Hydration – Are you down a Quart?
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Do you know that if you lost 2% of your body weight while running as a result of dehydration, it could impair your performance by 10 to 20%?
This clearly reveals the unquestionable importance of proper hydration for runners of all levels. In fact, hydrating well can literally make you minutes faster on a short 6-miles run. Needless to say, the benefits of proper hydration far exceed improving your performance. It is also essential for your overall health and wellness. That’s why; we will dedicate this article to address this important topic. Enjoy!
How can you hydrate properly?
Seasoned runners are well aware of the importance of hydration. Yet many of them can be seen cramping up, and dropping out of marathons at the Olympic Games because they don’t know how to hydrate properly. Quite often though it is we, the recreational runners, that unintentionally hamper our potential for the same reason.
Studies have shown that if you run for up to 6 miles (60 minutes roughly), water alone is sufficient for your hydration needs. It is certainly worth your while to carry a fanny pack with a bottle of water if your running distance was at least 3 miles (20+ minutes). Some runners only drink when they feel thirsty, thinking that they wouldn’t need liquids otherwise. That’s a very common mistake!
Your own thirst is not a reliable indication of your hydration needs during a run, particularly after the first few miles. You need to consume liquids on pre-set intervals regardless of whether you feel thirsty or not. For me, I discovered, after trying different options, that drinking at least one cup (500 ml) of water every thirty minutes seems to help me maintain the right hydration levels. Having said that, please don’t take my experience for granted especially that I am not a sports doctor. Instead, find out what works best for you to stick to it.
Studies have suggested that marathon runners should be drinking 100 to 600 ml of fluids every thirty minutes. Such broad range proves what I mentioned earlier about our unique hydration needs.
Water is not enough…
Once you decide to break the 6-miles run barrier, water will be no longer adequate to fully meet your hydration needs. You will also need to incorporate electrolytes into your liquid intake. This is because drinking excessive amounts of water without adding electrolytes to the mix may lead to hyponatremia, which can be fatal in extreme cases. Gatorade is a well-known fluid that contains electrolytes. Potassium and sodium are two other ingredients that you need to take into account.
Sports drinks are excellent source of electrolytes. In hot weather, you can carry electrolyte tablets as a water supplement. These tablets are available in most running stores. Still, you need to try different electrolyte replacement tablets in order to decide the right one for you. Also, it is a clever idea to experiment with electrolyte tablets while training for races before using them during the actual race.
To ensure you can always find fluids, you may choose a running location that offers access to water. If you are running in a populated area, make sure to carry enough money to buy sports drinks at convenience stores. You will only need to carry your own fluids if you are running in unpopulated areas or trail running.
For your convenience, Camelbak® is a brand of backpacks designed with a hose that allow you to sip the liquid contained in them without interrupting your run. Thanks to these backpacks, you can easily carry large amounts of liquids.
There are also different types of hydration bottles that can be fastened to your hand or carried on your belt pack. You can aim for the all-in-one designs that offer small pockets for carrying money, snacks, and electrolyte tablets.
Under-hydration versus over-hydration
Be careful not to “overdo” your liquid intake as it may result in over-hydration. In other words, you need to balance your fluids intake to ensure that you wouldn’t risk facing either possibility. But how can you tell if you are under-hydrated or over-hydrated?
Here is a good tip:
If you lost too much water-based weight in a hot weather run, it means that you are under-hydrated.
But if the opposite happened and you actually gained weight after running in hot weather, it’s a sign that you are over-hydrated. Trial and error is your best bet in order to figure your unique hydration needs. For me, drinking at least one cup of liquid at the available stations in marathons and half-marathons works like charm.
To sum up, the key takeaway from this article is to be aware of the importance of hydration, not only for your running performance but also for your long-term health. Once you maintain the right hydration levels, you will perform at your optimal level. Good luck!
Hydration is very important. I try to hydrate from the minute I wake up all through the day up to my workout after work. I then focus on rehydrating right after my workout with Gatorade and chocolate milk. I usually don’t worry about hydrating on runs under an hour (maybe I should) but definately find myself more concerned with hydrating when I run longer then an hour.
Just a side note, I can’t stand the fanny pack water bottle things. It drives me crazy. Unfortunately I don’t like carrying a water bottle either with a hand holster but it’s the only thing I have found that I can at least tolerate while running. What types of water bottles do you most recommend?
