IRONMAN Marbella 70.3 is over and Kona race is in 2 weeks. I took about 10 days of recovery and this is the first somewhat serious bike workout.
Since Hawaii race will be done in much warmer climate than I’m used to, I need to train for that. To do so, I implement the “heat training“. I am not using fan + wearing warm cycling pants, windbreaker, long-sleeved shirt underneath and a heat.
10′ easy spin
Complete 75′ ride holding 150-175 At the top of the 20th min put in 5×5′ bouts at 205-210W on 3′ soft pedal
5′ easy spin
FUEL No fueling. Workout performed in PM. Properly hydrated and eaten.
I totally failed to complete this workout as prescribed. Again… I am beyond being disappointed with my bike performance over the past 2.5 months. I’ve been steadily declining up to this point, where I can barely hold 140 Watts… I try so hard, I put so much effort, but I keep on failing and failing. I am not enjoying the workouts. With so manny failures I am afraid of bike. I don’t even want to touch it. My confidence on the bike is below the ground. I absolutely HATED this workout.
What is wrong? I can’t find the answer. What am I doing wrong? What is missing? I need help, I can’t figure it out on my own.
Lessons Learned:
Didn’t learn anything… Besides that next time use the “standart mode” instead of “erg” on the trainer.
Past 4-5 weeks were hell. The taper began 5 days ago and my training volume has been decreased. Having failed so many times I am not looking forward to this workout. The race is in one weeks, but I am not excited, I am not confident. Not in a right place mentally or physically. I made an effort to eat more carbohydrates than usual two days prior to this workout. Staffed myself with oatmeal and quinoa right before bed on Thursday night, continued eating quinoa and oatmeal the entire day on Friday. Little to no fat or protein, carbs only.
Lessons Learned Last Workout:
Reduce fiber intake 1-2 days before
Two water bottles (1400 mL) on the bike last only for about 1 hour (30 km). During the race I will need to make 2stops to refuel at aid stations (First at 33 km; Second at 58 km)
Highway 1 that goes north has nothing besides hills… and more hills. Good to work on hill climbing; Not good for speed work. Maybe riding West to East or vise-versa will have less hills.
BRICK
A brick workout is any workout that combines swimming, biking and/or running into a single session. The most common example is the bike to run brick, where you go for a run immediately after finishing a bike ride.
Fueling
Formula: min 0.25 – max 0.33 grams carbs per hour x body weight (lbs) Or min 1 calorie/hour x body weight (lbs)
The main focus is to maintain adequate glycogen levels in muscles and liver to delay fatigue and prevent “bonking“.
No FRUCTOSE!
0.33 g/h x 150 lb x 2.25 (2hr 15min) = 111 grams of carbs required.
Hydration
TheGOAL: prevent loosing more than 2% (1.5 kg) of body weight in fluids.
What I got
What do I need? Sweat Rate: 1400 mL x 2.25 = 3150 mL Sodium: 0.5 x 3150 = 1575 mg Carbs: (X / 4125) x 100 = 5% -> X=0.05 x 4125= 206 g of carbs!?
Results
Pre-weight: 69.9 kg Post-weight: 68.7 kg Liquids consumed: 1950mL (Left one bottle) Weight lost: 3.150 kg Sweat Rate: 1260 mL/hour
Total weigh loss: 3.150 kg (4%)
Not good 2% is maximum loss allowed
BIKE
Felt Strong! Holding 210 Watts felt easy. 300 Watts for a minute were easy as well. Even knowing I was planning on fueling with protein bars, it felt too easy to inject extra carbs to fuel the workout. Therefore I did not eat anything and completed the ride purely on very little sugar from isotonic drinks.
RUN
Felt Strong! Experiencing really bad digestive issues previously. I was going into the run worried they will come back. However I did not have diarrhea or even the slightest symptoms of it. Thats a Win!
Lessons Learned:
I reduced fiber intake two days before workout (starting Thursday evening) this helped to prevent GI issues. Also, NO FRUCTOSE and supplements or foods containing high concentrations on VITAMIN C.
“Carb Loading”worked. Making emphasis on eating more complex carbs such as quinoa, sweet potatoes and oats, two days before filled up my glycogen stores and made me feel strong. I even didn’t need to fuel during the ride. Also glycogen do not get filled up overnight. It took me about 36-48 hours to begin feeling better.
