(hip hop music)
- Welcome back to the Triathlon Training Explained show,
powered by TrainingPeaks.
And this week, we have got an exciting one for you.
(upbeat music)
- Oh yes, as you can probably hear,
we're at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK,
which you'll probably recognize from Formula 1 and Moto GP.
But more specifically,
we're at the Porsche Experience Centre.
But sadly, we're gonna be stepping away
from the cars for today.
- Yeah, we're gonna be heading in to the
Porsche Human Performance Centre,
which Porsche used to test their drivers
and help prepare them for different racing conditions
and handily, Precision Hydration are based here today
and they're gonna be helping us
to look at hydration specifically for triathlon
and how we too, can prepare for different racing conditions.
(chill music)
- Right, well I'm now here with
Andy from Precision Hydration.
He's going to be putting us through our paces today.
So, Andy, what are we doing today?
What are we looking to find as well?
- Right, so what we're gonna do today, Mark,
we're gonna put you through your paces in the heat chamber.
That's gonna be cranked up pretty hot.
We're gonna see what your sweat rates like
in sort of Kona like conditions.
And then we're also gonna look at your sweat composition.
'cause there's two things that matter with sweating,
there's how much you sweat
and then there's what's in your sweat.
We're gonna look at those two factors today
and that will tell us a little bit more about
what you might need to drink
to preform at your best.
(upbeat music)
- [Mark] Right, before we head into the heat chamber,
it was time for us to get weighed and measured.
By doing a body analysis before and after,
we can see the affect the heat has had on each of us.
Obviously, we were about to sweat a heck of a lot
in that chamber, so they were mainly looking to see
how much weight we lost through sweating.
Okay, now we've got the pre-test data,
it was time to put my kit on and get ready.
(upbeat music)
- [Heather] To really put our bodies to the test,
we were told to run at our 70.3 middle distance race paces.
A tough intensity but not flat out.
The heat chamber was cranked up to 42 degrees Celsius,
so it wasn't gonna take us long to start sweating
and once we had sweated enough,
they would pull us off before
our core temperatures soared too high.
So, somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes of running.
(upbeat music)
- It was really beginning to heat up in there
and I was starting to feel it.
But fortunately, they were coming in to check on us
every five minutes
and taking our tympanic temperature through our ear.
This was simply to make sure
that we weren't overheating
or about to pass out.
(upbeat music)
It was funny sensation.
I felt fine and my legs felt fine,
but I could see my heart rate steadily going up
and sitting much higher than it should be.
I began to notice slight lapses of concentration,
as I would drift from one side of the treadmill
and then to the other.
After roughly 22.5 minutes,
they decided to pull me out,
as my tympanic temperature started to push
on for 40 degress Celsius.
Which means my body temperature would be around
a degree higher again.
So, it's time to hit the scales again.
(chill music)
Just come in at 75.8.
So, I've lost 0.4 of a kilogram
and I know that I drank 0.39 of liter.
So, that works out a sweat loss of 0.791 kilograms.
Not bad in short space of time.
Now for Heather's turn.
(chill music)
- Oh, it's quite nice at the moment.
(upbeat music)
I too was feeling okay,
but did notice that my heart rate was a little higher
than I'm used to for that pace.
Although, it didn't seem to be moving much
and it peaked and then remained at 179 beats per minute.
So clearly, my body was working harder
than it would be normally
and with the humidity around 41%,
my body temperature was rising
and it was getting close to the cut off,
but for continuity, I was also pulled out at 22 minutes.
Anyway, it's time to look at the results.
- Phew, that was hot.
I am glad to be done with that.
- Yeah, well luckily after that,
all we had to do was jump on the scales
to have a look at how much we'd actually lost.
And it turns out, I lost 0.5 of a kilo
in those 22.5 minutes.
- Yeah, well if we do a little math on those numbers
on your results and mine,
turns out I have a sweat rate of 2.16 liters per hour,
where as Heather, yours came in a 1.69 liters per hour.
- Yeah, well obviously that was a projection.
So, it's not entirely accurate,
we used the 22.5 minutes
and worked it our from there.
But speaking to Andy,
he actually said we're both somewhere within normal.
- Yeah, I mean, there is very little difference
between our own sweat rates.
But typically, this is as far as people take it
in terms of figuring out their sweat rates and hydration.
But we're only just getting started.
- Yeah exactly.
But actually before we went into the heat chamber,
we sat down
and we got our sodium concentration levels
in our sweat measured.
Luckily, it didn't involve any effort,
but Andy's going to explain a little bit more about that.
- So, what we're gonna do, Heather.
This is the sweat composition part of the test.
So, we luckily don't have to make you exercise for this.
- Ah, perfect.
- So, this is every athletes favorite sort of fitness test.
