From time-to-time I suffer from poor performances that invariably seem to be linked to lack of salts. Sometimes it manifests itself in cramp but I don’t always get to that point before I realise that I need a bit of salt.
I’ve often resorted to adding random amounts of table salt (NaCl) to my daily orange squash drinks and, no, I haven’t told my doctor I do that 😉
With some HOT and LONG races coming up soon then my concern level around this issue has increased.
High5 and others sell salt tablets. I have a High5 Zero Xtreme Caffeine Berry Flavour tab in front of me. It contains 200mg of sodium amongst other stuff like Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium (all of which apparently help too)
My Lucozade Sport, again sitting in front of me, contains 630mg of ‘salt’ (whatever that means…I guess Sodium Chloride). I could drink two of those in an hour but would struggle to maintain that consumption rate over a HIM, let alone over a 100 mile bike ride.
So I went to my local chemists and sports store in search of salt. Cutting a long story short, the High5 tabs seemed to be the best generally available option. but even at 200mg I reckon that might not be enough for me and so could well end up taking quite a lot of them over 100 miles.
Which finally leads to the question. How much ‘salt’ do I need? how much ‘salt’ do you need? Sadly it’s an “It Depends” answer.
Precision Hydration have a quick questionnaire to guesstimate how much YOU might need over certain race distances and produce a free plan. In the eventuality that you need high salts consumption then they have 1500mg tab options. That’s 7 of the High5 tablets for one dose during a race and I probably need more than one dose for a HIM.
Take the test and get the plan here (link to: precisionhydration.com )
I took the test and DO require high amounts of salts. VERY much more than what the regular tabs and drinks can provide. 1500mg tabs are on the way.
I looked at this a couple of years ago and here is an old post of mine. You can also save.
link to: precisionhydration.com
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When I go on long bike rides (30+miles) I take two full bottles of Coconut Water. I know there will be people that do not care for the taste, even I didn’t at first, but it really does the job for optimizing electrolytes and has a hefty dose of potassium per 8 fl oz serving.
I also get hung up on supplements of any kind that process a bunch of odd-end chemicals in with the product, which I why I gravitated to coconut water in this case. When I started (well, re-started) getting healthy I was using BSN for my supplements, and I would feel gross afterward. Then I started to read the list of ingredients and got even more grossed-out with all the dyes and weird crap they were putting into it.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ever look into these types of things, especially if you need it, just have a keen eye for what the hell you’re putting into your body.
Hi. This looks like what I need. Your discount code doesn’t work in the your review. Is there a new one? I’ll buy them anyway.
code: tfk15
should work NOW.
Thanks!