This the first time this year I was riding outside. For the past 5 months I’ve been training in my basement on a trainer. I am so happy to finally get outdoors and test this machinery I’ve been working on so hard.
BRICK
2 hours @ 210 Watts + 45 min Run off bike
A brick workout is any workout that combines swimming, biking and/or running into a single session. The most common example is the bike to run brick, where you go for a run immediately after finishing a bike ride.
The more time you have before workout, the larger meal can get. Also it shouldn’t be high glycemic because you don’t need the energy available any time soon. Instead give preference to “slow carb” with lo moderate-low GI. Also don’t forget to include protein.
TheGOAL: prevent loosing more than 2% (1.5 kg) of body weight in fluids.
What do I need? Sweat Rate: 1400 mL x 2.75 = 3850 mL Sodium: 0.5 x 3850 = 1925 mg Carbs: (X / 4125) x 100 = 5% -> X=0.05 x 4125= 206 g of carbs!?
What I got:
WATER + Beta Alanine & BCAA. All calories come from solid foods.
Total Calories: 1010 calories: 367 calories/hour Riding outside. No power meter.
Results
No weight/sweat data.
Pre-weight: kg Post-weight: kg Liquids consumed: 2000 mL Sweat Rate: mL/hour
Total fluid loss:
BIKE
Right the second I clipped into the pedals, Ialmost lost balance. Riding on a trainer doesn’t require you to keep balance and I got to re-learn how to. Took only about 10 minutes to adjust. It was VERY windy. Strong side and front facing winds were blowing consistently throughout the ride. The wind was so strong, so I couldn’t let go one of my hands to reach back for a protein bar. Instead of 3 bars, as planned, had 1.5. There we A LOT of hills. Literally no flat stretch on the road. It was not quite the ride I was hoping to have, however I tried to stay positive and enjoy it as much as I could. It was certainly nice to get outside of my basement. Wasn’t feeling strong. Two water bottles I had mounted on the bike weren’t enough, felt thirsty.
What’s good?
Did a lot of hill climbing. Ironman 70.3 Marbella has 1400 meters of climbing on the bike course. It will help to prepare for the race.
Used different muscles, keeping the balance and fighting the wind.
Tested my bike in action, making sure everything’s working properly.
RUN
First 10 minutes felt really weak in legs. I think I went too hard on a bike part. Hills after hills after hills… Around minute 10, had to pause the workout to use the restroom. Not critical. I wen’t into the run with full stomach. I think reducing the fiber a day before will help. Finished the run to the best of my abilities.
Lessons Learned:
Reduce fiber intake 1-2 days before
Two water bottles (1400 mL) on the bike last only for about 1 hour (30 km). During the race I will need to make 2stops to refuel at aid stations (First at 33 km; Second at 58 km)
Highway 1 that goes north has nothing besides hills… and more hills. Good to work on hill climbing; Not good for speed work. Maybe riding West to East or vise-versa will have less hills.
The race is over. You’ve given all you had. You pushed your body to the limit. What’s next?
Recovery Proper post-exercise nutrition as much important as the two previous stages pre- and during- exercise fueling. Show your body appreciation and give it exactly what it needs and deserves for the work it’ve done. Learn about how to maximize your recovery through the lenses of sports nutrition.
First 30 minutes after the exercise stops are extremely important in recovery. There are five main goals we are trying to accomplish during this stage:
Replace expanded Carbohydrate Stores
Take in carbohydrates that are high on GI: potatoes, rice and grains are great choices. Take in 1/2 – 3/4 body weight in grams of carbs within 30 minutes of exercise (ex: 150 lbs = 75 – 112 grams). Liquid form is preferred.
Rehydrate
Take in 500 ml of liquid for every pound lost during exercise.
Provide Amino Acids
After carbohydrate stores get depleted in the working muscles, the body begins to break down protein structures within the muscle cells, cannibalising itself. Protein, particularly BCAA should be taken in at a carb-to-protein ratio of about 4:1 or 5:1. Best sources are Egg or Whey Protein (easiest to absorb).
Begin Replacing Electrolytes
Electrolytes are critical for muscle contraction and relaxation. Drinking juice or eating fruit will easily replace nearly all of the electrolytes, with the except of sodium.
