Hydration on longer rides

C-S-B

Ive heard that you should be drinking a 750ml bottle every hour, but Ive only got 2 bottle cages on my bike - ie I can only take 2 (750ml) water bottles. What do you do to take more when doing rides longer than 2 hours?

I cycle in very rural areas, so there arent many - if any - shops on my usual routes..

Alex_Simmons/RST

Staying hydrated is good advice. Weigh yourself before and after a ride to see how much you've lost. Each kg = 1 litre of fluid. That would be an approximation of how much extra fluid you need to consume on a similar ride.

Obviously we need more the hotter it gets but it can be easy to not drink enough when it's cool.

You may need to consider a way to carry extra with you if there are no places to stop and fill up. Bidon cages behind the seat or something you can carry on your back or larger/taller bidons if they'll fit.

Cajun

Don't be shy to stop at a home and ask permission to refill.... we do it whenever there aren't any options. We've never been refused and always greeted with a smile; be your courteous and thankful self and they'll have a new convesation piece for the neighbors about...."a bunch of bikers with spandex pants stopped........"
The only bad thing, is sometimes, the homeowner wants to talk about your bikes, distance riding, etc.....this can get into a longggggg conversation; much longer than you want, and it's hard to be rude ("gotta go") and thankful at the same time
On the average, we plan our ride so as to have available water & convenience stops along the way....NO fun riding dehydrated; especially with leg cramps
(sometimes when asked how far we're riding, I like to tell them that we started at "X" (a location about 40 mile away), and we're going to ride to "Y" (another 30 miles) then back to "X"...you should see the looks we get when they mentally calculate a '140- 150 mile Saturday morning ride'... Priceless 8)

BeaconRuth

C-S-B wrote:

Ive heard that you should be drinking a 750ml bottle every hour..........

I think the first thing you've got to do is to ask yourself whether this number you've heard should be taken as gospel. Yes, sure, it's quite possible for an average-size person to sweat-away a litre of body fluids in an hour. But under what conditions? How vigorous is the exercise, how well cooled is the person and how much do they tend to sweat? I should think an hour's very vigorous aerobics in a hot gym by a large, sweaty bloke, and they could easily need 750ml per hour. Contrast that with a lightweight female cyclist riding a bike at a steady touring pace in freezing temperatures which is my current situation.................. it's simply not true that I need to drink 750ml every hour.

So, the question is, are you a big sweaty bloke riding very hard in very hot conditions for hours on end?

The other point is that your performance won't tail off so very drastically if you fail to replace up to 20% of the sweat lost. For most of us on our day to day training and leisure rides, I think a very minor deterioration in performance is not a huge issue as long as we rehydrate fully when we get home.

Ruth

Doobz

LOL @ Cajuns

"a bunch of bikers with spandex pants stopped........

True so True -


Copied this from cobr.co.uk so hopefully some will find it usefull

Although water does not provide caloric energy, adequate hydration is at least as important to athletic performance as the food you eat. One of the biggest mistakes of many competitive athletes is failing to replace fluid losses associated with exercise. This is especially the case in cycling as rapid skin evaporation decreases the sense of perspiring and imparts a false sense of only minimal fluid loss when sweat production and loss through the lungs can easily exceed 4 pints per hour. For a successful ride, it is essential that you start off adequately hydrated, begin fluid replacement early, and drink regularly during the ride. In fact, a South African report on two groups of cyclists, one consciously rehydrating, the other not, exercising at 90% of their maximum demonstrated a measurable difference in physical performance as early as 15 minutes into the study.

