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Prior to like the 70s it was widely believed that drinking water during marathons (and maybe exercise in general?) was bad. Some of the best American marathon r
by LeonardoTolstoy 2y ago
Prior to like the 70s it was widely believed that drinking water during marathons (and maybe exercise in general?) was bad. Some of the best American marathon runners would do crazy stuff like run in deep summer wearing sweaters and drinking no water to condition their bodies.
Gatorade was invented in 1965, and the cross country shoe in the 70s. Prior to that it was the wild west, no one studied or knew anything about this stuff really prior to that.
- ck2 2y agoThe marathon trials for 1968 Olympics at Mexico City were held at high altitude (women were not allowed to race that far for many more years) They drank cold coca-cola that was defizzed every five miles, which surprisingly has good fuel as sugar with caffeine https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20827587/history-in-the-making/ https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20827587/history-in-t... 2:30 marathon at 10,000 feet in August heat is pretty damn impressive given the poor shoe quality over 50 years ago.
- LeonardoTolstoy 2y agoCoca cola was still a sports thing in the 90s to the point where I remember being told (maybe apocryphal) that one of the reasons Sampras threw up during the coretja match was he was drinking coke instead of Gatorade or water.
- KeplerBoy 2y agoCoca Cola is still a thing among amateur endurance athletes (think cycling for days with minimal rest) and there's nothing inherently wrong with it. It's just water, plenty of sugar and some coffeine.
- lukan 2y agoWater with lots of sugar is wrong, when your body needs water. So drinking water and a sip of cola is fine, but drinking cola against thirst has side effects as you need water to process lots of sugar.
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- nradov 2y agoElite distance runners don't really need much water during a typical marathon. The water serves more as a delivery mechanism for the carbohydrates and electrolytes which they actually need to maximize performance. Consuming plain water during really long endurance events can cause hyponatremia. Not recommended. But for the short 10k and under running events that most of us do, it doesn't really matter much.
- JetSpiegel 2y agoAre those the electrolytes that plants crave?
- ginko 2y ago>It's just water, plenty of sugar and some coffeine. And a ton of phosphoric acid.