Reduce the Acidity of Body Fluids
During exercise, body fluids trend increasingly towards acidity. Fruits & vegetables have a net alkaline-enhancing effect (reduce acidity).
Below is the table of GL (glycemic load) and GI (glycemic index) of alkaline-enhancing foods:
(L. Cordain & J. Friel, 2012, p. 63)
Meal Examples
During this stage the emphasis is still primarily on the intake of solid carbs and proteins. See the alkaline-enhancing foods table above to pick net-alkaline starchy vegetables with high GI that you might enjoy.
Good choices for carbs and proteins are:
CARBOHYDRATES Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Yams and Dried Fruits
PROTEIN Fish, Shellfish, Egg whites and Turkey Breast
The protein intake is recommended within the same ratio 4:1 or 5:1 with carbohydrates.
The most commonmistake here is to keep eating a high GI diet. Right after the exercise your main focus was on carbohydrates, and specifically the ones that are high on GI. Those foods are great for refueling your glycogen tanks, however they don’t bring much of nutrients. Now you need to shift you focus to eating more nutrient-dense foods, filling your body with minerals and vitamins. The more you demand from your body, the more important it becomes.
The optimal food choices here are:
Fruits Any fruit is good so pick and choose whichever you prefer
Vegetables Vibrant color ones: red, yellow, green and orange. Stay away from white colored veggies
Nuts, Seeds and Berries Macadamia nuts and walnuts are rich in omega-3. Avoid beans and peanuts
Lean Protein from Animal Sources Rich in BCAA and essential amino acids: Game animal and Free-ranging animal meats, Ocean or Stream-caught Fish & Shellfish, Turkey breast High in Omega-3: Cold-water Fish, Beef Liver, Eggs enriched with omega-3
Omega-3 Supplements Fish or Flaxseed Oil
The five MAIN GOALS for this stage:
Maintain Glycogen Stores
Assuming you’ve done a good job eating enough of carbohydrates from good sources in the previous hours, less carbs are required to maintain your glycogen stores. To maintain, aim for low GL fruits and vegetables.
Maintain a healthy pH
Fruits and vegetables reduce blood acidity protecting your muscles and bones from losing nitrogen and calcium.
Reduce Inflammation
Omega-3 have been shown to reduce inflammation. The ratio between omega-6 to omega-3 should be approximately 2:1
Rebuild muscles
To prevent your body from cannibalizing itself in attempt to repair damaged muscle tissue, it requires optimal amount of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) and essential amino acids.
Optimize body weight
The lower your body mass, the less to carry. Maintaining low body fat percentage, in most endurance sports can lead to improved performance.
Make It A Habit
Create a non-negotiable habit of fueling your workouts. You will notice your energy balance throughout the day is enhanced, training and racing performance improves, it will get easier to manage body composition and you will experience fewer cravings for foods later in the day, you try to avoid.
Last Tip: Sleep Recovery & Protein
If your training load is heavy, you struggle to sleep, or simply want to maximize recovery and minimize stress, then begin and end your days with protein.
20 grams of protein before bed 20 grams of protein when you first wake up
Protein suppresses the negative effect of cortisol (stress hormone) and helps you to switch from fight-or-flight response to rest-n-digest.
References:
The Paleo Diet for Athletes: the Ancient Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance, by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel, Rodale, 2012, p. 63.
A brick workout is any workout that combines swimming, biking and/or running into a single session. The most common example is the bike to run brick, where you go for a run immediately after finishing a bike ride.
38 g (carbs/hour) x 2.75 (2 hours 45 minutes) = 105 grams of carbs required. 2 protein bars + Cliff energy chews = 100 C 21 F 28 P 660 calories
Hydration
TheGOAL: prevent loosing more than 2% (1.5 kg) of body weight in fluids.
What do I need? Sweat Rate: 1500 mL x 2.75 = 4125 mL Sodium: 0.5 x 4125 = 2062 mg Carbs: (X / 4125) x 100 = 5% -> X=0.05 x 4125= 206 g of carbs!?
What I got:
G2 Gatorade: 6 bottles (591 mL) + own solution (580 mL)= 4126 mL Carbs: 12×6 = 72 g Sodium: 270×6 + 330 = 1970 mg Additional Sodium: AminoPro 2 scoops 230 mg + Vega hydrator 100 mg = 330 mg in 580 mL of water💦 Calories: 300
Total Calories: 960 calories: 350 calories/hour Using the Cooling Fan.
