Chronic Dehydration?

I used the myfitnesspal app for extended periods in the past, particularly when I was trying to lose weight - that is how I have a pretty good handle on the caloric allocation of my macronutrients. I could never get enough potassium, but was generally petty good on everything else.

Try some lunge walks before taking off on a run. Have found these to be a simple (usually only takes a minute or two) but very effective warm up exercise.

Chronometer is better because it doesn't rely on user input and you can track micro-nutrients better. I used myfitnesspal for a long time, but was frustrated because so many entries were just plain wrong. The user generated MFP database is terrible. It is okay for calorie counting and maybe macros (i.e., fat, carbs, protein), but not useful for nutrient tracking.

Adding a small pinch of pink Himalayan sea salt to your water can help with absorption throughout the day. Thinking like 1/16 tsp/liter of water. Along with salt, it packs in other trace minerals that can be hard to get.

There's an enormous amount of sugar in chocolate milk, which includes galactose--maybe something we need since it is a form of lactose that we get from nursing as babies. The sugar is something like 880 calories worth per quart. One or both are why I find it extraordinarily effective when I get dehydration headaches, and to prevent them.

More potato chips--bad for the fat and weight but great for the salt to make up for all that sweating.

Salt and sugar are the key problems, over and above fluids, of sweating like crazy running in Florida, even in an atypically warm February.

With the calves, try deep squats, which will strengthen the quads and help take strain away from the calves. Calf injuries radically decrease your power and willingness to push hard and they are unbelievably difficult to get away from. Dehydration leads to calf injuries most springs for guys over 40. One thing to help a lot is during the night, when your legs are tight from workouts and dehydration from hotter/more humid weather, resist the urge to just yawn and stretch out your arms and tighten your legs: FIRST, bend your knees, then do that. If you keep your legs straight, the strain goes right into the calves and you start getting calf injuries. (Also, DO NOT bend your back while you do this; that will give you back pain).

Lunges are probably useful as well, and I do a lot of step ups and so on, but I have never conquered this problem consistently for more than a year.

Right, also you want to drink water quickly after your run, before sleep and upon waking, but drink more limited quantities at other times, e.g. 4 oz. at a time but more frequently. Otherwise, the body sheds water and electrolytes if you drink too fast.

A good registered dietitian who works with athletes can get you through this. They will be able to figure out your sweat rate and come up with a plan to load you up on electrolytes. There are pro athletes that have this issue. They have to eat salted ham and drink pickle juice before games. Also, a RD will help you figure out whether it really is a hydration issue or something else. Novak Djokovich struggled with cramping and muscle fatigue. It turned out he had problems tolerating gluten. But trial and error will be a very frustrating approach. Everyone I know who had this problem needed professional intervention to get past it.

Smoove wrote:

I know that I sweat a ridiculous amount, even by Florida standards. I dropped 3 lbs of water weight on a 6 mile run tonight (81 degrees) and dropped over 8 pounds of fluids on the 20 miler that I cramped after (72 degrees).

Have you had your sweat composition lab-tested? Might be good to get some actual electrolyte numbers to think about.

Precious Roy wrote:

A good registered dietitian who works with athletes can get you through this. They will be able to figure out your sweat rate and come up with a plan to load you up on electrolytes. There are pro athletes that have this issue. They have to eat salted ham and drink pickle juice before games. Also, a RD will help you figure out whether it really is a hydration issue or something else. Novak Djokovich struggled with cramping and muscle fatigue. It turned out he had problems tolerating gluten. But trial and error will be a very frustrating approach. Everyone I know who had this problem needed professional intervention to get past it.

Yup, just plain old gluten was all that boy was on.

FightFor15 wrote:

Have you tried any anti-cramp products like Hot Shot or Hyland's? Even just for the placebo effect taking one of these before races/workouts might be beneficial.

I was having some leg cramping a few weeks back and did some blood testing. Ended up having low vitamin d. Worth checking your electrolytes, iron, key vitamins, etc., if you haven't checked levels in a while.

This has turned into a long thread. I noticed you responding to some others but did you catch this one? Why not do some blood testing and see if it's something simple before really digging into some of the other ideas?

I have blood work done every year as part of my annual physical, so I didn't focus on this, especially since I had my blood work done about a week or two before my first cramping incident in my lead up to Boston last year.

But I did just have blood drawn this morning as part of my physical, and asked the doc to add a more detailed electrolyte panel to the test, so we will see what happens.

As mentioned above. Potatoes are great runner food. Good starchy Carbs, Low in Fat, and high in nutrients (Have to eat skin on). this is one reason boiled taters with salt is offered in Ultra's

Loaded with Potassium and Vit C and B6.

Amount Per 1 Potato medium (2-1/4" to 3-1/4" dia) (213 g)

Calories 163

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 0.2 g 0%

Saturated fat 0.1 g 0%

Polyunsaturated fat 0.1 g

Monounsaturated fat 0 g

Cholesterol 0 mg 0%

Sodium 13 mg 0%

Potassium 897 mg 25%

Total Carbohydrate 37 g 12%

Dietary fiber 4.7 g 18%

Sugar 1.7 g

Protein 4.3 g 8%

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 70%

Calcium 2% Iron 9%

Vitamin D 0% Vitamin B-6 30%

Vitamin B-12 0% Magnesium 12%

Smoove wrote:

I would attribute it to muscle fatigue but for the fact that it happened in my upper body muscles at the end of my taper and before race day.

So my questions are, does anyone else sweat as much as I do (over 5% of my body weight at times)? Does anyone have any ideas as to what else I can do beyond salt tablets and Pedialyte and cutting back my alcohol consumption to minimize the risk of dehydration and electrolyte depletion?

Smoove, does the marathon taper make you frisky? Do you and the old gal go at it a bit harder? Something is making your whole body tired. What extra curricular are you doing in that taper?

Have you tried COQ10? I recommend reading up on its role with mitochondria, ATP, and muscle function.

Nothing major to add here. But I'm a huge sweater, and in the midwest summers it can be super tough to stay hydrated. My favorite thing has been Tailwind energy drink. For whatever reason, their blend of sugars and salts just works really, really well for me. I know you mentioned tablets and pedialyte and things like that, but it could be worth trying some slightly different electrolyte formulas to see if they are any better for you.

Blood test results didn't show anything interesting with respect to electrolytes. Sodium and chloride were on the low side of normal. Potassium wand magnesium were slightly toward higher end of normal. I cannot imagine what sodium and chloride would look like butbfor the liter per day of specialized electrolyte drinks.

Unrelated, but interesting (to me), my hemoglobin and hematocrit were on the lower side of the normal range. I would have guessed that even as a lowlander, as a fairly well trained runner, they'd be on the higher end of the normal range.

Maybe sodium and chloride would be higher if you didn't drink so much water. I'm still given the impression that you overdrink.

http://www.irunfar.com/2012/07/waterlogged-a-dogma-shattering-book.html

Yes, hematocrit should be more on the lower end of normal as a well trained runner.

Have you found a solution to your problems? Do you have any GI issues?