Blood, sweat and beers

For those of you who just tuned in, I am still on my blogular holiday, so for now all you get is some pictures to keep you entertained.

Today's theme is blood, sweat and beers. There is no blood (thank goodness) but plenty of sweat, and a great beer called Saison de Dottignies. Dottignies is a town that is also known as Dottenijs near Kortrijk -but just over the language border. The beer is actually brewed in the Flemish region by Brouwerij De Ranke in Wevelgem, but is in the Walloon style. I love it. I like it even better than the Saison Dupont I reviewed earlier -and which may be more authentic for all I know.

What is also ironic -at least for Europeans- is that these are seasonal brews (saison means season) meant for late summer refreshment but I am drinking them in winter.

Sweat on the floor. Also notice the rust on the roller frame. Hard workouts!

A good brew to rehydrate!

Finally, this shot of people waiting outside the Apple store for the iPad2. They had been there for over 6 hours already and there were at least another six to go.

The umbrella line

Dehydration

Much has been said and written about drinking and dehydration but unfortunately, nearly all of it is wrong or misguided. It is true that dehydration can be a serious problem, especially for individuals spending long hours wandering around in hot deserts or sitting on a life raft in the middle of the ocean. It can also be a problem in rare cases for well trained and determined athletes who push too hard in an endurance event.

However, most of the time and for most individuals it does not matter. What is more, overhydration and hyponatremia are much more prevalent and a whole lot more problematic.  Whereas dehydration in normal individuals under normal race conditions may lead to some loss of performance and maybe (maybe!) some cramping, hyponatremia can cause permanent brain damage and death. Even individuals who do not develop neurological symptoms will suffer more performance loss from gastro-intestinal ills due to overhydration (full stomach, fluid sloshing around, bloating) than they ever would from dehydration.

Sodium chloride, aka table salt or NaCl

Most of the ills attributed to dehydration have other causes. Cramping is a prime example. It is extremely common in marathon runners (40% according to one study) and its true cause is unknown. One thing is for sure: it has never been show to be caused by dehydration. Those who were dehydrated were no more likely to suffer cramps than those who were well hydrated. If anything cramping correlates better with training. Undertrained individuals are much more likely to suffer cramps than well trained athletes.

Eighteen percent (58) of the 330 finishers of the 1997 Ironman New Zealand were hyponatremic. A 2002 study in the Boston marathon found that 13% of non-elite competitors suffered from hyponatremia. That same year a Boston runner died of hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is so prevalent that the B.A.A. and W.T.C. started sending out flyers warning people of the dangers of hyponatremia.

BOSTON

Several symptoms of hyponatremia (i.e. overhydration) are similar to those of dehydration.

The best thing you can do to prevent dehydration in sunny locations is to cover your skin with clothing.

There is a strong belief out there that people need to drink before they feel thirsty. Many believe that poor performance can be fixed instantaneously by appropriate hydration. I have been with a lot of coaches in road races who yell at dropped athletes to drink more as if that would miraculously solve their problem.

Most people also believe that one needs to replace all the fluid (and calorie) losses sustained in a race, during that race. This notion is mistaken and makes no sense. One reason we developed a digestive system is so that we can interrupt our food and drink intake to take care of other matters -like running away from predators or searching for more food and water.

The longer the race the more modest your fluid needs (per unit time) will be as your body will adjust to initial losses and prevent further losses to the extent possible. The better trained you are the better it will work. Here are some things I learned about food and drink during a long race.

Things I learned: food and drink

Here are some of the things I learned about marathons. I have now completed 5 races (3 marathons and 2 ironman marathons) and these prescriptions hold up very well. I do better than before and the difference is significant. For a regular marathon my gain is 15 minutes or more, and for the ironman 20 or more. These are well-tested observations.

1. The more normal your diet is the better. I eat normal food, I use no supplements of any kind, no vitamins, no minerals, no protein powders, nothing, nada. 

1b. You don't need a high carb diet to run, and a high carb diet will only make you feel hungry or cause you to over-eat. Fat is great, you heard it here!

1c. The most important thing about diet is quantity. Don't overeat!

2. Carbo-loading (the traditional way) works very well for ironman but less so for marathons. This time I did not stick to my carbo-load and it made no difference.

2b. You cannot carbo-load the night before. These so-called carbo-loading pasta dinners are to be avoided at all costs.

3. Avoid fruit and vegetables and anything with added fiber (you should not eat that stuff in any case) for about 2 days before the race. It will greatly reduce your need to find porta-potties beforehand, to stop during the race, or to suffer from abdominal cramps or stomach upsets.

4. Eat a small breakfast and drink little before the race. It will avoid stomach upsets and potty breaks. You can even skip breakfast if the race is early. Always eat less than you are used to.

5. Don't drink too much. I don't drink before mile 8 and very little afterwards. Yes you will dehydrate, but so will everyone else; even those that drink. The cure for dehydration is to stay clothed in hot weather and to train in race conditions. Your body will adapt. You will lose less fluid, less salt, and you will tolerate the losses better. The cure and prevention is to RUN MORE.

