rsty2fan

Hello all,

I recently have gotten back into riding about a couple of months ago after a long time of no riding. Anyway, I've been riding at least 30 or so miles until I can go further. This past Sunday was a absolute beautiful day here in the D.C. area and decided to go for a ride. I had my 2 bottles of water and my energy bars with me. I figured I'd do another 30 miles like I have been doing, but ended up doing about 46 miles. I was fine on the first leg of my ride (23 miles) I stopped after 23 miles, ate a powerbar and had a Gatorade. When I rode back to my starting point, I started to feel some pain in my hamstrings and calves about half way back, but not to bad. I figured it was due to the fact that I just pushed myself some 16 more miles than I am used to. The last 2 miles were some of the most painful cramps I've ever felt!!! I had to stop twice to try and stretch, but it was painful to do so. When I made it back to where I started from, I noticed that I guess I really did not drink as much water as I thought. This was due to the fact that I really did not sweat much as was really not that thirsty.

My question is? What do you seasoned vets do when riding? How often should I be chugging fluids so that I don't experience this again! I was a bit sore that night, but by Monday, all seemed well again. What are some good rules to follow? Thanks in advance for your responses!!

MichaelW

A lot of hydration advice seems to be aimed at high performance riders in hot, dry conditions. If you ride at an easier pace or in cooler, damper climates then you lose water at a lower rate.
Generally, one small bottle/hour is a sensible rate. Dont wait until you are thirsty or hungry to refuel and start the ride well hydrated.

NoRacer

Due to cases of hyponatremia, the ACSM has revised it's stance about drinking. They recommend that you wait until you are thirsty:

https://www.acsm.org/publications/new...ehydration.htm

Personally, over a 100 or so mile ride, I'll drink about 100-120 ounces of carbohydrate/electrolyte replacement drink. I'll eat as little as once an hour.

I -do- start the ride hydrated AND fed.

Grasschopper

Well the old addage (sp) is to drink before you are thirsty and eat before you are hungry. If you wait to drink until you are thirsty then it is too late...you are already dehydrated. And if you wait to eat you are in trouble because it will take 40 min or so to get the energy from the food to your muscles. I typically try to drink at LEAST one large bottle for every hour I am riding and honestly that probably isn't enough. Also on any ride longer than an hour one of those bottles is some sort of electrolite drink (Gatorade, Powerade, Accelerade, GU2O...whatever).

Even if you didn't feel like you were sweating you were it was just evaporating fast enough that you didn't feel wet.

For that 46 mile ride I probably would have kicked both of my large water bottles and found a place to refill, then drank another but would probably get home with a near full bottle (i.e. I consumed 3+ 24 oz bottles).

gapowermike

No, sip early and often. No more than 10 minutes between drinks if you can help it. It's a lot easier to forget to drink once it cools off like it has now so you have to be extra careful in getting and staying hydrated.

StanSeven

I wonder if you suffred dehydration. I rode about the same distance and pushed it at times and didn't finish one large bottle. If you had a bottle of Gatorade and at least half of the water you took with you, you should have been fine. The temp was 66 when I finished and a constant breeze so you shouldn't have lost much fluid.

Did you perhaps start out low from drinking the night before or not having any fluids in the morning before?

rsty2fan

I don't drink alcohol, so it wasn't that. Maybe I should've made sure I had more fluids before I started my ride. I guess I should just get into the habit on sipping some water often so that I don't run into this again. I only drink if I am thirsty and eat only if I am hungry. Maybe that was/is my mistake. A lot of good tips so far! Keep them coming. Thanks to all.

EURO

Would you still drink at that rate if you were riding at 12mph in freezing temparatures?

As the weather turns cold I'll happily drink no more than 500ml (16oz) in 100km of riding, with no ill-effects. On an alpine climb in mid-summer I'll drink 500ml in 30 mins.

It depends on how hard you are working.

rsty2fan - your cramps could be a lack of electrolytes, or it could be nothing to do with hydration.

StanSeven

The key indicator is urinating. If you urinated when you got back and/or it is nearly clear, it was dehyration. On the other hand, if seevral hours pass and it's yellow in color, you didn't take enough fluids.

bitingduck

It all depends on the weather and the ride.

I've been on fast 30 mile rides in dry heat where I drank 2 large bottles of water and been thirsty at the end, and on long slow 60-80 mile rides when it's cool where I only drank half to 1 bottle and felt fine.

