Morgen ist Rennen in FFM und ich bin nicht mal nervös.
Ich sitze hier im Interkontinental, vor mir stehen ein paar Leute vom DKW-Team (die unglaublich präsent sind), Normann sieht fertig aus... Überall laufen Leute mit Bändchen rum, ich war den ganzen Tag am Langener Waldsee, Check-In und am Helpdesk sitzen.
Nur sitze ich am anderen Ende der Leitung. Auch ich muss morgen um 3:30Uhr aufstehen, aber es ist mir egal, dass ich wenig schlafen werde.
...Vucko läuft vorbei... was macht der hier?
Eigentlich alles ganz nett so weit. Aber ehrlich: Wenn mir gleich einer nen Startplatz geben würde - ich wäre dabei. Das ist krank, was die da morgen alle machen. Mit ein bisserl Abstand wird einem das klar. Die Hälfte der Leute wirkt nicht so, als wenn sie in der Lage wären, ne MD zu finishen. Dazu ist es so heiß, dass Rumstehen keinen Spaß macht.
*g* Normann popelt *g*
Ein Teil von mir will echt in Roth starten - das ist der Teil, der hier sitzt. Ist echt ne nette Parallelwelt, in der diese Leistungen, die morgen vollbracht werden, normal erscheinen.
Der andere sagt: Auch 2009 keinen Ironman. Mal schauen, welcher siegt. Für den contra-Teil gibbet viele Argumente, für den pro-Teil recht wenige.
So langsam muss ich dann doch mal ins Bett. So wie's aussieht, ist Normann auch müde. Arme Sau. Ich will gar nicht drauf eingehen, was hier sicher alles diskutiert worden ist. Wenn es einem Profi so geht, wie der aussieht, startet man nicht. Punkt.
Gruß aus dem "Official Race-Hotel", das nur in der Lobby WLAN hat
Live-Klatsch-Reporting ist vorbei, Danke für's Feedback
In den letzten Tagen hab ich vor allem meine Geh-und-Steh-Muskeln trainiert. Dazu den Bizeps vom Finishermedaillen halten. Zwischen 11h und 12h ist richtig Rush-Hour, 50 Medaillen sind schnell weg.
Meine letzte richtige sportliche Betätigung war die XDream Staffel beim Night-Run. Kai hatte ne flotte 17:20 über die 5km vorgelegt, da kam ich gerade mal 30 Sekunden drunter... Und guckt mal, wie easy das war! (Foto von Wagnerli ohne Genehmigung veröffentlicht)
Weil der liebe Danksta sich mit mir diesbezüglich ja ein kleines Post-Duell in meinem Blog geliefert hat... ... - eine "kurze" Ergänzung zu meiner Hypothese, daß Ausdauersportler durchaus dazu neigen, zuviel zu trinken, u.a. auch deshalb weil die "Wissenschaft" das so gepredigt hatte.
"Over a 21 year period I completed more than 70 marathon and ultra-marathon running races and a host of other standard triathlons and cycling races. I did not ever finish a race feeling thirsty. When I performed less well than I expected, the diagnosis was never very difficult. Since I always drank the same amounts, changes in my drinking behaviours could not have been the cause for either my better or worse performances. Rather the obvious cause was my preparation; when I performed well my preparation had always been ideal. I often wonder if, when we perform poorly, we look for an easy scapegoat. So, for example, we explain our underperformance on the basis that we must have drunk too little water or salt or whatever. How possibly could our preparation have been at fault? This inability to be self-critical provides fertile soil for exploitation by commercial forces.
On the other hand, as described in Lore of Running, I underperformed on a number of occasions when I failed to ingest enough carbohydrate and developed the symptoms of hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose concentration). I concluded that, especially in events lasting more than 2 hours, carbohydrate intake had a much greater impact on my performance than did my rate of fluid ingestion.
This may seem obvious today but before the mid-1980’s we did not believe that ingesting carbohydrate during exercise aided performance – all the emphasis at that time was on fluid ingestion being the crucial determinant of performance. We had to learn from personal experience that carbohydrate ingestion during exercise was perhaps even more important than fluid ingestion. This was confirmed in the laboratory for the first time only in the late 1980’s.
Now in answer to your questions.
1. Is salt intake necessary during prolonged exercise like the Ironman.
The short answer is that no one has yet provided good evidence that salt intake beyond the homeopathic amounts present in sports drinks is necessary to sustain performance during something like the Ironman. This does not mean that the case is conclusively proven; just that there is no definitive support for this practice at present. Interestingly our and other’s data suggests that the body probably has a reserve of sodium stored in an unionized form, perhaps in bone and skin, that can then be activated in the short term should a deficit in the blood sodium content develop. However this is still a controversial issue.
