Prescribed drinking leads to better cycling performance than ad libitum drinking

Drinking ad libitum during exercise often leads to dehydration ranging from j1% to j3% of body weight. Purpose: This article aimed to study the effect of a prescribed hydration protocol matching fluid losses on a simulated 30-km criterium-like cycling performance in the heat (31.6-C T 0.5-C). Methods: Ten elite heat-acclimatized male endurance cyclists (30 T 5 yr, 76.5 T 7.2 kg, 1.81 T 0.07 m,V O2peak = 61.3 T 5.2 mLIminj1Ikgj1, body fat = 10.5% T 3.3%, Powermax = 392 T 33 W) performed three sets of criterium-like cycling, which consisted of a 5-km cycling at 50% power max followed by a 5-km cycling all out at 3% grade (total 30 km). Participants rode the course on two separate occasions and in a counterbalanced order, during either ad libitum drinking (AD; drink water as much as they wished) or prescribed drinking (PD; drink water every 1 km to much fluid losses). To design the fluid intake during PD, participants performed a familiarization trial to calculate fluid losses. Results: After the exercise protocol, the cyclist dehydrated by j0.5% T 0.3% and j1.8% T 0.7% of their body weight for the PD and AD trial, respectively. The mean cycling speed for the third bout of the 5-km hill cycling was greater in the PD trial (30.2 T 2.4 kmIhj1) compared with the AD trial (28.8 T 2.6 kmIhj1) by 5.1% T 4.8% (P G 0.05). Gastrointestinal, mean skin, and mean body temperatures immediately after the last hill climbing were greater in the AD compared with the PD trial (P G 0.05). Overall, sweat sensitivity during the three climbing bouts was lower in the AD (15.6 T 5.7 gIWj1Imj2) compared with the PD trial (22.8 T 3.4 gIWj1Imj2, P G 0.05). Conclusion: The data suggested that PD to match fluid losses during exercise in the heat provided a performance advantage because of lower thermoregulatory strain and greater sweating responses.