Drinking an adequate amount of water is very important as it helps to prevent constipation, regulates temperature, flushes out waste products and helps to perform all major body functions. For hot days, a cyclist needs to have at least a minimum of 500 ml of water early in the morning after you wake up and you can flavour your water with some lemon if you want to boost your metabolism.

Having water in the morning helps you to replace all the water that you lost from sleep and the vitamin c in lemon helps to build up resistance against any kind of illness. It is very important to consume 300-500 ml of fluid 1 hour before cycling to get a good head start especially on a hotter day.

An electrolyte drink plays a very important role to replace the lost fluids. Only plain water does not help to restore the electrolytes like potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and chloride, therefore affects performance so for optimal performance an electrolyte drink is very important. A richer electrolyte source is required during winters as you consume fewer liquids in comparison to the summertime where a weaker mix will work as you drink a lot of fluids. Start your day early and keep an adequate intake of fluids as this will help to take care of any kind of dehydration later on the day. It is crucial to hydrate and replenish after each bike ride.

But Drinking too much water is considered to be dangerous. It causes over-hydration that can lead to water intoxication. In this condition salt and other electrolytes in the body become too diluted. The main concern of over-hydration is hyponatremia (too slow sodium levels). There are 2 types of over-hydration :

• Retaining water: Several medical conditions can lead to your body retaining water disturbing the balance between sodium and water levels in the blood.
• Increased water intake: In this case, more consumption of water than what your kidneys can remove in urine is observed where too much of this water is collected in the bloodstream.

What causes over-hydration: It is an imbalance of fluids, which causes dilution of substances in your blood. Athletes sometimes drink up too much water before or during an event. There is no correct amount of water intake as it depends on age, sex, activity level, weather and your overall health. The colour of your urine is a good indicator of hydration i.e. colourless equals over hydrated, pale yellow colour is good and darker means you need to drink more water.

Usually, only athletes are at risk of hydration especially endurance athletes as they tend to drink up large amounts of water pre and during the event. Symptoms of over-hydration (low levels of sodium in the blood): headache, nausea, vomiting, confusion, disorientation, muscle weakness, cramps and spasms. Therefore athletes sweat a lot and experience a great loss of electrolytes while sweating and training for more than 2 hours, so to replenish the loss of electrolytes athletes should go for drinks with sodium and potassium to cover up their loss and prevent over-hydration and diluting their blood.