Dehydration/feeling knackered the next day- where am I going wrong?

Ok. Sunday morning I had two pints of water. Pasta with salt, in my 3lt camelbak I had orange juice, a hydration tablet (not sure of the name but came in a small bottle/blue text). I also drank water afterwards.

The ride was from 9am to 2pm. I fell asleep at 7pm. I still feel shattered now.

Help.

How much did you eat?

Ditch the added salt that you DONT need, and the hydration tablet thing for starters.

Balanced diet? Heat stroke?

One off?

Pasta (chopped olives/garlic in), abit of pesto.

Quite abit of espresso first thing.

About 12 I had a pie at Fairholmes.

A shit load of espresso.

That could be the problem.

cat funt?

Orange juice is not good for hydration is it?

Quite abit of espresso first thing.

plus extra salt, plus riding in the heat

if it was a road ride that long i’d want to be eating all the way along too – assuming you’re putting some effort in that might be a good idea. dried fruit/nuts etc.

i assume you’re eating something substantial afterwards too?

You had the Pasta for breakfast? Why not try porridge with honey and bannana instead, I’m not a big fan, but a mate suggested I try it and it made a huge difference to me.

Coffee will have completley dehyrdated you unless it was decaff?

If thats all I ate in a day I wouldnt be able to function at all.

It was a very hot day.
You are very unfit
Question answered in full.

Coffee has very little dehydrating effect

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22178/46361-coffee-makes-dehydrated-say-what

Ditch the added salt that you DONT need, and the hydration tablet thing for starters.

🙄

unfit

monksie 😆

Thanks for the link and I’ll try porridge/honey/banana and graze on raisins etc.

I have three heaped tablespoons of Lavazza in a cafetiere when I get up… 😯

Hora – i have similar before riding (coffe) if not more. Just make sure you have a glass of water for each cup of coffee you have. I also dring a 500ml bottle of water 20mins before riding.
2L of water during 4hrs of riding and a big drink of milk straight after finishing (this is on a HOT DAY like yesterday)

Phil you dont need added salt, the avg UK diet overdoses on it so you have more than you need before your start. If you read alot of the proper research its only people at extremes of physical activity that need added salt, not just punting out on the bike for 5 hours…

The hydration tablet thing, well me I’d prefer to make sure my body is naturally hydrated and drink plenty of water, that way I might not feel sh!t the next day.

…also, try to keep caffeine intake on a par with your usual.

Unless you are trying to wean yourself off. People often have caffeine withdrawal issues over the weekend.

Plenty, plenty, plenty of fluid. Salt additive not really needed for someone like yourself.

Oh, and Monksie +1 (like the rest of us)

Cheers 🙂

On a bigger ride like that I’d have taken a couple of litres of energy drink (I prefer the SIS stuff) or better still an electrolyte replacement drink. I’d also have eaten more food whilst riding.

If I remember I also have a recovery type drink when I get back. Water on it’s own doesn’t replace the salts (not salt) you lose when sweating.

I’d also be knackered though after 5 hours of riding in yesterday’s sunshine.

I also drank water afterwards

Try fast absorbed carbs after a long ride – it really helps. Recovery drink is good but more expensive. Torq recovery is the best and MOST expensive imo 🙂 Worth a try for next time.

I’ve found electrolyte drink helpful in avoiding the killer thirst, but that seems to contradict what some have said up there.

But it could be a one off. Nursing a cold or some other infection that you don’t yet know about; poor nutrition that week; being less fit than you thought; etc etc.

stumpyjon – Member

On a bigger ride like that I’d have taken a couple of litres of energy drink (I prefer the SIS stuff) or better still an electrolyte replacement drink. I’d also have eaten more food whilst riding.

If I remember I also have a recovery type drink when I get back. Water on it’s own doesn’t replace the salts (not salt) you lose when sweating.

I’d also be knackered though after 5 hours of riding in yesterday’s sunshine.

Any recommendation for the salts/electrolyte replacement? Feel absolutely zonked out after a few hours at the weekend, think it’s down to the heat/sweating more than anything.

Maybe it was something to do with the pie, peas and gravy you had at lunch.

you dont need added salt, the avg UK diet overdoses on it so you have more than you need before your start.

Having “more than you need before your start” may be true but it’s not going to aid the absorption of the water you are drinking, which is the primary function of salt/hydration tablets added to water.

If you read alot of the proper research its only people at extremes of physical activity that need added salt, not just punting out on the bike for 5 hours

It’s regarded that anything longer than 40 minutes you should not drink pure water. (from the BAF) And unless your “punting about on a bike” is cruising the local canal path then that applies to you.

