potassium requirements for summer running

Should be "supplements."

Portabello mushrooms and bananas. Supplements have weird issues...

I'm usually dehydrated and sweat a ton. So I started drinking a Nuun tablet with water every day and I'm not certain but I'm pretty sure it's helping me retain water and stay more hydrated. I'm using the All Day version which has a bunch of vitamins.

Banana smoothies, frozen bananas, banana oatmeal cookies, banana bread

Buy the salt substitute No Salt and shake on food. Tastes mostly like table salt but in reality is potassium chloride. It's marketed to people with hypertension who need to avoid sodium.

Potassium is not what you need to be worried about. I had frequent cramping and both the team doctor and nutritionist told me potassium had little to nothing to do with it. Only sodium.

I added zinc, magnesium, and calcium because those got sweat out. also, year-round I would add a gatorlytes packet to my daily gatorade. I had 2 a day when it was summer. I actually felt better on my runs and stopped cramping after that. Sodium has a bad rap and it's stupid. You don't have to worry about your blood pressure. I only run 30mpw now but still easily double to FDA recommendations and my BP is 90/60. I live in Miami so I do end up sweating A LOT. YMMV.

source: I ran at an SEC school in undergrad back in the day.

KudzuRunner wrote:

What are the signs of potassium deficit--not as described in the literature, but as you've actually experienced them?

When we have leg cramps, how do we know it's potassium (or other electrolyte) deficit, and not something else?

I haven't been cramping, just underperforming in my workouts. My chiro suggested that I think about potassium. Since I literally had never thought about potassium--and I'm a guy who thinks about every other nutritional consideration--it....well, it got me to thinking.

I like the No Salt idea.

I bought some potassium gluconate supplements, but they deliver 99 mg of potassium and that's 3% of your RDA. Bananas pack a lot more than that.

Basically I'm starting by making a series of tweaks in my diet. Bananas with my granola instead of blueberries; more OJ; dried apricots; Gatorade. These are all foods that HAVE been a part of my diet at various past moments but that I've drifted away from. I'll re-add those things, take one supplement.

The other obvious tweak is to get down at least 16 ounces of water before summer runs. I'd drifted away from that, too, trusting to the water I'd cached by the side of the road, but the pre-run guzzle, which I tried this morning and which helped my 11-miler, will be a part of my summer mix.

The consensus view on nutrition websites seems to be that a wide-ranging diet of natural foods, which is pretty much what I eat, delivers potassium from many sources. The RDA of 4700 mg. is pretty high, and an endurance athlete in summertime surely goes through more than that. The first step is simply thinking about such things, then tweaking as needed. I haven't had any cramping problem, so perhaps potassium isn't what's lacking at all. Maybe it's all dehydration.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Lhotse face wrote:

Banana smoothies, frozen bananas, banana oatmeal cookies, banana bread

Bananas are overrated when it comes to potassium. Or perhaps it is better to say that other foods are underrated.

The following are all EXCELLENT sources of potassium (many of them better than bananas)

avocados

salmon (many other fish as well)

plain yogurt

beans (of many varieties)

spinach (and other leafy greens)

potatoes

apricots

sweet potatoes

tomato sauce

carrot juice

prunes

orange juice

see if you can get a CBC (complete blood count) done and let your chiro look at it. might help to see exactly what you're lacking

POTASIUM news! Check your favorite news outlet.

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS

V-8 is the nectar of the gods after a hot humid run. Check out the label. More salt and potassium in that little can than any drink on the planet.

coconut water is also a great source of potassium but gotta be a flavored one.