I’ve been exploring ways to get more sodium during races. I was in the grocery store tonight and noticed that one cube of bouillon has more than 1 GRAM of sodium. That’s a hell of a lot of salt (no wonder broth tastes so good during an IM marathon). Has anyone ever experimented with simply popping a cube under their tongue at the beginning of the run and letting it dissolve? Seems like a very fast way to get your NA levels up. Is there any downside to getting a little too much NA during the run?
I remember reading a race report (or some IM story) where they said that this one guy raced with a bottle of bullion in his water bottle for that reason (salt).
Have you ever tried eating a bouillon cube? I used to do things like that as a kid. I’m not sure it would be that pleasant, and you would want a lot of water. You might try just licking a bouillon cube before going for a run.
Oh and make sure you get the right thing – bullion refers to gold bars, like in Ft. Knox… it would probably just weigh you down.
One thing to consider is that most bouillon cubes have MSG in them, which I’m sure is not the best thing to consume during exercise. Many people react to MSG with physical symptoms such as migraines, nausea, digestive upsets, drowsiness, heart palpitations, asthma, anaphylactic shock, and a myriad of other complaints–all bad things to have happen during a bike/run.
If you want to try the bouillon cube experiment, I’d recommend taking a trip to Whole Foods and getting some bullion cubes with no MSG.
I’ve used Saliditos in both training and racing to replenish salt.They taste kinda nasty, but seem to do the trick for me. I let the salt just dissolve over about 5-10 minutes. A saliditos is basically a dried, salted plum. There are both Mexican and Asian versions of the same thing.
A top AG’er in my area uses chicken broth in water bottles on the bike and run. Since they don’t put out the broth until later in the run, he stashes 1 bottle in his bike special needs another at T2 and another in his run special needs. He has extreme salt loss and this is his way of combating it. It must work as he was top 45 at IMH in '04.
