Re: [at-l] Dehydration Questions for 'The Doc-In-The-House'

[ThatSloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

<sorry, getting honked here. How many couch potatoes is this thread bringing
to tears? Salty tears. Ahhhh, the irony of that.....>

Leave it at "simple water"? Let's not. The US Army lost 5 soldiers in
training last year due to hyponatremia -- the condition of having "too much"
water without balancing Na/K intake. They lost 3 to dehydration. They're back
to issuing those salt tablets you were denigrating earlier. Hmmmm. (These
data comes to me from a collegue who's exArmy, current reserve, trainer, from
a conversation exactly a week ago. We talk about these things. Honest. This
is Indiana: it's that or basketball.....)

There's no reason to *suffer* from salt loss, but this is what you are
directly encouraging. Fact: Rehydration occurs faster with a dilute
carbohydrate solution than with plain water. Fact: introduction of plain
water will dilute bodily electrolyte balance which the body has been busy
equilibrating during exercise. <cue Spock> Logic dictates a dilute
carbohydrate solution which also contains needed electrolytes.

Now, am I "the experienced athlete...learning from mistakes"? I suppose I am.
I'm running in the IndyLife Indy500 MiniMarathon in just 3 days, hoping to
come in in the top 500 (out of 23,500) so I can get a big fat medal. (That's
a race within the race, you see.) I'll be running against folks putting in up
to 50 miles per week; I am lucky to have averaged 14.8 since January 1, just
20 per week in the last 10 weeks. That ain't squat for mileage. These other
folk wouldn't know a good training injury if it reached up and bit them in
their little BB-butts. Me? I fight off symptom after symptom, trying to reach
certain performance levels on training which just doesn't measure up to the
mileage reasonably needed. (My only solace is that, to date, I haven't
suffered the same injury twice.) Think of it this way, OB: I don't run
without leaving a salt residue on my clothes. I haven't learned this stuff
'cause I'm good, or particularly smart; I've learned it because I *try*.

Go out yourself this summer and hit the AT in PA. Stack six or seven 20
milers in the heat of summer and wonder at the deposits which you see on your
shoulder straps (once they dry out). Or, the next time you find yourself
whipped by a good 3-day fever, go take a long walk. THEN tell me "water's
just fine" for the less-than-elite athlete.

There is no reason to suffer. What was that? "...and rarely learning from the
mistakes of others...."?

--- "W F Thorneloe, MD" <thornel@attglobal.net> wrote:
> Well, the experienced athlete has learned how to budget energy, water, and 
> time. The experience usually comes as a result of learning from mistakes, 
> and rarely learning from the mistakes of others.
> 
> Lets leave it at the idea that simple water is an excellent hydration 
> resource. That is a message from the Department of Redundancy Department.
> 
> OrangeBug
> Atlanta, GA
> 
> At 12:51 PM 5/3/2000, ThatSloetoe wrote:
> >Putting these thoughts together, the people who run into hydration
> troubles
> >are *less*often* experienced athletes and more often casual athletes
> looking
> >to extend themselves -- it's stress, not miles.
> 
> 

=====
Sloetoe


"And yet we shouldn't have needed the cataclysm to love life
today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans,
and that death may come this evening."   Marcel Proust, 1922.

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