Dehydration Issues

Something happened at practice on Thursday that has never happened to me before. When I got home, I started feeling very weak, had dizzyness spells, pounding headache, fever (100.4 F), shivers and had a hard time moving. At the time, I had no clue what was going on. But, after a talk with a friend of mine, I learned that it was dehydration.

What's really weird is that there wasn't anything wrong with me until the moment I walked into my dorm room. There was the general kendo exhaustion, but that was pretty much it. In retrospect, I should have noticed the problems earlier. For one, I didn't sweat as much as I usually would for the intensity of the practice. There was sweat, but it's generally dripping down my back, whether or not there is ample ventilation (which this room had great ventilation). What made it hard to notice was that I was going through practice just fine.

We are all told to make sure that we drink enough water before and during practice to make sure that dehydration is avoided. But sometimes, it takes an incident like this one to really know the severity of it. It's not to say that this was something that I never paid attention to. It was quite the contrary. This particular time, there have been some issues with meeting deadlines for classes which have put me under more stress than usual, so I tended to forget to do the basic things of showering and eating right.

So, I really implore everyone to drink lots of water before practice, and during practice if possible. Being in my position is NOT fun. While I'm feeling much better compared to 24 hours ago, I am still having issues with the headache from time to time as I replenish my water supply.