Water - Helper and Hinderer

I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is an electrolyte disturbance in which the sodium concentration in the plasma is too low. In severe cases, it can lead to swelling in the brain and cause fatalities. In 2002, "A 22 year-old man died after completing his first London Marathon because he drank too much water. David Rodgers collapsed at the end of the race and died yesterday in Charing Cross Hospital" read the newspaper. Hyponatremia, also called water intoxication, was to blame. When there is too much water in your body it dilutes vital minerals like sodium to dangerously low levels. The condition leads to headaches, confusions, and a fatal swelling of the brain.

OK... let's break that down a bit. As you run you become dehydrated as you sweat, losing both water and sodium. Therefore we often drink water or a sports drink to replenish what we've lost. But how much do you actually need to drink??? Well let's start by saying that the old 8 cups of water a day line has no scientific backing. In terms of exercise you shouldn't drink too much water if you are exercising for under 1 hour and you suffer little loss in sodium levels/other vital minerals. For over an hour, you should reach for some Gatorade, not powerade. Gatorade contains twice the sodium (electrolytes) that Powerade does, so grab the good stuff. As you sweat more and more during a long run, such a marathon (the only time hyponatremia is really a plausible and likely danger) it's rather easy to replace the water component of sweat, but much more likely that you won't replenish the sodium content. And as you continue to replace more water than salt as the miles pile up, it leads to dangerous dilution of minerals like sodium. Excess water sloshing around without sodium to catch up with is bad for your kidneys and leads to swelling in the brain which causes the headaches, confusion, and possible fatality.

NOTE: Don't worry about this unless you're doing extreme physical activity for over 3 hours. It's just something to keep in mind for those of you doing very long bike races, or considering a marathon. It's safer to NOT recharge at every mile water station than to drink at each one is all I'm saying. Personally I don't drink too much water when I'm running at all. My half marathon in October I had one small cup of water at mile 11 and it may have been just because I was feeling tired an hitting a wall. Of course it's also bad not to have any water either as it can lead to dehydration. The key of course is balance, but keep a focus on sodium if you can.

I ran 15 miles yesterday in terms of my own training and it felt ok; about a 7:45 pace but my body wasn't feeling great during the run. But sometimes you just push through and make sure you finish strong. Today was hilarious running though because I was so tight and tired; but I'm kind of demented in a way and love a next-day sore run. To give you a sense of the feeling think back to your days at the beach as a kid when you made a simple sand castle with a bucket. The sand is packed together and is tight, but if you kind of shoved your hand in there you could feel it kind of give under the pressure and smooth back out into what it was before. Similarly I feel that in my legs. The next day they're all tight but after you get on the treadmills and start things up they begin to smooth back out and loosen. The thing to take away is to not be afraid of going the next day after a hard workout because "my legs hurt" or "I put in a good enough one yesterday". I'm saying not to take rest days, but if you push your body once in a while to make a quick recovery it'll just become easier in the future and help you put in more miles and better workouts.

Sorry for the long-winded post; as always please think about donating to my fundraising effort for Dana Farber by following the link below. Your generosity is gladly appreciated:
http://www.runDFMC.org/ryanmeehan2009