce. This one happens to be on an angle, so it's a quick reach as you run so you can get it without having to move or turn a lot and these are just a couple of the types of variety of hydration gear.

My recommendation is to look and do some research, practice with some of the different types. This is the simplest, but you are limited the amount of water that you will carry. Some trail runner will carry one in each hand. That way they have got a lot more water and they're a little more balanced and they actually even use them to balance themselves, if they happen to fall, you can take their water bottle, it will take some of the impact on it.

But there are many, many different types. Again, talk to some of the veterans, try them, try them out and find out what works best for you and what you like best before investing a lot of money in expensive Camelbaks.

And that concludes the segment on hydration gear for trail running, and next we are going to go into a little bit about the clothing that you might want to think about your trail running.