But more to the point is the absolutely clear evidence that subjects who drink to thirst will maintain or increase their serum sodium concentrations whether or not they ingest salt during exercise. Only in those who drink in excess of thirst and who either maintain or increase their weight during exercise is their some evidence that the extent to which the blood sodium concentration falls will be reduced (but not prevented) by the ingestion of sodium during exercise. (This fall can only be prevented by drinking less). Of course this finding has been seized upon by the sports drink industry as absolute evidence that sodium ingestion is essential during exercise. What they have failed to say is that if athletes just drank less during exercise (ie to thirst), they would not need to ingest salt in order to maintain their blood sodium concentrations. This we have known since blood sodium concentrations were first measured in runners in the 1960’s.
We have also shown in two separate studies that salt ingestion does not influence the blood sodium concentration in Ironman triathletes who drink according to thirst. In a series of laboratory studies we also failed to find any real evidence for a major beneficial effect of sodium ingestion during exercise of short to moderate duration (up to 3 hours).
The main benefit of sodium ingestion is that drinks with sodium (and glucose) are usually more palatable than are those without salt in the relatively low concentrations - less than 20mmol per litre - that athletes find palatable during exercise.
In the past month or so, my colleague Dr Tamara Hew has taught me something which may be of critical importance. On the basis of some interesting and preliminary data, she has concluded that the body must regulate its sodium losses during exercise, probably in order to protect the blood sodium concentration. In other words, the amount of salt that is lost in sweat during exercise is not a random phenomenon but must be tightly controlled. It is common knowledge that the amount of salt lost in urine is tightly regulated by different hormones and is one of the key functions of the kidney.
But during exercise, the main site of salt loss is in the sweat, not in the urine. Why would we believe that this loss is not just as tightly regulated as is the loss of sodium in the urine? It does not make sense to think otherwise.
So Tamara’s conclusion is that the amount of sodium lost in the sweat must be controlled just as is the amount of water that is lost, and all are regulated to insure that the homeostatic balance in the body is protected as best as possible. We know that the amount of water that is lost as sweat is regulated in proportion to the elevation in body temperature (or the rate at which heat is being produced); the amount of sodium that is lost must be regulated in order to minimize changes in the osmolality of the blood (at any given sweat rate). In addition, the body seems to have the capacity to remove or add sodium into the blood stream from an unionized (stored) form; this would provide another buffer against sudden changes in blood sodium concentrations (and osmolality) in persons who are sweating profusely during exercise. Depending on the interactions between all these different processes, so athletes will either sweat more or less and drink either more or less during exercise.
The point of all this is perhaps to suggest that the body is designed as a complex system and when one tries to analysis it too simplistically, the conclusions that one draws may be wrong. The clearest point is that we are genetically different and will respond quite differently to the same stresses. Thus some unable to defend their serum sodium concentrations and osmolality will become thirsty at low levels of sweat and water loss whereas others will protect these variables so well that they will not become thirsty until they have lost substantial amounts of body water (since it is the change in the osmolality of the blood that determines thirst).
But given the freedom to choose, the body will tell you when you need water (you will be thirsty) and when you need salt (you will develop a salt-craving). The ruthlessly selective processes of evolution provided us with these essentially fail-safe controls. We just need to learn to listen to and to obey them. And not to assume that general advice will be ideal for everyone.
2. Are my drinking guidelines aimed at safety or performance and would the advice be the same for a Kenyan trying for a sub-2:05 marathon as for an Iowan trying for a sub-5-hour marathon?
To be facetious, the Kenyans do not need any advice. A study we have completed with a group of elite runners in Eldoret, Kenya and which is currently in review, shows that they drink very little during both training and racing. Under all conditions, they drink according to their thirst and it seems that they must have a high thirst threshold since they drink so little (ie they must be able to protect their serum osmolalities very well despite large losses of body water). Their approach fits nicely with the evolutionary hypothesis that the best hunters were likely those with the highest thirst thresholds and who had a lesser need to drink during exercise.
Of course the usual answer from the advocates of the “drink as much as tolerable” school is: “Imagine how much faster the Kenyans would run marathons if only they forced themselves to drink more!” I have spoken to our very best South African (2:07) marathon runners and they are all of the same opinion – it is not possible for them to drink more than about 200-400ml per hour (7-14 oz per hour) when running at 3 minutes a kilometer; nor do they feel the urge to drink more; nor do they see that drinking more would be of any advantage. One such runner told me that as he loses weight during the marathon, he feels lighter and faster.
