Coffee in IV? Are you making corrections to your thesis??
Nah, just getting ready for 30 hour shifts in the hospital…
Jodi
Wow, some crazy stuff here! You guys should try home-based psychotherapy next ;
Every now and again you hear about guys who do their own root canals too. In fact, I can remeber being on a rescue run and seeing one of them with the book on “Home Based Dentistry” open. It wasn’t pretty.
Bernie
Hello Learn and All,
Sounds like a good idea but only for an emergency situation …
because of the danger of mistakes (and infection) from doing an IV by yourself without supervision (you could pass out and be found dead in a puddle of salt water from electrolyte mismatch) …recall the recent story about the woman that won a water drinking test - went home - and died. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/
However … you could expand on the principle and speed recovery by following the IV with home dialysis … which prompts the question … Is blood cleansing legal?
You could be doing some new science so keep an accurate journal with as many metrics as practicable.
Just kidding. It would be wiser to seek professional medical advice before attempting to move back the frontiers of Triathlon science.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Neal
Ah! you’ll have access to stuff that works a lot better than caffeine I bet 
I would bet that 75% or more finishers would “qualify” for an IV. In the old days of Kona they weighed you pre race during and post race. Probably not a bad idea to check hydration status. The rule of thumb is to check standing, sitting and supine BP and pulse. A hydrated person they are about the same, dehydrated people have changes.
I would not advocate giving yourself an IV as you may be harming your electrolyte balance. In the same breath having coworkers in the medical tent or going to races wih MDs there are more than a few athletes that get IVs after races in the hotel room. The big plus if IV fluids is the recovery time is cut way down. You can get a couple liters of fluid in the bloodstream in about a half an hour if you want to. Most folks cannot drink salt water that fast, let alone get it into the bloodstream.
Just in case people start comparing their sitting and standing BPs and HRs let me say that I don’t totally agree with this post (i don’t totally disagree either). It is normal for many people to see a change in these numbers even when fully hydrated. Especially in athletes, you often see an increase in HR and a drop in BP when they stand up. You can easily test this on yourselves. Just put on an HR monitor (Polar, etc) and sit or lay still until you achieve your resting HR. Then stand up and watch what happens. You can do the same thing with a blood pressure cuff if you have one and you’re relatively quick at using it. A dehydrated person may have more prounounced changes, and I agree that big changes in orthostatic BP etc can be one indicator of dehydration, but not when taken by itself.
There are lots of possible complications with giving yourself an IV. If you go that route, be careful and make sure you have medical attention nearby. I agree that having an IV may help recovery, but I also agree that proper hydration, nutrition, acclimation, etc are far more effective and desirable methods. For what it’s worth, I had issues with heat, electrolyte balance, etc until I worked with a good registered dietitian who helped me dial in my nutrition, including an InfinIT formulation that works extremely well for me.
I posted this just to get some initial information and see if this is widely practiced. Today’s run sucked badly (93) and despite all the eating and drinking I did I’m down to the same weight I was at the end of yesterday. I did use the thermotabs during the workout - one every 30 or hour - I don’t remember exactly.
Feeling pretty trashed. Maybe there are no easy answers. Maybe just get out super early when it’s cooler.
Indeed - I’d echo Fattys suggestions - we can learn a lot from the movies.
I do all my training along the lines of ‘American Flyers’.
And I assassinated the French President after watching a repeat of ‘Day of the Jackal’ too.
Today I did 4.5 hours on the bike and 45 min run, and tomorrow I have a three hour run.
Can you reverse those in the future? so the 3hr run is followed by the 4.5hr bike/45min run. or maybe swim instead of run after 4.5hr.
edit: this is something I have thought about much as I start rides in the upper 90’s at 5:15am and finish in the mid 100’s at 10am it is hard to rehydrate enough for a quality workout that evening. It seems that if you were going to do this you might want to use a soft cath and leave it in for a long training weekend. Were you thinking 1-2L of D5W or going with a 2/3 + 1/3 solution?
edit: this is something I have thought about much as I start rides in the upper 90’s at 5:15am and finish in the mid 100’s at 10am it is hard to rehydrate enough for a quality workout that evening. It seems that if you were going to do this you might want to use a soft cath and leave it in for a long training weekend. Were you thinking 1-2L of D5W or going with a 2/3 + 1/3 solution?
desert dude,
You normally seem like a pretty reasonable guy who offers a lot of good advice. I’m holding out the possibility that you are kidding with this response. But in case you aren’t I’ll offer some corrections.
First, I have no idea where Learn was going to get his IV supplies (he mentions that he is an EMT so I’ll assume he was considering getting them from work or a physician at one of the hospitals that he transports to). Chances are he will only have access to .9% normal saline or Lactated Ringer’s as those are the most common fluids used in EMS. D5W and 1/2 normal saline are typically available when you start getting involved with mixing cardiac drips and other medications. I don’t think those would be as effective for rehydration because their primary purpose is that of a medication fluid.
