Sodium loading protocol for avoiding muscle cramps
After 70.3 Kansas I posted a thread about muscle cramping (http://members.endurancenation.us/T...fault.aspx). I got stopped in my tracks at 70.3 Vegas last year by debilitating quad cramps, and they hit again in Kansas. Extremely frustrating to say the least. There was a lot of good advice, and for 70.3 Racine yesterday I implemented a new strategy and got a good result in a B-race run in 90-degree heat.
I decided to try something called "sodium loading". If you Google "sodium loading protocol" you will see this is something that has been studied. Most protocols call for something like 3,500 to 4,000 mg of sodium to be taken anywhere from 18 hours prior to the event to a couple of hours prior (depending on the protocol…there are many out there). Because I have never tried anything like this before, including in training, I used a hybrid. Here's what I did:
- Day-before hydration was with Gatorade and G2, only minimal water. I approximate my sodium intake from the Gatorade and G2 was ~800 mg on Saturday
- Ate a bunch of salted mixed nuts the day before the race (throughout the day, probably about 800 calories worth!), total ~900 mg sodium
- The night before the race, took 1175 mg of sodium via 5 Salt Stick capsules
- At wakeup on race morning, took 1175 mg of sodium via 5 Salt Stick capsules
- An hour prior to my start, took 645 mg of sodium via 3 Salt Stick capsules
- On the bike, took 430 mg of sodium via a Salt Stick capsule at miles 15 and 30
My usual race nutrition had ~1250 mg of sodium. Pre race (730 mg): an Ensure (200 mg), a Clif Bar (150 mg), a sleeve of Shot Bloks (140 mg), 1 Gu (40 mg), 200 mg in Gatorade. Mid-race (520 mg): 400 mg via Gatorade, 120 mg via 3 Gu packets.
So the sodium totals were:
Saturday daytime: 1700 mg
Saturday evening: 1175 mg
Sunday pre-race: 2550 mg
Mid-race: 950 mg
I think one of the other big differences was the lack of drinking regular water. Whereas in typical races I would hydrate with massive amounts of water before the race, in this case I drank minimal amounts (mostly to down the Salt Stick capsules!). During the race, however, I drank 2 bottles of water on the bike and hydrated with water only on the run (after downing a Gatorade – counted in the above listing - coming out of T2).
Overall this strategy seemed to work very well. I had zero prior experience with sodium supplements (I bought the Salt Stick capsules at a store driving to the race!). So I was a bit nervous as to how my body would react. One strange thing was that my sweat was ridiculously salty. I had never experienced that before. Pretty strange. But the critical thing…NO HINT OF MUSCLE CRAMPING THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE RACE. AND NO CRAMPING AFTER THE RACE EITHER. I suspect this is partly due to the sodium protocol and partly due to luck and other mysterious factors…cramping seems to be one of these phenomena for which there is no magic bullet. But hey, it worked, so next time I'll do it and hopefully it'll work again.
Cheers,
Matt
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Comments
Nice! And yikes, that's a ridiculous amount of salt!
Actually, I'm a salty sweater as well, but I don't think I've encountered many problems in past races due to heavy sweating. I'll err on the side of caution the night before a race (say, a half marathon) though, and try to up my salt intake a bit. That is, eating saltier foods, and snacking on stuff like pretzels while drinking Gatorade.
Not sure what your heart rates were but do you think you may have been tapping into anaerobic state at any point? I take salt stick on the weekends for my long rides and I do notice my skin is much saltier when I am done. I was glad to hear you experienced that as well.
Yeah, I was a bit nervous to do quite that much in terms of supplements right before the race itself, but I have seen numbers that high or even quite a bit higher. Actually I was surprised when I added up all the race morning sodium and got to such a high number combining the supplements with the stuff I regularly eat pre-race.
Interesting. Might be useful for the summer heat here in SC as I'm a fairly salty sweater. Thx!
and when I don't have any fancy stuff around, I'll dump a teaspoon of table salt into my Gatorade bottles (at regular concentration). Makes the bottles very salty, but doesn't upset my stomach, I find that my workouts go better on the hot & humid days.
edit: just did the math before tonight's wko. I'm taking a bottle of G'ade that normally has about 190-200mg in it and tweaking it to have over 500mg/bottle. And I like the taste, def salty but not a problem at all.
Great info Matt Thanks!
I am definitely going to execute a preload for my HIM next month.
I have a very salty sweat (burns the eyes like acid, and leave white crust on everything) and I have had bad experiences with debilitating leg cramps on the run. Now that you've said it, It makes sense to me that if I dont preload then there is no way to catch-up with dwindling EL levels in the race.
