seypat

I am a chronic cramper when it comes to endurance sports. I am currently training for a marathon. I went to a nutrition clinic for the MTT teams the other night in hope of finding some info on the cramping. Here is the link to the presentation. The info should be useful to cyclists as well.

https://www.marathontrainingteam.com/...ition-2014.pdf

In relation to the OP's question is how much sodium is lost during exercise. I never imagined it was that much. I started adding lots of salt(as recommended) to the fluids taken on SAG breaks at Saturday's training run. It definitely made a difference. The person doing the presentation recommended the sea salt packets from Wendys.

Flyingblind9

Reading that and seeing a minimum of 450mg of sodium lost per HOUR is pretty significant, especially since rides or runs in your case can last 2, 3 or even 4 hours. Which would be anywhere from 1350mg-9000mg of sodium lost during a 3 hour endurance exercise. Thanks for posting this, normally it's difficult to find information on sodium loss through exercise.

hybridbkrdr

I read to prevent overnight muscle cramping, it takes calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. [I take a Caltrate calcium pill that includes magnesium. I eat bananas (potassium) occasionally and add salt (sodium) to my soup.]