You’re probably used to carrying a water bottle around with you everywhere you go and drinking so much that you run to the bathroom more often than a toddler getting weaned off diapers. Meanwhile, sport drink companies sprout faster than tech companies, each touting itself as the magical elixir. So just how much do you need to drink and what should you be chugging? …
This article was originally published during the depths of the big European heat wave in 2003 that was indirectly linked to over 30,000 (not a typo) deaths. That was also the Tour where Lance got completely dehydrated and lost the first big TT to Ullrich. We’re reprinting it here with some give and take between practical advice from Josh Horowitz of Liquid Fitness and my scientific feedback.
The “Dry” Facts…
Camelbak’s got the most scientifically accurate slogan in all of corporate history when it came up with the “Hydrate or Die” motif. The proper mix of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals in your diet is important, but water trumps them all as THE essential nutrient. IRA hunger strikers in the late 1970’s lasted 60-80 days without food. However, if they had tried that without drinking water, they probably wouldn’t have lasted a week! And that’s just lying about shouting anti-English slogans. Add exercise and the heat of summer and the threat of dehydration becomes even more severe. The world record sweat-meister? Try 3.7 kg/h by the runner Alberto Salazar (1) during training prior to the 1984 Olympics in LA. That’s over 5% of his body weight every hour!
Make no mistake about it, short of sickness or injury, NOTHING will affect your daily performance more than your hydration status. Study after study has demonstrated that even a very slight amount of fluid loss (1% body weight) results in significantly decreased performance in both endurance and power sports. In fact, my own Ph.D. research (2) found that proper hydration prior to exercise (i.e., making sure you’re not dehydrated to begin with) is more important than either fitness or heat acclimation in determining your tolerance to exercise in the heat.
What’s so bad about dehydration? The first place that fluid is lost from is your blood. With less blood to pump throughout your body, your heart has to pump more frequently to maintain the same rate of blood delivery to the muscles. This results in “cardiovascular drift,” where your heart rate increases even though your power output is constant, placing unnecessary stress on your heart. In addition, the body also tries to preserve blood flow to the muscles, meaning there is less blood going to the skin to dissipate heat. Keep this going much more and the elevated body temperature will ultimately cause fatigue by actually decreasing the ability of your brain to activate your muscles (3). When dehydration gets even worse, then the water loss from your muscles themselves will cause cramps, spasms, or worse. You’ve all seen the images of Paula Newby-Fraser staggering and collapsing within sight of the Hawaiian Ironman finish line, so take steps to make sure nothing like that ever happens to you.
Planning to Drink
It is absolutely critical to plan out and practise your hydration strategy. Here are some practical tips from Josh and my scientific comments on them:
Josh: If you have a big event the next day, drink a big bottle the night before. When my team is at a hot stage race such as the Tour of the Gila, we go by the rule, if you don't wake up 2 or 3 times during the night to pee, you probably haven't drunk enough. Make sure your pee is clear the night before and the morning of. Unless you are taking a ton of vitamin supplements, clear pee means you are well hydrated.
Stephen: Due to changes in fluid distribution throughout your body, both body mass itself and urine colour can be inaccurate measures of actual hydration status. For example, if you are in a state of lowered hydration status (hypohydration), drinking lots of water will still produce fairly clear urine. Therefore, body mass and urine colour can be useful indices for long-term monitoring, but may not be able to pick up problems with acute changes in hydration. The most accurate and reliable indices of fluid balance remains blood measures, which are not overly practical for athletes. This again highlights the need to maintain a long-term and consistent hydration plans and not “cram” the fluid intake or recovery.
Josh: If you have a problem remembering to drink on the bike, make a rule for yourself. No matter how you feel, every 5 minutes take a sip, set your watch alarm every 10-15 min to remind yourself to drink, or better yet, take a sip any time you see anyone else in the group do it.
Stephen: The average athlete can easily lose over 1 kg of sweat every hour, and cyclists can easily exceed this to the tune of 1.5-2 kg in hot weather. That is because one of the primary adaptations to both aerobic training and heat acclimatization is an increased sweating response. It is critical that you train yourself to replace as much of the fluid loss as possible DURING the workout.