I would guess that a 5 hour marathoner sweats at a rate of about 300-400ml per hour (about 10-14 oz per hour) and would not likely drink less than that since he or she run so slowly, each has so much time to drink. In addition these slow runners have usually been advised that the fatigue they feel can be prevented by drinking more. Rather, in my opinion, they would probably benefit by being told that they need to be careful how much they drink during exercise.
In summary, then, the advice to the best and the slowest is exactly the same. Drink to thirst and you will optimize your performance. This conclusion that drinking according to the dictates of thirst optimizes performance is also supported by all the published literature (see my recent article in Journal of Sports Sciences and my debate with Dr Mike Sawka to be published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in the next few months).
3. Mid-race diagnostics for the detection of hyponatremia.
Again, if you follow the advice of drinking only according to the dictates of thirst you cannot become hyponatremic unless your concept of thirst has been modified by all the information given to athletes so that you actually drink in excess of thirst.
So if you are drinking according to your real thirst and you feel lousy mid-way through a race, it will not be because you are hyponatremic. Nor, incidentally, will it be because you are “dehydrated”. Something else will be wrong (perhaps you did not prepare properly; or you went too fast in the first half of the race; or you are ill).
If you have been drinking in excess of thirst and you think you are hyponatremic, there will usually be corollary evidence to support your diagnosis.
First you will probably admit that you have been drinking in excess of thirst.
Second, you will probably feel bloated and may even hear the sloshing of fluid in your intestines. This may also cause you to feel nauseous. You may vomit clear fluid. The latter is a very strong indicator that the rate at which you are drinking exceeds the capacity of your intestines to absorb that fluid. This will usually mean that you have been drinking well in excess of 1000ml (36oz) per hour.
Third you may notice that your watch strap or ring or race bracelet has become tighter.
Fourth, you will notice that your level of consciousness is altered and that you have difficulty concentrating.
If any of these develop, stop drinking until these symptoms and signs disappear (which will likely take some hours since your fluid overload at this stage would likely be at least 2000ml (72oz)).
B. If you are hyponatremic and you stop drinking the condition will reverse itself.
The problem is that once the brain starts to swell significantly as a result of this accumulated fluid overload in someone who continues to ingest fluid at a high rate (or who receives intravenous fluids as treatment for an erroneously diagnosed “dehydration”), brain symptoms may advance rapidly so that the athlete may go from being mildly confused to developing seizures and becoming unconscious quite suddenly (within minutes) with the risk that the athlete may stop breathing.
We advocate the use of slow (at rates of approximately 100ml per hour) intravenous infusions of high salt (3-5% sodium) concentrations once brain symptoms are present. Such infusions can produce miraculous recoveries in some confused hyponatremic athletes whose confusion can be reversed, as if by miracle, within 5-10 minutes.
To summarize: The rules of drinking that we advocate are the following:
Drink if you are thirsty.
Do not drink if you are not thirsty,
Avoid all out racing efforts when the environmental conditions are severe, especially when it is both hot and humid. If you must race in such conditions, then you need to modify your behavior by going slower. This reduces your rate of energy expenditure and reduces the likelihood that you will overheat during exercise.
Finally understand that the most accurate measure of the efficacy of your drinking regime (other than your thirst) is provided by measuring changes in your blood osmolality (not in your body weight).
These are the guidelines that we advocate in most running and triathlon races in South Africa. Last Sunday approximately 9000 (I cannot find the exact number) athletes ran in the 56 mile Comrades Marathon in times ranging from 5hrs20 minutes to 12 hours in temperatures rising to about 26 degrees C. There was not one case of exercise-associated hyponatremia treated in the medical tent at the end of the race (even though there were 45 drinking tables on the course). A total of 150 athletes were treated in the medical tent, none was seriously ill and another 27 were treated in local hospitals with 8 still in hospital 12 hours later (diagnoses not known to me at this time). There were two deaths, neither related to abnormalities in fluid balance during exercise. I am not sure that this proves anything other than to show that it is possible to have athletes exercise for up to 12 hours without there being an epidemic of cases of exercise-associated hyponatremia (or the converse) simply by teaching them to "drink to thirst"."
Hi Danksta,
war klasse dich mal kennezulernen,
wir sehen uns im Allgäu, ich mach da aber nur ein lockeres Sight-Seeing
draus, jetzt habe ich endlich mal die Gelegenheit, mir mal
in Ruhe die Gegend anzuschauen bei den bisherigen
10-11 Teilnahmen war immer so eine Hektik....