The water bottles they hand up suck for staying in a bottle cage once you drink out of them. MAJOR props to Paul Hough posting to me on FB, recommending I use a large rubber band on my aerobars to help secure water bottles mounted in a BTA Bontragger side-loading cage.
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!
I've had rubber bands snap so switched to bungie style hair ties. But even those can break so this year I bought some quality shock-cord (for tent poles) and use that on my BTA and behind the seat bottles. Shock-cord won't break, and never bounced a bottle since.
One quick note on the evolution of the salt on an IM course conversation (might not be relevant for whatever your local Half IM or Marathon has on the course) is that Gatorade Endurance actually has a TON of sodium. I wan't to say 380mg per bottle...so two bottles per hour = 760mg plus my gel and food and I am all set with salt.
Contrast that in the past where Powerbar Perform or other products didn't have enough sodium and supplementation was a real issue.
So for me, salt on an IM/70.3 course has gone from a "must get or get in trouble" thing to a "must have in case my gut backs up and gets sloshy" and I need to fix it.
That said, I am curious to see what the medical peeps say re puffiness...
More than too much / too little sodium, I would focus on too much / too little fluid which can be much more dangerous to your body / race (too much = Hyponatremia, etc).
I see two extenuating factors for Coach Rich to consider when biking is reduced blood flow to arms when aero which could lead to some swelling there...and also using pain killers, which have been shown to affect the kidney's ability to regulate salt, and could lead to you retaining more water.
If fluids go in and you are peeing it out -- a happy balance -- then all is well. If you aren't peeing during an IM (minimum 2x on the bike) you are in trouble. If the weather is cooler, you can cut back on the fluids you need OVER TIME LIKE COACH RICH, not at the outset as you might initially need them...
This discussion confirms that nutrition and salt intake is a very personal thing and must be self-customized for all.Everyone please take caution when taking advice from anyone.
Regarding drinking, eating, and salt intake::: water naturally flows from low osmolality solutions to high osmolality solutions.Absorbing water through the stomach involves this and transport by cells. Salt and sugar helps the transport of water into the body.Personally I sometimes find it hard, during a race, to discern between a sloshy stomach that is not concerning and gi shutdown.It just is not always clear what is going on. I would like folks to be cautious with what works for Coach P – if one has a high osmolality of sugar and salt in the stomach, much higher than the osmolality in the blood, then putting more salt in your stomach is NOT the solution to get more fluid absorbed.
Regarding leg and body edema::::Note Robert Sabo’s points: there are scenarios where both low and high sodium in the bloodstream can lead to edema.Note Coach R’s experience where he thinks too much sodium has been an issue for him.I don’t remember Coach P discussing edema problem, but he goes to the other end of the spectrum of sodium intake.
The Core Diet concepts, as Coach P seems to use, it what I had used of a while.It seemed to work well for a couple races but not since.The idea of forcing sugar and salt into the stomach to absorb fluids is not something we should always universally be embracing.And there is the other end of the spectrum that leads to hyponatremia.
So again, this is really something one has to work on individually. Some of the thoughts out there just do not work for all and do not make sense medically and scientifically.Remember the factors that influence how your stomach is absorbing food, salt, and water during a race::salt intake, water intake, food intake, air temperature, personal intensity of effort, heart rate, current body hydration state, etc.
Under low stress conditions, the body is able to regulate osmolality also by dumping differential amounts of salt in the sweat. In other words, the folks that are salty sweaters are usually salty sweaters because they consume a lot of salt...sort of like people that have to pee a lot usually drank a lot of fluid. How this translates (well) to higher stress conditions is something we all have to experiment a bit with. I still think having a simple solution and knowing a few tools you can pick up out of your bento or at an aid station is the best possible way of working, rather than something complicated...all things being equal. For me, this is still the basically all-gatorade-all-the-time solution with my options of switching to water and grabbing a gel (to reduce salt but keep calories). I've never felt the need for more salt, but of course some could be carried.
Comments
I've had rubber bands snap so switched to bungie style hair ties. But even those can break so this year I bought some quality shock-cord (for tent poles) and use that on my BTA and behind the seat bottles. Shock-cord won't break, and never bounced a bottle since.
Contrast that in the past where Powerbar Perform or other products didn't have enough sodium and supplementation was a real issue.
So for me, salt on an IM/70.3 course has gone from a "must get or get in trouble" thing to a "must have in case my gut backs up and gets sloshy" and I need to fix it.
That said, I am curious to see what the medical peeps say re puffiness...
More than too much / too little sodium, I would focus on too much / too little fluid which can be much more dangerous to your body / race (too much = Hyponatremia, etc).
I see two extenuating factors for Coach Rich to consider when biking is reduced blood flow to arms when aero which could lead to some swelling there...and also using pain killers, which have been shown to affect the kidney's ability to regulate salt, and could lead to you retaining more water.
If fluids go in and you are peeing it out -- a happy balance -- then all is well. If you aren't peeing during an IM (minimum 2x on the bike) you are in trouble. If the weather is cooler, you can cut back on the fluids you need OVER TIME LIKE COACH RICH, not at the outset as you might initially need them...
This discussion confirms that
nutrition and salt intake is a very personal thing and must be self-customized
for all. Everyone please take
caution when taking advice from anyone.
Regarding drinking, eating,
and salt intake::: water naturally
flows from low osmolality solutions to high osmolality solutions. Absorbing water through the stomach
involves this and transport by cells.
Salt and sugar helps the transport of water into the body. Personally
I sometimes find it hard, during a race, to discern between a sloshy stomach that
is not concerning and gi shutdown. It
just is not always clear what is going on.
I would like folks to be cautious with what works for Coach P – if one
has a high osmolality of sugar and salt in the stomach, much higher than the osmolality
in the blood, then putting more salt in your stomach is NOT the solution to get
more fluid absorbed.
Regarding leg and body edema:::: Note Robert Sabo’s points: there are
scenarios where both low and high sodium in the bloodstream can lead to
edema. Note Coach R’s experience
where he thinks too much sodium has been an issue for him. I don’t remember Coach P discussing
edema problem, but he goes to the other end of the spectrum of sodium
intake.
The Core Diet concepts, as
Coach P seems to use, it what I had used of a while. It seemed to work well for a couple races
but not since. The idea of forcing
sugar and salt into the stomach to absorb fluids is not something we should
always universally be embracing. And there is the other end of the spectrum
that leads to hyponatremia.
So again, this is really
something one has to work on individually.
Some of the thoughts out there just do not work for all and do not make
sense medically and scientifically. Remember
the factors that influence how your stomach is absorbing food, salt, and water
during a race:: salt intake, water
intake, food intake, air temperature, personal intensity of effort, heart rate,
current body hydration state, etc.