Results
Pre-weight: 69.3 kg Post-weight: 69.3 kg Liquids consumed: 3930 mL Sweat Rate: 1430 mL/hour (confirmed previous calculations)
Total fluid loss: 3930 kg (2% body weight)
I am satisfied with this numbers and consider my calculations right on point. It’s a win!
BIKE
What do you know about “bonking”?
The first 40-50 minutes felt strong, pedaling without too much of an effort (RPE 3-4). Wasn’t fueling until 30 minutes into the ride. Approximately at minute 50 my power began going down increasing RPE.
Since then it was a total suffer fest. No matter how much I ate or drank, my power kept going down and down. I hit the wall or how cyclists call it “bonked”. Glycogen in my muscles and liver got depleted making my body fatigue and bonk. It felt incredibly hard to keep pushing 190 watts and I had to slow down multiple times for 10-15 seconds, because I just couldn’t keep going. My mind began playing tricks on me, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t physically spin my legs. Even knowing my legs were hurting, it wasn’t about pain. I simply couldn’t force my body to push the pedals. Multiple times I had thoughts to quit and stop this suffering as I couldn’t keep up with workout.
Here is how bonking looks like on a graph:
While heart rate is going up, speed and power falls down.
RUN
Immediately after the ride I put my running gear on and went out for a 15 minutes run. My legs felt like jelly, running at 5:28 /km pace RPE felt like 6-7. Didn’t try to push, making the emphasis on keeping the form.
Severe diarrhea hit me 5 minutes into the run. I honestly thought I would shit my pants… In addition to that had minor stomach cramps. Had to finish the cool down part short… at the restroom.
Lessons Learned:
3,000 calories / day with 400 grams of carbohydrates I currently eat on my diet is not enough to fulfill the energy demands. I went glycogen depleted into the training and payed the price.
100 grams of carbs from pre-meal burned in 40 minutes.
Confirmed my Sweat Rate calculations. Approximately 1500 mL/hour.
Learned what the bonking is and how it feels.
If you drain your glycogen tanks, there is no way to refuel it on the fly, while keeping the power & speed.
Cooling fan didn’t make significant change in my sweat rate.
I don’t like energy chews. They get stuck in teeth.
What will I do different?
Increase my carbohydrate consumption to 600 grams/day. Total daily calorie intake: 3,900 calories
Always have a big, carbohydrate-rich meal at least 90 minutes before workout.
Try consuming liquid calories. See how that feels on stomach and absorption.
I often meet people, healthy people, who tell me they wish they “could” run, wish they “could” bike, wish they ”could” get in shape. They wish they had the discipline or self-control needed. They act as if you are either born with this mysterious gift of willpower or not…
The bad news is that no one is born with it, but the good news is that it is trainable. So you tried going on a diet and couldn’t stick with it? You started a new business and it failed? The relationship you thought was “the one” fell apart? None of those experiences are “good”. However on the flip side, people that went through those experiences came out better, stronger, tougher, especially if they used that setback as a way to learn to avoid repeating mistakes. IT’S ALL GOOD MENTAL TRAINING.
…it’s been 7.5 hours of constant running and I definitely don’t feel like continue the race as my body is hurting and doing everything possible and impossible to stop me from continuing. I’ve got one more hour until the finish line is closed and that means only one thing to me – I’ve got a chance to continue and achieve my goal of 30 miles. Unless I’m suffering a serious physical injury that prevents me from taking a step, I know I’m not going to stop. I know I’m going to continue on, come hell or snow. 30 miles behind, 8 hours of constant running, but still finding enough energy to crack that awkward smile on my face… This race costed me three nails on my toes and the level of physical pain I haven’t experienced before. It made me tougher and stronger, as IT’S ALL GOOD MENTAL TRAINING!
There are six things we are trying to achieve with of proper pre-exercise nutrition:
Restore muscle glycogen (especially important for morning training). A lot of athletes ignore food first thing in the morning. Don’t be like most! Going into training fasted or under-fueled will catch your up later with what cyclists call “bonking” or runners call “hitting the wall”. You simply run off the gas (glycogen) and your body refuse to deal with you any longer. You are forced to stop, you lost!
Satisfy hunger. Realizing that you’re hungry in the last hour before exercise or race is too late. Eating so close to start will only harm you.
