[MightySchmoePong]

Hey, I tend to sweat a TON during long rides. I can easily sweat 12+ pounds off during a 6 hour ride. I'm getting better at forcing myself to drink enough to stay reasonably hydrated, but what do I do about the salt etc. that I'm sweating out? I just got some of those enduralyte capsules from hammergel but they don't seem to have much salt (sodium chloride 3% usda) in them. Should I also take salt pills?
Would salt pills hurt?

Thanks!

Dave

 

[MBMBPer]

Salt

I would stick with the endurolytes (or a similar product), just see if taking them more often seems to help. I think that you can take up to one capsule per half hour, rather than the one per hour suggested.

I sweat lots too and have always battled taking in enough fluids and electrolytes. Getting better though - one more thing that I practice. I noticed that you said you can lose 12+ lbs. Sounds like you better start drinking lots more! After losing 3% of your body weight you are in clinical dehydration and performance seriously drops. I've been there - at the end of race in an ambulance with an oxygen tube in my nose and an IV in my arm... and another time where I went hypothermic due to dehydration. Not fun (although they do make great pictures). I'm doing a 100k trail run/race in a few weeks, and they will actually weigh you periodically and pull you if you drop more than 3% body weight!

So... eat pretzels, salted boiled potatoes, take endurolytes and drink like a freaking fish!

 

[MightySchmoePong]

Thanks

I'll have to remember to bring some salty foods along w/ me. The 12 pounds I was referring to was not my "net" loss, but more a indication of how much I sweat. For example, I did one 6 hour ride and was down to 157 from 164, but I also drank 120+ ounces of water. I just need to remember to keep drinking....

Dave

 

[StormShadow]

Mix some gatorade or accelerade with your water. Gatorade has 110mg of sodium per serving (8oz).

 

[rpiontek]

I'll have to remember to bring some salty foods along w/ me. The 12 pounds I was referring to was not my "net" loss, but more a indication of how much I sweat. For example, I did one 6 hour ride and was down to 157 from 164, but I also drank 120+ ounces of water. I just need to remember to keep drinking....

Dave

from the e-caps.com site you can download 'the endurance athlete's training guide' which you might find interesting. lots of stuff on hydration and food.

 

[scott.com]

I have the salt problem when I race. I solved it by drinking only sports drinks out of my hydration pack and water bottle.

Another thing that helped was getting into better shape. I started doing intervals this year. Now I work less for a given effort and therefore do not sweat as much.

 

[Trevor!]

Dehydration is a serious thing when on the bike for long rides particularly in hot conditions.

I force myself to keep fluids up - 1ltr per hour, even if I am not in the mood. Don't drink plain water as your body will not absorb it at all. Stick to just sport type drinks such as , Powerade, Gatorade, Enervit etc etc as they contain a balance of salts etc that your body will use.

If you are doing an endurance race, think of having a small snack with a higher salt content. Potatoes with some salt is great.

 

[MightySchmoePong]

Thanks!

I went on there and took a look. You're correct; lots of good info.

My training is done (for better or worse!) and I'm spending the next week before the Wild 100 just getting the bike/mind ready.

Hopefully this won't be the sufferfest/debacle that the SM100 was for me a few years ago.

Dave

 

[MBMBPer]

Drinkin

Actually, water should be just fine to drink - low to no carbo solution has no effect on gastric emptying, whereas very high carbo solution in a fluid (<7% carbs) will slow the gastic emptying rate, causing all sorts of sloshing to occur. The problem with water is that if you don't also consume calories (in the form of gels, potatoes, pretzels, salted nut rolls or whatever) and electrolyte you will 1) bonk, 2) cramp and 3) possibly even go hyponatremic (dilute the salt in your blood). Drinking sports drinks in place of water gives you an extra boost of calories and electrolytes, although no sports drink will give you enough of either of those to complete a long race. Still have to take in other forms of calories and salt.

I tend to drink water more than sports drinks - but consume foods, gels and electrolyte capsules along with it. After about 5 hours of sports drink during an event it just gets very unpalatable for me, which leads to all sorts of other problems. Also, sports drinks with fructose seems to really mess with my (and other people) stomach. I use sports drinks as a periodic addition rather than a normal drink. But since things work differently for different people, try lots of things in training...

