Base Salt On Course
Can someone tell me how the Base Salt is given on the full IM courses? Is it already in the racing tubes that they sell or is it packaged another way?
I'm currently using Salt Stick tabs but would like to know and test with what is going to be on course.
Thanks for the help, Brandon
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I started using in the last couple of weeks and really like it compared to the s-caps that I was using for the last couple of years.
Check out this video on how to use. https://player.vimeo.com/video/127598872
This is what I purchased http://www.baseperformance.com/product/base-electrolyte-salt/#.VbbauHiRafR
A couple of easy suggestions I could throw in for the first time you use it. That little cylinder that you get....you do not have to fill that thing....just a few scoops from the tiny little scoop that comes in the container. This is cause each serving size is actually pretty small....a little smaller than a dime. To imagine what this dose size is, imagine wetting the tip of your index finger and sticking into the bottom of a bag of pretzels....that small amount of salt you get on your finger...that is the size of the dose (serving)
I used at Lake Placid this weekend after using for a couple of weeks and it was easy to manage keeping the cylinder in my bento box, and I had one in the little pocket on my fuel belt.
Check the first ingredient on these things. If it's sodium chloride, then the "dose" is the same (gram for gram) no matter what brand. The minor ingredients won't change the dosage. I have seen a couple products over the years that the first ingredient is in fact NOT a salt but some kind of carrier (e.g., a sugar). In that case, and that case only, is there a significant "dose" difference.
Stepping off my soapbox where I actually know something professionally to one where I just think I know something.... you gotta be careful getting TOO MUCH salt as much as getting too little. Fortunately, if it's just NaCl, you'll eventually sweat or pee it out. However, in the meantime, you can suck a huge amount of your body fluid back into your gut by osmotic pressure. This would effectively DEHYDRATE you during the race. Ugh! If any of you men are 50 years old or more, you may be well acquainted with this phenomenon from preparing for a colonoscopy using calcium phosphate or citrate. (In that case, let's just say, the results could be "explosive" on race day... but no one is being that stupid.)
This reminds me, how may licks to the center of a tootsie pop again? Seriously- never thought the re-measure after the ride, so this is good feedback. FWIW- I did end up ordering BASE, mainly so there would be no race day surprises. But I've found I really like it. I just look forward to that little salty goodness hitting my tongue every hour. It's like licking the bottom of a potato chip bag. Now, is it really "special" salt? I dunno, but it tastes good to me, goes down a lot easier than pills, and lets me control the electrolyte vs being tied to gatorade.
With all that said- I still can't figure out how they actually provide it to folks on the Ironman run course. Anyone know how they are actually delivering it? Just a big box that everyone sticks their sticky thumb into? ewwwwwww.
Many of us are feeling swollen and concluding too much salt when it may be not enough. Does the salt source matter? How does this effect urinary output?
My biggest complaint is that my thumb isn't big enough to cover the whole top of the vial. Classic case of men designing things for men... or, I just have baby hands. Probably both :-).
What, on God's Green Earth does that word mean? :-)
I have read so many different reports - some swear by this product on their grandmother's grave ---- while others swear at it - and think that BASE is more expensive hype than performance.
Sadly, not sure what to believe at this point...
MMMMMMM, Blood! I have no problem with the idea of licking my own blood (someone else's, well, that's another story for Buffy the Vampire Slayer to solve). I survived IMWI in 2008 by sucking the salt off the ice cubes I had shoved down my jogbra. At the run part of the race- I really don't get too fussy. My hands are covered with all sorts of not so lovely stuff!
Rachel- I've got the tiny thumb problem too- but I've found I just have to pay a little attention and I can get the vial covered well enough.
One down side I have found is that if you mistakenly don't completely close that little vial- it can open up as you pull it out of your bento box (or wherever) and suddenly your salt is poured out everywhere. Luckily for me, the two (yes two, I'm a slow learner) times it happened to me the salt all poured into the Bento box, so I was able to just stick my thumb in and get it from there. I now make sure I hear the little "click" noise before I put the vial away.
Ironman Wisconsin was a cool race day, with temps on the bike from the low 50's at the start to about 65f at 1p, I'd say, and then sitting at the high 60's for the run. Clear skies, low humidity, and a bit windy on the bike. I was sweating very, very little compared to my training rides and runs, or at least it was drying very quickly. As reference, I've been dealing with squishy socks and potential blisters for all of my runs over about 8mi...I sweat a lot. I didn't have to manage any of this on race day.
In addition, my final RR's (2x in one weekend...huzzah) were all in very hot and humid-for-SoCal conditions and through these I concluded that 1g of sodium per hour was too much: fingers and skin swelling, light headed off the bike, etc. I determined I should dial that down to about 500-600mg on race day. I've also learned that hydration on the bike is everything for me. I just perform much, much better if I drink like a fool and do not allow myself to become dehydrated, at all, before I start the run.
So, to review what's in Coach Rich's head the night before the race:
So I busted out my IM nutrition spreadsheet that I got from Dino and dialed down my plan from I think 5-6 bottles of GE, then water, to about 4 bottles. I started the bike with one bottle of Gatorade mounted BTA (standard G-ade, 2 scoops) and 2x Roctane gels with 125mg sodium each. My plan was to get in ^this^ before the first aid station at about mile 12 then switch to GE, getting in a total of 4 bottles, then switch to water. I also had 4 x Clif blocks on my bento, as 2x Strawberry (100mg sodium, total) and 2x Margarita (300mg sodium)
However, by about mile 55-60 (I don't recall where exactly I was, just guessing), which is about 2.5hrs ride time for me, I noticed that my fingers were swollen, Mio band was fitting a little tight, and I could no longer see the veins in my arms = I had taken in too much salt and my body was retaining water to balance it out. From that point through the rest of the bike and into the run I was in a bit of triage mode, adjusting my plan on the fly to (1) limit my sodium intake while (2) continuing to hydrate and (3) still take in about 400cal/hr.