Typically I drink before I'm thirsty, and try to sip a lot. If the ride is going to be hard and longer than 2 hours I put gatorade in at least one bottle, sometimes both-- I prefer gatorade over a lot of other drinks because it's fairly salty.

Doing intervals I'll often drink 3 liters in 2 hours, but that's riding really hard in a very dry environment.

On a long slow all day ride I might go through 6-7 bottles (or the equivalent) if there are enough places to stop and refill.

zakk

i carry two large bottles. I have my Polar set-up to beep every 10 min. and i take a decent swig. the two bottles last me between 2-3 hours, depending on temp. and outside conditions.

your mileage WILL vary.

bobby c

I also ride in the DC area, this past weekend (as have been the case for the last couple of months) was beautiful. I did 54 miles near Sugarloaf Mt. (if you want a great route, PM me, I got a good one from another BF'er here - Cydewaze). Two bottles aren't enough for me on such a ride so I try to plan the route so I can fill up the bottles somewhere around 30-35 miles. On this particular route, there are several places to do a refill. While I'm out there for some speed, I don't mind stopping for a refill. FWIW (based on advice I've gotten), I carry 1 bottle of water, and 1 bottle that has 1/2 water & the other half some sports drink. However based on a previous response, I'm going to check out the nuun tablets as I don't like the sticky, sugary drinks.

substructure

Two things I've found out (about me) when it comes to hydration:

1. If I'm drinking plenty of water the day before and stray from salty foods I need less water on the ride.

2. Two normal water bottles do me well on rides between 35 and 45 miles.

Plus, I typically replenish myself after a ride. I have heard that weighing yourself before and after should tell you how much fluids you need to take in after your ride. I don't know if this is true.

jschen

The rate of fluid intake will depend on conditions, but I try to take small sips often rather than down a whole bunch of fluid at once.

gapowermike

"What the hell did you just say?"

--Chris Tucker, Rush Hour

Seriously, is that English?

telenick

It's hard to say how much liquid you should be taking in. It's definitely more when air temps are up and less when they're down. I seem to average 1 oz. per mile.

Here are the rules I follow:

Smaller sips more frequently rather than downing a whole bottle all at once will keep you hydrated without making your stomach work overtime.

Take the habit of hydrating well every day. I try to have at least one clear colored pee a day (and not because of beer .)

If you're over 40 years old, you might notice you are starting to get cramps during physical exersion. A potassium suppliment is also a good idea to stave off those cramps ...or potassium rich foods.

DannoXYZ 

Sounds more like you were just riding too hard and fast for the distance really. That's a lot of mileage for just being on the bike for a month. Typically I drink a 24-oz bottle of water every hour. Take a big gulp or two every 10 minutes or so. Also a minimum of about 200-calories/hr in energy with electrolytes. Gatorade's fine, you can also eat a energy-bar/gel to get the nutrients without having to drink so much fluid.

To do the longer endurance rides, you want to get used to the LSD concept: long-steady distance. Ride at a pace you can maintain the entire ride and try to minimize breaks and interruptions. This trains your energy-delivery systen to be more efficient at digesting food and converting stored fats to your muscles.

The other two types of workouts you've been doing unintentionally are intervals which serve a different purpose of increasing aerobic conditioning and raising your LT-lactate threshold (making your muscles more efficient). You really don't want to mix intervals into an endurance ride, you'll end up sacrificing the benefits of an endurace ride by burning out too early before you complete the distance. Sprints are another type of workout you'll want to dedicate a specific day to work on. This would be a super-short 10-15miles ride with 5-6 full-speed high-RPM 100% all-out screaming efforts (if you don't scream, you're not pushing hard enough ). Go for as hard and as long as you can until complete exhaustion, about 30-40 seconds. Rest plenty, 5-10 minutes and repeat. After you've done 5, go home. That's it. You can search for "sprints and intervals" here and find plenty of info. These are the workouts that will actually allow you to do the long rides with a decent pace at a comfortable level.

asfried

Drink when you are thirsty. It is hard to believe that you will deyhdrate to the point of muscle cramps and not feel thirsty. Also, if you drink before you are thirsty, how do you know how much to drink? Any physician can tell you that accurately calculating fluid replacements for a patient can be tough. The idea of figuring it out on the bike - different temperatures, activity levels, daily variations in metabolism, etc. - seems like a difficult task. On the other hand, drinking to assuage your thirst seems like an easy task. By the way, military survival courses (of which I have been through my fair share) have always taught the "drink when you are thirsty" rule and some of those courses are DRAMATICALLY more demanding than any bike ride I have ever been on.