 

[Locoman]

Keep in mind that you body isn't capable of absorbing as much water as it can sweat out. You might wanna look it up but I think it can absorb like 25oz.'s per hour... The rest will just be pissed out.. sit in your gut and cause cramps etc..

 

[MBMBPer]

Correct

Keep in mind that you body isn't capable of absorbing water as it is sweating it. You might wanna look it up but I think it's like 25oz.'s per hour... The rest will just be pissed out.. sid in your gut and casuse craps etc..

Locoman is right. Only about 25oz of fluid/hour can be absorbed under the best of conditions. Riding hard in hot conditions can lead to a loss of more than that. And here is the BIG PROBLEM: during exercise, once dehydrated, no amount of fluid intake can rehydrate you. The best you can do is stay at the same level of dehydration. (Strange as it sounds, dehydration affects the body so that you absorb even less fluid... so its a downward spiral that you just don't want to start.)

 

[MightySchmoePong]

Thanks.

I have some endurolytes (sp?) and I plan on bringing a bottle along w/ a concentrated sports drink (so I can drink it or not; depending on how my stomach feels) in addition to my camelback of pure water. I'm also bringing along a ton of gel shots and some trail mix (one of the few things that I seem able to digest during a long ride).

Now I just have to see if the hurricanes leave me alone....

Dave

 

[MBMBPer]

Goodluck! Let us know how it went.

 

[LegoGT]

Knowing your body can only absorb a certain amount of water at a time, the best thing to do is drink tons of fluids long before you ever start your event. Make sure that you're always hydrated even when you're not about to ride. I know it seems strange, but if you watch the color of your urine every time you use the bathroom, you can have a pretty good guage of where you are...

... as a rule of thumb, the darker the color, the worse off you are. It should be clear at best (with the exception of some vitamins and other supplements -- I think iron pills can change the color).

Some college football trainers would actually have players drink pickle juice to help the body retain water. Doing something this extreme means that you need to then drink more water, but that's half the point. Back in my day (about 3 years ago), we would have electrolyte pills (we'd take 3 at a time) between each practice and weigh ourselves before and after each practice. I'd actually lose an average of 12-15 lbs a practice -- 3 times a day (I weighed about 185 then)! That's with me guzzling as much water as possible.

So, you're gonna lose water weight, just make sure that your body's prepared for it and you don't start off on a losing foot... and as a side note, it helps you have a clear complexion and smooth, glowing skin! hahaha

 

[MTBDOC]

A few thoughts: first of all, if you are REALLY losing 12 lbs, you are in a HEAP of trouble. You are talking about 5.45 liters of fluid, and that is life-threatening! So first and foremost, DRINK!

Second, although I LOVE hammergel, you will find a lot of pseudo-science on the ecaps website. I will take some endurolytes at times (seems like a LOT of samples being passed out lately, and I DID buy a bottle years ago) BUT the PRIMARY NEED is sodium. So you either need to eat a bunch of pretzels and such, OR take a salt tablet occasionally, OR add table salt to your drink. I have played with that, and can tolerate a small amount of added salt to gatorade. Take a small measuring spoon (1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon) and figure out how much you can add and still make the drink palatable. Actually, the best combo I've come across was a mixture of pretzels, M&M's, raisins, and peanuts that were given out at a century. Got everything: sugar, salt, fat, and a bit of protein...the major components needed.

Calcium and magnesium are lost in sweat...no question. I am just not convinced that you really need that much DURING an event. Ca and Mg supplements are a part of my daily regimen.

