The Human body is made up of nearly 70% water and dehydrates rapidly during exercise through sweating, we lose roughly about 1-2 litre per hour. Once you are around 2% dehydrated ( 1.3kg if you wight 70kg), your performance could drop by 10%.
We are well aware about the importance of drinking enough water for our health, mental performance and during exercise, but more than 70% of us in Singare are still walking around chronically dehydrated. When training for a marathon, your fluid intakes needs to increase as being properly dehydrated is essential to maximise performance, reduce risk of injuries and optimise use of glycogen stored in the body.
Most expert have recommended drinking about 2 litre or 8 glass of fluid a day, but this broad approach is not for everyone. If you have a heavy training schedule, run in warm weather condition or are very light with low sweat rate, your fluid needs will be very different. A practical method and more recent recommendation is to look at the colour of your urine. It needs to be pale and clear, rather than a dark yellowish shade – any darker than that means you are already dehydrated and you need to drink more.
Urine Color Chart
Start making it a routine of drinking little and often throughout the day and avoid gulping down a pints at a time. Keep a bottle in your office and carry a sports bottle with you on your journey to work or when you are out and around so to make sure that you can be sure to take a drink of water every now and then and especially in the two hours before and after exercise.
Cheers! (:
My Running Addiction 