Need hydration advice

[ace]

Hi all,

Last year (my first summer cycling, and a very hot one) I had some huge problems with heat exhaustion. I would get home and have a bad headache that lasted for 24 hours, could barely speak. On one ride of about 35 miles when it was 95 degrees out, I weighed myself before and after, and I had lost 12 pounds (can you say "massive dehydration"??). So I got a 100 oz. Camelbak, started pushing fluids and adding electrolytes/nutrition to my water. However, I'm still having problems with getting headaches after a ride, though not as bad as before.

My stats are that I weigh 225. I did a 35 mile ride Saturday, and it was fairly hot, high seventies/eighty. I was on my bike for four and 1/2 hours. I drank 130 oz of water during the ride mixed with GU2O, then came home and had a 12 oz glass of water with Accelerade in it. I weighed six pounds more when I got home than before I left (and all I'd eaten was a bowl of cereal and a packet of GU)!

Obviously I am doing something wrong, my guess is drinking too much. But I'm terrified of not drinking enough because of my run-ins with heat exhaustion last year. How can I figure out how much to drink?

Advice, please?

Thanks,
Amy

[missymaya]

Rememer that the weight that you might be gaining is water weight that will get peed and sweated out. Also, when weighing yourself, you need to do it the same time of the day. If you weigh yourself at 11 am before a bike ride compared to 3pm afterward, there's bound to be a difference. Also, if your weighing yourself after you drink without peeing, the water is still there.
Based on that, if it gets hot, drink, drink, drink!!! And don't drink a lot at once, just enough to satisfy. Make sure that your getting the proper nutrients while riding and the correct quantities for distance. I don't drink the same amount of water on 15 mile ride than a 30 mile ride.
Also, make sure that your eating right too, both before, during, and after riding. Fruit contains a lot of water and nutrients, so I try to have some fruit before and after riding. This could also be affecting weight and hydration.
Hope this helps and stay hydrated!

[teigyr]

When I lived in SoCal and had heat problems, a person recommended that I put Endurox into one of my water bottles. I know that some people are prone to having problems and it was explained to me why Endurox would be good (though it was, at the time, a recovery drink) and it appeared to work ok for me. I only used it for hot weather, however.

I was also told that once you start having problems, you are more prone to having them again. I never weighed myself but had all the classic symptoms like being chilled (in 100 deg weather), nauseous, and alternating between pasty white and beet red. Good times there

I'd say, maybe, get advice about electrolyte balance and all of that.

[ace]

Oh yeah...chills in 100 degree heat- that's exactly what happened to me last year.

Missymay, I've been told that one of the best ways to tell if you're drinking too much or little is to weigh yourself before and after a ride. Small variations aren't going to tell you much, but a 6 lb gain/12 lb loss is indicative of a water problem. I've read that drinking too much can be dangerous, so that's what I'm trying to avoid. Who knew that water consumption could be so complicated???

[smilingcat]

Hi Ace,

I'm not a nutritionist by any means but drinking too much water without replacing the electrolytes, minerals and carb is a bad thing. A 130oz (8 pints) during four and half hour doesn't seem excessive. Generally, if you drink too much on occasion, your body will flush it out your system (gotta go pee). or during hot weather you just sweat it out.

If the 130 oz was just water that may not be a good thing. You might be sweating out too much electros and minerals. Quick way to know if you don't have enough mineral, is to drink something like gatorade. (Not the best of sport drinks). If you don't find it salty and just sweet then you are probably short on electros and minerals.

As an experiment, get a small bottle of Gatorade and have a small glass when you haven't exercised for a while and hour or two after a regular meal. The drink should taste tad salty and really not that good. The try it again after a ride and see how your perception changes. This is a clue to your body's need of electro.

Bout the heat exhaustion. It has more to do with your core temperature getting too high than just lack of water. Drinking lots of water do help but if the core temperature stays elevated, you will suffer heat exhaustion.

----If my info isn't correct please let me know ----
Not sure if my info is still current but for heat exhaustion.
Get to a cooler place if possible at least into a shade. Lie down.
Get an icepack on the back of neck(get the icepack on the jagular vein), under the arm pits and the groin area. and drink some fluid with electros.

[indysteel]

I think you're smart to weigh yourself before and after a ride to see if you're underhydrating. Granted, I'm sometimes guilty of not drinking enough when I ride, but it sounds like you may have overhydrated this time around. One hundred and thirty ounces sounds like a lot of water to me for the ride that you did, but I don't know how much you sweat or how high your level exertion was. In any event, it sounds like you already know that drinking too much water can be dangerous.

