Latest / Find Your Edge: Training, Nutrition + Longevity for Endurance Athletes / Hydration Reminders and How Your Sweat Should Dictate Your Plan Ep 143
Transcript
- 0:37Coach Carlie: Hey friends, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast.
- 0:41Coach Carlie: I'm your host, Coach Chris.
- 0:42Coach Carlie: And today I want to talk about something that might seem really basic, but honestly, it's one of the biggest reasons why endurance athletes come to us due to their struggles in training and racing.
- 0:55Coach Carlie: And that is fueling and really hydration.
- 0:59Coach Carlie: I think sometimes it's easy to assume that athletes already know this stuff because don't you have to hydrate on a daily basis all the time?
- 1:07Coach Carlie: Yeah, but just because you've been training for a long time or you know just in general that you need to hydrate well, I found that most athletes are still guessing.
- 1:17Coach Carlie: They're really still shooting in the dark on how much sodium they need, on how much fluid they need, on how many carbs they need.
- 1:23Coach Carlie: And they're surprised when things like cramping or bonking or dealing with any sort of GI distress or just generally fading later in races actually happens.
- 1:35Coach Carlie: And the tricky thing is that how else are you going to learn about this other than searching on the internet or asking your training partners or seeing what the pros are doing?
- 1:45Coach Carlie: But then we're still just kind of shooting in the dark, right?
- 1:51Coach Carlie: So today I want to remind you about some of the basics.
- 1:56Coach Carlie: So a few reminders that are necessary because sometimes we forget as the seasons change, or sometimes maybe we just don't know.
- 2:04Coach Carlie: So I'm here to give you a couple of reminders.
- 2:06Coach Carlie: And if you're watching this on YouTube, I've got our hydration guide pulled up.
- 2:09Coach Carlie: It's one of our original guides.
- 2:11Coach Carlie: It's amazing, not just because we created it, but also because it's just a genuinely fantastic tool and it's set free.
- 2:20Coach Carlie: You can download it from our website.
- 2:22Coach Carlie: I'll put it in the show notes below that you can link to it.
- 2:25Coach Carlie: But if you're watching, you can kind of follow along to see what it actually entails and what those reminders are.
- 2:32Coach Carlie: So, number one, I'm gonna scroll down to the sweat science.
- 2:37Coach Carlie: Sodium is still and always has been the primary electrolyte that is lost in sweat.
- 2:44Coach Carlie: Chloride matters too, potassium does too, and magnesium does too.
- 2:48Coach Carlie: So, as I've dug so deeply into all of the different products on the market, and trust me, there are more coming out by the day.
- 2:57Coach Carlie: I swear.
- 2:58Coach Carlie: Our list of products just continues to grow and grow.
- 3:01Coach Carlie: But it's really hard when you're, you know, something new and flashy comes on the market and you're like, oh, you just you just grab for it because you're like, well, that must be the magic solution.
- 3:11Coach Carlie: But when you are thinking of exercise in the heat or just endurance exercise in general, um, or honestly any type of exercise, you want to make sure that sodium is the primary electrolyte in your drink.
- 3:25Coach Carlie: But then again, it also has those other electrolytes that I mentioned as well.
- 3:29Coach Carlie: So making sure it has chloride, potassium, and magnesium.
- 3:32Coach Carlie: So some of them, especially some major brands, are missing some of those.
- 3:36Coach Carlie: So if you are struggling with cramping, if you are struggling with overall dehydration, that might be your ticket.
- 3:45Coach Carlie: Another thing that I think a lot of people don't know is that everyone's sweat composition is unique.
- 3:52Coach Carlie: It's just like your fingerprint.
- 3:53Coach Carlie: Seriously guys, it's it's it's amazing.
- 3:56Coach Carlie: So let me give you a little scenario.
- 4:00Coach Carlie: Let's say you're running alongside a friend.
- 4:02Coach Carlie: Let's say you sweat a ton.
