Are you struggling trying to understand your hydration needs? Hopefully this info can help.

(To kick off this post, a few framing comments are needed...

1. I'm not a doctor, nutritionist, chemist, ... none of the above. The comments in this post are purely the product of my research on the web and of local resources including my personal experience. Please don't consider this to be medical advice in any capacity whatsoever.

2. Your mileage may vary - it's my hope that you'll add this information to your current mental database and therefore become even better equipped for sports nutrition success.

On to our regularly scheduled blog post...)

Hydration is about a whole lot more than just drinking water. I'm sure you probably already know that. But, the real question is this - how can you be sure that you've got the right formula to have confidence you're meeting your endurance sport hydration needs? Let's see if we can't add a few bits of info to answer this question and at least get closer to an answer.

A few things to consider in long course endurance racing.

• You can have a stomach full of water and still experience dehydration if you are electrolyte depleted.
• Salt capsules are not the same as electrolyte supplements... they both contain salt, but the electrolyte supplement also contains (generally speaking) potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
• It's unlikely that in endurance racing (half-ironman or longer) at higher temperatures you will get your electrolyte and hydration needs both met through a single product (drink, gel, powder). You may be one of the lucky ones, but it's unlikely.

So, it seems there may be some complexity here then. Let's talk about a few basic strategies that have worked for me.

1. Separate your hydration needs from your caloric needs! You may address them both through the same products, but consider their fulfillment separately in your planning. I'm not going to discuss caloric intake needs in this post at all - we'll discuss that one later.

2. Know your sweat rate (how to determine is below), and estimate your electrolyte needs. The sweat rate test is relatively easy, the electrolyte need determination may take some trial and error.

3. Know what products you use, what products will be on the course for your races, and make sure that you have a specific timetable at which times you will consume what quantity of what product. It's important to be a planner in this endeavor if you want to be successful.

4. Practice your hydration strategy in your training! Don't ever think that you'll just magically nail it if you're not planning and testing during training - we train to long and hard to leave something as important as hydration to guesswork.
Have you done a sweat rate test? If not, you should consider it.

Here's how you'd do it - from an article originally published in Runners World.

1. Weigh yourself nude right before a run.

2. Run at race pace for one hour, keeping track of how much you drink (in ounces) during the run.

3. After the run, strip down, towel off any sweat, and weigh yourself nude again.

4. Subtract your weight from your prerun weight and convert to ounces. Then add to that number however many ounces of liquid you consumed on your run. (For example, if you lost a pound and drank 16 ounces of fluid, your total fluid loss is 32 ounces.)

5. To determine how much you should be drinking about every 15 minutes, divide your hourly fluid loss by 4 (in the above example it would be 8 ounces).

6. Because the test only determines your sweat losses for the environmental conditions you run in that day, you should retest on another day when conditions are different to see how your sweat rate is affected. You should also redo the test during different seasons, in different environments (such as higher or lower altitudes), and as you become faster, since pace also affects your sweat rate.

Now that you know your sweat rate, you can begin to consider your electrolyte replacement needs.

From what I've read/observed, if your sweat test result yielded your needs to be 24oz of fluids per hour, a fairly average hydration formula would look something like this - 24oz of fluids per hour plus electrolyte supplements containing ~600mg of sodium (also including brand-specific proportions of the other electrolyte ingredients mentioned above). I'm sure this estimated baseline could be debated, but I'm willing to put a stake in the ground and recommend this as a starting point.

You can now begin to experiment with a few different electrolyte replacement products using your sweat rate result as a baseline for electrolyte replacement needs.

Remember that although electrolyte supplements (i.e. Endurolytes, S-Caps, SaltStick, Lava Salt, Thermolytes) may appear identical, there are DRAMATIC differences between them. As an example, lets look at the sodium content of each of the above caps (we spend so much time looking at sodium as it's the electrolyte in highest concentration in our sweat & urine):

S-Caps: 341mg
SaltStick: 215mg
Lava Salts: 158mg
Thermolytes: 150mg
Endurolytes: 40mg

Clearly quite a difference, and very important to keep in mind when planning for your electrolyte needs!