CardiacKid

American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Offers Guidance to Athletes on
Preventing Hyponatremia and Dehydration during Upcoming Races

Newly Published Roundtable Statement on Hydration and Physical Activity Reinforces
Importance of Managing Both CDrink to Match Fluid Loss and On a Schedule. The experts concluded that appropriate fluid intake (before, during and after exercise) is important to help regulate body temperature and replace fluids lost in sweat. Since fluid and electrolyte needs are widely variable based on the athlete’s genetics and environmental conditions, athletes should know their bodys’ hourly sweat rate (weight lost during exercise per hour + fluid consumed during exercise per hour = hourly sweat rate) and aim to replace the total amount lost during that time.

According to the previously published ACSM Exercise and Fluid Replacement Position Stand, athletes are encouraged to drink early and at regular intervals rather than rapid fluid replacement. It is noted that perception of thirst, an imperfect index of the magnitude of fluid deficit, cannot be used to provide complete restoration of water lost by sweating. As such, individuals participating in prolonged intense exercise must rely on strategies such as monitoring body weight loss and ingesting volumes of fluid during exercise at a rate equal to that lost from sweating, to ensure complete fluid replacement. Drinking over a set period of time is more effective for complete rehydration as rapid replacement of fluid stimulates increased urine production, reducing body water retention. If athletes are not sweating heavily (such as slow runners) and are not thirsty then their fluid replacement needs are probably modest.
onditions

Warblade

[Pee = Clear] Means you ARE hydrated.
[Pee = Yellow] Means you are NOT hydrated.

asfried

Medical societies have a tendency to offer completely impractical advice. This appears to be an example. I have yet to have a scale available to me in the midst of an athletic event. So, if fluid needs are "widely variable based on... environmental conditions," how am I supposed to calculate my hourly sweat rate? Maybe I could accomplish this with a well equiped medical support team like the pros, but otherwise this seems like something a committee came up with. I know, I should only get exercise when the temp is exactly 70F and the humidity is exactly 70%...

I have done several literature searches over the years on pubmed and other medical research search sites and have never been able to find single study that convinces me that drinking when thirsty is a bad way to. I have used this simple technique for years when cycling, running, backpacking, mountain climbing, engaging in forced marches in the desert, etc. In that time, I have been dehydrated only once and that was because it was 100F outside and I was out of water and still had miles to go before I got home. Until someone comes up with a simpler and more reliable methodology that doesn't require a medical support van I will continue to trust my body and advise my patients to do the same.

Pfoot

agree

Machka 

Here's the guideline:

Drink one 750 ml bottle (3 cups or 26.4 oz) of water and/or sports drink every 1 to 1.5 hours depending upon the temperature and the amount you are exerting yourself, and thus sweating.

That way you will remain hydrated without overdoing it.



Incidentally ... if you consume electrolytes (salt and potassium) with your liquid, you will have very little chance of over-hydrating. That's the key detail these over-hydrating fear mongers fail to mention.

Also, while we're on the topic of electrolytes, dehydration is the main cause of cramping, but lack of electrolytes is the second most common cause.

Enthalpic

If you take a multivitamin or a b complex your piss will be slightly yellow even if you are fully hydrated. You do not want people to drink so much that their urine is completely colourless. If your piss is totally clear eat some vitamin rich foods, as your water-soluble vitamins are low.

DannoXYZ 

Do you guys think the rare cases of hyponatremia we've seen among marathon runners are due to overhydrating and draining critical electrolytes out? Drinking 750ml bottle of water on a ride is pretty simple, adjust +/- 25% based upon temperature and activity level. But I know people who sit around and drink that much They seem to have a binary yes/no mentality with "more water is better" without any regard to actual volume or matching it to activity. I suspect that can potentially be more harmful? Because dehydration and cramping is kinda of a limiting feedback loop that makes you stop. But you can sit around and continually drink water indefinitely.

Wasn't there a cop that died a couple months ago after having drank some unthinkable amount of water?