Episode 6 - interview with Andy Blow, Precision Hydration - tips on better hydration for endurance

Dec 20, 2018

Andy Blow, founder of Precision Hydration and former British triathlete, shares his journey from aspiring soccer player to hydration innovation leader. The conversation dives into the importance of personalized hydration for different athletes, revealing how sweat testing can tailor solutions to individual needs. Andy shares fascinating insights from his work with Formula One and discusses the significant role hydration plays in enhancing endurance performance. Listeners gain valuable tips for improving hydration strategies, especially for triathletes and swimmers.

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INSIGHT

Sweat Rate vs. Salt Loss

Sweat rate and salt loss vary independently; high sweat volume doesn't always mean high sodium loss.
Tailoring hydration depends on understanding both fluid and salt loss individually.

ANECDOTE

Andy’s Hydration Struggle in Kona

Andy suffered severe heat illness in Kona due to high salt loss and inadequate replacement.
A sweat test revealed his body lost significantly more sodium than typical, altering his hydration approach.

ANECDOTE

Tough Otillo SwimRun Experience

Andy and Paul endured the grueling Otillo SwimRun, where Andy mostly led despite plans.
Both struggled with technical running sections and were physically beaten up days after.

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Today we are joined by Head Coach Paul Newsome's long-time friend, fellow Bath University Sport & Exercise Science graduate, British triathlon team member, founder of www.precisionhydration.com (to name but one of his many exciting ventures!), and most recently, the guy who dragged Coach Paul around the world's toughest single-day endurance event, the infamous Otillo SwimRun World Championships in Sweden!!

Listen to Paul and Andy chew the fat about Sport Science and how / where their paths in this discipline diverged (Andy - more towards physiology, nutrition and testing; Paul - more towards biomechanics and coaching). Andy's story is super exciting from being a prospective Leicester City youth team soccer player in his early teens, to becoming a formidable force in triathlon in the early / mid-2000s, to now helping tens of thousands of athletes in sports as diverse as baseball to biathlon improve their performance through a better understanding of their hydration requirements.

You'll notice a distinct similarity in Andy's work with individualisation in this regard to our own Swim Types (www.swimtypes.com) coaching methodology, which was the primary prompt to interview Andy for your listening pleasure.

Andy shares some interesting insights into his time working with the Bennetton Formula One racing team and Porsche (much to Adam's excitement, being a massive F1 fan himself) including superstars such as Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button and their cross-training pursuits into triathlon.

We look at simple hydration strategies that will really make a difference for you (as well as how to avoid pitfalls such as hyponatremia which can be life threatening).

Andy has put up a great article at https://goo.gl/ex9AKM which is well worth a read - you can even take their sophisticated online questionnaire which will help you pinpoint where your hydration requirements most likely lie.

For additional hydration tips and strategies and to follow some of the amazing athletes who use Precision Hydration to get their edge, follow them on @thesweatexperts on the usual social media channels.

Enjoy!

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