Are you over-hydrating during your runs? Under-hydrating? How can you even tell and what should you do about it? Sweat, dehydration, and cramping expert Andy Blow talks sodium, fluids, and performance with Coach Claire in this super informative episode.
Andy has a degree in Sport and Exercise Science and was a regular podium finisher in elite short course triathlon racing in his younger days, but he learned about dehydration the hard way. Andy found that he suffered more than most racers in heat and humidity and at longer Ironman distances, frequently visiting the medical tent due to cramps and dehydration despite following common hydration protocols, and he ended with poor race results.
Andy sorted out his hydration needs thanks to years of trial and error. Turns out, he’s a very salty sweater. As proof that one size does not fit all when it comes to hydration, Andy loses nearly twice as much sodium per liter of sweat than does his head of operations, Jonny.
Motivated by his struggles, Andy specialized in electrolyte replenishment and founded Precision Hydration with the help of respected heart surgeon, Dr. Raj Jutley, who introduced Andy to sweat testing and the huge variances in sweat and sodium losses among athletes.
Precision Hydration produces hydration products, and offers unique sweat and sodium testing, as well as education on creating the right hydration plan to fit your individual needs. They have created personalized hydration plans for top level athletes and teams such as the English Premier League, International Rugby Union, the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Formula 1 Motor racing, MotoGP, and IndyCar, as well as elite individuals from the worlds of cycling, running, triathlon, and firefighters and service personnel who are exposed to high levels of heat stress and sweating, helping them maintain performance in even the harshest of environments.
As Precision Hydration progressed, they got exclusive access to patented sweat testing technology that requires no physical effort from the athlete. The technology has a long, credible history as a diagnostic test for Cystic Fibrosis and the test is simple, painless, and extremely accurate. They also developed their own range of effervescent electrolytes early on because existing products were simply not strong enough to meet most serious athletes’ needs.
The company working with We were now, built up such a wealth of data on how athletes sweat that they were able to build an algorithm-based questionnaire to deliver personalized hydration advice for athletes who couldn’t make it to one of their test centers. Precision Hydration’s mission is to give every athlete access to a personalized hydration strategy so that they have the best chance of achieving their goals.
Disclosure: Precision Hydration is not a sponsor of our show and this interview is not an infomercial for their products. This is all about having an expert in the field help us understand our unique hydration needs.
Questions Andy is asked:
4:31 You are a former elite triathlete that learned about hydration the hard way. I would love to hear some of your horror stories about how failing to hydrate properly affected your performances.
5:38 What were you doing wrong specifically with your hydration?
6:33 Can you give us a quick history lesson on the advice that athletes have been given about hydration?
8:33 Do you think it’s true that being a little dehydrated is a lot better than being over hydrated?
9:39 How do you know that you are well hydrated and how do you get hydrated before you hit the starting line?
12:29 I was looking at the back of a thing of salt that I have and salt has about 600mg per quarter teaspoon of sodium in it, so can I just take my bottle of water and throw a little sodium in it and call it good?
13:55 Can you just tell us what we should drink?
17:17 How do we measure our own sweat rate and how do we measure our sodium losses?
22:01 Let’s talk about cramps because I have a pretty high level Masters Athlete that I coach and he is very, very fast. He’s a 2:27 marathoner, he’s almost 50 years old, and he often suffers in cramps, and for the most part, it’s at the end of the marathon, and he just powers through it. And we have not been able to figure it out. We think that it’s a muscle issue, but he is a strong hard worker, and so it’s really hard to figure out. Can you help explain the cramping issue?
27:36 Drink to thirst or drink to plan?
30:07 There’s a pretty common myth that if you’re 2% dehydrated, that’s too much. Can you talk about that?
31:58 How does somebody come up with a hydration plan? Do we just go out and run and see when we fall off the cliff? What do you suggest? Obviously trial and error, but let’s say I’m brand new to this whole thing. What advice would you give me?
34:35 Just like glycogen, we’re not trying to replace everything we lost during the actual event. Is that correct?
36:20 After the race, what do we drink?
Questions I ask everyone:
37:33 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?
38:06 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?
38:15 Where can listeners connect with you?
Quotes by Andy:
“I’ve had some very, very depressing long walks along highways by the side of the road at the end of an Ironman triathlon feeling like absolute garbage because of the problems I had with hydration.”
“Anyone who’s operating in a warm-to-hot environment who’s going for more than 90 minutes to two hours or doing lots of hard sessions on back-to-back days in that warm environment, they’re the people who benefit from really understanding their individual hydration needs a lot closer, and that requires a bit of investigation.”
“I quite often think that cramps that happen late on in endurance activities have a component that’s related to electrolyte imbalance.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
Mentioned in this podcast:
How To Measure Your Sweat Rate
How To Start an Event Well Hydrated
How Much Dehydration Can You Tolerate?
How To Tell if You May be a Salty Sweater
Discount code for precisionhydration.com for 15% off your first order: RUNTOTHETOP
Runners Connect Winner’s Circle Facebook Community
Follow Andy on:
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