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Home Made Electrolyte Drink

05.24.2013 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

Summer is here. Lately, when I stick my head outdoors in the early morning, the temperature hadn’t dropped below 70 overnight. That can make for some uncomfortable riding. There’s plenty of material online about drinking enough during a ride, and eating, too. Today I want to share a trick I learned last year from another online source.

I just wish I knew who it was whose idea I’m stealing. No doubt one of the many blogs I read. I came across this tip right after I had run out of an electrolyte replenisher that I’d been using regularly, and it seemed like it might work. Here it is:

Fill a water bottle almost to the top with cold water, then add a pinch of salt. There should be enough salt that you can taste it in the water, but not so much that the salty flavor overwhelms you. To cut the taste of the salt, spritz in a generous shot of lemon juice. I use the plastic squeeze bottle juice, but there’s no reason you can’t use fresh whole lemons.

Voila! Instant electrolyte replenisher! Oh, sure — it doesn’t have all the mineral salts you find in “real” electrolyte drinks. But sodium and chlorine seem to take care of most of my needs. And for a guy who doesn’t ride farther than 50 miles at a crack, this concoction works fine.

Try it on your next longish ride, and see what you think.

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Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // hydration

A Drinking Problem

08.07.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

As a sort of follow-up to the last post about problems eating during a ride, guest poster Don Blount addresses his trouble with drink.

I am not afraid to admit that I have a drinking problem.

I have had the problem of drinking too little when I’m riding my bike. (rimshot!)

That may not seem like a significant problem to those who do not ride or who drink more than enough. But it is a huge issue for someone such as me who has suffered from hellacious, make that H-E-L-L-A-C-I-O-U-S leg cramps.

I found that I would go through about 14 ounces of fluid, about 2/3 of a 20 ounce bottle, an hour instead of the recommended 20 ounces an hour.

Given this, why not just drink more?

Three reasons: 1) I was not thirsty 2) I was not sweating much 3) It seemed that the more I drank, the more frequently I had to go to the bathroom. This was inconvenient enough on solo rides and even moreso on coed group rides.

It was not as if I was not carrying enough fluids with me as I carry one 20-ounce bottle of water and another with an electrolyte such as Nuun or Endurolyte.

But after a last round of leg cramps a few months ago that led me to borrow some electrolyte pills from a fellow rider, I just decided enough was enough and I would tackle this problem head on.

I started by making sure I had some fluids in me before leaving for a ride.

While on the bike, like Pavlov’s dog, I would work at conditioning myself to grab for a bottle at a given signal. In this case I used the lap timer on my Garmin as my signal to take a sip. When the Garmin chirped at the one-mile mark, I would take a drink.

Of course this time could vary by as much as a minute or two depending on where and how fast I was riding. Early on it seemed terribly inconvenient but I forced myself to follow through.

A mile goes by – grab the bottle and sip. Another mile – when it seemed like I had just put the bottle away – grab it again and sip. Initially the miles seemed to come up far too quickly but slowly, and I do mean slowly, I found myself drinking regularly even without the Garmin reminder. An hour would pass and I would have one bottle down and had started working on another.

On really hot days I would go through 20 ounces before the hour mark. My new problem became calculating where I could refill my bottles on longer rides and choking down the inflated price of Gatorade or Powerade at convenience stores.

I have not had any cramping problems since I began this program. I have not even had to stop more often to do No. 1. Perhaps my body conditioned itself. More than likely it shows how much I really needed those additional fluids. Overall, at least for me, it illustrates the important role hydration plays in cycling.

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Categories // guest post Tags // Blount, hydration, sports drink

Ride Prep – Just As Important When Going Short

05.08.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

My friend Aaron West over at the Steep Climbs blog complains that he was ill-prepared for a major training ride the other day. He didn’t hydrate properly, didn’t eat right the night before the ride, and didn’t eat the morning of the ride. So he only managed to cover 100 miles with 9,300 feet of climbing in 6 hours, 39 minutes.

Well, Aaron is in a different league than I am. But I had much the same experience as he did that day. And what happened to me is a reminder that we all must attend to the necessities of prepping ourselves for our rides, no matter how tough or modest they might be.

I had ridden a brisk ride Saturday morning, and even added some bonus miles to my regular Saturday route. I felt great. Legs were strong, plenty of air in my lungs. I looked forward to a Sunday morning ride in the Hill Country with friends.

But at about 1 a.m. Sunday, a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder right over head jolted me out of my sleep. Lord knows we need rain around here. We thought we were recovering from last year’s drought, with decent rain in February and March, but April saw the dryness return. They’re already going to stringent watering restrictions in some areas around here, so we’re happy to get the rain.

Only trouble was, the lightning and thunder kept up their pyrotechnics show all night long, and I had trouble getting back to sleep again. I’m not sure if I ever did, really. Finally, at about 5 a.m., I couldn’t stand staring at the ceiling anymore, so I got up and made some coffee.

It was clear I wouldn’t be riding that morning. I emailed my friends to cancel. They were apparently up early, too, because I soon got a reply that they weren’t going out, either. I read the morning paper, watched a little TV, and finally decided to get something to eat.

Two pieces of toast with jelly took care of breakfast. I had a second cup of coffee and started surfing websites on the iPad. Eventually, the storm passed to the east, and I could think about riding again.

I hit the road at about 11 a.m. The streets were almost dry, the sun was out, and the air was so humid you could wring it out. I thought I’d do a modified version of my Friday night route, which keeps me on neighborhood streets, and can cover anywhere from 19-25 miles.

At about six miles into the ride, I do a couple of hill repeats on a residential street that’s really not much of a challenge. But this time, I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t maintain the cadence I wanted, and found myself downshifting more than usual on this little hill. The second time around, I couldn’t even maintain a decent cadence one gear lower than the first time. I was huffing and puffing at the top, glad for the break.

I did a lap of the Veloway, which is mostly flat except for one short steep hill. But I decided I’d ridden the Veloway enough that week, and I headed out to add more mileage.

I had plenty of water. The night before, I’d put two 24-ounce water bottles in the freezer. I only brought one on the ride, but that’s fine for a two-hour neighborhood ride, and I could always fill up at the water jugs at the Veloway entrance. I was drinking regularly, even a little more often than my usual three-mile drink intervals.

Water wasn’t the problem. Nourishment was. On Sunday mornings before club rides, I tend to make myself a hearty breakfast. Today, as I said, just toast. I don’t carry energy bars or Shot Bloks or anything like that when I’m riding in the neighborhood, and I could feel the energy drain from my body. By the time I reached the 20-mile mark, I was done in. But you can’t (I can’t, anyway) ride less than 20 miles on my long mileage day of the week. I took a couple of turns that put me farther from home.

But it was no good. I checked the bike computer and calculated that I’d have 24-25 miles under my belt if I turned around and headed back at this point. It was a slog. I was in a bike lane on a decent asphalt road, but struggled to keep up a steady pace. Have you ever felt relief when you pull up to your house after a ride? I did that morning.

What’s the takeaway? Prep for your routine rides much as you would your tougher ones. I should have had the same kind of breakfast I would have had if I’d done the Hill Country ride. Adequate sleep is important, although I did go back to bed and grab a catnap before I got into my bike clothes. I’ve stopped carrying any kind of electrolyte stuff on most rides. The right kind of stuff does help, I’ve found.

I’ve got a little time off over the next two weeks, and I’ll be riding more than usual. You can bet I’ll get ready for each ride with more diligence than I employed last weekend.

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Categories // food, Rides Tags // food, hydration

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