Originally Posted by peripatetic
Right you are. Thanks for pointing that out. I read that article too. The worry there is people who just aren't working that hard drinking too much--usually because they're worried about being dehydrated. And they're not usually in extreme heat.
I don't think this is a huge worry unless you're out drinking and drinking and drinking but not really being active enough. These are slower (many first-time) marathoners who probably aren't moving very quickly or that hard and drinking a LOT of water. A lot of people who do marathons now do the 1 mile run/1 mile walk. That's just not that active. It's interesting to point out that the reason these people began suffering from this problem is that they were carefully heeding the mantra of professionals, but not fully aware of the reasons for doing what they were told to do. Hydration is important for maintaining your body temp., and if you don't need to do that, you don't necessarily need to stay so hydrated.
The people mentioned in the article did not necessarily suffer these problems in extreme heat. If you're in hot temps., it's veeeeery difficult to overhydrate--your body just really needs to be sweating constantly.
But thanks for the proviso, oboeguy!
I'd never heard of this phenomenon until a month or two ago when the NY Times had an article on it. As someone who's gotten pretty messed-up from dehydration, I was really surprised to see that things could go the other way, so to speak. Anyhow, letting y'all know.
Regarding dehydrating to make weight, I remember wrestlers in school doing that -- they run laps by the indoor pool (hot, humid) to make weight. For wrestling it's not as big a deal if you're a bit dehydrated as it is for rowing or cycling (or running, etc), but I still think it's stupid and dangerous.
Anybody remember the 2003 TdF? Lance got blown-away in the first time trial because he was dehydrated. He said it had accumulated over a couple of days, IIRC.