Where to start (total noob)

[pepecat]

I always take something to drink - even if it's only a quick 6-7 mile spin of an evening. If the ride's that short, i'll only take water, but if i'm doing anything upwards of about 10/15 miles or so, i'll take watered down fruit juice, or squash or, for really long rides of 40/50 miles and more (especially when hot) high five zero.

It's not so much feeling thirsty with me, but more that i seem to get a dry mouth very quickly, so a mouthful of fluid every now and again stops that. I think people's bodies probably all work in slightly different ways and are affected by how fit you are, how hard you ride, what the weather's like etc. Find what works best for you and stick to it - don't be swayed by what other people do or don't do. I drink more than some on a ride, and less than others, but it's ok for me, so i stick with that.

 

[VamP]

Robert clearly has one view. I disagree with it. I take water or High5 Zero on any ride over about 45 mins. Nice to have sip once in a while. If you don't have it you can't drink it. I take some water on a 10 mile TT and in an Ironman bike ride I get through gallons of sports drink. (about 5-6 bottles)

So Mushroomgodmat, tkae something to drink, perhaps a snack, build up mileages slowly, and enjoy yourself

I'm with Robert on this. You need to lose 2% of bodyweight in dehydration to register a measurable impact on performance. That's a lot of liquid, and there is no way you will sweat that in 1 hour, no matter how hot/hard you ride.

I take electrolytes with me on rides over an hour, though it often comes back undrunk, and some food on rides over 2 hours, though it often comes back with me uneaten.

You must be pretty unique at 10 mile TTs with water. I would resent the time out of the tuck to drink. Not to mention the aerodynamic disadvantage of carrying a bottle along

 

[Fiona N]

I'm with Robert on this. You need to lose 2% of bodyweight in dehydration to register a measurable impact on performance. That's a lot of liquid, and there is no way you will sweat that in 1 hour, no matter how hot/hard you ride.

I take electrolytes with me on rides over an hour, though it often comes back undrunk, and some food on rides over 2 hours, though it often comes back with me uneaten.

You must be pretty unique at 10 mile TTs with water. I would resent the time out of the tuck to drink. Not to mention the aerodynamic disadvantage of carrying a bottle along

Yes I'm another in the 'there's a lot of hype' camp.

I first started cycling seriously in Western Australia and have lived and ridden (and raced) in W.A., Queensland, Switzerland (Alps), Italy etc. so I think it's fair to say I'm pretty use to exercising for long periods in fairly extreme conditions. Consequently I know pretty well how much liquid I need under any given conditions (weather and terrain).

And I find people get really paranoid about drinking and about energy drinks especially. It's like a small drop in performance will do for them - and let's admit, most of us are not going to be performing anywhere near 100% so if you're performing at 60% instead of 58% in a sportive, does it matter? And that's assuming you've lost that 1.5 - 2 litres of liquid. Remember also weight loss at the end of a ride doesn't simply equate to dehydration - each gramme of stored glycogen is associated with 4 grammes of water. So 2000 kcals (usually considered the max stored) is 500g CHO and 2000g water which you will also sweat out or pee out. So if you have a hard ride which depletes stored glycogen you may think you've come back 2kg dehydrated but no amount of drinking will sort it until your body rebuilds the glycogen stores, so we're not talking about plasma loss which is what causes the loss of performance (although there'll be a much bigger drop of performance if you run out of CHO).

I think it's likely that most people get into the habit of using (energy) drinks as a psychological crutch. I've posted on here before about drinking only 3 or 4 litres of liquid (mainly water) on 200km and 300km audaxes (admittedly under cool Scottish conditions) and not feeling completely done at the end - or in fact being more than slightly (< 1kg) dehydrated. Now it could be that I'm a human camel or more likely that experience allows me to gauge what's required and have the confidence to know what works for me.

The thing about psychological crutches is that when they're not there, you fall over so I'd avoid building a dependency:

- Ride as often as you can with just water (I always take a bottle as there's nothing like half swallowing a fly and not having a drink to hand to wash it down ) and drink just what you feel to need - not by rote e.g. 'you must drink a bottle every hour or you'll bonk/die of dehydration'.

- Learn to judge whether you're drinking enough by what you feel like at the end of the ride and the next day.

- Learn to distinguish muscle fatigue from dehydration/lack of energy - many people are sufficiently unfit that tiredness means just that - their legs are tired and not sufficiently well trained for the load - it's nothing to do with lack of energy or fluids which is why necking gels won't do anything (hence the cry 'gels are useless, they never work for me' - well, they don't work instead of training ).

 

[VamP]

...Great post...

Great post.

 

[Rob3rt]

Interesting read Fiona.

I do feel I should clarify, I was not suggesting that you shouldnt take water in case of an emergency, sometimes it will come in handy, but what I was saying is that enough for an emergency and drinking when actually thirsty is all you need and to not worry about all this "drinking before you are thirsty" bollocks and stressing over lost salts etc.

People really should "get real" and stop externalising their own shortcomings, the reason you suck in a 10 mile time trial is most likely because you dont train hard enough and you dont push hard enough in the race, its not because you became dehydrated in the last 2 mile.

 

[amnesia]

...Not to mention the aerodynamic disadvantage of carrying a bottle along

However, a recent wind-tunnel study by Triathlete Magazine discovered that this approach is actually counterproductive because it interrupts the laminar flow of air down the athlete's curved back. A 2003, wind tunnel study by Dan Empfield found that the best configuration was a single water bottle on the bike's downtube (it smoothed airflow to the seat tube and rear wheel). This caused less drag than having no waterbottle at all. The most drag was 2 water bottles; one on the down tube and one on the seat tube.

taken from this site : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon_equipment

Go figure....

 

[VamP]

[/size][/font]

taken from this site : http://en.wikipedia....thlon_equipment

Go figure....

Brilliant!

I can stop taking both baskets off before timetrials