Personally, I'm a fan of Thermolytes, but also use SaltStick caps on occasion. It's very rare you'll see me without a little container of them on any long training effort. Visit your local endurance sports store or running/tri club and see what they have to say. Experiment to find your optimal mix.

Here's another possible approach that may yield some assistance as you determine your needs during long intense training and racing situations...

• If your drink "tastes" too "watery" you may want to increase your salt intake. For example, some athletes have had the experience that "the volunteers at that last aid station aren't mixing the Gatorade strong enough, it's way too diluted!" Well -- usually the drink's mixed right and that is your body's way of telling you that you're in fact diluting your own electrolytes, internally.

NOTE: There is no "salt craving" associated with this "watery taste." In fact, it's more a feeling of "water aversion.", as in it just doesn't feel/taste like something you want to drink.

• If your drink tastes too "sweet" or concentrated you may need to increase your water intake -- this is your body's way of telling you that you're dehydrated. If you come away from an aid station thinking the drink has been mixed too strong, or things simply taste too sweet, syrupy, or concentrated, your body may be telling you it needs water.

There's certainly more to write in the future about this, but hopefully this serves as a solid starting point if you were looking for one. If you're a bit befuddled trying to figure this all out, believe me, you're not alone... but once you get it figured out, you'll never be happier and will be en route to some outstanding performances!

(huge thank you to the many contributors to this information! Runnersworld.com, slowtwitch.com, and many many endurance athletes/coaches throughout Texas and California)

The 2010 Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas... aka Windybikefest 2010

I now understand why everyone was so pumped about the weather conditions in 2009...

Ok, so probably need to start by describing myself to those of you who don't know me. I'm 6'3", ~190lbs. If you had a sailboat and had a need for some extra sail surface area, you could use me. I get as low as I can on the bike (and I can get pretty aero), but I'm still a big guy with a lot of surface area for the wind to grab on to.

Now that we've got that out there, let the race report begin.

The wind was pretty intense most of the weekend. Friday night, the winds reached up to 75mph... the sprint and olympic distance events for Saturday morning were converted to run-bike-run due to the high winds. The wind was so extreme that a police boat capsized in Galveston bay. So, hopefully you're getting the picture that this isn't the standard cyclist wind bellyaching. The bike course for this race is an out and back, flat as a pancake, and highly exposed. Staying low and aero is a big deal to have a good bike split here.

When the race kicked off, the water was pretty choppy - we had to work our way through some swells and decent waves (I heard someone say there were whitecaps, but I was pretty heads-down so didn't see them as much as experience them). I enjoy rough water swimming - reminds me of the Great Lakes - but it doesnt make for fast swim splits. Amongst my age group, I had a good swim split. Out of the water, into T1, and into the winds.

When I got out near the seawall to begin the 28mi straightaway (before the turnaround just past the opposite end of the island), the wind was like a slap in the face. As I continued to ride, it became clear it was more of a side wind with a bit of headwind. It made the course quite tough. I kept low and ground it out, but it became pretty clear about 15mi into the ride I should begin to let thoughts of a big PR go... that wasn't easy. But, when confronted with the simple choice of either continue to grind it out and possibly ruin the fun of the day or take it a little easier and be sure to have good memories of the race, the winner was the latter. Just doesn't make sense to put all of that effort into a race weekend and come away having not achieved my time goal AND having not had a good time racing. This is the reason we do it, to have fun, right? :) After the turnaround, sped up slightly on my way back to T2, but the wind was still beating me up pretty good. Back into T2, let the run begin.

