Hydration on long rides

Sorry for a another newby question but with the length of my rides increaseing I was wondering how the more experience pirates deal with keeping hydrated on longer rides?

I normally drink about 700 ml an hour so If I ride for two hours then both my drinks bottles empty. Many of my rides are in areas that there are no shops plus I hate buying bottled water.

 

thanks

 

 

 

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Comments

  • Sadly not much for it but to buy water....

  • I did have a feeling that the would be one of the most common answers.

     

  • Sorry, Apart from ride in the rain with your mouth open, Couldn't think of anything else

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Wear a camelback type thingy?
  • Blimey - that seems like a lot of fluid ? Obviously I drink more in the heat, but in winter I can easily go three hours without a mouthful.



    You can get behind the seat bottle holders - but they have a habit of ejecting bottles on bumpy ground.
  • joddlyjoddly ✭✭✭

    I have a bottle belt that takes two 500-700ml bottles and they didn't tend to fall out. Alternatively of course you can do 2 or 3 shorter loops and pick up extra supplies from home as you go past.

  • Or get a team car handing up cool bottles to you out of the chiller. And if you get tired - a "sticky bottle" should boost your speed a bit.
  • When I was running I used to hide bottles of water behind places on my longer run routes in advance.  That way I was always sure I had a stash somewhere!  Doesn't help much if you're cycling somewhere new though, which is probably often the case!!  

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    I think you have to be a bit less stubborn about buying drinks whilst you are out, plan routes which include shops/petrol stations, do loops, or think of ways to carry more yourself.  All of which have been covered above.  It's not rocket science, you just have to widen your perspective.

  • Depends on what you want, but the standard Speedfil holds 1.2l

  • Most petrol stations have outside taps, I fill up (pun intended) on my long runs

  • M...eldy, that's a great idea.

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    You probably don't need to drink that much - I'll be doing 70 miles tomorrow morning in a fast training group with one 500 and one 750ml bottle.   If I'm going further than that then with a group we'd normally have a cafe stop or if I'm on my own it's not a big deal to nip into a village shop and get a can of coke or whatever.    

  • Surely it's not down to the miles but the time taken ?

     

    70/80 will take me about 4 hours and I will get through 3 x 750 bottles but should have more in all honesty for that long as I work on the basis of 1 bottle per hour

  • Agreed Meldy, a bottle an hour is about right I reckon, more if its hot, usually 1/2 bottle sports drink and 1/2 bottle of water. If I drink less I notice a decrease in my already meagre speed.

     

  • D0MD0M ✭✭✭

    I'm doing 85 miles tomorrow morning and am taking 2 x 800ml bottles, plus food and expect to not NEED any more than a 500ml bottle of water extra from a shop somewhere. Are you sure you NEED that much fluid. If you start fully hydrated, you shouldn't need anything for 60-75 mins. You could wear a hydration waist belt with 2 x 500ml bottles.

  • its a case of training for a race,,,its ok to finish a ride dehydrated.......if you are going to sit and recover at home.......if you want to maximise the training session and be in a fit state to go and run a marathon then you need to keep hydrated,..

    I have a double profile bottle on my tri bars and it firs in way over a litre

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    Do you have to do everything you do in a race on a training ride though ?   Would you take a gel for an hour bike ride just because you might take one if it was part of a longer triathlon ?  

    I'm not saying you shouldn't but if you are just talking about a training ride on the bike the OP is drinking a lot more than anyone I know and some of them are pretty good amateurs so riding at a higher intensity than most of us could maintain.  

    I agree though if I was going to run a marathon afterwards I'd drink more on the bike.

  • Popsider, If I was out for just an hour then no I would not take any gels with me  although I do carry a water bottle. One of the reasons I drink a lot is that I have had kidney stones at several points in my life. OUCH!! and one way to avoid them, or at least slow them down is to remain hydrated.

