Originally Posted by
SFCRetired
Thanks, folks. This has been a lot of help to me. Genejockey, I was aware of the electrolytes and usually drink either something like Gatorade or, if I have nothing else, Pedialyte. My late wife was a RN and schooled me pretty good on replacing electrolytes. Of course, she was more concerned with illness, but the Pedialyte (if you can stand the taste of the stuff) does work good in this sort of scenario.
I do have to limit my salt intake because of high blood pressure but do very lightly salt some food.
Glad to know I'm preaching to the choir on electrolytes! It seems like a few years back there was a fad for drinking plain water during exercise, and a number of people found themselves with hyponatremia. You wouldn't think, with all the hidden salt in our diets, that it would be POSSIBLE for an American to drink himself into hyponatremia, but it was happening!
Yeah, Gatorade or similar works. I go with Cytomax, myself. Where I live, humidity is low, so at the end of every long ride you get patches of gritty salt crystals on places like your temples where the sweat dries. It reminds you to think of electrolytes!
I don't ride as much now, but I used to go for 5-6 hour rides on warm days (85-90), and go through A LOT of liquid. IIRC, one 5 hour ride I started with 2 x 24 oz bottles of Cytomax, and powder to make 2 more. I drank those 2 bottles, the 2 replacements, then 2 bottles of plain water - roughly 9 lbs of water. And I was 3 lb lighter after the ride anyway! BUT I did not get dehydrated, even though I am sweat profusely.