We all sweat water out of our bodies. However, did you know that key electrolytes—the most predominant of which is sodium—are also lost along with our sweat? Actually, the very definition of sweat by the National Institutes of Health website, Medline Plus, is “the release of a [salty] liquid from the body’s sweat glands.” Most triathletes in training are aware of this nowadays. But a few decades ago nearly everyone attempted to hydrate by simply guzzling down as much water as possible. Case in point: Jan Ripple’s (in)famous crawl at the 1987 Hawaii IRONMAN triathlon. As Torsten Abel describes on his blog, “She was leading until about mile 20 of the run until she collapsed, made the comment that she…
