When you can and should drink water during running

The topic of fluid intake has already been covered, but we haven’t touched on the issue of when we have to drink water and isotonics while running.

Should I drink while running or replenish my water balance after exercise?

There is a big difference in fluid loss between a marathon runner after a high-impact workout and a girl who wants to lose weight running a few laps around the house.

Isotonic drink is water with salts-electrolytes necessary for regulation of acid-base balance in the body. It contains basic salts: potassium, magnesium. Sometimes sodium and calcium.

A feeling of thirst is one of these signals, but it often appears somewhat late. And the first, mild stage of thirst is simply ignored, drowned out, or not felt at all. The dark yellow color of urine, which is the second signal warning of the beginning of the dehydration stage, is usually noticed only by athletes or adults who have firsthand knowledge of various diseases.

The first thing you must learn is to immediately replenish your body’s water supply as soon as you feel a hint of thirst. It is desirable to do it with clean water. In most cases, runners and cyclists easily learn to predict the imminent onset of thirst and take a few sips before its obvious onset.

The question of whether you should drink while running is decided if you have the baseline data. This includes mileage, air temperature, average pace, climbing, weight, and level of fitness.

As you understand, you will not get an unambiguous answer. The main guideline should be perspiration. If the workload involves an abundant loss of fluid with sweat, it is certainly necessary to take with you cisterns (flasks) with water.

Range and time

Half of amateur runners start drinking during a run if the distance goes over 10-15 kilometers. Especially in summer. In the extreme heat, many go out for a workout with a drinking system regardless of the mileage.

Beginners should also start drinking plain water if the activity lasts more than 1 hour. And start drinking even earlier and three to five times more often if you run in the sun.

But there is an important point for beginner runners: your hands should be free and no bottles should be in them. So set aside part of your budget to buy a flask belt or a shoulder drinking system.

Taking water before and after running

Go to the start line fully hydrated. This applies to both the training and the marathon. However, too much fluid can not only cause discomfort, such as heaviness and tingling in the stomach, but can also be dangerous.

Wasting time waiting in line to go to the bathroom at a marathon or looking for options at a training session isn’t fun either. So drink in advance, an hour or two in advance. And just before the start you can resume taking water again. After the run, you have to be sure to drink. And eat, too.

What to Remember

• Man is not a camel, so he can not store in advance the volume of water, he needs constant hydration. But the amount of water that the body can absorb is limited to 600 – 1000 ml per hour.
• While running, you should drink little but often.
• It is categorically forbidden to force large quantities of liquid into yourself.

If you don’t drink during training

As water is lost in sweat, blood volume and flow decreases. This severely affects the work of the heart itself and the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles.

Runners and cyclists hardly ever experience any serious dehydration that can have any health consequences. However, even the earliest levels of dehydration negatively affect performance, cause discomfort, and significantly slow the athlete down.

Any stage of dehydration is extremely detrimental to the recovery period. And a systematic severe lack of water can lead to a variety of diseases.

Isotonic drink is water with salts-electrolytes necessary for regulation of acid-base balance in the body. It contains basic salts: potassium, magnesium. Sometimes sodium and calcium.

In most cases, if we are talking about amateur running or cycling, it is not necessary to use isotonics. The only option is very long work in intense heat with profuse sweating. But there is no need for regular consumption of such drinks.

What is an isotonic

Isotonic drink is water with salts-electrolytes necessary for regulation of acid-base balance in the body. It contains basic salts: potassium, magnesium. Sometimes sodium and calcium.

There is no need to buy isotonics, because they are easy to make yourself, there are about a thousand recipes online. The cost of any sports drink is very high. We must assume that manufacturers use very expensive coloring and flavoring agents.

What is a hypertensive man

You can also add a bunch of carbohydrates and some vitamins to an isotonic drink. In this case, you get another kind of sports drink – a hypertonic. This is, in essence, an energy cocktail. There is no need to buy it either. And advanced athletes, of course, prepare it themselves. Mineral water with honey or sugar is actually a hypertonic.

The main disadvantage of a hypertonic drink is that, unlike an energy bar or even a banana, it’s not always clear how many carbs you just poured into the firebox.

All kinds of sports drinks can be purchased not in ready-made form, but in the form of half-finished powders, like proteins and gainers. But, again, almost all amateur runners do not need such drinks and can make do with plain clean water. And at heavy loads, they can make simple isotonics from improvised products.

Best Options

Plain clean water can only look plain and clean. But we don’t need pure water. Some amount of important salts should be present in it.

One has to choose carefully among water, too. For example, Bonaqua Coca-Cola is made from purified water from the central water supply, which is clearly indicated on the bottle. And next to it on the shelf will be the less promoted Lipetsk Buvet at half the price, but from an underground source.

A knowledgeable athlete will choose the second option without hesitation, because natural water from a well containing potassium and magnesium is an isotonic. In this case, natural, with a small amount of electrolytes. Another popular budget option is to buy mineral water and let all the gases out.

The latter option is good in its simplicity and easily replaces the sports isotonic. But there are minerals with absolutely different composition and saturation of microelements, up to medicinal, where their concentration is very high.

Excess salts sometimes correlate with kidney stones, so we don’t recommend drinking special isotonic drinks at amateur exercise levels.