Hydration, Sweat and Cramping with Precision Hydration's Andy Blow – Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 221

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
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64

Hi onemanpeloton,

The worry with drinking too much water is that it can dilute your sodium levels and lead to a nasty race-ruining condition called hyponatremia, which can also have serious health implications. Hyponatremia refers to low blood sodium levels and there are several different causes, but the one of most interest to athletes is where the dilution of sodium levels is caused by excessive drinking of water.

In truth, whether you’re “overdrinking/undersalting” will depend on the duration and intensity of your sessions on the trainer. Very few cyclists can drink much more than 1 litre (32oz) an hour so, unless experience tells you otherwise, it’s unlikely you’ll need to drink more than that, especially if you start well hydrated.

The important thing is to listen to your body and respond to the early signs of thirst, while at the other end of the extreme, don’t feel like you should force fluids down if you don’t feel you want them.

If you’re someone who loses a lot of sweat/electrolytes, it might be worth supplementing your sessions with a sodium-based product to help ensure you’re properly hydrated. Although if you haven’t had any problems with your current strategy and feel like your performing then I wouldn’t overly worry.

If you were looking for a bit more information on hyponatremia and how you can avoid it, we’ve got this blog.

Thanks for your question!
Chris

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Hi RJones07,

Interesting to hear you’ve used ketone esters and my own experience of them is very limited, although they obviously gained a lot of interest during the Tour de France earlier this year and there has been much discussion about their benefits for recovery.

One of our freelancer writers, James Witts, recently wrote a blog on ketones and their potential benefits for recovery after attending the pre-tour Science & Cycling Conference.

Thought I’d just include it here in case the article was of interest to you and you were looking for a bit more information.

Cheers,
Chris

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@PrecisionHydration

I was wondering if you have a recommendation for 60-minute cyclocross races. I usually don’t carry a bottle and if I do it’s for a couple sips. How much sodium pre-loading do you recommend? Obviously it’s a short effort but I assume being topped off in terms of sodium and hydration would help. Racing in the early afternoon in September and October tends to pretty hot, as well.

Thanks so much!

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Hi @fatlenny and @Tim_P,

Thanks for your messages and apologies for the delay in getting back to you - the nature of the forum means I can only respond to three questions in a row before I have to wait for someone else to reply and then I can write another reply, so I thought it was best to answer your questions in the same message as they’re both based around preloading…

@Tim_P Our recommendation is to ‘preload’ with a strong electrolyte drink (it needs to be around 1500mg of sodium per litre to be an effective dose, while salting your food is a good idea - although within reason as you don’t want everything to taste like the sea!)

Our recommendation is to use:

  • 1 x PH1500 with ~500ml of water the night before any big race or event
  • And then take 1 x PH1500 with ~500ml of water on the morning of the race/event, aiming to start the drink around 90 minutes before the start of the event and then finish the drink about 45 minutes before the start time.

Our blog on How to start hydrated and why that’s so important gives a bit more insight into the importance of starting hydrated and an effective preload, but feel free to send over any questions you might have on top of this.

@fatlenny I’d recommend trying the above and let us know how you get on in your upcoming races. We’d definitely be able to help you refine your strategy further if you felt like you needed it, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks!
Chris

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Hi @Norman,

Thanks for getting in touch!

We won’t be in Kona this year unfortunately, but we’re hoping to head over in 2020! In the meantime, you can buy our products at PrecisionHydration.com and I’ve also set up a discount code so that TrainerRoad members can get 15% off their entire first order of PH.

Simply enter TRAINERROAD at the checkout once you’ve selected your products before the end of October to get the 15% off.

To answer your second question, we’ve mentioned in a couple of posts in the forum about the benefit of separating your fuel and your hydration (‘How PH fits in with your wider nutrition plan’), so keeping your fluids for hydration and get your fuel/carbs through solid or semi-solid (i.e. gels). Do let me know if you need me to send a link to that blog or if you have any questions after checking this out.

We generally recommend to carry a bottle of PH (or electrolyte drink) and a bottle of water. So, you can then sip between the two according to your own sense of thirst and taste.

For example, during a 4-5 hour ride you could carry PH500 in a 500ml bottle and a 500ml bottle of water at the start of the ride.
Once your bottle of electrolytes has run out, you could add a PH500 powder or tablet (or other electrolyte products) to the bottle and mix with water from aid stations in your bottle. Alternatively, we do have SweatSalt Capsules which are easy to carry & can be taken like paracetamol, and 1 x SweatSalt with every ~500ml of water would be equivalent to a PH500.

I hope the above information helps and don’t hesitate to fire over any additional questions you might have.

Cheers!
Chris

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Hi folks,

Thanks for your questions and please do keep them coming!

It’s great to see so many of you taking an interest in hydration and Precision Hydration.