Bike:
Run:
Had 4x Roctane gels on my belt (125mg sodium) and 2x Clif blocks on belt pouch that I ended up throwing away at some point. Plan was to drink a lot of water and get in ^these^ gels across the first half of the run, then switch to GE, Coke, etc. However, I still had to manage this high sodium state while (1) continue to hydrate and (2) continuing to get in about 200-300cal/hr. So for the run I was pretty much water only + ^these^ gels + a few gels from the course + the odd cola here and there and I maybe had a couple cups of GE across the run.
But the conversation in my head on the run, as I was trying to manage and fix this, was "my body is retaining water because I over-salted early on the bike. The only way my body is going to rid itself of this sodium is through sweating or pissing. I don't seem to be sweating very much and I'm no longer pissing like a fool like I was on the bike. Hmmmm...I guess I'll just drink some water at every aid station, stick to gels, pitch these shot blocks, hit some coke now and then, and stay away from GE."
I also watched my HR (was rock steady which for me means my hydration state was good) and my arms, as the puffy-ness decreased and veins came back a bit.
Learning Points:
With regards to Base salt, I had a canister of it in my running pouch. I felt a very, very slight touch of crampiness in my left hamstring after about mile 20-21 and I hit the salt. I can't say if it did or did not fix anything. Again, my situation was that I was over-salted early-ish on the bike and spent the rest of the day coming down from that high. I was also very well-hydrated all day and had excellent run durability via my fitness, both of which I think resulted in me not having any cramping issues at all.
Thanks for the details. I'm expecting a cooler race in Chattanooga than anything I have trained in so this is very timely for me. I also may look for a way to stash more gels on the bike or reload my bento box during special needs instead of planning to pick up extra gels at aid stations.
Yeah, the point of my post was that you need to be aware of the difference between your training weather, race weather, resultant changes in sodium needs, the fact that GE is 500mg per bottle, and then adjust your plan accordingly. And then be watching for the signs of having take in too much salt, which for me is puffiness.
I was encouraging the team to input to this forum to hash out a lot of these issues. I do think that physiology may be different between people and we can't always assume things without data. More specifically, is swelling and puffiness from high sodium and water retention or low sodium( hyponatremia ) /too much plain water and not enough salt which can also result in swelling? Also I know have the question of is all salt equal. The muscle cramping issue seems to be described in most papers secondary to muscle strength/training rather then purely a sodium/electrolyte problem. My worst muscle cramp was at the last 500m of the swim to where my calf was so tight I was swimming with my right leg bent and obviously nothing to do with electrolytes.
Eager to hear more thoughts.
I have a problem with the sanitation of licking your thumb. IE- You use the porta potty, no place to wash, and your licking your thumb. Didn't they teach us to wash before eating? I am going to try it before I run out of salt sticks just to see if it helps.
I am having a huge problem dialing in not enough vs too much. Thank you everyone.
I don't know, I'm not a doc
. However, the two times where I've experience puffiness + light headed were (1) Kona '03 where I was popping salt like it was cool, with no idea what I was doing and (2) my second-to-last RR for IMWI, where I took in about 1000mg sodium per hour.
I experienced the same puffiness but not (yet) the dizzyness at IMWI where I drank ~4x bottles of GE + some sodium containing gels + a clif block or two = about > 2000mg sodium in the first ~2.5hrs of the bike. So, for me, I know what the signs are and was able to adjust the rest of my day.
Another reason to pee while riding the bike vs stopping at porta potties, as this keeps the funk, so to speak, below the waistline
. You're then rinsing yourself off often with water from the course.
Here is a dumb question. I am pre empting this with I am SOOOO new to this concept. But how do you know if puffiness is too much or too little? I did an RR averaging 500mg/hr and puffed up and got very dizzy with fuzzy thinking. I just did my HIM and averaged 1000+ mg on a 93 degree day and only my hands puffed up but I DNF due to severe cramping and dizziness.
Also, I thought we weren't supposed to take in free water? I am so confused.
See this discussion from earlier in the summer. Read the whole think and see the conversation evolves, etc. My observation is that many of us are stepping back from the all-GE-all-the-time strategy and instead going with a compartmentalized hydration, calorie, and sodium solution.
That is, I'm hydrating myself, getting sodium and calories from a range of on-course sources (water, GE, gels, blocks, maybe salt-tabs for some) so that you can adjust the levels of the individual components to create a solution that works for me in a range of environmental conditions. I can tell you that if I had had a GE-only, avoid-water nutrition plan I would have absolutely over sodium'ed myself and likely DNF'd given the weather conditions at WI vs the conditions I had trained with.
AHA!! Rubber Band! Big thanks for passing this advice along. I have had trouble sticking the crappy race day waterbottles in my BTA cage and this is an excellent solution!
Yeah, and because no rubber bands in my house, I now have a monster $2 sack of a couple hundred of all sizes...a lifetime supply.
The problem I had with BASE SALT at IMLP was I had 1 container in my race belt, then grabbed another at the first aid station that had them, after using the one on my belt I did not close the lid properly and lost all the salt, the exact same thing happened to the second one...User error I know but I need simple...
I also considered licking my thumb , I have enough of my own bodily fluids on my person , but when I had to stop in a porto-potty on the run I did think of that!