Total body fluid losses during exercise lead to a diminished plasma volume (the fluid actually circulating within the blood vessels) as well as a lowered muscle water content. As fluid loss progresses, there is a direct effect on physiological function and athletic performance. An un-replaced water loss equal to 2% of base line body weight will impact heat regulation, at 3% there is a measurable effect on muscle cell contraction times, and when fluid loss reaches 4% of body weight there is a measurable 5-10% drop in performance. In addition, one study demonstrated that this performance effect could persist for 4 hours after re-hydration takes place - emphasising the need to anticipate and regularly replace fluid losses. Maintaining plasma volume is one of the hidden keys to optimal physical performance. So make it a point to weigh yourself both before and after the ride - most of your weight loss will be fluid, and 2 pounds is equal to 1 quart. A drop of a pound or two won't impair performance, but a greater drop indicates the need to reassess your on the bike program. And use the post ride period to begin replacement of any excess losses. If you do so, you will be well rewarded the next time out.
But as a word of warning to those who practice the philosophy of "if a little is good, a lot is better", there are also risks with overcorrecting the water losses of exercise. There have been reports of hyponatremia (low blood sodium concentration) with seizures in marathon runners who have over replaced sweat losses (salt and water) with pure water. This risk increases for longer events (more than 5 hours).

Weighing yourself regularly will help you tailor YOUR OWN PERSONAL replacement program. A weight gain of more that 1 or 2 pounds will indicate that you are overcorrecting your water losses and may be placing yourself at risk for this unusual metabolic condition.

Tom Butcher

As Ruth said, 2 bottles should get you through a lot more than 2 hours cycling unless you are racing on a hot Summer day. For a ride of up to 2 hours I would only take one bottle, for a ride of maybe 3 hours then 2 bottles would be enough - further than that then I'd just stop at a shop or garage and buy a drink - and I reckon I probably take on more liquid than most people. We did 75 miles last Sunday at a fair pace and one guy had come out without a bottle - so I drank one 750ml bottle and gave the other to him - he bought a couple of bottles of water, one each - and we were fine.

nasahapley

It doesn't seem to be the done thing for road cyclists, but I always use a Camelbak. I've got a couple anyway for my fell-running antics, the 2l does me for about 3 hours in the summer, the 3l for about 5 or even 6 if I'm not pushing it. Not everyone likes 'em (some people find them quite uncomfortable) but it might be worth considering.

oldwelshman

For individual rides I take one bottle for rides up to 65 miles. On club run one bottle for 90 miles but top it up in cafe stop after about 60 miles.
For races I have two large bottles but sometimes I use both others only one and empty it close to end.
For sportives I always take two, one of them with strong energy drink which gets diluted on each feed station so still has some energy in it at end .

nmcgann

In the summer I use a small Camelbak when it is hot, or 2 x 500ml bottle when cooler. That's on 4h-ish rides.

In the winter I'm doing the same rides on 1 x 500ml bottle and often not drinking it all.

Neil

portuguese mike

another vote for hydration packs. in the summer i can comfortably ride for up to 80 miles at a good pace with a 1.5l pack and 2 x 750ml bottles and i sweat alot.

do follow the advice about working out your own sweat rate though cos most people i know don't sweat as much as me :oops:

PS the hydration packs are also useful for carrying tools, tubes, phone etc leaving your jersey pockets free for snacks and gels

C-S-B

I weigh about 65kgs and usually ride fairly hard for 3-5hrs in pretty chilly conditions
The 2 bottles usually last me the whole ride (I always seem to forget about drinking..) but from what people are saying this is may be enough anyway, considering im not ''a big sweaty bloke riding very hard in very hot conditions for hours on end''

I forgot to do the weighing before and after thing today - hopefully Ill remember tomoro

thanks for the replies so far

chrisw12

I've found the following for myself

upto 2 hrs I can go without a drink. I don't usually do this but I could go two hours if pushed.

Now it gets interesting for three hour rides, I'll probably not drink at all for the first 2 hours but then end up drinking one bottle(750) in the last hour. Like a few people have said I literaly forget to drink, I then pay for it later.

For 5 hour rides a camelback(1.5l) and 750ml of falt coke.

I hate camelbacks but for longer rides I definitely think they are the answer :twisted: as they encourgage you to drink little and often and they allow you to carry enough fluid so that you don't have to stop. Stopping is a sign of weakness and is just wrong, don't do it.

Cajun: I'm notsure if your solution about getting fluid from people's houses applies in this country, I can't think of anywhere where I live, where there's not a garage or a burger van or a shop. It would be interesting if someone could plot a long route in UK that doesn't pass a garage or shop.