After speaking to Jonathan, we thought we’d set up a discount code for anyone who fancies trying PH. So, you can get 15% off your entire first order at Precision Hydration before the end of October by adding the following discount code at the checkout: TRAINERROAD

I hope the information I’ve sent over helps and if you ever want to get in touch with us directly, our team is always on the end of an email at Hello@PrecisionHydration.com - where you can be certain of a personalized response to your enquiry.

Thanks again,
PH

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I believe you can continue by clicking on ESC (or something like that) in the preview to the right of the reply window.

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Question regarding heavy sweating;
Is heavy sweating by default salty sweating? I create PUDDLES on the trainer and at the gym. Nickname when I did CrossFit was “puddles” for what I left below the barbell.
When riding my kit will be soaked but I have never had salt staining. I feel like I need to drink more than my peers.
Should I be concerned that I am losing more salt than I might realize or do I only need to focus on volume of fluid?

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Hi Rondal (aka ‘puddles’),

You sound a bit like me, a HEAVY sweater! Like you, I know all too well the perils of a floor soaked with ‘puddles’ following a session on the trainer…

It’s a good question you ask and it won’t be a case of focusing just on how salty your sweat is or how heavily you sweat, but rather on both.

Ultimately, there are two main pieces of the puzzle when looking at sweat - Sweat Rate (how much fluid you’re losing via sweat) and Sweat Sodium Concentration (the concentration of sodium in that sweat).

So, the most important thing to emphasise here is that the sodium concentration of your sweat is largely genetically determined, regardless of whether it’s hot or cold outside, but the total amount you sweat will change according to things like the temperature you’re exercising in, your own fitness levels etc.

I’ve attached a handy picture which summarises the relationship between sweat concentration and rate, and your ultimate net losses:

Sweat%20-%20Net%20Losses
Sweat%20-%20Net%20Losses928×214 42.9 KB

What this picture highlights is the intertwined relationship between the concentration of what you’re losing and the volume of what you’re losing, and how your net losses could still be quite high when compared to someone who is a particularly salty sweater.

For example, I’m not a particularly salty sweater (I only lose 696mg of sodium per litre) but my sweat rate could be around 2 litres per hour in certain conditions. So, if I did an hour workout on TrainerRoad, my net loss would be around 1392mg for the hour.
If our founder Andy did the same session on TrainerRoad for an hour and he has a very salty Sweat Sodium concentration of 1,800mg per litre of sweat but only loses 0.8 litres of sweat, then his net losses for that hour wouldn’t be massively different to mine (~1440mg).

So, even if the concentration of your sweat is relatively low, your net losses could be quite high. It’s never one or the other, it’s an intertwined relationship between making sure you’re replacing enough sodium and fluid for a certain session or race.

Having said that, it’s impossible to replace 100% of what you’re losing and what you’re looking for is that middle ground/sweet spot, which you’ll ultimately discover through trial and error during your training sessions. For more on how much dehydration you can tolerate and the upper limits, it’s worth checking out this blog.

I’ve included a blog on the forum previously about how to measure your own sweat rate which I can pass on if you need, and I hope the above information helps.

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, I’d only just picked up your message on here but feel free to reply to this message or email us at Hello@PrecisionHydration.com to discuss your sweat losses further.

Many thanks,
Chris

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More science - Thanks for the interesting blog.

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No worries at all, glad you found it interesting!

Feel free to get in touch with any questions you might have had after reading it, either on here or by emailing Hello@PrecisionHydration.com :+1:

Cheers!
Chris

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Does Andy just use the 1500mg mix that is labeled before/after during his event? Just wanting to make sure I am not missing something. Been that kind of a couple of weeks.

Time to get ready for testing.

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Hey dprimm,

Great to hear you’re ready to do some testing!

Before
Andy will use the strongest PH 1500 to ‘preload’ before events and the best way to do this is by drinking:

  • 1 x PH 1500 mixed with ~16oz of plain water the night before your event
  • 1 x PH 1500 mixed with ~16oz of plain water about 90 minutes before your event (aiming to finish the drink around 45 minutes before you start)
    You won’t need to preload before every training session, but it’s something worth testing out before your longer, more intense/particularly sweaty rides and races.

During
You can find which strength is best for you to use during a ride by taking our online Sweat Test which will recommend products based on the answers you provide and this will also give you a personalised hydration strategy to use that ‘trial and error’ with.

Andy’s recommended strength during exercise is the PH 1500 because he’s a particularly salty and heavy sweater!

After
After a particularly sweaty training session or race, Andy might use a PH 1500 to aid recovery (especially if he’s going to be doing another session later that day or if he’s looking to be able to perform later on or the next day, e.g. during a multi-day race).

I do hope the above helps and I’ve also included a couple of links below in case you were interested in some further reading:

Let us know how you get on in training,

Cheers!
Chris