Too much salt?

[OakLeaf]

Well, I generally have the opposite problem. When my sweat isn't salty, I use that as a first warning that I need to be taking more in. But I was repeatedly bumping up against hyponatremia until I started taking in more salt, and paying more attention to early warning signs.

I really don't know whether the amount of salt in sweat is completely linked to dietary intake. I've read the opposite, that some people are salty sweaters and others not, and I've often read that part of heat acclimation is conserving salt, so that you'll sweat out more salt earlier in the season (like, now) than you will when you're completely acclimated.

My uneducated opinion is that after 124 miles, if you don't have salt on your kit you're not taking enough in. People lose 500-1000 mg salt per liter of sweat ... in those conditions I'd be sweating out two liters an hour roughly ... and remember that those white crystals are all the minerals and salts you sweat out, not just sodium chloride ... so over a ride like that you're probably looking at two to four tablespoons of minerals in your sweat, most of which is going to wind up in your clothes as your sweat evaporates to cool you.

IANAD ... nor a sports nutritionist ... just someone who's learned over the years that I have to make an effort to take in salt if I don't want to wind up in trouble.



ETA - you sound like you've had trouble with cramping in the past. My experience is that cramping is not related to sodium or hydration, and most research backs that up. My experience is that if I wake up at night with leg cramps it's low magnesium, if I get cramps during a run or ride it might be either magnesium or overuse. Do you have any other symptoms that you attribute to low salt?