How Much Water Should You Drink

Just finished a nice 51 mile beach ride in the heat. Yesterday the temperature in Clearwater set a record 96 degrees with the heat index in the 100s. When it's that hot your body sweats a lot to try to keep itself cool. That sweat depletes your body of water and if you don't replenish it you could be headed toward heat stroke and a bad cycling experience. If you ever find yourself getting the chills when it's a 100 degrees out, it's a good sign you need to hydrate. For cyclists the key is to drink before you're thirsty, eat before you're hungry, and rest before you're exhausted. If you wait too long on any of these you'll probably "bonk" on your ride. Bonking is fatigue, i.e., exhaustion caused by muscle glycogen depletion. So how much fluid do you need per hour? Here's a simple way to figure it out. I'll use my fluid intake today to give you an example. Before I left home I drank two 12 ounce glasses of water. I filled my camelback with 40 ounces of Gatoraid (Go Gators) and 20 ounces of water, total of 60 ounces. The Gatoraid is better than all water since Gatoraid helps to extend internal muscle glycogen stores (to help you not "bonk"). On the way back, I stopped at the 43 mile mark at the Time Out Cafe in Dunedin and treated myself to a 16 ounce berry, banana smoothie (um, good). I finished the camelback a couple miles before home. So, in total I drank 100 ounces on the ride. I weighed myself when I got home and weighed 10 pounds less than when I started. Since 16 ounces water weighs one pound, I lost the equivalent of 160 ounces of water. So the total fluid for the ride was 260 ounces. The ride took about three hours so 260/3 = 86.7 ounces per hour. That's what I should figure consuming on a long hot ride. Since I can carry only 100 ounces on my bike, it looks like I might have to tow a small water truck behind me for longer rides. The bum is feeling better and I'm still waiting for the Australian Bum Cream!