Bathroom Breaks

[singha711]

I have notice that with the pro men's races, the guys can just go the side of the road and go while they continue riding. How do the pro women do it???

Just Curious,

Singha711

[maillotpois]

I suspect this is one of the reasons the pro women's races tend to be shorter distances. I can do 115 miles in 5 1/2 hours without a bathroom break. This has to be about the limit, time-wise, for how long you can hold it.

This is just a theory - anyone with a real answer should jump in!

[Nanci]

I've done a pee break with the guys. They pull off the road as soon as they get out of town- I just back up against a fence, or bushes, or tree line, whatever. If you've gotta go, you've gotta go. I can be back on the bike faster than most, too.

Nanci

[Tuckervill]

I was in the national guard for 10 years. I spent every summer in the woods in the company of 300 men and 9 women. We sometimes had portapotties, but no way was I using a portapotty after 300 men. So, I girl-scouted it out in the woods. One learns how to do this discreetly, and to ask for privacy without embarrassing anyone.

I've also been known to pull the car over to the side of the road just so, open the car door and step outside and pee in the little shelter there between the door and the car.

Karen

[Geonz]

At the GITAP ride last year, it wasn't quite late enough to sing "The corn was as tall as a ladies' room stall" ... but hey, the *average* age on the ride was 56. So, if somebody went into a cornfield, you didn't look.

We teach our riders, "Drink before you're thirst, eat before you're hungry, and pee before you have to."

(And if you go to some of those other cycling forums, you can find lots of other stories...)

[Eden]

None of the races that I've done has been long enough that I've needed a pee break, but I heard that the women's pro -1-2-3 field had an agreed on pee stop in their race last weekend - so everyone stops. My question is where though? They keep announcing at the local races this year that anyone caught urinating in public will be DQ'd and I don't remember any port-a-potties on the course. Guys might be able to sneak it, but women are pretty obvious.

[bikerchick68]

I suspect this is one of the reasons the pro women's races tend to be shorter distances. I can do 115 miles in 5 1/2 hours without a bathroom break. This has to be about the limit, time-wise, for how long you can hold it.

This is just a theory - anyone with a real answer should jump in!

Good gawd you're fast! I can do 115 miles in 6 1/2 hours IF I push HARD!

[maillotpois]

Good gawd you're fast! I can do 115 miles in 6 1/2 hours IF I push HARD!

This is a race I do in November every year (El Tour de Tucson), no stops at all and you're just hammering the whole time, working aggressively in groups, etc.. It's a lot of fun!! Fairly flat/roller-y course. And I never stop to pee! It'll be a challenge this year because of the focus on long distance stuff, but toward October and Nov I will start to do more speed work. I need to try to get closer to DH's time - he went under 5 hours last year!

[Grog]

BF told me recently that when we're exercising we produce some hormone that prevents us from having to pee, something about keeping water to sweat and regulate body temperature instead of wasting it by peeing.

So I guess the harder we work, the less we have to pee...

[CorsairMac]

This is a race I do in November every year (El Tour de Tucson), no stops at all and you're just hammering the whole time, working aggressively in groups, etc.. It's a lot of fun!! Fairly flat/roller-y course. And I never stop to pee! It'll be a challenge this year because of the focus on long distance stuff, but toward October and Nov I will start to do more speed work. I need to try to get closer to DH's time - he went under 5 hours last year!

OT: you're doing the Tour de Tucson this year too?....my friend has talked me into doing it also! we might have to "chat" as the time gets closer!!

*reminding self - just don't ride behind MP and her snot rocket launcher!*

[maillotpois]

OT: you're doing the Tour de Tucson this year too?....my friend has talked me into doing it also! we might have to "chat" as the time gets closer!!

*reminding self - just don't ride behind MP and her snot rocket launcher!*

Great ride. I have done it the last 5 - 6 years. It is super well supported, fast and fun and they hold traffic for you!! We can talk more as it gets closer - I am excited just thinking about it!!! I have unfinished business as I crashed out last year. (So stupid and so not my fault!!!) Planning to come back with a vengeance!!

