Nutrition / Hydration

I’ve created an excel spreadsheet to track my nutrition and hydration during workouts versus weight change and how I felt.

The reason I tracked this for a while was that I was afraid I was drinking too much, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t gaining weight during my workouts. Drinking too much during workouts can lead to hyponatremia (overhydration and a diluting of blood-sodium levels). Here’s a good article on hydration during exercise: http://tinyurl.com/nf28l

Basically, I need alot of water, and the amount varies greatly depending on temp and humidity. In all cases, I just drank according to my thirst. I think I’m doing just fine by trusting my thirst.

Date: 13-Jun
Workout: Long Run
Duration: 2:00
Fluid intake: 49 oz.
Nutrition: 1 egg + english muff 2 hours before, small glass gatorade right before, 1 Hammer gel (only had 1 gel pack left!)
Start Wt: 135.5 pounds
End Wt: 132.5
Temp: 70 deg F
Humidity: 57%
How Feel? felt weak last half hour

Date: 6/15/2006
Workout: tempo pace: Bike/run/bike/run/bike/open water swim/bike (practicing transitions!)
Duration: 2:11
Fluid intake: 63 oz.
Nutrition: ate a bowl of cereal 2 hours before, and 2 fig bars right before, and 2 Gu’s (1 every 45 minutes)
Start Wt: 134.5
End Wt: 133.5
Temp: 74
Humidity: 53%
How Feel? felt great and strong!

Date: 18-Jun-06
Workout: long bike
Duration: 1:37
Fluid intake: 46 oz
Nutrition: bagel 30 minutes before and 2 Gu’s.
Start Wt: 134
End Wt: 132
Temp: 84
Humidity: 46%
How Feel? felt good during workout but a little thirsty… Added 1/4 tsp salt to water to mimic sodium content of gatorade. Blech – it just wasn’t thirst quenching.

Date: 20-Jun-06
Workout: short brick workout
Duration: 0:57
Fluid Intake: 27 oz
Nutrition: raisin bar and omellette. Ate 1 Gu pack in middle of workout.
Start Wt: 134
End Wt: 132.5
Temp: 85
Humidity: 44%
How Felt: felt good and strong. Added just a tiny pinch of salt to my water bottle.

Date: 11-Jul-06
Workout: long run
Duration: 2:15
Fluid Intake: 100 oz.
Nutrition: cereal for breakfast, fig bar before run, 2 Gu’s during, 1 bottle of gatorade after (included in fluid intake)
Start Wt: 137
End Wt: 135
Temp: 85
Humidity: 55%
How Felt: did hill workout in middle of run. Struggled with boredom during long run.

Date: 18-Jul-06
Workout: long run in evening, with hill repeats at end.
Duration: 1:58
Fluid intake: 107 oz.
Nutrtion: can’t remember what I ate before. I had 2 Gu’s during workout.
Start Wt: 136
End Wt: 135
Temp: 91
Humid: 45%
How Felt: felt good, but hot. Got chased by damn wasp! Felt strong even at end for hill workouts 🙂

Date: 20-Jul-06
Workout: brick: bike dvd workout followed by 4.5 mile tempo run.
Duration: 1:45
Fluid intake: 92 oz.
Nutrition: bowl of cereal for breakfast. 1 Gu during workout.
Start Wt: 136
End Wt: 135.5
Temp: 82
Hum: 62%
How Felt: felt strong all the way.