Decide what tastes best on the bike...PERIOD...and drink a lot. That matters a LOT MORE than the specifics of what is in it. Take a salt pill every couple hours (OR WHATEVER YOU FIND WORKS FOR YOU!!!) Please LISTEN CAREFULLY: when you read data talking about 7% carb solutions...or training programs...or anything else, understand the following: if it is data from a properly conducted experiment, you are reading AVERAGES for the POPULATION STUDIED! Now, some folks have to dilute gatorade 1/2 strength to keep it down. I'm on the other end. I can mix gatorade, cytomax, or whatever at stated strength, and then add another 25g per bottle of granular maltodextrin. That is the same as slugging down a GU along with the bottle, except that you trickle it in gradually, instead of all at once. My point is that WE ARE ALL A BIT DIFFERENT!!! So don't rely on population statistics for understanding a single human being. In my professional arena, I deal with the most complex system on earth: the neurochemical structures of the human brain...and unfortunately, some [or, at times, MANY!] of my patients DON'T READ THE RESEARCH to know how their brains ought to react to the latest miracle drug. I tell people that every patient [or cyclist!!!] is a research project with N [number of subjects] = 1...in other words, we can know EVERYTHING in the medical [or exercise physiology] literature, but until we try for a GIVEN INDIVIDUAL, we don't know anything.

As for gastric emptying, a large bolus [stupid scientific term for a BIG SLUG!] actually SPEEDS UP gastric emptying, as does COLD fluid. So, knock down a pint or more of COLD carb fluid all at once for maximum pleasure.

One person talked about fructose and having problems...others do GREAT with it. Many endurance athletes SWEAR by honey (around 40% of the carb in honey is fructose), and there is a company that markets a "honey" carb gel. Hammer focuses on "complex carbs"...as though linking a few sugar molecules is a huge change. Look at glycemic values of various carbs...white rice, flour, etc...this isn't glucose, yet the numbers are quite high. Anyway, my point is to EXPERIMENT on yourself...each one of you is a unique individual, with different God-given abilities AND weaknesses...and that includes training approaches, nutritional approaches, AND psychological approaches...

...DOC out!

 

[HillbillyBiker]

A sports drink alone will do it for me for about 3 hours provided I am well nurished before heading out. After that it's a loosing battle if your not getting sodium (and potassium) from other sources. Sport's drink is like a step above water because it provides some chemicals but you need to suppliment it with chemicals from other sources. It doesn't contain nearly what you need to keep you going for long hours when sweating heavily. Pretzels are good cause they don't slog you down with a bunch of fat like chips. But I find eating protein and some fat about 15 minutes after carbs really helps with endurance. To much carbs without much protien and some fat causes me to lose energy over time. Honey provides a good kick if you get the shakes but is not a long-term solution. Then when you get done with the ride hit yourself with some quality carbs/protien as quick as you can supplimented with Ca, Mg, Zn, K, Na, vitamins, anti-ox

 

[millennium]

Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula

Gatorade has a new drink out called Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula. It is basically regular Gatorade (same carbs), but with quite a bit more sodium (200mg v. 110 mg for 8 fl.oz.) and some more potassium (90mg v 30 mg in 8 fl.oz.), plus it adds a bit of calcium and a bit of magnesium. Basically, the Endurance formula is specifically designed to replace electrolytes lost in sweat for longer, multi-hour events (primarily sodium). The taste (in my opinion) is a tiny bit more tart than regular Gatorade, but I really like it. I believe the only place to buy it (right now) is on the Gatorade web site.

Also, Powerbar's new endurace sports drink has more sodium than many other drinks (160 mg per 8 fl.oz.).

 

[HillbillyBiker]

Gatorade has a new drink out called Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula.

Good to know... next is one with some protein. Man, their website is really annoying.

 

[HillbillyBiker]

Table 1 on their website is interesting...I didn't realize that much was lost... 3220mg of sodium in 4 liters sweat, 1253mg potassium, 3550 mg chloride, 240 mg calcium, 97mg magnesium.

no wonder why my last big ride caused some problems, I had a gross loss of about 3.5 gallons over about 11 hours in temps to 104F, I could not maintain electrolyte levels.

 

[BigBuddha]

Homemade Gatorade ROCKS!

I used to live woth a doctor who showed me how to make a good drink to keep hydrated
1)H20
2)salt
3)lemon
4)sugar
Yup, that's it!

This simple combination tastes good and will keep you well hydrated

For the salt and sugar, try Celtic Sea Salt and Organic Sucanat or Turbinado from your local health food store. These are MUCH better for you than the refined versions and your will appreciate it.

Good luck!