The hydration tablet thing, well me I’d prefer to make sure my body is naturally hydrated and drink plenty of water, that way I might not feel sh!t the next day

As before 🙄

What did you have the night before?

I have porridge for breaky and just have water in the camel bak but have bars and a sandwich with me if riding all day! What kind of pace are you riding at?!

Probably good to replenish the salts you’ve lost during the sweating too. Not just table salt I’m talking about either.

Hora – is this just a one off or regular occurance?

Ok in extremes of temperature your body uses more energy so you need more food and more fluids. Ideally at least 1 litre per hour but that’s not always possible. Fluids before and after are good, added salt isn’t necessary, hydration tablets and such may benefit but for average Joe not massive benefit. Yesterday was very hot spending along time in the sun can effect you and even more so during exercise.

So to conclude, you didn’t eat enough, you possibly didn’t drink enough, it was very hot and your unfit. So a normal response.

I’ve been amazed just how much water I must sweat out.!!!
Here’s a little story:
Last Autumn I was probably a bit fitter than now, so didn’t take much persuading to go for a day riding in the Lakes with a friend (who’s stupidly fit and 20 years my junior).
I sweat like a pig all day when riding anyway, but this was just constant effort and I was feeling it! Probably not nore than 35 miles but loads of ascent in maybe 6 hours of riding.

I’d weighed myself when I got out of bed before the ride.
I had porridge, juice and coffee; 3 litres of water/energy drink mixed 50/50 in the pack; butties and jellybabies; pint of coke in the pub after; Indian takeaway and a few pints of water for tea; back on the scales again at the end of the day….and I’d lost 5 lbs!!!
Suffered headaches that evening/night and felt decidedly “off-colour”.
I can only put that down to dehydration.

Difficult to get enough water in to replace what’s lost sometimes.

EDIT – I did start to feel similar yesterday night after a 30 miler in the heat but nothing like the same severity, oh and yesterday I put weight on over the day, which is more normal. – EDIT

I did 84 miles of the SDW on Saturday, 40 miles more than I’ve ridden before, 10 hours cycling, a train journey back to Brighton then another 7 mile ride home followed by a quick shower and straight out the door to go out for the evening. I put being able to do that down to malt loaf, oat cakes and Nuun tablets which I was using for the first time and I was really impressed with them. Felt pretty good all day and good the next day, whereas normally I’d be thirsty but water never really seemed to quench my thirst. I shall be using them from now on for anything longer than a couple of hours.

As others have said, caffeine has minimal impact when you’re cycling in the heat as you’re going to sweat more than the diuretic effect of the coffee. On the road bike in the heat I have one 500ml bottle of water+electrolyte replacement and one 750ml of plain water (this gets topped up when I pass places where I can). I’ll also usually have a little something to eat once an hour roughly; either a cereal bar or nuts or something.

Most important things for me are to keep drinking the plain water and every third time I go for a bottle, drink the electrolyte replacement.

I usually eat 2hours before a ride and sparingly (normally nick odd bits of food off of others) whilst I’m on it (or eat my own if I bring anything but always eat it when its too late).

Thats my weakness in general. Fitness? Its a vicious circle (see above) However I know I’m lacking on energy more than fitness.

folk saying you don’t need salt seems weird.. maybe the day before i had too much salty food but not any more, most of it is now in my stinky clothes.

i definitely need salt in some form on a long ride

On salt. I remember when I used it ‘normally’ on my food probably every evening at teatime and post-Summer riding my riding tops used to be salt-lined/caked.

Now after a hot ride they don’t ‘salt up.

how little salt do you eat?

Normally? I add zero/use none at all. Only whats already present in the food I eat.

I always thought a certain amount of processed food in your diet has enough (I know theres enough Iron in processed etc isn’t there?).

Might be that’s not quite enough depending on what you’re eating I guess.

Do you eat enough protein? I certainly realise now that I didnt for a long time.

I eat alot more veg than meat nowadays. Tend to eat chic peas, pasta, Brocolli, chicken, home made curry, Paella, etc.

folk saying you don’t need salt seems weird.. maybe the day before i had too much salty food but not any more, most of it is now in my stinky clothes.
i definitely need salt in some form on a long ride

Additional salt is what was said a lot of food contains salt anyway which is often enough. You can have additional based on the food for example a bacon sarnie. Could be that Hora is not adding any salt during cooking so adding some into a food before a ride helps. If I do a big ride in the heat I’ll crave salt on my food.

I’ve loaded on a fair bit of water sometimes and during a ride I can feel slightly ‘not with it’/distant.

I bet thats water washing out essential salts (approaching hyponatremia?)..

Sheesh I feel like a hypochondriac reading the above..