Boost motivation
Delay fatigue
Optimize performance. This is a biggie! This is why you continue reading this chapter. Other than simply restocking your glycogen stores and fluid levels, proper pre-training nutrition has direct correlation with your performance.
Improve post-exercise recovery. If you start with your fuel tank on empty, even if you eat and hydrate during training, your recovery will be compromised. The better fueled and hydrated you are going into the training, the faster you will recover from it afterwards.
WHAT?
Salads are bad for you! This is the only time you hear me say it – right before training or racing. We are not talking here about eating for health and longevity, we are fueling up our carb tanks for performance. Understanding that, we stay away from fiber, high fat and protein foods. Those foods are slow to digest, may cause bloating and diarrhea during high intensity trainings.
Here is your general guidelines to follow, when deciding on how you are going to fill up your body for upcoming training:
Eat mostlycarbohydrates. The more time you have before exercise, the lower GI of your food choices should be.
Stay away from fiber.
Include protein, especially BCAAs. The 2018 Researchsponsored by Western University in Canada have shown that taking in BCAAs before aerobic exercise improves endurance and stimulates protein synthesis.
No foods or snacks in one hour prior to event or training. Is to prevent hypoglycemia (rapid insulin spike, followed by drop in blood sugar level).
The following are examples foods to eat prior the event:
Fruits with Eggs. Fruits (Low in fiber: bananas, peaches, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon) + Eggs (Easy to digest and is a great source of BCAAs)
Applesauce (Unsweetened) + Protein Powder. Applesauce is easy to digest and is low in fiber. Add egg or whey protein powder to slow the glycemic reaction and to add BCAAs
Baby Food (easily digested by anyone) + Animal Protein (Turkey, Chicken or Fish)
Liquid Meals. Stress reduces our abilities to digest food and I’ve had a nervous stomach prior to events before. Blending foods makes it easier to digest
Sports Bars with Protein. My least favorite option. Whenever possible, stay away from engineered foods
Fluids, especially WATER. In addition, a strong brewed coffee has been shown to improve endurance performance. Downsides of caffeine: upset stomach and nervousness
Of course, eating moderate-high GI foods will cause the insulin spike and shut down fat oxidation and your body will shift to burning carbs for fuel. This is concerning for many athletes that try to loose weight and train in fasted state to improve fax oxidation.
You got to pick one or another:
You burn fat and loose wight
You train and race at you peak performance, stimulating fitness gains.
Those two are not compatible. If you chose the option #2, continue reading as I’ll get more in depth on how to fuel up for performance. If your goal is to loose fat, you chubby panda, I suggest you read on some of my postshere.
HOW MUCH & WHEN?
To boost your performance, carbohydrate-rich easy-to-digest foods should be consumed no less than 1-2 hours before the exercise or race.
Everybody is different and the amount is determined by body size and gender. You should listen to your body, however here is some general guidelines:
3-4 hours before – Large meal (500-800 calories)
1-3 hours before – Medium-size meal (250-500 calories)
30 min – 1.5 hour before – Small meal, snack (100-500 calories)
10 minutes before start – Sports drink or Gel (100-200 calories), followed by 180-240 ml of water.
Race Week Diet
Typically a week before competition, athletes go into a “tapering” stage, where training volume and intensity is reduced to ensure the athlete is well rested before the event. Since they don’t train as much, it makes some athletes confused with their food choices. Let’t keep it simple: this is not the time to make changes in your day-to-day diet. You should continue to eat the same diet as while you was training, but with slightly reduces amount of calories consumed.
Skip the pasta party! The day before the race slightly add more carbohydrates to ensure your glycogen tanks are full. It’s a great time to treat yourself to some: bananas, peaches, watermelon, dried fruits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams. To keep your blood sugar levels in check from such high GI foods, add protein and fat with each meal. In addition, reduce the fiber and eat at your usual times.
A tip: The order in which you eat carbs and proteins matter. Simply by switch the order you eat your food you can control you glucose and insulin levels. Eat protein and vegetables first and carbohydrates at the end. Never eat carbohydrates alone. Read more on Food Order.
References:
Lemon, Peter. “Effect of Branched-Chain Amino Acid Supplementation on Muscle Damage – Full Text View.” Search of: Spain – List Results – ClinicalTrials.gov, Western University, Canada, 2018, clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03766815.