Hi Runners Passion, I asked our twitter community if they knew any alternatives to a fanny pack or carrying a water bottle with a hand holster.
The general reply was running in loops to relenish on water bottles, or using a CamelBak (water bag on back, with a drinking tube)
Hydration is so important, especially if you sweat a lot, but in general for health and well-being. Thanks for the info about electrolytes and hyponatremia. And over-hydration? That’s something we don’t tend to consider … again, thanks!
Find out your sweat rate in different temps to really nail down your own individual hydration needs. Mine averages 20 oz per hour in summer and about 16 oz in winter. Easy to do, weigh yourself sans clothing before a 1 hour run, go run w/out drinking any fluids, and then weigh yourself post run. Note the difference, 16 oz of fluid per pound lost. And most folks can only process about 20-24 oz of fluid per hour while running. More than that may be too much.
World class Ironman athletes typically show a net loss of about 5% of their body weight during the race – that is about 3 litres of fluid. Are you telling me that they will perform 10% to 20% BETTER if they took on board 3 more litres of fluid during the race? This doesn’t make sense. Have a look at who the sponsors behind the research you are relying on are – I wouldn’t be surprised if it is Gatorade.
As for electrolyte loss and hyponatremia – the concentration of electrolytes in Gatorade and other sports drinks is much lower than the concentration of electrolyte in the blood. So the more you drink of these drinks, the closer you are moving to hyponatremia because you are diluting the electrolyte concentration in the blood. The electrolyte concentration in sweat is also lower than in blood, so the more you sweat, the higher the electrolyte concentration in the blood becomes and the further you move away from the danger of hyponatremia.
Research (not sponsored by Gatorade) has shown that replacing more than 60% of fluid loss during endurance events gives you no added performance benefits.
I agree with Nick’s comments above. I recently had to research the subject of dehydration and performance for my masters degree and was rather surprised and shocked at what I found. The studies that supposedly supports the hypothesis that dehydration causes a decline in performance were all executed in laboratories and under conditions which are very different from the real thing (Sawka et al., 1985; Montain and Coyle, 1992; Armstrong et al., 1997, Casa et al., 2010). Athletes were typically allowed no fluid or dehydrated before they started exercise. Temperatures were very high with no wind at all. In contrast studies where they matched the wind that a person would generate if he was exercising outside found no decline in performance even if the athletes dehydrated (Saunders et al., 2005). They also found no added benefit if athletes replaced more than 60% of fluid losses or were allowed to drink ad libitum (Armstrong et al., 1997; Daries et al., 2000; Cheuvront and Haymes, 2001; Dougas et al., 2009). The field studies that Nick refers to above is probable the studies done by Sharwood et al. (2004).
The reason for the big differences in results between the studies are due to a combination of factors: During the 1990′s researchers mostly worked on the hypothesis that an increase in one’s core body temperature is what limits performance and that dehydration is supposedly responsible for this. They further thought that dehydration limits performance since it “logically” reduces blood volumes and thus oxygen to the muscles (this is a gross simplification!!). This theory has however been shown not to be true. In the last years researchers have slowly come to the conclusion that performance or rather what limits performance is under complex neural control (from the brain)(Nielsen et al., 1990; Nybo and Nielsen , 2001; Tucker et al., 2004). They have measured muscle activity and power output and shown that it decreased long before dehydration levels between groups changed. They concluded that the brain considers the circumstances and calculates how hard the body can work in order to be able to complete the task under these circumstances. In other words the brain takes the temperature, sweat evaporation, available fluid etc. into consideration.
Lastly I refer the reader to an article by Noakes (2007) where he warns against the dangers of overdrinking. As he points out this is the most common cause for death in long distance runners and scarily enough it is usually the slow person who drinks at every station because the were told not to dehydrate!!
Noakes, T. D. (2007). Drinking guidelines for exercise: What evidence is there that athletes should drink ”as much as tolerable”, ”to replace the weight lost during exercise” or ”ad libitum”? Journal of Sports Sciences, 25(7), 781-796.
To support Nick’s warning about who sponsors research: Gatorade is the sponsor for research done by the American College of Sports medicine as well as research by M.N. Sawka who is responsible for most of the research stating that low levels of dehydration can be detrimental. Hmmmmmmm, makes you think……..