dehydration, think i know the answer

[kwackers]

For myself I work to the rule of roughly 1 litre of water per hour is all that the body can absorb through drinking.

Then make up any shortfall by stoping in the shade for 1 hour to slowly drink a litre and then carry on. If it has been a long hot day then make sure to carry on sipping your drinks at the end of the day.

Whether running or cycling I think (for myself) that the 1 litre hour is a good benchmark.

Personally I'd say that sounds a lot!
Over a marathon distance (3 hours) I'd drink about half a litre. There's no way I could drink 3 litres that's 3Kg of water! As a rule of thumb each extra Kg I carry slows me down by about 2 minutes...

Obviously a lot depends on how much you sweat, one of the points I read is your body weight shouldn't go up.

[Vorpal]

Fathead1: if you feel good after 50 miles and 1-1/2 litres of fluid, don't worry about it. Make certain you eat well.

If you feel at all ill, nauseous, or unable to eat, you probably aren't drinking enough. Dark urine may not signify dehyrdation; urine darkness can vary quite a lot, and while it does get darker (more concentrated) as your relative fluid intake goes down, other things can also affect it, including various medicines and foods.

If you are drinking lots of caffeine (tea or coffee), either before or during your ride that can negatively affect your hydration, as well.

Good luck.

[groberts]

Good hydration has to be a given but what about energy drinks? I've used PSP22 for a while (in addition to plain water) and definitely feel a benefit but was wondering in these days of austerity whether anyone has a cheaper alternative?

[kwackers]

Good hydration has to be a given

Nope. It's a fairly recent fallacy that you need to drink lots.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4021781

That's quite an old paper but evidence shows that the problem is worsening, 13% of finishers in a typical marathon are suffering the effects of hyponatremia, the same survey shows that isotonic drinks do nothing to help.

You should drink, but it's actually safer to drink less than you rather than more. (Particularly for women and people with a certain genetic disposition).

[Mick F]

1 ltr an hour and I'd drown!
I don't drink beer that fast!

I can go for a 30mile ride and drink no more than a cupful. When I get home, a cup of tea will suffice.

In the high summer and long rides, I take a small amount of Barley Water diluted in my bottles with a pinch of salt. It tastes funny but the water gets absorbed better with salts and sugars than just plain water. I'll be doing this in July when I cycle Up North and back.

[Jonty]

I simply listen to my body and have a drink when I feel thirsty. Do members recall that it was fasionable among young people several years ago to walk around town clutching a bottle of "spring" water as if they were tranversing the Gogi desert?
When I was a young man, many, many years ago, we were told never to drink when running or when doing any prolonged aerobic activity.
However our metabolisms are all different and what suits one person may be inappropriate for another. Some people sweat more than others and cycling can conceal the amount of sweating because of the drying effect of the wind.
I believe that sodium deficieny is not uncommon among endurance sportspeople. I take extra salt when cycling to avoid cramps.
jonty

[Michael R]

A bit of commonsense is the answer.

I admit to laughing at the obsession with hydration camelbacks and the rest of it , not to mention sports drinks.

To avoid dehydration you need to follow a fe simple things and give yourself sufficient liquids AND SALT where necessary.

In summer on a long ride (i.e over 40 miles) I always take 1 1/2 litres of my expensive sport drink - good fruit squash plus brown sugar plus a dash of salt , and a spare bottle full of water.

I used to work as a field geologist in the Namib Desert going up mountains in the heat of the day. I took 2 litres of water as that was sufficient. Springs were a bonus but often were salty - yuk. Now imagine walking down a valley in temps over 100 and seeing the green round a spring. AH WATER!!! I had to assume it was brackish, until I dipped my finger in and tasted it. On return I took a glass of water put in two teaspoons of salt and drank it -yuk - and then drank something nice. I never had dehydration.

10 years ago on a warmer day - over 115 I did the Grand canyon to the river and back. Took enough water and salt. No concerns etc, but my pee was yellow.