- 4:05Coach Carlie: You literally just step outside as in your first few steps of running, and you just start dripping sweat.
- 4:12Coach Carlie: And by the end of the run, your socks are wet and your shoes are squishy.
- 4:17Coach Carlie: And then the person you're running with is literally like glistening.
- 4:21Coach Carlie: It's like, what the heck?
- 4:23Coach Carlie: So not only is your sweat amount, your sweat quantity unique to you, but also your sweat composition, which is why if you consume one product, one certain type of product, it might work fabulously for you, but it might work terribly for a friend or a training partner.
- 4:43Coach Carlie: The next thing that I want to remind you of, especially as we head into the hotter seasons, is that hotter temperatures and more intense workouts raise your core temperature.
- 4:55Coach Carlie: Remember, that's the whole reason why you're sweating, is your body wants to cool itself off.
- 5:01Coach Carlie: So that will increase your total fluid losses, for which sweat and electrolytes go together, y'all.
- 5:09Coach Carlie: So they cannot necessarily be separated.
- 5:12Coach Carlie: So anytime that you are exercising in hotter temperatures or doing more intense workouts, again, the sweat loss will be greater.
- 5:20Coach Carlie: Therefore, the fluid loss will be greater and the electrolyte loss will be greater.
- 5:25Coach Carlie: So keeping that in mind as it relates to what type of fueling plan or hydration plan that you have across the seasons.
- 5:34Coach Carlie: They should be ever so slightly different.
- 5:37Coach Carlie: It doesn't mean that it has to be complicated, it just means that you have to make those little tweaks.
- 5:44Coach Carlie: Okay, another reminder that I want to make sure you've got in your head as we head into these hotter months is fluid loss will affect you.
- 5:55Coach Carlie: As little as 2% will decrease potentially your performance.
- 6:02Coach Carlie: So that's not that much when you really think about it.
- 6:06Coach Carlie: So this little chart that we have as a percentage of body weight loss, typically around 1%.
- 6:12Coach Carlie: Perhaps you're experiencing some thirst.
- 6:14Coach Carlie: If you are a master's athlete, as I so respectfully call you, of course, that differs across sports, but let's just say the older you get, the more your thirst mechanism tends to be reduced.
- 6:28Coach Carlie: So gotta be one of those things that you remind yourself to drink and drink at frequent intervals that matches your sweat loss.
- 6:39Coach Carlie: So remember that scenario I was just giving you of the person who's sweating just so terribly, and this person who's barely glistening.
- 6:46Coach Carlie: Yes, they can drink at smaller intervals, but certainly the one who's drink who's losing more fluid, they need to drink at more frequent intervals.
- 6:55Coach Carlie: And again, try to limit your losses to less than 2% if possible.
- 7:00Coach Carlie: Some of my super heavy sweaters, they're really looking at trying to limit it to more like 3%.
- 7:08Coach Carlie: But as you can see here, as you get into the 4% losses, now we might be experiencing nausea as you get 5% difficulty concentrating, tingling extremities, 6% increasing body temperature, your pulse and your respiration goes up.
- 7:23Coach Carlie: So if you're wondering why you can't keep your heart rate down in the heat, this is one of those reasons.
- 7:28Coach Carlie: So things to keep in mind there.
- 7:31Coach Carlie: How do you know how much fluid loss you actually are experiencing?
- 7:35Coach Carlie: Well, you're in luck.
- 7:37Coach Carlie: We have hydration loss assessment steps here.
- 7:40Coach Carlie: So I'm going to walk you quickly through this, but again, download this on our free guide as a reminder.
- 7:46Coach Carlie: So, number one is to check your hydration status.
- 7:50Coach Carlie: One of the easiest ways to do that, and again, these are all reminders.
- 7:54Coach Carlie: I know you probably know these already, but you may not be doing them.
- 7:58Coach Carlie: So let's do them.
