calamarichris

When going hard for sustained periods, how do you drink?

I don't race, but I like to go balls-out for the entire century and drinking presents a problem. It seems I must either take:

a) many small sips between my heaving breaths (which are more disruptive when I'm trying to focus on deep breathing, fluid spin, etc.), or

b) take large, painful gulps (in which I have to hold my breath for an agonizing second or two when my body is screaming for both water and oxygen, occasionally getting water/air down the wrong pipe.)

Slowing down is not an option.

Not trolling. Just curious if there's a trick I haven't heard of yet. Gracias and safe, choke-free riding this weekend!

Vicelord

I typically drink my drinks when I'm stopped at a stop light or something like that. You can also take drinks when you're heading downhill and your body isn't screaming as much. If your ride is 100% climbing, then HTFU.

calamarichris

Downhills are a great time, true, but descents are often steep and twisty enough that I wouldn't dare take a hand off the bars for a moment, like Palomar's south grade and East Fork down from GRR--that was an E-ticket descent! And who stops for stoplights? Not me! (Just kidding.)

I'm referring to those sustained effort times with no opportunity to fiddle around--170+bpm for nearly an hour. You must drink; you must breath; you cannot do both at once.
(Stupid Darwin really gave us the short end of the stick on this one.)

BotByte

I go as far as I possibly can without a drink because it causes me to rest.

I drink on flats, or stops.

I take in a mouthful at a time and let it rest in my mouth before drinking it. This let's you hydrate what actually is dry, your mouth

Bioluminescence

I take a gulp of water, let it sit in my mouth, breathe through my nose, then swallow.

kleinboogie

On hard days I take a drink every 10-15 minutes whether I'm thirsty or not. I use the Racebak in crits and TTs. GL

badhat

how do you go so hard for 100 miles that youre gasping too hard to drink for the whole time?

also

why do you go so hard for 100 miles that youre gasping too hard to drink for the whole time?

calamarichris

How, you ask? By grabbing the hooks and going like hell.
Why, you ask? This question has a Vitamin HTFU deficiency.

calamarichris

Thank you for the search term! I've been thinking about getting some kind of Camelback since I got my mtb. I always thought they looked a little silly on roadies, but it's better to feel good than look good, if you know what I'm saying...

bonz50

just water, not booze?? there's a difference??

badhat

whatever champ i'm not the one asking advice on how to hydrate on a fast century.

bigbadwullf

Stoplights? What's a stoplight? I never ride where there is one..............on purpose!

calamarichris

Even champions still have feelings, you know.

bigbadwullf

Time to unpimp die auto....

FLvector

Sounds like you are riding with a group that's pushing your VO2 threshold and max heartrate. When I ride with groups like that I sometimes think it would be nice to take a quick drink, but that little effort might force me to struggle even harder, so i wait for a better time. I find the best time is a few minutes after recovering at the back of the paceline, a couple quick swigs only takes a few seconds and back in business again. Solo rides I drink any time I need to.

kleinboogie

I got the idea from carpediemracing. He briefly mentioned it once so I tried it. It took a few tries to route the hose and secure it but I got it figured out.

I also made the boo-boo of not pressurizing the bladder with air (just blowing into the mouthpiece) to create some positive pressure. 5th lap in a crit I realized I couldn't get a drink and didn't figure it out until the end. Luckily it was only 40 minutes. GL

FYI, here's how I solved the hose dangling problem.

• Cut 4 inches off the hose
• Push the hose high in the back
• Loop it around and secure it to my collar or helmet strap with one of the Camelbak clips
• Wrap the end of the hose with some velcro and another velcro piece sewn to the front of my jersey and attach the two.

This puts the mouthpiece within inches of my mouth so I can drink without seperating the velcro or I can easily seperate it and drink say while sitting up and easily reattach them when done). Very convenient and safer, imo, because the hose doesn't hang in the air.

gregf83 

That's a good ride and I don't know what your FTP is but at an average power of 233W you shouldn't be breathing that hard that you can't take a drink. I can see a problem if you were riding at your threshold but no one does that for 5 hrs so I assume your threshold is above 250 and there will be portions of the ride where you aren't working that hard.

I've heard but don't have any references that your body absorbs water better if there is a reasonable amount in your stomach so it is better to take some big gulps less frequently than more frequent smaller sips. I always take three big squeezes on the bottle. Not sure how much that is though.

pallen

Fail. Average speed < 20mph

really close though with some climbing - nice!

calamarichris

This worked quite well on yesterday, thank you Bio! I'd done it in the past occasionally before, but was never conscious I was doing it.

And Greg: FTP at last test was only 306.5W , but I expect to add at least another 10W at the end of this training/rest cycle. Apparently you've never ridden a century with your power meter? With the stoplights, interruptions, downhills, etc., it's darn hard to average anywhere near your FTP for a whole five hours. Last year's Tour de Poway was probably the closest I've come so far.

calamarichris

Maybe you can come to Poway this year or Solvang next year and help out? FFS, why am I always the one stuck pulling the g0dd@m train?

gregf83 

It's not darn hard, it's impossible by definition. My point was that with the stoplights, downtime, coasting etc there are usually opportunities to drink when you aren't panting or riding at threshold. I assumed your FTP was considerably higher than your century average.

JonnyV

A real roadie would never think or say this.

AdelaaR

That was also my tactic when crossing the Sahara and it worked.
I still drink that way when cycling and it still works

calamarichris

No real roadie, I. In fact I love it when real roadies look down their noses at me:
~I take pride in riding ~40% of my miles on rollers even though I live in San Diego where the weather's always immaculate. (They hate me for that.)
~I have an SRM power meter and Dura Ace C50's, but have zero inclination to race. (Even moreso.)
~I've embraced my inner poser by purposely wearing proteam jerseys, because it causes them to go into oxygen debt while sitting at their desks at work.

Nachoman

I'm running a two day water sipping clinic next month. Registration is $950.00. I still have a few openings left.

Edit: But for you, since you're local, $875.00.