So I just finished ironman Copenhagen and had to pee every hour if not a bit more on the bike. I did Oregon 70.3 4 weeks before and had the same issue with the same nutrition.
So I have Crohns and stomach is extremely sensitive so here is my nuttrition:
750ml of water with (1) 320 cal Mourten every 1:45min
120 Calories of Precision blocks every hour (1 block per 30 min)
No extra salt
I’ve done a salt test and I loose 940mg per liter.
Pretty much at 1 hour in I started peeing like a race horse which is not normal for me. I usually consume very little water for 70.3’s as it doesn’t do well with my GI. Every 45 min or so after that I had to go and it wasn’t a light pee.
My only thought is the lack of sodium made the water jsut flush through me? They were not especially hot days (70F), but don’t know what else it could be. (not diabetic btw - a1c of 4.9).
Once I got to the run no further issues. Used Gels, and took in water on the course.
Happened to me in two IMs, both races were in low temperatures (mid 40s) at the start 60-70max during the day.
At IMAZ, I pretty much peed all day, beginning with the swim (at the start and while swimming), multiple times on the bike and run, despite taking salts.
My theory is that because I train in South Florida and was very well heat acclimated for both races, my plasma volume was already fairly high. This, coupled with the intentional / non-intentional carboload from the days before the race, has caused additional water retention.
In both cases, my body started dumping the extra fluid big time two days after travelling to the race, where it was colder and dryer. It happened that this peaked on race day.
Never had an issue in training, don’t have diabetes etc… either.
You’re only replacing 245mg of 700mg plus you loose… ( sorry my math be a little off as you are using 750ml of product and talking about loosing 1 litter of salt loss… )
Are you sodium loading at all before the race? I suppose the good thing is is that you’re not cramping
@kajet While correct…You’d have to be on potassium pills or be eating like 10 banana’s a day before that becomes an issue.
I don’t loose a liter of salt, that would be crazy! I loose 940mg of salt for every liter of sweat I perspire. I had the Precision Nutrition test done a few months back.
I did sodium (lmnt) and fluid load for the two days before the race. So I am loosing 940mg of salt for every liter I sweat, and I am replacing with ~250mg for every 750ml I consume. On a hot day I’ll sweat a lot, but Copenhagen bike wasn’t that hot, so lets say I Iost 1L of sweat every 2 hours of racing. So in general I lost 700mg of sodium every two hours of racing. The thing is though, I starting peeing at about an hour in on the bike. I had only taken in probably 350ml of fluid at that point. I’m beginning to suspect something in the Maurten doesn’t agree with me as it’s just not enough time to have that reaction. I’ve had some issues on training rides as well with it, but not near as bad. I don’t spend two days hydrating before a long weekend ride though. I’ve also not had this issue before the Maurten, and I’ve been doing this for a long time.
I’m going back to just plain water and blocks on my next ride / race and see what happens.
(sorry for spam linking. certainly no affiliation to those blasphemous products. )
PS, in case useful to anyone: Any water loss is probably counterproductive around/during exercise, so even an over-emphasis on potassium in a mix—albeit still lower in absolute terms than sodium—is probably suboptimal. Apologies for hijacking into potassium-land.
To OP: you’re correct. Not enough salt in Maurten. Also, on a cool day, some folks also don’t need 750mL per hour. I’m not one of those folks. My wife has performed well on as little as 330mL per hour in cold conditions for 3-5 hours. She is a very light sweater.
Well, I’m surprised by the very HIGH sodium levels in the Maurten and Nduranz, for example.
It says 0.73g of sodium per 50cl bottle, or 1.46g per liter. This seems really extreme, because it’s fairly generally accepted that, depending on the individual, the sodium intake per liter should be between 0.7 and 1.1/1.2g per liter, depending on the conditions. The only way to reduce this ratio would be to drink more water at the aid stations on the bike leg (long-distance triathlon), which isn’t very logical.
For example, PF nutrition recommends not adding electrolytes to drinks so that you can adjust the electrolyte intake yourself depending on the conditions (250mg capsules).
This is something I don’t really understand…
Sounds like low sodium could be the culprit — you’re likely not retaining the fluids. Might help to test adding a little extra salt/electrolytes on training rides to see if it balances things out.
I’m actually confusing Salt and Sodium.
Salt contains 40% Sodium.
PF1500 = 1.5g of Sodium per liter, but it might not be easy to mix that with Maurten.
PF250 = 250mg of Sodium, which is easy to take in capsules with a drink.
The PF&H stuff is confusing. Both the effervescent tablets and packets contain half of whatever the product name is. For example, a single packet of PH1500 contains 750mg of electrolytes.
I’ve mixed many electrolyte products with Maurten and I’d say the unflavored LMNT is probably the best, but I also like the flavor of the PF&H packets.
At the end of the day I only use Maurten drink mix and gels when I’m getting my electrolytes from another source, or when it’s the winter time and I just don’t need as many electrolytes.
I’d be curious how athletes like KB and Laidlow get salt in out on the Queen K…
If they increased tablet size to contain 1500 mg, people using 750 ml bottles would have to break off 3/4 of a tablet. Dissolving 1.5 tablets seems a lot easier.
This makes sense, I never thought of it from the perspective of someone using a 750ml bottle (which is probably the most common size anyways).
I’m a heavy sweater with somewhat high salt concentration (1.5/1.6mg per liter) and will typically use one packet to supplement a drink mix, or two packets if the bottle is just for electrolytes. Once you understand their system it’s quite easy and flexible.
Salt or Sodium?
I don’t find it huge. In Kona last time I took 1.8g/L of salt (NDuranz) which makes 0.720mg of Sodium per liter, and yet I sweat normally.
(55-59)