lost about hydration-long post

[crazycanuck]

Hey ladies,

Last week i posted about my struggle at the pool & not cooling down. I had an aha last night as i didn't bike to the pool but i still felt the same way.

One idea that came to mind was the amt of water/liquids i've been drinking. I'm not sure if this makes any sense or not but often ón my bike rides i feel i have enough water with me, esp now in the hotter weather but in actual fact i don't think i do. I'm at a loss now because i've missed 2 weeks of swimming then today our running session and it's getting confusing & annoying. Someone did say i may be training too much.

For example we did a 35km off road ride on sat and had 3.5 l of water with leppin in it, which is my normal drink supplement. I couldn't get enough water into me but then thought i was drinking too much but when i got to the top of the pea gravelly hills i just guzzled the water. I can keep going but i feel almost lethargic in a way & just get frustrated with my biking.

During a normal day in this heat i drink about half a litre of water before work. At work around 2l & probably another litre when i get home. However, I often wake up feeling severely dehydrated but not hungry.

So can anyone tell me if they've felt this way??? What am i doing wrong???

One more thing, we bought a scale & are wondering how to work out the amt of water ya need after training. (This is the first time we've had a scale in our house as well....)



Help!

c

[Nanci]

If you want true expert advice about hydration, you should go to the ultra marathon cycling website, http://www.ultracycling.com/ and look under the nutrition section for several articles by Lulu Weschler. You will find all the latest research on this subject- several important studies have been recently released, as well as instructions on how to do a sweat test, so there will be no more guessing about how much sweat/urine you need to replace- you will have an exact quantity, and then there is a pretty set amount of electrolyes per liter of water- 1000 mg.

So, UMCA website, nutrition section, find the article on Drinking Too Much, read that, then link to Pass The Salt, Water And Salt Intake During Exercise, and Electrolytes And Fluid Replacement: Any Debate, the last one by Kevin Setnes and Karl King.

Hope that helps!

Nanci

[crazycanuck]

Hey thanks !

I've just begun to read some of the articles & hopefully something will click!

Btw...You do ranndoneuring? Are the 200km rides done in one day? What is your ultimate distance?

c

[Nanci]

This is my first season- and I didn't intend to do more than a 200k, but it just sucked me in!

So, last year my goal was to ride a Century, any Century. Before the Santa Fe Century, in October, BF was going to Dahlonega GA for Six Gap, a mountain Century. I thought, what the heck, and registered for the Three Gap Fifty, and rode it, and it still is, to this day, the most fun bike ride I have ever done. Then I did a Century two weeks later in October, and another in November, and wanted another long ride in January, and our local club hosts a brevet series, the first of which is a 200k, so I thought, well, that's not too much further than 100 miles, (124) so I signed up. It was a super windy day, and I was _worn out_ when I got done, much worse than I expected. But Sunday morning, I felt great, and started thinking about the February 300k. Did that, it was great, not as hard as the 200k. Now I am waiting to do the 400k on March 4th. See how that goes, and who knows. I definitely feel like I have found my niche, though, and will continue to pursue this at least to the 600k level, if not this year, then the next. I also plan to do as many 200ks, like one each month, as possible/available. And I would like to do a 12 hour race, too.

There is a 13.5 hour time limit for 200k, 20 for 300k, 27 for 400k, and 40 for 600k. These are standard time limits.

If you do the whole series of four brevets in one year, you are eligible for the Super Randonneur Award. If you do 12 consecutive months of rides 200k or longer, you are eligible for the R-12 award. If you do ten sets of Super Randonneur Series, you achieve Ultra Randonneur status. Six people in the US qualified for that in 2005.

My first 200k doesn't count, though, because I wasn't a member of RUSA when I rode. I will have to do another in June. So my advice is, even if you think you aren't going to go further than 200k, still join RUSA. Besides, they send you a _REALLY_ great book about randonneuring.

