Chlorine/Indoor pool/ Hot tub night before meet

[AngelaCoon]

@rich121

Hello,
We just got back from a very disappointing track meet.
My daughter, age 13, has been training all year long and making great improvements.
This weekend was her final meet, USATF Regional JO championships in Seattle.
We stayed at a motel, and made sure we found one with a pool, as the temps were supposed to be around a humid 95 degrees. Which, actually, it turned out to be a nice day.
My daughter was in the pool for about 2 hours, not doing alot, just mostly “hanging out”, and she spent about 1 hour in the hot tub.
The chlorine was somewhat strong.
My daughter got 8 hours sleep.
We got to the meet about 3 hours before she ran her 1st event, the 100 meter dash.
She ran her slowest time this year, about .5 seconds slower than the PR she had only a few weeks before.
My daughter was shocked when she seen her time after the race, she thought for sure she had a new PR, as she said she ran as hard as she could.
The next race was the 400 meters.
Even worse performance, she finished with a very strange 12 seconds slower than anything she has ran in 6 weeks! She has never ran this even near this slow.
Again, my daugher was bewildered when she saw her time…she said she ran so hard “my biceps and quads burned”.
At this point, I called the coach on my cell, as he was busy working the field during the meet and asked him what could be the problems, he could not help, I also asked the assistant coach the same, and he had no suggestions that fit the situation.
My daughter then readied for her last event, the 200 meter dash. I had brought an ice vest just in case it was extremely warm, so as to cool her core temp. before racing. She wore this for about 20 minutes before racing.
Again, she ran a full second slower than the PR she had just gotten a couple weeks ago…we were dumbfounded!
Shortly after the race, my daughter overheard the coaches daughter scolding some girls from another club, as they told her they had been swimming at a motel the night before.
I then asked both her and the assistant coach about this, and both assured me that that was what was wrong with my daughter.
I was told the the chlorine/heat from both the pool and hot tub removed electrolytes and dehydrated the body.
This all made sense, and my daughter said her body felt “extremely lethargic, and unmotivated” and she couldn’t understand why.
She also mentioned that after running both the 100 meter and 200 meter, that a couple other girls who had just ran, “freaked out” and wanted to know if she was ok, because they said she was breathing so loud while finishing the race, they thought she was having a heart attack.
My daughter thought that was funny, and reassured me her breathing was fine, and that she just didn’t have any energy.
My daughter did not over train or anything like that, in fact the 3 days before the meet, she only did warm ups.

Was it the chlorine and hot tub?

I’m confused and want to get to the bottom of this.

Rick

Rick
You didnt know any better but you care so much this will guide you where you need to go.
I wouldnt worry about it too much. Maybe this lesson was important to learn now for results that will certainly come later on when your daughter runs in races as she matures.
It is well known that water is exhausting. Can be great for training to keep injuries at bay and lay in work for athletes to reduce wear and tear but never the day before a meet and two hours is crazy.
Hot tub just adds more heat to the fire.
Use the pool as a recovery tool.
For example I get my son in the pool especially in the past 2 months when he gets really wound up. Nothing like forgetting all your worries when you put two 11 year old boys in the pool to have some fun.
We stay at hotels before soccer tournaments and Charlie and I used to make sure James didnt go near it. Kinda harsh cause he is only 11 now but he didnt want to go anyway as it made his muscles feel weak.
YOU will do just fine because you love your daughter and you will find your way.