bdcheung

Is it possible to drink too much water during a race/ride?

Jynx

Of course. I am usually guilty of this. I drink a lot. If there is a drink in front of me I drink it. I have to make an effort not to drink both bottles in the first hour.

What makes you think you drink to much?

bdcheung

how do you know when you're reaching that point?

i don't think i can feel my blood thinning. and i've never had to pee during a race. or a ride.

Jynx

I am not familiar with blood thinning from drinking but here is what happens to me...

First, I only drink water on all my rides unless it is a special circumstance. I do eat a lot on the bike though. I find it just works better for me. Anyway if I drink to much I can feel it because the water starts sloshing in my stomach and not digesting. I start to "feel" heavier and maybe slightly sluggish. I guess it is from watering down electrolytes/salts in the body. Not sure though.

cmh

Unless you have a kidney issue, you should have to pee if you drink too much. I don't think thinned out blood would be the issue with drinking too much, rather low electrolyte concentrations. Google hypoatremia.

CastIron

I've had hyponatremia before. I kept drinking massive amounts of water doing a century on a very, very hot day. Didn't eat or use any electrolyte replacement bits. Symptoms were pretty much bang on for heat exhaustion which means you should drink more water.

If you find yourself suddenly not having a headache post ride after eating something very salty then you need to keep a closer tab on electrolytes. The odds of serious injury from this are pretty remote. Feeling and performing like crap are the issue at hand.

Grumpy McTrumpy

blood too thin.

take more EPO

timmyquest

No.

Assuming you keep your water bottle in the bottle cage, drinking more water will move that water off your bike and onto your body. Since you're bike is now lighter, you'll be much faster.

timmyquest

Post of the year!

timmyquest

Heh...

Thanks!

bdcheung

Save the bull**** responses for forums with "41" in their URL.

caloso

It's rare, but people have died from hyponatremia. I did the Marine Corps Marathon in 2002 and a woman died of it in that race. Basically she ran very slowly and drank water (not sports drink) at every mile.

skipmcne

But if you do, eventually you wind up in full on seizure, incoherent, vomiting on the side of the road, and after a (*hopefully quick*) trip to the hospital, pumped full of saline.

drinking TOO much is a serious issue.

bdcheung

What is the likelihood of a bike racer drinking enough water to have this happen - to any significant degree?

i.e. can one drink so much water, over the time span of before the race and during, that electrolyte levels drop low enough to affect race performance?

timmyquest

You should try to post in the right forum too.

Your more grouchy than old pcad when his hemorrhoids are acting up.

timmyquest

Too many variables. Basic high school biology isn't a good enough tool to model something like this.

jonestr

Here is a 4 part discussion on it by the man himself

https://www2.trainingbible.com/joesbl...se-part-1.html

If you dont have 20min to read this the moral of the story is to drink when you are thirsty.

skipmcne

Water intoxication (also known as 'hyper-hydration' or water poisoning) is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water.[1] Normal, healthy (both physically and nutritionally) individuals have little to worry about accidentally consuming too much water. Nearly all deaths related to water intoxication in normal individuals have resulted either from water drinking contests, in which individuals attempt to consume more than 10 liters (2.2 imp gal; 2.6 U.S. gal) of water over the course of just a few minutes, or long bouts of intensive exercise during which electrolytes are not properly replenished, yet massive amounts of fluid are still consumed.

... so doubtful

however:

Hypernatremia or hypernatraemia (see American and British English spelling differences) is an electrolyte disturbance that is defined by an elevated sodium level in the blood. Hypernatremia is generally not caused by an excess of sodium, but rather by a relative deficit of free water in the body. For this reason, hypernatremia is often synonymous with the less precise term, dehydration.

Hyponatremia (British: hyponatraemia) is an electrolyte disturbance (disturbance of the salts in the blood) in which the sodium (Natrium in Latin) concentration in the plasma is lower than normal(hypo in Greek; in this case, below 135 mmol/L).


TLDR: Water and Salt are serious buisness!

bdcheung

That was pretty much exactly what I was looking for - thanks!

timmyquest

Mind blowing

ericm979

Some people can get hyponatremia even without drinking too much water... they just sweat out a lot of salt. I'm one of them. Before I understood what was going on, I got bad hyponatremia during my first Death Ride, which was a particularly hot one. I wound up feeling absolutely terrible on the last pass- my stomach was bloated with water that wasn't being absorbed, and I couldn't get my heart rate over 125.

When I get low on electrolytes, sports drink tastes bad and food isn't all that appealing either. I figured out what the problem was on a hot hilly double metric. I got that sick sports drink tastes bad feeling and dumped out all my drink. At the next rest stop I ate a handful of pretzels. Just a few minutes later, I felt better. So I ate more. I think I stood there for 10 minutes chowing down on salty pretzels but I was ok for the rest of the ride.

After that ride I researched it. I'd never made the connection to the salt that would be all over my clothes an skin after a long hot ride. Now that I know, I carry both endurolytes and regular salt tablets on long hot rides. Endurolytes alone aren't always enough for me.

jonestr

you can be flippant about it, but after years about hearing things about drinking schedules and what not this is some world isnt flat kind of stuff about hydration. Just read the article and Friel talks about how he really had to change his thinking to incorporate this information. For at least 15 years I have always heard "If you are thirsty you are already dehydrated" which these studies directly contradict and show that over hydration is more prevalent in athletes and that may be attributed to old wives tales like "If you are thirsty you are already dehydrated"

bdcheung

the one where your mouth tastes funky and no amount of water or spitting can alleviate the taste?

jonestr

That is crazy. I have never heard of people sweating higher concentrations of salt.

bdcheung

A former teammate's nickname was "Crusty". After any summer ride/race, he'd have salt crusted all over his bibs/jersey. It was pretty nasty looking.