Re: snot rockets: that's frankly the hardest thing for me in a group situation like that. I'm almost never at the absolute end of the pack, so there's no clear shot. And I have not yet been able to bring myself to snot off into my shoulder/jersey as one coach advised me. And I have a constant runny nose issue when I ride (probably allergies I am too lazy/skeptical to have diagnosed).

[Nanci]

This is the hormone your BF was talking about. It can unfortunately sometimes cause fluid overload when it gets out of whack. This is a portion of the article "Drinking Too Much" by Lulu Weschler, from the ultramarathon cycling website.

PS, I believe I've heard Karl King, developer of Succeed Electrolyte Caps, say that if you take one before starting to exercise, it will make you not have to pee right away.




Water retention caused by inappropriately high concentrations of AVP
Normal kidneys can excrete about 0.8 to 1.0 liters of water per hour in urine at rest (Noakes 2001). It is therefore easy to understand the development of EAH when hourly rates of fluid ingestion far exceed these limits. However it is not clear why some athletes accumulate a fluid overload while consuming fluid at rates equal to or considerably lower than this. An emerging culprit is the hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP). AVP is the only human antidiuretic hormone (ADH), so when you see 'ADH', think 'AVP', at least for humans. About a week's worth of AVP is stored in the brain (posterior pituitary) and is ready to be released in time of need (Verbalis 2003). As an antidiuretic, AVP's job is to protect against dehydration by stimulating water reabsorption by the kidneys. Thus, it is appropriately released into the blood stream in response to an increase in plasma osmolality (to which it is very sensitive) or a decrease in body water volume (to which it is considerably less sensitive) both situations in which the body needs to conserve fluid. There are, however, 'non-need' and hence inappropriate triggers for AVP's release. The most potent of all is nausea; other stimuli include various drugs, too little oxygen or too much carbon dioxide in blood, pain, and hypoglycemia (Verbalis 2003). Any of these conditions can be present during exercise. Some drugs, such as NSAIDs, do not stimulate release of AVP, but they increase the antidiuretic response to any AVP that is already circulating.

AVP acts primarily in the kidney (and does not appear to have an effect on sweat glands). Kidneys filter a certain fraction of blood (the filtrate), which is destined to be urine unless it is re-absorbed. AVP facilitates re-absorption of the water part of the filtrate. AVP does not, however, directly stimulate sodium re-absorption, with the result that sodium continues on into what will be a decreased volume of urine. Under conditions of volume expansion, an inappropriately high level of AVP can cause a dumping of sodium and re-absorption of water so extreme that an infusion of Isotonic Saline (NS, 0.9% or 154 mEq sodium/liter) ultimately has the same effect as infusing an extremely dilute, hypotonic fluid. This particlar phenomenon was key to elucidating the Syndrome of Inappropriate AntiDiuretic Hormone Secretion (SIADH), or in more modern terminology, Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis (SIAD) (Schwartz 1957 with Schwartz and Verbalis commentaries).

To date, only a few cases of inappropriately high levels of AVP have been documented in EAH (Verbalis 2005). There are two problems with assaying AVP levels during exercise. First, AVP has a half-life of just 6 to 10 minutes, and is rapidly degraded if samples are not handled correctly. Secondly, in EAH, the basal levels from which AVP increases can be very low, and the increases can also be relatively small. AVP operates in a 'leveraged' range where relatively small increases from low baseline values have a large effect on water reabsorption of urine water. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the original diagnostic criteria for SIAD, established before AVP assay techniques were available, remain valid. Thus, it has been possible to implicate inappropriately high levels of AVP as the culprit in EAH where sufficient data (e.g.,plasma osmolality, urine osmolality and urine sodium concentration) are available (Verbalis 2005).

[CR400]

Was at a crit recently and they had no bathrooms. So both men and women had to go up behind this water tower and pee. I have not had to do that in many years. However I do practice the art of not dripping down the leg at places that have dirty restrooms and you don't dare sit down.

[KnottedYet]

I never sit down, even at work. Talk about quadriceps strength.

[Tuckervill]

I never sit down, either, except in my house. But I always wipe the seat.

Karen