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Water and electrolytes Part 1
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: April 24, 2017
Over the last 10-15 years, with more athletes journeying into ultra-endurance athletic events, the sports science community has had to play a bit of catch-up with respect to research on water and electrolyte balance.
And unfortunately, much of the information that’s been generated from these scientific establishments has been slow to trickle down to the general public.
Even worse is the fact that this data can easily end up incoherently interpreted.
The end result is far too many athletes who have had to learn about their hydration/electrolyte needs through the rather long and rather painful process of trial and error.
Now you’d think with only two components to consider, water and electrolyte, the answer would be straight forward. But as with most sports science issues, the answers are usually complex to obtain and even more difficult to implement in the field.
You see, sports physiologists using the right diagnostic tools in the right testing environment can determine an athlete’s state of water and electrolyte balance quite handily.
The real problem comes down to practicality, because most athletes are not medical experts, and moreover, most athletes don’t have the appropriate diagnostic tools to test themselves while training and racing.
And herein lies the conundrum: Trying to figure out on your own, with zero tools and fancy testing environments, just how much water and electrolyte is needed by your body at any give time.
I’ve been through this learn-as-you-go situation too many times to count, and the process can be very perplexing, albeit maddening. Then to make matters worse, we need to make these crucial intake decisions based on a variety of factors - distance, time, air temperature, dew point and most important, personal physiology.
All these elements and all that thinking can leave you with far more questions than answers.
Now there is some good news behind this gloomy narrative, because sports science has revealed that the systems which regulate hydration and electrolyte concentrations have a range of compliance in which small corrections can be made easily.
That means the possibility exists for us as athletes, when we’re out there training and racing, to deal with hydration/electrolyte problems without all the fancy diagnostic equipment - when and only when those problems are small.
Yes, I emphasize the word small. Because when these small problems aren’t addressed immediately, our body’s ability to adjust is over, gone, 86’ed, kaput. That’s when those little problems become really big problems - very quickly.
Now before I go any further I’ve got to stress the fact that if you want to address this issue you must accept that you’ll be working on your hydration and electrolyte needs just as fastidiously as you work on your actual physical training.
It’s easy to take lightly, so make this is a commitment which ranks right up there with your commitment for great sleep, great nutrition and great workouts.
Understand also that diagnosing your hydration/electrolyte needs is a delicate balancing act that involves some of the same parameters you use to manipulate your training, i.e., volume, frequency and intensity (electrolyte concentration).
Therefore, you’ll want to track the management of these two components just as you track your workouts.
So I highly suggest you keep a hydration/electrolyte log of sorts just to track your field testing results as you work towards finding your sweet spot.
And remember, everyone has a distinctly different physiology, so your needs and results are based on your training analysis - not your training partner’s, nor the gazillions of pages of generic information you can yank off the web.
Now at this point you’re probably thinking, “enough with the leading already, where’s the beef?”
Indeed, what I’m working towards here is most definitely the meat of the matter, namely solid guidelines that are based on observable, nonscientific cues that can help athletes to more easily determine their water and electrolyte status.
But I’m going to dangle this carrot in front of you for one more week because there’s just too much data for this one column alone.
So hold tight, especially if you’re an athlete who regularly trains and races in events that extend for more than a couple of hours.
I’m confident the material in next week’s column is something you’ll want to file away for future use.