@Chris I can see that the salt would help with the sticky sweet gatorade factor, I may try that this saturday.
I'm not saying you're NOT salty sweaters, but the body does a pretty good job of maintaining pH and salnity. Yes, ironman racing is an extreme, so we have to deal with it. However, the NORMAL result of increasing salt intake and then exercising is that the saltiness of your sweat goes UP. In other words, when you have more salt than you need, one way your body gets rid of it is to make salty sweat. Most people see salty sweat and think "I must need to put more salt back in" when the correct conclusion for most is "I must have had more salt in the system than I needed to begin with". So they put more salt in their systems and they sweat it out again.
If you are a salty sweater, the think to look out for is not salty sweat...it's when your sweat CEASES to be salty...that's your body trying to retain whatever salt you have left.
Obviously, all this comes down to "what works for you", and there's no doubt some people are helped with cramping by taking in lots of salt...and everyone needs a certain amount for IM-distance training and racing. However, do be aware of the fallacy of concluding that having salty sweat means you need more salt!
Whatever we do...try it out in practice first.
I've always been in the camp described by William - the body is superb at achieving homeostasis in many ways, inlcuding its sodium balance. So I have only been an intermittent salt user, and have done a number of very hot and/or humid races with no added salt pills.
This year, I am lucky enough to have an IM in which to experiment a bit. Background: I've raced at Kona twice. Once on a "cool" and overcast day (there was a downpour a half hour after I finished). I had no problems with cramping or having to walk on the run. The next time, I suffered awful cramps on the last third of the bike and during the first half of the run, at which point, I DNF'd. I attributed it at the time to a combinaiton of an overly aggressive stretch on the bike miles 15-35, decreased hydration (I lost a total of 9 #), and the use of caffeine supplement (I never do this, and am not a coffee drinker.)
I have IM Canada in 5 weeks, followed 7 weeks later by Kona. I have nothing to lose (except pride) in Canada, so I think I am going to give the sodium loading protocol a try. If I have no ill effects, I will then use it at Kona. Matt;s story of two races with bad cramping in the heat, then no cramping when loading with salt, is compelling, although he did do a few other things different as well.
Is that article in the current mag or web site?
And - as Al surely knows - there is STRONG evolutionary pressure to maintain homeostasis on anything that affects enzymic/chemical reactivity/function...presumably why we do it so well. But Ironman probably pushes us past the limit for which that pressure has been tested for generations.
Regarding this notion of being a "salty sweater", frankly I'm not sure how this thread got to that topic. I think it is a different issue. My sweat is not normally very salty (at least not in my opinion...I don't have experience with others' sweat(!) other than to see that some people have salt marks on their clothing, which has never happened to me. When I did the sodium loading, my sweat was quite salty. But that makes sense to me, given the large amount of sodium I took in compared to normal.
But I'll defer to the handful of physicians and the chemist above!!!
@Matt sorry, the salty sweating topic is probably due to my mention of it as my usual trait. #Ewww, Seriously? Sooo Gross#
I read an interesting blog entry this morning about cramping in regards to a study that indicated cramping is a function of history, as well as fitness v. pacing and NOT at all correlated to Electrolyte levels. I've been hearing the "'Electrolytes fix cramps' are a myth" thing for a while but this points to a study I can actually see. Unfortunately the end result doesn't leave much guidance as how to fix cramping. And following your training posts etc, I would bet $$ that you have your pacing down to a science. Link: http://sweatscience.com/cramping-in-ironman-triathlons-not-dehydration-or-electrolytes
Speaking of science, I agree with Jenks and Truscott about homeostasis as the ultimate physio driver. It seems though it might work both ways here. If my muscles are used to higher electrolyte levels (because I'm a bad boy and eat too much salts) then my body is used to getting rid of them quickly, and so, by depleting them too rapidly during a race, can lead itself to out of homeostasis, and and into depletion condition (as far as what my muscles are used to operating in) which can not be overcome in a race due to limiting factors of physiological absorption rates. No?
So it seems as though for high sodium diet athletes, the guidance to lower sodium intake overall and especially in the weeks leading up to a race and then do pre-loading in the day before might be effective at minimizing electrolyte depletion. IF you believe electrolytes have anything to do with muscle cramping.
Should we talk about pickle juice?
At Rian ... Pickle Juice Sport is coming with me to Vegas and IMCOZ.
Paul whats your 'protocol' for the pickle juice? Carry some on the run? How much? I'm curious bout trying it.