    My longest rides at the minute are 3 hours and I can manage with what I can carry but as the rides get longer I will need to find a strategy to keep enough fluid on-board especially when it comes to the long brick sessions that are planed towards then end of the build phase and into the peak phase of Fink.  I know I still have some time to go until  that point but I was trying to stimulate a discussion and see how other dealt with it.

    Here is a good video on fuelling and hydration for athletes.

    http://youtu.be/eeIA261_gSw

    M..ouse, its not that I object to buying drinks its that I object to buying water. Its A) a massive rip-off and B) an ecological disaster but hundreds of tons of plastic in to the environment and it the bottled water industry has HUGE carbon foot print.

  • DOM, 85 miles would take me about 6 hours or thereabouts, I would need a lot more than 2 bottles of water and I M well hydrated all day and every day

    if you are averaging an easy 20mph average then perhaps you can get by on 2 x 800

    why wold you want to finish a ride dehydrated if you didn't need to ?

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    I haven't watched that video link all the way through because it's 50 minutes long but the key thing to realise is you don't need to replace all the food and energy you use during a training ride during that actual training ride any more than you need to wake up during the night and drink and eat - you catch up when you get home or when you wake up.   Yes if you go beyond a certain point you will suffer from lack of food and water but experienced cyclists are saying you don't need to carry so much water because that experience tells them that you wont suffer by not doing so.  

    You can listen to the sports nutrition funded scientists telling you you need to strap a dozen gels to your top tube and drink syrup or your performance will suffer but it's not true.  I did 75 miles in 285 minutes yesterday, fairly hot day, drank 1250ml of water and a cup of tea and I reckon I drink more than most riders - I'm currently 13 stone so unless you are much bigger or it's a very hot day you should be able to do 5 hours endurance type training wide with a couple of 750ml bottles.

     

  • Im suprised at the number of people suggesting that you shouldnt need to drink more than 2 bottles and even more surprised at the people who say you shouldn't need to drink for at least an hour after starting...

    Its a triathlon forum, 

    Following this will create a hydration deficit which will almost certainly lead to a walk on a run if its anything longer than an hour or two.

    On a 3 hour ride, I would probably manage, but any more I would smash out 2 hours, have a quick refill then smash out the next stage. That should have just as much benefit as doing it all in one go.

    Force that liquid down your throat because the chances are, in a race your body is not going to want to drink enough

  • He was talking about training Balooo during races you get nice people hand you new bottles every so often, so it isn't an issue during a race
  • popsider wrote (see)
    I didn't watch the video because I am not interested so I just made some erroneous assumptions about its content.

     

    Popsider I fixed that for you  image

    I don't get why you would want to get dehydrated and then play catch up? It makes no sense to me.

    You are always going to lose more than you can absorb, but I would rather keep that down to a minimum.

    Max you can absorb is during  is about 75% of what you lose so about 750ml an hour. The more hydrated you are when you get of the bike  the fast you will be able to run.

  • Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)
    He was talking about training Balooo during races you get nice people hand you new bottles every so often, so it isn't an issue during a race

    Dave, but surly you want to get the best performance out of you training too? I was under the Impression that training was about teaching yourself to race?

  • PS, incase it does not come across right my re-quote of Popsider was meant very much tongue in cheek.

  • popsiderpopsider ✭✭✭

    I took you seriously and hate you !  

     

  • And now you are going to put holes in my water bottles if we ever meet in transition  or is that just how I would react

  • Duda wrote (see)
    Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)
    He was talking about training Balooo during races you get nice people hand you new bottles every so often, so it isn't an issue during a race

    Dave, but surly you want to get the best performance out of you training too? I was under the Impression that training was about teaching yourself to race?

    getting the best performance out of a training run is not the object of every training session. why do long distance runners - i dont know if bikers do it - do long fasted sessions. I did a recent 60 mile run and miscalculated badly the water/canal tap stops and had to run without water for 10 miles in the middle of the race, my suggestion is dont pamper your body in training - do things that that make it hard, run dehydrated, tired and fasted, it forces adaptation. its just my way and hold no responsibility if you drop down dead image

     

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