I was very happy with how I managed the run mentally... wasn't my fastest run ever, but kept good paces for the first two (of four) laps, and took it a bit easier towards the end. Hit my hydration plan perfectly this year - a key goal of mine given the big problems I had on the run in 2009 with dehydration. All considered, my nutrition plan hit dead center for this race... and I get three more chances to practice it prior to IM Arizona later this year.

The finish, not a time I'm very proud of, but still did pretty well in my AG. I had hoped to go much faster, but that's ok - I'll live to fight another day. After my second attempt at this course, I'm trying to decide whether to keep after it in 2011 at this event and see if I can't master it, or to spectate... I'm sure I'll be there to take the start :)

Big props to all of my T3 teammates... many PRs, many first timers at this distance. Chris, Kevin, Carrie, Jen, Seth, Jason, John, Danny, Tami, Natasha, ... You're all a blast to train and race with, and I'm proud to be on the team with you. Coach Mo, you were a great help to many in keeping on target during that run - very much appreciate your words of encouragement and direction.

All considered, a great event - great weekend with friends, great weekend away from normal life to get some mental downtime, and a very well run race. Time well spent.


Thanks for reading!

What to do when another cyclist is hurt...

Here's a clip from an outstanding article... full version can be found here (with thanks to 'Fat Cyclist' for the copy).

As a cyclist who sometimes rides with a female cyclist, I realize that how one acts may depend on who one is with, and have therefore helpfully segregated my findings into appropriate gender combinations.

If you are a male cyclist with an injured female cyclist, ...

• Refrain from telling her how hot she looks in lycra. Now is not the time. Trust me.
• Tell her how tough and awesome she is. By the way, she is very tough, and very awesome. Just in case you weren’t clear on that.
• Tell her anyone else would be crying harder / acting more pathetic than she is, including you. But don’t use the words “acting more pathetic,” because that implies she’s being pathetic at all, which she is not.
• Get her bike ready to ride again. The woman is going to want you to shut up at some point. This is a good time for you to fiddle with her bike and make sure it’s good to go.
• Volunteer to make a tourniquet / bandage out of your jersey. But not until she’s on her feet and seems like she might appreciate your sense of humor again.
• Describe the events leading up to the injury. Be expansive and generous with the difficulty of the triggering obstacle and / or event. She didn’t endo when she hit a rock. It was a big ol’ honkin’ ledge, and she darn near cleared it anyway. I’m not exactly sure why we all start telling the story as soon as the event happened, but it seems to help, and it seems to help more if you get started with the exaggeration right away.

If you are a male cyclist with an injured male cyclist, ...

• Ask if he’s alright. Depending on how old you are and where you live, you should either end the sentence with “dude,” “man,” or “bro.” It makes the question affectionate and concerned-sounding without being too affectionate and concerned-sounding.
• Lean his bike against a tree. He won’t trust any tweaks, fixes, or adjustments you make anyway.
• Wait for 30 seconds before asking if he’s ready to ride. If he says he needs another minute, wait another thirty seconds and ask again. Repeat as necessary.
• Describe the event, but feel free to trivialize certain aspects (such as the prime cause of the event) and enhance other aspects (such as the high-pitched scream the victim made upon suffering a compound fracture).

If you are a female cyclist with an injured male cyclist

• Tell him how hot he looks in lycra. For guys, there’s no bad time to hear this, and even when we’re injured there’s a small part of us that’s wondering if our guts are sufficiently sucked in.
• Otherwise let us suffer quietly. We’re trying to be manly and stoic. If you begin to describe the event, we’re going to think it sounds silly, because you’re not exaggerating our manliness sufficiently. If you call the injury on our leg a “nasty little scrape,” you’re making it that much harder to refer to it as a five-inch-long gushing gash when we recount it later.
• Don’t touch our bikes. Unless we beg you to help us unclip.

If you are a female cyclist with an injured female cyclist

• Honestly I have no idea. Do whatever it is you women do when you’re with each other. Like, talk about how much you miss us men. That’s what you do when we’re not around, right?

Hopefully y'all found this as entertaining as I did :)