[at-l] New Advice to Runners: Don't Drink the Water - NYT 5/6/03

[s.landis at comcast.net (Steve Landis)]

    From... http://tinyurl.com/bhwy

    Every athlete, every fitness enthusiast has heard the advice to
    drink plenty of water. Drink as much as you can. Don't wait until
    you are thirsty. By then it may be too late. You may be seriously
    dehydrated, risking dizziness, collapse, even death. "Stay ahead of
    your thirst," athletes and would-be athletes are told.

    But now USA Track & Field, the national governing body for track and
    field, long-distance running and race walking, says that advice is
    wrong. In what it calls a major revision of its guidelines, the
    organization says endurance athletes, who may be consuming huge
    amounts of water over the course of a long event, may risk seizures,
    respiratory failure and even death from drinking too much.

    Instead of drinking as much as they can, the new guidelines say,
    runners should drink when they are thirsty. People in long races
    like marathons may want to weigh themselves before and after long
    practice runs to see how much they lose from sweating and drink that
    amount when they race, and no more. The guidelines are at www.usatf.org.

    <snip>

    Steve

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