Electrolytes – Hydration

7 February 2023 0 Comments

Electrolytes – Hydration

With nutrition and running (or life in general) it is all about balance; there should be no need to starve yourself or ‘carb up’ before a key race if your day to day habits are good.

Yes, we can all eat more vegetables or eat less chocolate or alcohol but where is the fun in that. In my humble opinion, if we are sensible and keep an eye on what we eat, the occasional beer after a race shouldn’t be an issue.

After numerous questions about nutrition for upcoming races I decided to have a look at some of the products on the market and try some out, unfortunately, the choice is massive and a bit like trainers everyone says their product is the best.

You can have products for before races, during races, after races, in between training, during training, you name it there is a product that will help you become the next best athlete but (and you don’t want to hear this) – training harder and smarter is the best way to improve – nutrition, clothing, footwear, online coaching programmes, yoga, Pilates will all help but the main way to improve in anything is to practice more and more.

When learning to drive, did you go out in your mum’s old fiesta and drive rubbish but when you went out in your friends ‘souped up’ Lamborghini (never happened) did you become awesome – NO! You practiced and became better, it wasn’t the car that made you better (although, some of the cars out there now drive for you!)

I digress – with nutrition it is the same. I had some comments back from an expert which I have quoted directly from…

“…it comes a lot down to exercise intensity and duration. Naturally if we follow a healthy balanced diet we should have enough energy stores to last us 90 minutes of exercise. However if this is very high intensity it will be a lot less.

So for running, it is runs, 90 min and above where nutrition during a long run would be beneficial which is where people would consume energy gels or have a carbohydrate/electrolyte containing drink.

Racing it can also be beneficial to use an energy gel as a quick source of energy pre-event…”

So this is where my investigation started…

Currently, I am not training for anything over 10k specifically so I rarely do much more than 90 minutes anyway, so I thought I would start with the general hydration side of the performance products out there.

Over the past 12 months or so I have got into the habit of having a dissolvable Vitamin C (with Zinc) in a pint of water every morning – primarily because of the benefits of Vitamin C but also it makes me drink a pint of water in the morning because you can bet there will be days when I don’t drink enough.

Habits should be simple and easy to build into your daily life – setting yourself a target of drinking 8 pints a day when you usually have a cup of tea with breakfast and maybe a glass of water before bed will soon fail – little steps and before you know it it becomes something you do without thinking.

I decided to add an hydration/electrolyte recovery drink into my daily routine – I do tend to exercise most days and my work does mean I am using most muscles regularly.

So when the Vitamin C was dissolving I got out my water bottle and placed an electrolyte tablet in it. This worked two fold – it meant another 500ml of fluid and it meant replacing some electrolytes that may not get used from my normal diet – the water bottle followed me – it was on the kitchen work top, it went in the car and if there was any left it went on my bedside table.

Now I know you would love for me to say ‘this brand was best’ or ‘you must have this one’, however I tried several different ones and would suggest you do the same.

Flavour is important, if it tastes bad you aren’t going to drink it. Brands that are open to what is in them and have good labelling are a must, ask others what they use, go into sports shops and ask their advice. I spoke with Emma Phillips at Pau Run and Ride and she kindly gave me several different brands to try (Emma is an ultra runner and nutrition is key, her races tend to last slightly longer than 90 minutes).

I found I liked the High Five Berry Flavour and the SIS Lemon Flavour but I haven’t tried the whole range out there and will continue to try different ones as my training continues. I haven’t had any ill effects or superhuman performances that I can attribute to the use of the hydration products but that is not to say they are not beneficial as part of a whole training program.

I will continue to trail the electrolyte drinks but I am also goin to move onto the different range of gels, powders that support performance as well as recovery and I will update you over the coming weeks and months with any findings.

Thanks for reading.

Paul

NB: There are loads of links, and some of the ones I have read are below with a plethora of information.

TORQ

https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/hydration-physical-performance

TORQ Fuelling System

https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/torq-fuelling-system

TORQ Recovery System

https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/torq-recovery-system

Carbohydrate Loading

https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/carbohydrate-loading-update

Training The Gut