I describe all this to point out that a little commonsense and care, and especailly use of more salt when excercising is all one needs.

[horizon]

I can go for a 30mile ride and drink no more than a cupful. When I get home, a cup of tea will suffice.

Me too - even on this Sunday on the local hills in the sun, one short swig on the bottle in 35 miles. It's a point of issue between me and Mrs H. I would say to the OP, just adapt slowly and the fitness will increase and the need to drink will diminish.

[byegad]

I average around 500cc per hour over the year. In winter a bit less and in hot weather (Remember that? ) a lot more. My record was 45 very hilly miles in the high 20s where I got through 4 750cc water bottles, three mugs of tea at a tea shop halfway round and 2 pints of beer when I got home!

[PBA]

I don't drink beer that fast!

You clearly need to practice...

[Michael R]

I average around 500cc per hour over the year. In winter a bit less and in hot weather (Remember that? ) a lot more. My record was 45 very hilly miles in the high 20s where I got through 4 750cc water bottles, three mugs of tea at a tea shop halfway round and 2 pints of beer when I got home!

How often do you have to stop??

[Mattie]

For myself I work to the rule of roughly 1 litre of water per hour is all that the body can absorb through drinking.

Then make up any shortfall by stoping in the shade for 1 hour to slowly drink a litre and then carry on. If it has been a long hot day then make sure to carry on sipping your drinks at the end of the day.

Whether running or cycling I think (for myself) that the 1 litre hour is a good benchmark.

Personally I'd say that sounds a lot!
Over a marathon distance (3 hours) I'd drink about half a litre. There's no way I could drink 3 litres that's 3Kg of water! As a rule of thumb each extra Kg I carry slows me down by about 2 minutes...

Obviously a lot depends on how much you sweat, one of the points I read is your body weight shouldn't go up.

I think there is a misunderstanding - the point I was trying to make was that you can only absorb 1 litre per hour of liquid - not that you HAVE to drink 1 litre of liquid per hour. If you are cycling all day for multiple days in hot country, not just cycling round your parish for the day, but successive days of effort, will mean that you will have to try and make up your shortfall before the next days effort. This can only be done at a rate of 1 litre/hour (for myself). So if you have lost 2 litres at the end of the day then it will take 2 hours to rehydrate before you are back to square one.

Competing in a marathon is not relevant to this post, as it is a short race - a competition - where you can make up any dehydration after the gig. Run like hell, wear yourself out, but plenty of time to recover afterwards . (Paris Marathon 4 times, Dubai, Berlin, Chicago 2007!, New York, PB: 3:01)

[Mick F]

I think running is much harder work than cycling. Is that why you were saying it's not relevant, or are you saying that cycling is a longer sweatier activity?

Horses for courses, is what I say.

I can ride for three or four hours non stop and not drink at all and probably not even be thirsty. If I were to run, I'd be far sweatier and quite thirsty, but when I did cross country running in my youth, I wasn't thirsty at all.

[Tonyf33]

When I toured around N.France in July 1990 doing 700miles in 10 days temps were well above 90 pretty much every day, I know I was buying lots of fluids but I can honestly say I never consumed anything like 6-7 litres of liquids per day (maybe half that) including the coffee/tea at breakfast & the odd biere brune at night
Certainly cake stops in France were so much more pleasureable but I did always seem to have a suasage roll and some ham & cheese every day & plenty of buttered toast in the mornings
Carb loading, what was all that about???

Is the amount of fluids needed affected by fitness or age?

[rualexander]

I sweat pretty profusely in hot weather and, as mentioned earlier by jonty, while cycling there is a constant evaporating airflow so it's not always so evident, apart from the salt that dries out on my shirt and forehead!

I remember cycling in Thailand in 1992 and on one hot and humid day there I drank two gallons (9 litres) of liquid (mostly water) over the course of what was probably a six hour ride, and more when we finished cycling for the day.

My brother who was with me, drank probably less than half that amount, and seemed to sweat less.

So it looks like fluid requirements are widely variable between people.