- 8:00Coach Carlie: When you go pee, try to go pee before every workout to check the color of your urine.
- 8:08Coach Carlie: That is the easiest, fastest, simplest method of checking your hydration status that you have access to without doing something like urine-specific gravity, which, if you're a really heavy sweater, maybe that's another podcast.
- 8:19Coach Carlie: I walk you through how to use that in addition to your urine color and your sweat losses, or actually doing blood markers.
- 8:28Coach Carlie: So clearly not very accessible there.
- 8:30Coach Carlie: But you want to weigh yourself before you work out.
- 8:33Coach Carlie: You can, you don't have to weigh yourself nude.
- 8:36Coach Carlie: You can weigh yourself with all your clothes, with all your shoes, and then make sure you've got that 0.02, so that 2% to determine, okay, this is really the maximum amount of weight that I want to lose.
- 8:48Coach Carlie: Do your workout, do your weigh-in again, and then multiply the number of pounds lost by 20 to determine how many ounces of fluid you need to drink for proper rehydration.
- 9:01Coach Carlie: And then based on that, review and adjust.
- 9:04Coach Carlie: So adjust your hydration strategy.
- 9:06Coach Carlie: Did you drink enough?
- 9:08Coach Carlie: Do you need more or less next time?
- 9:10Coach Carlie: What hydration products did you use?
- 9:12Coach Carlie: Did they taste good?
- 9:13Coach Carlie: How do you feel?
- 9:14Coach Carlie: Noting any energy level or digestive effects.
- 9:18Coach Carlie: So I wanted to keep it simple today with those brief reminders.
- 9:22Coach Carlie: And honestly, this is why we built the fueling and hydration boot camp.
- 9:26Coach Carlie: Not just because athletes need more random nutrition information, but because they need a system.
- 9:34Coach Carlie: You need to understand what your body specifically needs, how conditions change that hydration and fueling plan, how you can adapt those race plans.
- 9:43Coach Carlie: And it doesn't necessarily have to be complicated, y'all.
- 9:45Coach Carlie: We've got a very simple system that we use, and then how to fuel for performance and with your eye on how do I make sure that I'm able to continue to do this for a long time.
- 9:56Coach Carlie: And then, of course, stop second-guessing yourself and then going into these races that you commit so much time and so much energy and money to training for, to wrapping your head around and to challenging yourself with, and then ending up feeling defeated because something as simple as your hydrational electrolytes were off.
- 10:14Coach Carlie: When it's something that's easily tracked through sweat testing, through personalization, so that you can be more confident in your training and racing.
- 10:25Coach Carlie: I know this topic can feel super overwhelming because there's so much conflicting information online.
- 10:30Coach Carlie: There are so many different products that people want you to try and ingest.
- 10:35Coach Carlie: So that's exactly why we created the fueling and hydration boot camp.
- 10:39Coach Carlie: And we walk athletes through your unique sweat testing fingerprints on how much are you losing, how much is actually in your sweat so that you can create an appropriate hydration strategy, make sure you've got your carb needs aligned, make sure you have your race fueling and logistics all set up, troubleshoot any GI issues, make sure that you have a personalized system that actually works.
- 11:04Coach Carlie: And honestly, one of my favorite things is to see athletes get confident in their fueling and hydration because they're not afraid that they're gonna bonk.
- 11:14Coach Carlie: They're not afraid they're gonna have some sort of GI issue.
- 11:18Coach Carlie: So if you want to join the wait list for our next upcoming fueling and hydration boot camp, you can head to the theenduranceedge.com forward slash fueling bootcamp.
- 11:27Coach Carlie: We will link it in the show notes below.
- 11:29Coach Carlie: So just a little reminder your training matters, your racing should be fun, and your fueling and hydration strategy matters too, because you deserve to feel strong on race day, not just to survive it.
- 11:45Coach Carlie: All right, thanks so much to listen to this short episode, and I will see you next time on the Find Your Edge podcast.