This point also raises the recently popular concept of hyponatremia or water intoxication. This is a condition where you can drink so much water that you end up diluting your body fluids and electrolyte concentration in the blood. This can be just as dangerous, if not more so, than dehydration. I will cover this in much more detail in my next Toolbox. But for now, for prolonged exercise, avoid drinking solely water and mix in some sports drink. In addition, drink sensibly but don’t go overboard. Remember that your body can only empty and absorb about 1L/h from your gut, so don’t get into chugging contests while exercising.
Josh: Drink your favorite hydration drink and don’t add anything to it. The reason I say favourite is because if you like the taste, you’ll drink more. The reason I say don’t add anything to it (or consume electrolyte pills) is that the hydration drink already has the proper balance of electrolytes. If you supplement with more, your cells are just going to need more water to keep an optimum balance.
Stephen: Just as the best bike in the world is worthless if it doesn’t fit you correctly, the scientifically ideal sports drink is junk if you don’t like the taste of it and therefore won’t drink enough of it. For example, some important research has been done to test the effects of different flavours on voluntary drinking rates in children. Within reason, all of the major sports drinks out there fall within the generally accepted consensus on ideal carbohydrate and electrolyte composition, so experiment to find out what you find most drinkable. There is a major debate ongoing concerning whether scientists should be advocating
Josh: During stage races or multi day events, weigh yourself before and after each ride to see how much water weight you have lost. If you have lost more than 3% water weight then you have seriously harmed your muscle’s ability to perform and you know to drink more next time.
Stephen:Over the course of a stage race or a hard training block, proper hydration becomes even more important. Pack your own water and drink powder with you to races so that you don’t have to rely on others. Research by my former boss Ron Maughan (4) shows that you need to drink at least 150% and preferably 200% of your fluid loss post-exercise to ensure that you return to your normal hydration levels. In addition, the drink should have at least moderate amounts of sodium to help keep the fluid in your body. Carbohydrates are not essential for hydration purposes as long as you’re eating adequately, but it won’t hurt to have some to improve taste.
Josh: Warm up is a place where I think people forget to drink. When it is extremely hot, cut your warm up time by 40%. Your muscles will already be warm and if you do more than about 35 minutes, you're going to be cooked. If you don't have to get off your trainer during warm up at least once to pee, you aren’t drinking enough.
Stephen:This advice is especially important in crits and time trials, where the races are relatively short. Drinking DURING these events are mainly psychological, because there is not enough time for the fluid to be emptied from your stomach and absorbed through the intestines to do much good. My doctoral research demonstrated that maintaining normal hydration status prior to exercise was more beneficial than drinking during exercise of 90 min or less in very hot environments. However, some research has demonstrated that drinking a carbohydrate drink during a 1 h time trial improved performance (distance covered) compared to water alone, theorizing that the carbohydrate may trip a feedback loop directly to the central nervous system and enabling higher power outputs.
1. Armstrong LE, Hubbard RW, Jones BH, and Daniels JT. Preparing Alberto Salazar for the heat of the 1984 Olympic marathon. Physician and Sportsmedicine 14: 73-81, 1986.
2. Cheung SS, McLellan TM, and Tenaglia S. The thermophysiology of uncompensable heat stress. Physiological manipulations and individual characteristics. Sports Med. 29: 329-59, 2000.
3. Nybo L, and Nielsen B. Hyperthermia and central fatigue during prolonged exercise in humans. J. Appl. Physiol. 91: 1055-60., 2001.
4. Shirreffs SM, Taylor AJ, Leiper JB, and Maughan RJ. Post-exercise rehydration in man: effects of volume consumed and drink sodium content. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 28: 1260-1271, 1996.
About Stephen:
Stephen Cheung is an Canada Research Chair in the Department of Physical Education & Kinesiology at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, with a research specialization in the effects of thermal stress on human physiology and performance. He can be reached for comments at stephen@brocku.ca.
Roadside St. 14 When you start each new Giro you understand you’re a year older. You feel a stranger to the village approach and for a moment ... More....
Professional cycling has, over the years, attracted only a few documentary film makers. A few, such as Jorgen Leth’s “A Sunday in Hell,” have even ... More....
I’m just digging out from a few days at the BMC training camp, and while I won’t be reporting on doing Jaeger-bombs and Redbulls with Cadel & George, ... More....
As the final Madison got underway the arena was packed to the rafters, all the talk of Six Days in crisis forgotten for now. The finale was ... More....
Six Day racing comes to Berlin for the 99th time on Thursday, 28th January, 2010 with the great tradition of winter track racing in Germany in a ... More....
