Resources
Here are a list of resources on a variety of nutrition and training topics. For more, see the facebook site.
Food Log/Diary
H2Open Swimming Magazine Articles:
Edinburgh Marathon Hydration:
It’s looking like it’s going to be a hot one at the Edinburgh marathon this year and the advice from some has been to ‘drink more water’. Below is some essential advice for people who are running this weekend, but this also applies to any endurance sport performed over the summer in unusually hot weather. After this is also a PDF of an article I wrote for H2Open Magazine which gives more details about the dangers of over-drinking. Any questions get in touch.
The problem: Odd as it sounds the message to ‘Drink more water’ in the heat is in actual fact potentially dangerous to performance and health. This is because when you sweat you lose both fluid and salts (the electrolytes – sodium, potassium magnesium) and so both of this need to be replaced
What to look out for: The Symptoms are very similar to dehydration and include, dizziness, nausea, headaches and cramps, but will come after drinking a lot of just water rather than not enough of anything. Seek medical attention and drink only drinks containing electrolytes until your urine colour is back to normal.
Who’s at risk: Slower runners are particularly vulnerable as they will be exposed to the hot conditions and sweating for longer than quicker runners.
What should you drink? An ISOTONIC sports drink containing salts (particularly sodium). Run with one or two bottles and get someone to pass more to you while you are out on the course if you need to. Don’t buy drinks labelled ‘ENERGY DRINKS’ as these have too much sugar and not enough electrolytes.
How much Should you drink: There is a real debate amongst experts as to whether you should drink ‘When you’re thirsty’- regardless of how much this is – or whether you should avoid losing more than 2% of your body weight from sweating (easily achievable in about an hour of intense exercise for a 70KG man) by consuming about 200mls every 15-20mins. Drinking a sports drink and hour in hot conditions or more if you feel thirsty should make sure that you don’t over or under drink and don’t gulp this down, drink little and often.
Other info: Edinburgh marathon website, the Runners Medical Resource website, my Facebook site Joel Enoch – Sport Scientist and the following PDF
Click this link for an article that I wrote for H2Open Magazine on over drinking.