Sunday, June 15, 2008

Water Loss

Here's a question from Runners World this month: During a race, should I drink at every water station?

The answer is; it depends on your weight. They suggest testing how much you need by going on a 60 minute run. Weigh yourself before and after. The amount of weight lost equals how much fluid you typically need per hour.

So, I figured I'd give the test a shot. I got up this morning, ate a bit, hopped on the scale and logged 191 pounds. Cool. Then, I ran for exactly 60 minutes. Now, it's getting warm in Kansas City, but it's not too bad in the morning. It was 71 when I left the house and almost 80 when I got back home.

I took off my soggy clothes, hopped on the scale...185. Geez. 6 pounds in an hour? I should write a book.

If you assume 1 lb = 16 fl oz (it's actually 1 oz = 0.96 fl oz, but whatever) you'll discover that I managed to sweat off 96 oz of water. That's 3/4 of a gallon. That's a lot of water.

No way I can do that much water per hour at a race.

2 comments:

Clara said...

That's very interesting. I want to try that experiment now.

Did you drink any water during that one hour run? If you said by their standard that you should have drank 96 oz of water, you should go out for another run at the same time with similar temps and drink that amount of water....then weigh yourself. See if they equal out.

I think I would puke if I drank that much every single hour- especially if you're eating too. Your stomach would get too full.

Unknown said...

It said not to drink anything during the run, so I didn't.

I really don't think it's possible to drink 96oz of water in an hour while running. I'm sure I'd puke, then I'd probably be worse off.

I did drink 32oz of water (sports drink, actually) right after weighing myself and I was back up to like 188. Which makes sense.