older women dehydration issues?

[Biciclista]

it seems that i just cannot drink enough during and after a bike ride to keep from being dehydrated the next day.
it often takes me 2-3 days before i really catch up.

My doctor told me the issue is that my body does not absorb the water fast enough (I am peeing it out ) anyone else have this issue? It's getting annoying.
At least this morning when i woke up with a headache i was tuned in enough to just get up and start drinking...

[OakLeaf]

Are you sure you're getting enough salt?

That's a perennial issue for me, as I've mentioned before. When I'm borderline hyponatremic, first thing that happens is I pee all the time to try to concentrate sodium in my blood, next thing is I get so nauseous I can't drink water. What you're describing sounds EXACTLY like what happens to me when I go into a ride/run balanced, but don't get enough salt during the exertion or immediately after.

Typically people sweat out 500-1000 mg sodium an hour during exertion. Sodium is the one mineral that humans can't get from plant and animal foods and MUST supplement.

[Biciclista]

i do drink NUUN.. i guess just not enough! and as the evening gets later, i hate to drink a lot, or i am up all night as well.

[Biciclista]

what's a podium bottle?
I rode 10 miles and drank a 16 ounce bottle of water. Then we stopped for lunch where i ate lots of salty things and drank another 16 ounces. put juice and water in it and rode home
finished the juice/water mix with a bottle of nuun. and drank tea later and had a nice dinner with salt on things. and yet, this morning the headache.

[Melalvai]

I keep putting in a word for V8 because it has potassium as well as sodium. Quite a lot of both-- more than gatorade (per volume). Also it doesn't have the sugar of sports drinks & gels etc. I suspect sugar may throw off the osmotic balance as well.

[snapdragen]

I'll second the V8, I used to down a couple of little cans right after finishing a long training walk (in my short-lived endurance walking career).

Mimi, I know it's a pain having to get up in the middle of the night to pee, but it sounds like you need to drink a bit more in the evenings.

[Biciclista]

nuun is not sugary, it is sweetened with sorbitol. I like some of the V8 drinks, just didn't have them yesterday.

[Biciclista]

sigh, Snap, i think you're right.



I still don't know what a Podium Bottle is. ok, ok, i'll google it. ok, i googled it. It just looks like a water bottle.

[shootingstar]

Hope you find a solution, Mimi.

There is a big difference between Vancouver (where I am now) and Calgary, Alberta (where I will go back soon). In latter city, I make sure I wear chapstick even in warm weather. I drink twice as much water compared to Vancouver.

I get paranoid of having my water bottle stolen at the wrong time during a bike ride .. and I have had this happen twice in each Vancouver, Toronto.

[Biciclista]

stolen? who would steal a water bottle? After some big rides I've seen lots of bottles on the road, they bounce off your bikes! but i would be afraid to be without water too...

[shootingstar]

ONe bottle had Kauai marked on it -I did get it from Hawaii. Another had the logo of a women's cycling group that belonged to.

[OakLeaf]

I wish I'd had you gals to figure it out for me when it first started happening to me 20 years ago. I spent literally 15 years thinking it was primary dehydration, including the time I wound up on an IV when it never occurred to the ER doctors either...

[Biciclista]

um, Oakleaf, what do you mean?

[OakLeaf]

For years it never occurred to me that I needed more salt. I kept trying to drink more plain water and couldn't figure out why I was dehydrated. I'm just dense, I guess.

[Biciclista]

oh oh, of course, electrolytes. But at the hospital, the stuff they pumped into you was saline!