Do you want to get the taste of every shade of pain? I’ve got a perfect recipe for you – get yourself dehydrated. All you need is to lose just 1%-2% worth of your body’s weight through the fluid loss. Here is how you do it: wake up early in the morning to get that 90 minutes bike ride done, before work or school. Have nothing besides a cup or two of coffee and jump straight on the trainer. I guarantee that your heart rate won’t go higher than zone 3-4, no matter how hard you push yourself. RPE of 3-4 will feel like 7-8, making every second of your workout count as you courageously suffer through it. Besides that, you might experience some of the following symptoms, but they most likely have nothing to do with you being dehydrated. Push harder!
Headache (wether changes)
Fatigue (don’t be lazy!)
Dizziness (thats ok, just don’t close your eyes)
Increased thirst (resist! less water = higher RPE)
Tachycardia (you won’t even feel it)
Weak pulse (don’t worry about that)
Chills/cold hands (put on an extra jacket)
Organ failure (people live even with one kidney)
Shrunken brain (less weight to carry)
Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke – those are the things that will add more flavor to your experience of riding the paintrain. There are few tips on how to access those add on features and amplify your suffering:
Do some interval training outside, including extreme spikes in intensity or volume
Try exercising when sick. Disease and fewer is not an excuse to skip a workout
Put on as many clothes as you have. Let’s see how many cycling jerseys you’ve got in your closet
Neglect all the clues and heat-related illness signals your body sends you
Few more workouts like this and you begin questioning your abilities as an athlete and your existence on this planet overall. A little shit-talking voice in your head gets louder and louder, yelling at you to stop this suffer fest and quit the sport all together. Perfect! There are many other ways to get on the paintrain with a first-class seat, but I will not discuss all of them just yet. If it’s something that you’re specifically looking for, let me know and I will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to obtain the ticket to the suffer-land for free.
Let’s get serious
Performance Hydration
Let’s talk first about why exactly is hydration so important?
I bet you heard a million times that making sure you are well hydrated with clean water is essential to your well-being. I’ll just refresh a few things in your memory in regards to why you need to drink water.
About 40 liters of water contains a 150 pounds human body. Every day you loose 2-3 liters of fluids. Your body doesn’t produce water and heavily rely on external sources. Without proper amount of water, your body fails to:
Transport fuel to your working muscles
Eliminate the byproducts of your trainings from your cells
Keeping you alive and not let you dies from overheating by cooling itself down.
Digest the foods you eat and convert them into the fuel for your next training sessions.
Keep your brain functioning, making you a bit smarter than your dog. Concentration is compromised.
Maintain the blood volume. The sweat that you loose during exercise comes out of your blood plasma. Loose too much sweat -> blood volume goes down -> performance decreases.
The list goes on and on, but the main point here is that WATER IS LIFE.
Dehydration
When endurance athlete “hits the wall” or getting “bonked”, running out of energy, he can grab a gel or coke and rapidly put that necessary calories into the engine. Up to a certain point dehydration is manageable and there no performance decline. However, if the athlete is getting dehydrated, there is no fast way to restore hydration status. When is too late? Over 2% of body’s mass lost through the fluids links to a low performance. Your main task as an athlete is to stay above 2% or 3% off for fluids lost during exercise. Its easy to miss the point of not coming back and once you’re in the hole of dehydration, you’re not coming out of it in a course of the event. Game is over! Or it for the least your performance is highly compromised.
A symptom of dehydration is often expressed as hunger. That sound weird, but it’s true. When people reach for carbohydrate rich foods, because they’re hungry in the pm its often the fact that they simply dehydrated. By retaining hydration status during the day, it get easier to manage portion control and quality of food consumed.
Hyponatremia
On the flip side is over-hydration problem – hyponatremia. A lot of athletes are over-hydrating lowering the body sodium levels to dangerously low levels. Your blood becomes thicker and saltier and you feel thirsty. If you drink a lot of water or a lot of low-sodium fluids you actually diluting your blood down. You hold about 32 oz (950 mL) of fluids in your stomach. Depending on your body size and exercise intensity it empties at a rate about 30-42 oz (890-1242 mL) per hour. If you drink too much, too fast, your stomach gets overfilled, having no choice, but make you vomit to remove the excess. Overdrinking can cause nausea.
