Triathlon is one of the hardest endurance sports. What keeps the triathlon athlete going those long and hard hours in spite of the heat is a totally nutritioned and hydrated body. All endurance sports whether swimming, running, cycling, triathlon, mountain biking, rowing, cross-country skiing, mountaineering or trekking require excellent hydration with proper nutrition. Improper nutrition and hydration can cause fatigue and poor performance.
Preparing for an endurance sport involves adequate nutrition, including proteins for the muscles and carbohydrates for the energy, for the physical activity involved plus proper hydration. Athletes and trainers of endurance sports suggest proper hydration is one of the main factors. This involves pre-hydration of the event, hydration during the event and thorough hydration after the event to recover.
Water is one of the most important components for the body to survive. Scientifically controlled studies show that humans can live for a month without eating but can only survive without water for three to seven days. The body is made up of fifty to seventy percent water and keeping the body hydrated keeps the cells working right. People with diarrhea die not because of the diarrhea but by the dehydration caused by the diarrhea. Drinking plenty of water and hydrating the body before the actual performance can give the athlete a head start for the performance.
Once the endurance test has begun, the athlete must hydrate regularly during the game. Endurance sport athletes generally sweat off about two quarts of water an hour in humid, hot weather. This is why it is important for the athlete to drink a minimum of four to eight ounces of water or a sport drink each twenty minutes. It may be wise to set an alarm timer each twenty minutes during a twenty-four hour period to get used to this and to remind the athlete that its drink time. Freezing the drinking bottles and packing them with insulation will keep the water cool. The athletes are not aware of the quantity of water that has been lost and it is usually much more than they are aware of. Always carry more water than you can drink. Downing them each twenty minutes will very quickly dwindle the supply.
The question remains whether water is better than sports drinks or vice versa for endurance sports. Most research conclude that endurance sports athletes participating under gruelingly hot and humid conditions, hydrated with only water, recovered only fifty to seventy-five percent of the fluid loss. Those athletes hydrated with sports drinks, hydrated almost the full one-hundred percent. The body loses salts in the sweat and salts are electrolytes including magnesium, sodium and potassium which help retain body fluid for the proper body function. Loss of electrolytes can cause extreme exhaustion, irregular heartbeat, dizziness and muscle cramps and in extreme situations even death.
Hydrating the body and maintaining it hydrated during the sport is the most important factor in endurance sports. It is preferable to use a sport drink for hydration during the actual sport event as it is a better source for the electrolytes lost. So remember, for all endurance sports hydrate before, during and after the sport for optimum performance.
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Ed Note: We are very happy to welcome Anne Guzman to the Toolbox crew. Besides being Canadian (eh?), Anne is a registered holistic and sports nutritionist with a degree in kinesiology. She also backs up this knowledge with experience as a professional road racer from 2007-2011.
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In the ever-changing world of food and nutrition, popular trends have a way of coming and going. Some, such as the recommendation to eat fish for heart health, seem to have staying power; others, such as taking antioxidant supplements for cancer prevention, fade away. So, what nutrition trends did we see emerge in 2011? Here is but a sampling.
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