I posted a question a few weeks ago about post-ride headaches. Lots of people get them it seems. After reading everyone's responses and reading up on exertion headaches, I came to the conclusion that no one solution works for everybody. For some, it seems to be a matter of hydration. For other its all about electrolytes. I've been taking two Excedrin the minute th ride is over and that seems to be helping. I also drink a 9-ounce bottle of water the first thing in the morning if I'm going for a ride that morning. I'll up that as it gets hotter. The fact that I often have to go the bathroom--sometimes badly--during morning weekend rides is a good sign to me that I'm not--at least with current temps--underhydrating. If I'm riding in the afternoon, I up my water intake during the day. I use Cytomax Energy drink during rides, along with water. I also drink some form of a recovery drink immediately after the ride--16 ounces of chocolate milk is my current favorite--and continue to hydrate the rest of the day.

Keep playing around with it. Here are a few articles on hydration from VeloNews.

http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/7994.0.html
http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/6239.0.html
http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/5139.0.html
http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/6162.0.html

[ace]

Thanks, all. Yes, excederin is my post-ride friend!

I am mixing an electrolyte replacement drink with my water already: http://www.gusports.com/html/gu2o.htm

I think the suggestion about drinking more pre-ride is a good one. I'm horrible about hydration, except during and after rides.

I'm interested to see how I do on my upcoming bike trip in Italy, when I'm hopefully going to be having at least one glass of wine with lunch in the middle of my ride

[mimitabby]

I'm going to chime in here about the electrolytes. You aren't excreting
pure water, are you?
If you lost 12 pounds, you lost a boatload of electrolytes at the same time! (minerals in your bloodstream)

Remember, women die from OVERHYDRATING. happens every year on some marathon, a woman drinks too much liquid and it kills her.

so don't just drink water if you have to ride in that kind of heat.

[ace]

Mimi, my camelbak is always water mixed with GU2O these days (electrolyte replacement). The day I lost the 12 lbs was before I figured out that I needed to drink more and add electrolytes.

[Kitsune06]

Here's where I chime in and say- for a long ride in the heat, gatorade or gu2O or whatever goes in a water bottle on the frame, and straight water into your camelbak. Or Elete or Nuun. I seriously think one of the best recent changes in hydration/replenishment that has come about is combining fluid intake and electrolyte intake, and leaving carb intake separate. Typically carb intake from cytomax, gatorade, etc etc, can upset the stomach during periods of high activity, when the body needs water. Nuun and elete are sugar/carb free (nuun is sweetened with sorbitol, elete is just seawater with potassium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate) and also won't grow things in a camelbak bladder. (so gross to clean).
For carbs I hit my hammer flask. *shrug* it's been a good system so far. I haven't bonked yet, and the salty, brackish flavor of elete in the water disappears as one needs electrolytes, making it taste like straight water and seeming to buffer it, too... I don't get as 'urpy' drinking that as I do straight water. It might be worth a try.

[Running Mommy]

You might want to look into INFINIT. They do custom blends on their drinks to match your needs. Personally I need WAY more sodium in my drinks than most people when it's hot out. And in Phoenix... Well, it's ALWAYS hot!!
I had a lot of problems getting my hydration down and had similar things happen until I found them.
And if you have any questions they have great customer service. I had a chance to talk to the Rep at IMAZ and he was telling me that believe it or not his clientele is largely women. I guess we have unique needs??
Anyway, I'm not usually one to push a product, but I def. think this is worth a look.
Good luck!
http://www.infinitnutrition.us/

[KSH]

Well, I'm not sure if someone mentioned this or not... but...

I know for me, sometimes my headaches DO NOT COME FROM DEHYDRATION.

For example, this past Sat. I rode in 80 degree heat (nothing for Texas), for 40 miles with lots of hills.

Before the ride, from 7:30 AM to 11:00 AM I ate 800 caloires. During the ride from 11:00 AM to 2:30/3:00 PM I ate 8 cookies and 1/2 of a bananna. I paid for it later.

I drank plenty of water during the ride, along with Gatoraide. I knew I was fine, because I was peeing. When I don't pee, I know I haven't taken enough water/etc. in.

I had a horrible headache later on, and the only way I got it to kind of go away was by eating.

You didn't mention what you eat on a ride. Are you eating enough calories?

[Jenn]

Mimi, my camelbak is always water mixed with GU2O these days (electrolyte replacement). The day I lost the 12 lbs was before I figured out that I needed to drink more and add electrolytes.

AHA, so a Camelback isn't "FRED",....YES, I am going to start wearing mine then!

[Kitsune06]

Depends, Jenn. Some people think they are "freddish" and some think the big mtb packs are "freddish" while the little road ones aren't... I dunno. I think the whole "fred" or "not fred" preoccupation is too middle-school for real riders.

[mimitabby]

Camelbak is SAFER. that's why i like it.
and it's a great place to put off some of the clothing i take off as the day gets warmer.