Hydration Guidelines: Dehydration a Myth?

To drink or not to drink? 

“Drink before you’re thirsty.” “Drink only when you’re thirsty.” “Losing just 2% of your body weight due to dehydration leads to heat related illnesses and impairs performance.” “Over drinking can lead to Hyponatremia (water intoxication) and death.” Have you heard these phrases before?

How about this quote from runnersworld.com?

“Far more interesting (and reliable) is this nugget: [researchers] measured [Haile Gebrselassie] before and after he won Dubai [Marathon] in 2009, and despite drinking at a fairly high rate, he lost 9.8% of his starting body weight...” -Alex Hutchinson (Runner’s World)

Hmmm...shouldn’t Geb be comatose and not setting world record marathon times then? After all, that’s what our hydration guidelines have taught us, right? — that losing weight during exercise can lead to all sorts of catastrophic outcomes.

An Ol' Softy

How hot can you get before you collapse? That’s what I’m wondering while finishing the last few miles of a 20 mile training run in the desert. The weather has been blistering hot; sapping the land of all moisture, so I left at sunrise hoping to beat the heat.

My plan was to run through the Quitman canyon this morning, but it is a 20 mile out-and-back route, which would be too long for my dogs in this searing weather. Cara, Maddie and I are spending time at her family’s ranch in West Texas and six of the dogs are used to tagging along on my runs.