What we're gonna do first of all,
I'm just putting some water on your arm.
Now, there's nothing magic in this.
This is just deionized water,
which means it's got all the electrolytes
taken out of it.
Because I know you've obviously been out
training hard this morning,
so there might be a bit of sweat on there.
- [Heather] I did have a shower.
- And then we pop these electrodes on
and what they do is they put a tiny, tiny electric current
through a disc underneath them
and in that disc is a chemical
that stimulates your sweat glands.
So, it basically tricks the sweat glands,
just in that area,
to think that your body's getting too hot
and that you need to start sweating.
Then what happens, and you might feel this
tingle a little bit,
once it starts sweating under there,
we put this tiny little sterile collector on there
and the sweat goes up into a hole in the bottom,
coils around, we'll see the sweat as it comes through,
'cause there's a tiny bit of blue food dye in there
and then once we've got enough sweat collected,
we run it through the analyzer here.
That measures the conductivity of the sweat
and from that, we can work out the electrolyte content
and we'll be able to give you an idea
on what your way your sweat composition is
on the scale of low, medium, high, or very high,
compared to Mark's,
'cause we've tested him before.
Then we'll get your sweat rate information,
put all that together,
and we can sort of say,
are you a high sweat volume but low sweat salt?
Are you high sweat salt but low sweat volume?
Or vice versa or high and high or low and low?
You could be any of those different things.
- Well this is where things got really interesting
because although our sweat rates are very similar,
the amount of salt or the amount of sodium
that we're losing within that sweat is very different.
- Yeah, it turns out that I'm losing around
778 milligrams per liter
and the average comes in at around 950 to 1000.
So, I'm just underneath that.
- Yeah, whereas I'm losing somewhere in the region of
1474 milligrams per liter.
So I'm losing almost double the amount
that you're losing per liter of sweat.
So, I think we'll speak to Andy
for a little bit more on this.
- Mark would be someone who we'd say actually has a
moderate to possibly slightly high sweat rate,
but a very high sodium concentration.
So, for him, we have a drink,
one of our Precision Hydration drinks,
it's called a 1500, and that's very strong.
So, that's got about three times more sodium
than a normal sports drink
and if Mark was doing a long, hot Ironman race or something,
that is definitely what we'd be getting him to try
because based on all of the theory and practice
that we've had,
that we probably be the best fit for him.
But on the other side,
Heather, with the lower sweat rate,
lower sweat sodium concentration,
you're gonna be better off with something
that is a little bit lighter.
So, we'd put something with about
third of the amount of electrolytes,
which is much more like a standard sports drink basically.
So, that would be the one for you.
And the key thing and this highlights it fantastically well
is that everyone's different.
What's gonna benefit you
is not necessarily gonna work perfectly for Mark
and vice versa.
- Well, this has actually been really interesting,
but what does it mean for you guys watching?
- Well, as we've shown ourselves,
our sweat rates and sodium concentrations
can differ so much between individuals,
so an off the shelf, one size fits all,
doesn't always work.
For instance, a standard electrolyte drink or energy drink,
theoretically, doesn't have any where near
enough sodium in it for myself.
- Yeah and if you're not getting enough electrolytes
during exercise, then it can result in you
getting more cramps or actually not having enough strength.
And if it's even worse,
you could get hyponatremia.
When you don't have enough sodium in your cells
and that can lead to headaches
and even loss of concentration,
and at the worst end of it,
it can lead to nausea and vomiting.
- Yeah, well for most,
it's just a sign of cramps during training or racing.
That was my sign for sure.
So, I've been really keen to look into this.
- Well, I mean it was something that I would have loved
to have known before going to Kona.
Where it's somewhere where the environment,
I knew I would be sweating a lot.
As it turns out, I did have lower sodium loss levels,
if that makes sense.
But if I hadn't and I lost a lot of sodium,
it really could have been a game changer.
- Yeah, I second that.
If you're planning to race in a hot environment
or you do think you lose a lot of salt in your sweat,
then I would certainly recommend looking into this.
(upbeat music)
Right, that's been really interesting today
because I've actually always
suffered with cramps during triathlons.
So, I was possibly missing a bit of a trick
during my triathlon career.
Right, where'd I put my car?
Ah, here it is.
- Yeah, see ya Mark.
Well, as Andy eluded to,
we are all very different
in the amount of sweat that we lose
and the amount of salt that we lose.
So, if you're someone who gets cramp regularly
or when you're competing in hot conditions or training,
you do find a lot of a salt on your skin and your clothes,
then it could certainly be something worth looking into
and it can dramatically affect your performance.
Well, if you want to catch all of our videos from GTN,
just hit the globe to subscribe
and if you want to catch up on all of the
Triathlon Training Explained videos we've made,
we've got the playlist just here.
Right, which one shall I go with?