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Re: Article on drinking too much during exercise [Slowman]
Slowman, after a near death overhydration 20 lbs weight gain (10 from my own stupidity...10 more in the medical tent stupidity....) at IMLP 2003, I had a fair amount of discussion with Noakes on this topic. While others can sit with their lab coats on with a smug look on their faces from their "highly accurate" white tower academic papers, I'll go with the field studies from Comrades, Ironman South Africa and Ironman New Zealand that Noakes has conducted.

I followed the usual hydration to death routines that were generally prescribed and never figured out why I felt like crap for my first 10 Ironmans....then after talking to Noakes, I realized that I could actually do a hot Ironman like Kona on 4 bottles of Gatorade on the bike and some cups of gatorade and coke on the run still post a PB!

My family comes from a part of the world where it is 95% humidity and almost 100 degree heat 10 months a year. There, you cannot leave salt in salt shakers....it turns to slush in a day. You have to add grains of rice to keep the salt from liquifying from absorbtion of humidity from the atmosphere. Not sure if it is genetic, but everyone in my family have really low sweat rates. Must be an evolution thing for surviving in such a climate....I don't know....

Regardless, it is really important for people to find out their real sweat rate. Head out for a 90 min run and replenish with zero water in a variety of temps and do before and after weigh ins to find out what you really need to replenish. Under replenishment will not kill you.

Like you said, yes performance might drop marginally and Dr. Coggen points out due to mild dehydration, but it is extremely rare that fit athlete will die from dehydration. The likely outcome is that the athlete slows down a bit as a form of self preservation. However, we as a species only drank water when we needed it, using thirst as an indicator. Overhydration is not really a part of human evolution. Man did not drink when he was not thirsty. Death from hyponatremia is very real.

I've spent 4 years recouperating from the post concussion symtoms resulting from the intracellular fluid putting pressure on my entire brain encased in a physically fixed volume skull. I'm lucky that I did not die from a herniated brain stem. I'm also lucky to not have died from central pontine mylenolysis from rapid correction of sodium levels after this all occured. I did have nerve damage and lots of short term memory issues, nausea and deterioration of fine motor skills for a long time that have finally largely cleared up, although I go through a day or two a month when it is still an issue.

Please people, find out what you really need to drink. An aid station every mile in most marathons or Ironmans, especially for slower finishers who actually can take in entire cups of liquid (hard to do for 7 min mile runners....) is largely overkill. A bottle every 10 miles on the bike is likely too much for most people...but people take all this in cause the aid stations are there. Noakes found in his "real world tests" that if they reduced the number of aid stations, they actually ended up with less athletes in the medical tent. In fact, and my memory may not seve me perfectly, in one year at Ironman New Zealand, they treated zero athletes with IV's despite less aid stations than IMNA events.

Peace...be safe....those aid stations could actually kill you....but as a bare minimum, they may be taking away from your race day performance...

Dev

Edit: Last year at Ironman Hawaii, I weighed in race morning at 140 and ended the race at 138, on 4 bottles of Gatorade on the bike, and whatever I had off the course every other mile on the run. Please keep in mind that my Wed weigh in was 138 too. The final 2 lbs of weight that I gained was from all the water you retain when you carb up. Conversly, when I gained the 10 lbs in a 50 degree rain storm at IMLP 2003, I drank in the order of 8 bottles on the bike and then on the run, was drinking a coke and gatorade EVERY aid station. Then I slowed to a walk and was drinking chicken broth....way too much for my body!!!
Last edited by: devashish paul: Jun 20, 07 8:32

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