6. A gel (or two) at mile 17-18 is a great placebo. Pick one with caffeine because it will help. The other ingredients are useless, although the taste matters. The sugar can be helpful but, if trained well you should be able to complete a marathon on your stored sugars (glycogen).

6b. Don't drink too much coffee beforehand. Not because it is a diuretic -that effect is minimal- but because you will feel wired and you will be tempted to run too hard in the beginning. If you are easily excitable, be especially careful, because the setting can be very conducive to running too fast.

7. The key to marathons is pacing. Run an even pace. An even pace will always trump the alternatives. Avoid stopping or walking, keep going at all times (this is especially true in ironman). If you feel exceptionally good at mile 23, then you can run a bit harder and shoot for a better time.

8. All gadgets are useless. They weigh extra, they distract you, and they prevent you from listening to your body. Unless you learn to listen to your body, you will never run well. If you run well, the data you collect will contain no information (i.e. it won't be any different from any other run so the information content is zero), although they make for great facebook postings.

9. Wear light shoes and light clothing. Don't lug stuff around. Lighter is better. Remove all excess weight. Certainly don't carry water in a race. You are just making it harder on yourself.

More to come..

Two miles

Another swim day. This time I did 2 miles, all freestyle, non-stop. I don't think I have gone this far non-stop freestyle ever. It was pretty hard, esp. towards to the end. By around 160 laps (out of 180) I could definitely feel that my legs and feet were close to cramping up. Why it is always my calves and my feet, I don't know but that seems to be the rule.

I have noticed a funny synergy between my arms and legs, and sometimes when I am close to cramping and I "pull" hard with my upper limb, I can feel the tension in my contra-lateral leg. No doubt this is some nervous system mechanism similar to swinging your arms when you walk and it must have its origins in four-legged locomotion.

In any case, I avoided the cramp and swam a good pace too. Probably close to 2:00 per 100m. OK, I know that is nothing to write home about, but for me it is. If I could do that in an Ironman and all else fell into place, I would get my long coveted Hawaii slot for sure.

Another interesting observation is that I lost 2 pounds while in the pool. I weighed in beforehand at 174 and after I was at 172. The swim took a little over an hour and the pool is pretty warm. I am sure most competitive swimmers would say it is too hot.

I am glad to say though that swimming is a lot easier now. The long swims really do help.

Dehydration and cramping

Here is another very common falsehood: cramping is caused by dehydration. Nearly everybody will tell you that cramping is the result of dehydration. They will advise you to drink more water and some will tell you to consume salt tablets. The more commercially inclined will recommend special drinks or special tablets. It is all hogwash. Unfortunately, it can also be very dangerous. Overhydration and resultant hyponatremia are quickly becoming the key problems in endurance events. The prevalence is very high but luckily it does not always cause trouble. Trouble in this case, often means brain damage or death. It is no laughing matter.

I am not sure where the obsession with drinking started. Maybe Gatorade (Pepsico) had something to do with it? Maybe it originated in California or the Southwest, home to many endurance racers, and areas where dehydration can be a real life threat. Maybe the bottled water companies had something to do with it? Whatever its origin, it has gotten out of control in more ways than one. One indication is how it has entered everyday life. This is clearly illustrated by people walking around in cities carrying water bottles. It can also be seen in "health trends" that advise you to drink a gallon of water everyday. Or triathletes carrying enough water to cross the Kalahari in the bike leg of a sprint triathlon that takes less than an hour to complete.

Clearly too many people stand to gain monetarily from this craze so a reversal will be difficult to achieve.

Dehydration is also blamed for loss of performance. We are told that as little as 10% dehydration can cause an enormous -some say 50%- loss of performance. That has many racers worried. The truth however is a bit more complex. On the one hand we have various individuals tested to exhaustion on various devices, where results show that people get tired and dehydrated when exercising for long periods of time. Many of these people also develop cramps. Both correlations are often misinterpreted as causal mechanisms.

On the other hand, we have record-setting performances by well-trained athletes, who are often very dehydrated when they finish the race. Occasionally we see people collapse and guess what, when you check their hydration levels, you find they are quite dehydrated. These people too, often develop cramps.

Then there is the magic moment, when someone develops a cramp and stops to drink and swallow a few salt tablets. And guess what? The cramping goes away. The question is, why? The answer is rather simple: they slow down or rest for a while.

Scientific studies have shown that cramping has nothing to do with hydration levels, but is instead related to inadequate training. The best remedy is to stop what you are doing. Even a short break will do wonders here. If you want to avoid cramping, you need to train better. And better means you need to mimic the race situation both in intensity and length.

The less well trained you are, the faster you will dehydrate and the more of an effect the dehydration will have on your performance. When you are poorly trained, drinking more will have little effect on your performance, although it may correct your dehydration. If things go really poorly, you may over-hydrate and end up in the hospital.

I will discuss this in more detail later, but for now it should suffice to say, that you should be able to run or bike for an hour in average ambient temperatures without having to drink at all. There should be no effect on your results. If anything, the loss of water should enhance your performance, as you will now be lighter. But don't extrapolate to longer events. Here you certainly do need to drink something.