Nanci

[maillotpois]

Hey Nanci -

Thanks for the link to the UMCA. I had been on there before, but forgot what great articles they have. What a great resource. And I had filled out the application for membership last year and it is still sitting here on my desk at work. So that was a kick in the pants to get it in - even if I am not doing any true brevets this year, just doubles.

Good luck with your rando series - you really got sucked in, eh?

[Nanci]

Make sure if you want to do brevets, you join RUSA. I want to join UMCA, too, and also have a filled-out app sitting there, but I wanted a bolero more than membership in UMCA, so it's still sitting there waiting.

Nanci

[Running Mommy]

How hot is it down there right now? Are you getting enough electrolytes? It almost sounds like your body is trying to overcompensate for something?? It sounds kind of strange. I'd be careful though... You don't want to go hyponatremic if your sodium levels are low.
I happen to be a VERY salty sweater so I really have to watch it. Esp. since I moved to the desert. After my long rides you could mill the salt off my face! We actually have a salt mill near here and my husband always asks me if I've been rolling in the salt piles again! OY!

[crazycanuck]

RM..it's been around 30c and up to 41c the past few weeks.

I know when i get home from a bike ride or a run..i can taste the salt on my face...

Am wondering now about electrolytes...what's the best thing to drink without buying a supplement???

c

[Running Mommy]

well you know the original gatorade was nothing but Kool aid w/ a couple of teasoons of salt added to it. I don't know if you guys have kool aid down there? I have nuun tablets that I add to water. They have a lemon lime taste but I think are sugar free. They come in a plastic tube and are really easy to carry. I use them for when I run out of cytomax on my long rides.
I'd also be giving your food an extra shake or two of salt, maybe munch on some pretzels to get those sodium levels back up. At home I'm always salting my food, and I also supplement potassium and magnesium because of cramping issues.
Do you ever feel lethargic or light headed when your out? That's a sure sign of something else going on.
My friend is an adventure racer and he keeps little packets of sugar and salt in a ziploc baggy with him on long outings. He's been known to dump a couple of packs of each (sugar and salt) into some water when things got rough. He calls it "the poor mans cytomax"... I suppose it would work in a pinch? Heck he should know... In his first balance bar race his amatuer team beat three pro teams!

[Nanci]

http://www.ultrafit-endurance.com/succeedcaps.html

Why don't you want to buy electrolytes? You can't depend on Gatorade- it doesn't have enough, though it has more than plain water. Still not enough!

The above is what I take. Very inexpensive.

Nanci

[Running Mommy]

I have to agree w/ Nanci. I guess I didn't add that I also use thermolytes on anything longer than 2-3 hours. They work great! There are a few different brands out there. I think they all work pretty well.

[crazycanuck]

Hey,
Went out last night to pick up some power bars for the weekend and came accross a GU electrolyte drink. I'll let you know how it tastes & what i think of it after our event on sunday.

Tanks
c

[Eden]

Hey,
Went out last night to pick up some power bars for the weekend and came accross a GU electrolyte drink. I'll let you know how it tastes & what i think of it after our event on sunday.

Tanks
c

I like the GU drink - I think its less sweet than a lot of the others, but I've only ever had the Lemon Lime flavor. Right now I'm using Cytomax though cause its got a bit more calories/carbs per water bottle and I'm thouroghly sick of citrus drinks - I can get cytomax locally in grape and fruit punch but the LBS only has Lemon Lime Gu.

[mellic]

Hey Crazycanuck, how long roughly does it take you to ride 35km??? 3.5 litres of water sounds like a lot to be drinking over that distance even in the hot weather. I drink about 750ml per hour.

In this kind of weather you should really be drinking a sports drink. I would recommend trying the powerade or the enervit powdered drinks. I never make the drink to the specified concentrations they recommend on the container, I always dilute them quite substantially.

Perhaps you should try taking a combination of both water and sports drink on your next ride (ie. carry water in your hydration pack, and put a water bottle with sports drink on your bike), and see if that helps. This weekend will be perfect for you to test to see if the sports drink helps since it is going to be over 35 degrees celsius.