Where’s the peanut butter?!

It feels like it’s been ages since I wrote a long post about running. Wouldn’t you agree? Mom, of course, I’m talking to you. Anyway - Rolando from my running club is signed up for an ultra next month (a 50K in the North Face Endurance Challenge) and we’ve been talking about hydration options on a remote course, which is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while. In this post I’ll describe hydration in general and discuss water vs. sports drinks and electrolyte replacement.

Hydration is obviously important in running and it turns out to be a little complex. If you calculate your perspiration rate, you’d probably be amazed to find out how much water you lose while running (I’m especially gifted but I lose about four pounds an hour when running), so if you can drink while you’re on the go, this helps. You probably won’t be able to consume fluids at the rate that you’re losing them so you need to drink as part of recovery, too, but if you can drink while you’re out there, your body will be a lot happier.

But you probably don’t want to simply drink water, either. You might be able to, and depending on how far you’re going that might be just fine, but usually a sports drink will be much more beneficial. There are a bunch of reasons for this but the two that I think are usually adequate to make the case for a sports drink over plain water are:

• sports drinks contain carbohydrates (usually just some sugars), which your body synthesizes into glycogen, which is the available energy source that it uses to keep you going. This is also what runners get from the various “gels” which are on the market (Gu, Shot Blocks, Clif Shots, etc.). You’re much better off having rested before running because your body can’t immediately synthesize glycogen from the carbohydrates that you take in while running, but it still definitely helps (go run for 2 hours with and without taking some kind of carbohydrates in half way through the run and you’ll see this is true).
• sports drinks contain electrolytes. Blood isn’t just water and neither is your sweat - it’s a combination of water and four chief minerals: sodium, potassium, magnesium, and another one that I can never remember. Sports drinks tend to have a chemical composition which is a closer to your normal body’s balance of those minerals which a) means you’re more clearly replacing what has been lost than if you just drank water and b) is more readily absorbed by your body than straight water.

Another quick note about sports drinks and electrolyte replacement: a word that has unfortunately come up related to this is hyponatremia. This is a condition that is pretty rare under normal circumstances but can afflict long distance runners and basically occurs when the sodium (latin: natrium) levels in your body get very low (latin: hypo-). This can kill a person.

How much should you hydrate while running? With sports drinks or a combination of gels and water? This is all pretty much up to the individual and hard to give much advice on except to suggest “do it” and “practice.” I don’t really think I *need* a gel for all of my weekend long runs, but when I’m training for something I try to be in the habit of eating one because I know I’ll be eating them in a race and I want my body to be used to this. One last note: I don’t know if I think anyone needs to hydrate for a race as short as a 5K. People do, but they always look like dorks. However I also know from personal experience that it’s possible to overhead in a race as short as a 12K. Which comes back to “practice.”

In the next exciting installment: hydration paraphernalia!