Second, leaving a soft cath in a vein over a weekend would not be wise in my opinion. You would first need to put in a saline lock so that you don’t bleed out, then you would need to put in some kind of an anti-clotting drug (like coumadin) so that there is no clotting. I would strongly discourage using an IV site that has clotted off, and it can happen pretty quickly.
My strongest advice to Learn is that you either train when it is cooler so that this is not as much of an issue, or you learn how to hydrate yourself more appropriately. Maybe you need more electrolytes or something else, I have no idea. But giving yourself an IV for rehydration is a terrible idea. If I am not mistaken this is a hobby, correct?
Bernie
I am not a doc but this sounds like a really really really bad idea to me. It would be one thing if your significant other was a health care provider, but self done IV’s does not sound like a good thing 2 me.
If it is that bad, start running with a camel back or/and a fuel belt and hand carriers. A 3% loss in body weight leads to serious performance declines so any additional weight carried would certainly be worth the loss in muscle performance. Just sucking down salt will not stop big losses in weight due to sweat loss. If you sweat a lot, you need to hydrate. Not exactly rocket science.
Do a sweat rate test on yourself and plan accordingly…or date a nurse. 
Today I did 4.5 hours on the bike and 45 min run, and tomorrow I have a three hour run.
Can you reverse those in the future? so the 3hr run is followed by the 4.5hr bike/45min run. or maybe swim instead of run after 4.5hr.
edit: this is something I have thought about much as I start rides in the upper 90’s at 5:15am and finish in the mid 100’s at 10am it is hard to rehydrate enough for a quality workout that evening. It seems that if you were going to do this you might want to use a soft cath and leave it in for a long training weekend. Were you thinking 1-2L of D5W or going with a 2/3 + 1/3 solution?
Have you thought of having an enema right before a hard run workout? That seems like a great idea, for example just before a track workout, the times would be awesome! When you’re doing a hard training block, perhaps is better if you leave the bag permanently “connected” in order to save time. That would be my recommendation to the OP.
Today I did 4.5 hours on the bike and 45 min run, and tomorrow I have a three hour run.
Can you reverse those in the future? so the 3hr run is followed by the 4.5hr bike/45min run. or maybe swim instead of run after 4.5hr.
edit: this is something I have thought about much as I start rides in the upper 90’s at 5:15am and finish in the mid 100’s at 10am it is hard to rehydrate enough for a quality workout that evening. It seems that if you were going to do this you might want to use a soft cath and leave it in for a long training weekend. Were you thinking 1-2L of D5W or going with a 2/3 + 1/3 solution?
Have you thought of having an enema right before a hard run workout? That seems like a great idea, for example just before a track workout, the times would be awesome! When you’re doing a hard training block, perhaps is better if you leave the bag permanently “connected” in order to save time. That would be my recommendation to the OP.
Would he have to hold it in for the entire workout order to recieve maximum benefit???
NO! The goal here is to have a good clean that helps you shed any additional weight. Evidently I have underestimated the anal-retentiveness of some posters here. Thanks for pointing that out.
Why not just get a pic line? You can leave them in for months. I had one for about 2 months I think. I’ve heard up to six months they can stay in for.
Have you thought of having an enema right before a hard run workout?
Like this?
You’re a very clever person. I also agree that people with obessive tendencies should stay away from caffeine.
NO! The goal here is to have a good clean that helps you shed any additional weight. Evidently I have underestimated the anal-retentiveness of some posters here. Thanks for pointing that out.
There was a whole thread on this subject before Paulo. Someone going to come up with a plan to do this exactly again.
You’re a very clever person. I also agree that people with obessive tendencies should stay away from caffeine.
My credentials: I’ve spent a lot of time in med tents after 1/2 IM’s and stand alone marathons. What I’ve learned is that by the time you’re wanting to put in an IV, you’re 2 hours late. You need to start figuring out your nutrition and hydration (and electrolytes) for during your workout/race - not how to try to regain some normalcy after becoming severely dehydrated.
First observation - the poster that said Gatorade has a lot of sodium is wrong. Yes, it has way more than straight water, but some of us need more like 1000mg of salt an hour in bad conditions. From what you’ve said you are maybe around half that. You’ll need to experiment to figure out how much you need.
And then you need fluid, lots of it. You need to be drinking more before and during your workout. If you’re losing that much weight, your athletic performace will be severely hindered. Find places that have water, carry concentrates (gels, sodium pills, and drink powder), and refill on water wherever you can. I ride with a camelbak, and a bottle or two of concentrated Infinit (with the sodium dialed to the max). As I ride I drain the camelbak, and refil it when I can.
Then when you get home you’ll feel much less like death, and much less like you should be doing something silly - like giving yourself an IV. I used to be pretty much a vegetable after my long workout days, but thankfully those days are gone because I work harder at being properly hydrated DURING the workout.
Just my $.02
Mike