Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Dehydration


Dehydration is an odd thing. Yesterday i took in 7 litres of fluid while exercising, and at least another 4 outwith that, if not more. Today, however, i am still dehydrated.

So far i am at 4 litres of water and 2 cups of electrolyte replacement. Pee yellow, mouth dry.

It is amazing how long the compartment fluid shift thing we learned about in physiology takes to put right, and frightening how fast we can get dehydrated.

No wonder they say a 1% drop in hydration levels begins to decrease performance in any sphere. (who is they? is it the makers of gatorade, or some scientist stuck in her ivory tower somewhere...who knows?).

Anyway. Stay moist out there people...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's interesting because that once happened to me. Usually it works ok, but once I went for a long ride in the sun (Nth Queensland about 100degrees) and although I was sucking up the water I was dehydrated still the next day.

The only thing different was that I had had a bottle of red wine the night before :(

Anonymous said...

Thnaks for the reminder of how long it really takes to rehydrate. I got a biggie comming up this weekend, so I gotta start drinking yesterday.

Anonymous said...

i'm staggered at the amount you drink, Jon. the 6.5l from that 80+ miler you did the other day was a surprise, but to shift 11l of anything in a day is damn good going. have you gone intravenous to do that? :)

i did a 3+ hour ride at "fit group" pace the other week and took a 1 pint bottle. "fit group" being a case of riding fairly hard and getting sweaty between bouts of standing around chatting. on mountain mayhem laps i don't take anything and just drink afterwards. likewise local rides.

i think i might sort my act out...

-Piers

Anonymous said...

i did the maths: 11 litres is more than 19 imperial pints! it's also just occurred to me that you have the ability (if not the will) to self-catheterize :)
-Piers

Anonymous said...

Hydrate and hydrate again, I must have peed 3-5 an hour for three days. All that time in the WC has paid off. A 2nd place effort in a 50 mile tough as nails race proved it. GET YOUR DRINK ON!!

dRjON said...

f'in 'a' +


good work buck...heard it might have been a tester...