Got Electrolytes?

A while back I was trotting along in a 100K trail race in the Marin Headlands engaging in a likely ultra running activity - chatting. Yet this particular chatting experience was unique in that I was actually being "outchatted" by a gentleman who worked in a think tank in Texas for cancer research.

He told me about recent breakthroughs with his work, his running, and his predisposition for memorizing certain categories of things in life, like music and wine. I passed the time trying to baffle his photographic memory by throwing down questions like: “Where is the appellation for the grapes used in David Bruce’s award winning 1997 Pinot Noir?”. Or, “Who wrote the music theme for the show Gilligan’s Island?” Despite my efforts, I couldn’t stump him.

Then all of a sudden he became quiet. I glanced over to notice he was white as a sheet and laboring. The instinctual coach in me had been noticing out of the corner of my eye that he had been eating and drinking adequately the last few hours, so I didn’t suspect a calorie or water bonk. I asked him how he was feeling and he confirmed with a few expletives, my observations.

I swung my fanny pack around and pulled out my running “drug bag”. I grabbed 3 electrolyte tablets and as we jogged along I reached over, “here take these”. Without so much as a grunt, he snatched the tablets from my hand and downed them with a swig of water. For a verbose gentleman of such refined intellectual property, he didn’t so much as feign to ask me what I was pushing.

A half hour later, he caught back up to me. “Man, what did you give me back there, I feel great!” I laughed and offered him further information on the least touted yet, one of the most critical ingredients to successful endurance racing – electrolytes.

There are three nutritional components to endurance racing and training that are crucial to our success and well being: calories, fluids and electrolytes. One of the arts of racing successfully over hours or days is balancing these three necessities. Refining this craft may take months or years of racing and training.

Virtually all of the drinks, bars, and other designer foods on the market do not harbor adequate electrolytes for training and racing. We need to take additional supplements in our adventures to aid our balancing act. There are many products that address this need: Succeed, Thermo Tabs and E-caps to name a few. I tend to lean toward the products that house the biggest bang per tablet of sodium and potassium.

Not only can electrolyte supplements save you from the “electrolyte bonk”, they can aid in maintaining equilibrium of the other nutrients and fluids you are ingesting. Taking them at regular intervals, just like calories, will support your ability to walk that tight rope of sustaining mental focus and energy.

With of few more tokens from my drug bag, my temporary drug buddy went on to kick my ass in the 100K. The next week, he ventured back to Texas to find out that a piece of his recent cancer research findings had been proven to bring us several steps closer to finding the cure for ovarian cancer. He also promptly proceeded to purchase his new found racing elixir – electrolyte tablets.


Schneider rappelling in Australia...