"There's an old expression you've probably heard a countless times… "you are what you eat." While this may be true, ultra athletes see the other side. 60% of a person's body weight is water therefore "You are what you drink". Water serves two critical functions:
- Since water makes up most of our blood volume, it's an "energy supply line" that delivers oxygen to the muscles to allow them to do their essential work.
- At the same time, water is the body's cooling system - sort of human radiator. When you exercise, you generate heat - literally 8 to 10 times what you do at rest. Blood conducts the heat to the skin which, in turn, makes you flush and dissipates the heat. When this process is not enough, you perspire and are cooled off by evaporating sweat.
Properly hydrated, you feel great, perform at your peak, and speed your recovery for you next activity. The problem comes when the body doesn't have enough water to perform all these functions. You can easily loose two quarts of water per hour in hot weather by exercising. When you do, the blood volume diminishes and the body struggles to supply oxygen to muscles. You feel weaker and start to experience headaches, cramps and nausea. In fact, dehydration is a key factor in "bonking" or "hitting the wall".
By the time you're thirsty it's too late. The body has to do something, and what it does is shut down the sweating mechanism. The body's temperature starts climbing rapidly, and you begin to experience heat exhaustion and heatstroke, the latter of which can be fatal. So what should you do? It's simple. Make sure you don't run out of water, and keep drinking. Drink before, after, and most of all drink during the run. Medical and training experts advise drinking at least 8 oz every 15-20 minutes during exercise. Don't wait till you're thirst-by then it's too late and you're becoming dehydrated."
http://www.ultrunr.com/hydrate.html
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