American Classic spent the last couple of years reworking their line up and the 420 Aeros are the latest to leave the bench. Take a look at the new ... More....
A couple years in the making, Pez head up to see arguably the top custom builder on the planet. We hit Serotta's NY shop, take a peek at their ... More....
You’ve still got today and all of tomorrow to ‘git ‘er done! Your holiday shopping that is… and armed with the complete set of 4 gift guides ... More....
If the stocking's not full - somebody's not doing their job. Good thing we're here to help with a big ol' bag full of the kind of stuff we'd love to ... More....
Winter riding is almost upon us - except for you lucky Aussies - and that means less riding outdoors. But with an indoor trainer and a Netflix ... More....
Many ergogenic aids, both legal and illegal, have been touted as the magic bullet that will improve cycling performance. What about something that ... More....
Having goals is one of the important first steps in achieving your dreams. They can be small goals or they can be big goals, but without them you’ll ... More....
Is cycling your religion, or at least one of them? If so, you’re not alone. Many people define themselves as “spiritual,” even if they don’t practice ... More....
Post-Giro Roadside: I love Scotland; but there’s no Gazzetta in the morning, most of the coffee tastes like John Wayne brewed it beside the ... More....
Sunday July 20th 1969; that’s 40 years ago now but I remember it clearly as the day that I first became aware of professional bicycle racing – I was ... More....
Roadside Recap: As we make our merry way through the rounds of the PEZ Looks Back, Ed is up for his retrospective on the Tour that was. As the ... More....
Coming on four years ago, Saul Raisin was one of THE big things in US pro cycling. Top 40 in a hard Tour de Suisse and mountain king at the Tour de ... More....
The last time we spoke to Garmin's Steve Cozza was after the 2008 Paris - Tours; where he produced another solid performance from a consistent and ... More....
Just about to start his second season with Cervélo - thanks to strong Classic rides and his first Grand Tour finish, in the Giro - Englishman, Dan ... More....
In October, nine-time Tour de France rider Frankie Andreu announced that he would be Director Sportif of the Ohio-based KENDA Pro Cycling p/b ... More....
With so many (too many?) others looking back to best-of-2009 or decade highlights, why not look ahead? A new decade beckons, after all, so who better ... More....
We first talked with Lostende Bike Tours owner and avid cyclist Allan Reeves about his Pyrenees Cycling Challenge, from the Atlantic to the ... More....
So, riding in Texas is mostly flat, with only tumbleweeds and armadillos to avoid right? Well, not exactly. You see, Austin is situated in what’s ... More....
Roadside St. 14 When you start each new Giro you understand you’re a year older. You feel a stranger to the village approach and for a moment ... More....
Professional cycling has, over the years, attracted only a few documentary film makers. A few, such as Jorgen Leth’s “A Sunday in Hell,” have even ... More....
I’m just digging out from a few days at the BMC training camp, and while I won’t be reporting on doing Jaeger-bombs and Redbulls with Cadel & George, ... More....
Race report: Alejandro Valverde stayed upright to seal his Vuelta victory – the first Grand Tour win of his career. On such a short stage, ... More....
Race Report: Today David Millar won his 5th stage in all his Vuelta’s, he was given one of the swords that Toledo is famous for along with the ... More....
The loss of Franco Ballerini is not one that will be forgotten anytime soon. The sport's best are at a loss and two of the greatest riders of our ... More....
Updated! Hallelujah, they're racing in Qatar, and I just got back from celebrating with every other New Orleanian on Bourbon Street. There's ... More....
It was a dark Sunday morning in Italy when the news services announced that Franco Ballerini, ex-professional, former dual Paris-Roubaix winner and ... More....
The maracas shake, 'Cara mia, mine !' blasts from the PA. Bang! The little cannon fires and the hall fills with smoke. Yes, this is the right place, ... More....
When the K-Mart Classic of West Virginia stormed through the state in the mid-90s, it opened awareness as to just how great the bike riding is in ... More....
After riding the final 17 sectors of Paris-Roubaix yesterday, and typing to you with still swollen, sore, and blistered hands, I understand to my ... More....
![](javascript:showpic("http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/tech/amclass/amc420alarge.jpg",900,698);)
![](javascript:showpic("http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/tech/serotta/meilarge.jpg",2000,1244);)
