Preventing dehydration through higher consumption of electrolytes makes your average long run into a world-class training session that will prepare you for your next personal best. But first, it’s story time!

Here’s a situation for you:

Imagine Jim running his weekly long runs: he’s been keeping himself well hydrated throughout the day as well as during the run. Jim’s 75% done his run but out of the blue, he feels so dehydrated that he starts to slow down. He whips out his water pack and chugs the water down…it didn’t do anything for his thirst. Doubt settles in. “Will I be able to finish my run?” he asks himself. He takes out his last water pack and chugs that down too. Nothing! He’s still as dehydrated as he was, if not more than at the 75% mark.

What happened there?

There are many possibilities on how this situation could happen. Jim kept himself hydrated throughout the day and drank during the run. Isn’t that what he’s supposed to do? Yes, it is but there is a huge problem in this situation: Jim has been hydrating himself only through water.

photo credit: karaforristall

We usually keep ourselves hydrated through water because it’s cheap, available all around and its importance to the health of our body. Jim forgot an important guideline:

If your run goes for longer than 90 minutes, you must replace the lost minerals of the body.

This is where sports drinks feel as if they’re god send [Heavenly sound in the background]. If you haven’t used a sports drink like Gatorade on your long runs yet, you’re really missing out and might be working harder than you need to. Consuming sports drinks will make you feel as if you have more energy, feel more alert and most importantly, prevent dehydration because of electrolytes.

When you’re running for a shorter time, for example 40 minutes, water is good enough to keep you going. But for long runs, such as 12-18 mile runs during the latter weeks of your marathon training, water isn’t going to cut it. During your runs, you are sweating electrolytes.

Electrolytes are essential minerals, such as sodium and potassium that replenish the body’s water levels. All the major sports drinks, like Gatorade, are used specifically for this purpose. The reason just water is good enough at the 40 minute run rather than the run that’s longer than 90 minutes is because there isn’t a huge loss in the important minerals such as sodium.

The basic rule of thumb for keeping yourself hydrated during the runs longer than 90 minutes to drink 6 to 8 ounces of fluids every 20 minutes. It’s best to alternate between water and sports drinks to keep yourself fresh as you don’t get used to just water or just Gatorade.

When I drink a sports drink early in my runs, my stomach…fights back. My stomach doesn’t respond well with sports drinks early in my runs so what I do is drink mainly water in the beginning of my runs and later, start to sprinkle in sports drinks.

The best method of consuming sports drinks is the one that’s individually right for you. What might work for an elite runner might not work for you and vice-versa. Experiment different sport drinks, different time of consumption during your run and the effect water at different intervals of your run.

Preventing dehydration and drinking electrolytes are important during your long runs. I explained the basic rule of staying hydrated by drinking 6-8 ounces of fluids every 20 minutes but I want you to experiment and write your results in your log. (psssst…you’re using a log right?)

Your Turn

What sports drink has worked for you? What intervals do you consume the sports drink/water to feel your best when running? Let me know what kind of results you see in your running.

photo credit: j.t.cph

The effects of dehydration are critical to your performance during your training as well as your ability to finish your marathon on race day. Notice that I didn’t say hurt your performance on race day but your ability to finish your marathon on race day. When you are dehydrated during a race (god forbid!), the chances of you finishing are extremely low. Let me explain why:

When you run during training, there is much less excitement, adrenaline and anxiety than on race day. There are so many things that are going through the average runner’s mind that it’s sometimes overwhelming. But, that’s not where you should worry…you should worry when you feel you aren’t hydrated enough to run that marathon.

I will tell you right now, if you think a few cups of water before the race and along the course of the race will help you out, I got bad news for you. You, my friend, need to be hydrated from at least 2 days prior to race day. What does that mean exactly? You can’t lack your body of proper nutrition and hydration in the last week of training prior to the marathon. You need to be at your “nutritional and hydration prime”.

Effects of Dehydration

There are many ways that you can gauge if you are dehydrated. Based on your regular patterns of your lifestyle, you can see which one of these symptoms are caused by dehydration and which ones are caused by your boss yelling at you in front of all your co-workers. If you aren’t convinced how serious the negative effects of dehydration are, here are the nitty-gritty details:

• Dry skin
• Sore, tired eyes
• Crappy sleep
• Crappy concentration
• Joint problems – you need a serious warm up to  get back that mobility
• Throbbing headaches
• Digestive disorders – “the butterflies in my stomach feel like piranhas chewin’ their way out!!”

[Sighhh] I didn’t want to go down that road but the effects of dehydration just SUCK.

Actions Steps To A Hydrated You!

Hydration should be a well established component of your marathon training since Day 1 but it’s even more critical during the week leading up to the marathon. If you haven’t taken your hydration seriously, here are action steps that you can take to implement hydration into your training regimen:

• Drink 500mL of water first thing in the morning and before you go to sleep. When you sleep, your mouth becomes dry as it isn’t going to be hydrated for the whole night. This alone has helped me a lot because I feel just feel good à Try it.
• Drink at least 2 (two) liters of water on your days off training.
• Drink at least 3 (three) liters of water on your training days.
• Carry around a 1 (one) liter bottle with you – this helps mentally (I don’t know why it works but you just end up drinking more water).
• Drink a glass of water preferably before drinking any caffeinated drinks – caffeinated drinks such as coffee further fuel the thirst.
• Drink water when you feel hungry because sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger.

Note that these numbers are the end-all-be-all of proper hydration. If you are training in warmer weather, you are likely to drink more water.

It’s important for you to understand that you need to hydrate yourself before, during and after your workouts/races. Like I mentioned, you need to be well hydrated in prior to your race day and with these straightforward action steps, I want you to take ACTION.

Have you suffered from the serious effects of dehydration? What did that feel like and how did you overcome it?
A site you might enjoy:

• How to Prevent Dehydration – Symptoms of Dehydration – Effects of … – Dehydration is the situation in which body falls short of its water and mineral content. This happens through sweat, tears, urine and stool during the extreme hot season.