Electrolytes
You noticed in the past that your sweat leaves white marks on your clothing. Sometimes less, sometimes more. With sweat you never loose just the water, but also electrolytes. Without those positively and negatively charged ions you won’t be able to contract your muscles properly, making your running form seem more like a butt injured bear running away from the hunter. Potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium are the micronutrients that in proper combination allow your body to remain in homeostasis by maintaining the fluid balance. Sodium is predominant electrolyte so you mainly loose this important nutrient with your sweat.
Five main electrolytes inside your body
If you don’t replace the fluids and electrolytes lost, it will essentially pull a cascade of negative events that will make you a dehydrated bitch. Luckily for you, mother nature provided your body with reliable fluid level management feature – a thirst. When too much water leaves your cells – they shrink and your brain gets notified immediately. If you feel thirsty, you’re on your way to a suffer-land, sponsored by dehydration. Listen to your body and drink enough to satisfy thirst, not more or less.
Better Hydration = Better Performance
You may not feel thirsty during exercise, but you absolutely need to hydrate while you exercise. Plain water is the best! There are three kinds you are safe to go with:
Purified water. This water is free of contaminants and produced by deionization, distillation, reverse osmosis and carbon filtration.
Spring water. Spring water is the “natural” version of purified water. may have been disinfected, but most impurities and contaminants remain. In terms of quality, spring water is much closer to tap water than purified water.
Alkaline water. It’s less acidic than tap water, however there is little evidence that its healthier than regular tap water.
“Taste and temperature have no perceptible effect on fluid absorption”
Karel, L
Sports drinks
Hypertonics. They are the high-calorie sports drinks or simply soda. Drinking these is notoptimal way to hydrate as your body has to move water out of the bloodstream into the gut to absorb the calories within the drink.
Isotonics or Hypotonics. This types of drinks are formulated to a concentration that is similar to your blood, which makes them a good hydration tools.
Coffee & Tea
Coffee is considered as probably harmless and possibly healthy. Just keep in mind that it’s a central nervous system stimulant so try not to over drink it.Commonly accepted safe dose of it is no more than 32 oz (946 ml) a day.
Tea also has caffeine in it, but way less than coffee. It is often praised for its health benefits and can help to fight free radicals, reduce the risk of heart related disease and even cancer. Herbal teas increase immunity, support weight loss, control appetite, promote better sleep and lower stress levels. It’s not a magic bullet, but if you get to pick between tea and coffee, I would go with the first one.
Juice, Energy drinks and Alcohol
Liquid produce is not healthier than whole, solid produce. Real juice, even with no added sugars is a very easy way to over-consume the calories, compared with eating whole foods. However it may come in handy after the intense workout, assisting in rehydration and delivering vitamins with minerals. To make it even a better post-workout option, add a tea spoon of pink Himalayan salt to make it more similar to rehydration sports drinks.
Energy drinks is a no-no! 5-hour Energy, NOS, Monster Energy, Red Bull, Rockstar etc. is a poison straight from a can. Sugar, enormous amount of calories and caffeine along with other stimulants will put you at risk of cardiac arrest. Save your heart and opt from such drinks, especially during the exercise.
There are no benefits to alcohol consumption. Sorry. The use of alcohol even in small amounts can negatively affect your hydration status, sleep, recovery, motivation and overall performance.Not to mention, it causes weight gain and weakens your immune system. If you are an athlete, especially during a competition season, do yourself a favor – stay away from alcohol.
Know your Sweat Rate
Everyone looses fluids differently, therefore to better understand how much you are sweating it’s important to calculate your sweat rate. Right before your next big workout, jump on scales and record your weight. When finished, re-weight yourself and calculate your sweat rate using the example of how to estimate the sweat rate for 150 lbs athlete after a 2 hour 30 minutes bike ride:
Pre-exercise weight: 150 lbs (68 kg)
Post-exercise weight: 148.5 lbs (67.3 kg)
Weight (fluids) loss: 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg) or 24.7 oz (700 mL)
Water consumed during exercise: 3 liters (100 oz)
Total Sweat Loss: 24.7 oz + 100 oz = 124.7 oz (3688 mL)
HEALTHY PEE CHART [Digital image]. (2017, January 30). Retrieved February 3, 2019, from https://hydratem8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/healthy-pee-chart_03.png
