# Maximising Triathlon Performance: Nutrition, Hydration, and Electrolytes with Andy Blow from PF&H | Ep 556

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 16 Sep 2025, 41 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/108395022/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-8-16%2Fb8f19c0a-7a30-16eb-15fa-40176e9f245d.m4a

In this episode of the Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast, Coach Rob welcomes Andy Blow, founder of Precision Fuel and Hydration back onto the show to discuss the intricacies of nutrition, hydration, and electrolyte intake for triathletes. They answer listener questions on carbohydrate intake, hydration strategies, and individual sodium needs, providing actionable advice and scientific insights. Andy shares his personal experiences as a former professional Ironman triathlete and explains how his struggles in the heat led to the founding of PF&H. Whether you're new to triathlon or a seasoned Ironman, there's a tonne of valuable information to help you optimize your race performance. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Thinking about your first Ironman or 70.3 in 2026? September is the perfect time to start. At Team Oxygenaddict, we specialise in helping busy professionals fit high-quality training around demanding jobs and family life. We’ve just reopened for new athletes with only a handful of September slots available. Join before the end of September to lock in 2025 pricing before our October increase. Book an application call today to find out if you'd be a good fit for Team Oxygenaddict for the coming season here: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/consultation-call/ * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply click this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:04] Hello, and welcome to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.
[0:07] We'll watch you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel and
[0:10] hydration.com. You can get 15% off your first
[0:12] order with the code Oxygen Fuel 25.
[0:16] Welcome to the show everybody. I'm your host coach, Rob Wilby
[0:18] from Team Oxygen Addict Triathlon Coaching, and every
[0:21] week we'll bring you an episode of this podcast to help educate,
[0:24] motivate and inspire you. On this week's episode, I'm
[0:28] going to be talking with Andy Blow, the founder from Precision
[0:31] Fuel and Hydration. We're going to be getting him to
[0:34] answer listener questions that we've had sent in about fueling
[0:38] with carbohydrates, electrolytes and fluid needs.
[0:41] So we've got a whole bunch of questions there and hopefully at
[0:44] the end of this episode you'll have all of the questions
[0:46] answered from the horse's mouth from the person who I consider
[0:50] to be the main man that the best source of information for
[0:54] triathletes. He was a previous former
[0:56] professional Iron Man triathlete himself and started the company
[1:00] to help him solve the problem of why his races were falling apart
[1:04] in the heat. So before we get started, there
[1:07] were two quick things you could do to help us.
[1:09] If you'd like and enjoy this episode, please consider
[1:11] following us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
[1:14] That really makes a massive difference to the show's reach.
[1:17] And if you're looking for help training for your first Iron Man
[1:20] or 73, check out the coaching memberships over at
[1:23] teamoxygenaddiccom. Think we've got the most
[1:26] comprehensive triathlon coaching programme that's specifically
[1:28] designed for busy age grouers? If you're interested, there's a
[1:32] link in the show notes to book a membership call with us and see
[1:34] if you'd be a good fit for joining the team.
[1:36] I've got limited memberships available for September and
[1:39] October. We've had really amazing renewal
[1:42] rates of our athletes in September and October so far
[1:45] this year and it's looking like I'm going to have less than 4
[1:48] memberships available for the rest of September as I'm
[1:51] speaking. And the more people sign up with
[1:53] us and the less of those there will be.
[1:55] So if you are sitting there at home and you've been considering
[1:58] getting in touch for a while and you'd like to get started and
[2:01] have a whole year in preparation for your Iron Man, please don't
[2:04] hesitate. Click a link in the show notes
[2:06] book that membership call and hopefully we'll be able to help
[2:11] you out. Right then let's head over to
[2:13] our interview with Andy Blow from Precision Fuel and
[2:16] Hydration. Andy Blow from Precision Fuel
[2:18] and Hydration, Welcome to the show.
[2:20] It's lovely to have you back on. How you doing mate?
[2:22] Yeah, good. Rob, how are you?
[2:24] Really good. Thank you.
[2:25] And it's nice to get the chance to to chat to you and officially
[2:29] like on a personal level, pat you on the back and say it's
[2:32] awesome that you guys are the the official headline sponsor of
[2:35] the 70.3 World Championships in Marbella.
[2:37] That's unbelievable. What a coup.
[2:40] Mate, who'd have thought that a few years ago when I first came
[2:43] on your podcast many, many years ago.
[2:46] I was thinking like the first time we met was way back in.
[2:49] It was probably 20, 12 or 13 at one of those.
[2:54] We both had tiny little booths at some Expo somewhere, didn't
[2:57] we? Trying to get yes, it's great to
[2:59] see that that's happened, but how did all that come about?
[3:02] Just part of developing our ongoing relationship with
[3:04] Ironman and you know, our presence in triathlon.
[3:08] The opportunity was presented to us really.
[3:11] And at first, you know, we thought now that wouldn't be,
[3:15] that would be too big for us, you know, and then we started to
[3:18] really examine the opportunity and, and thought, well, do you
[3:21] know what this is? This is fantastic because, you
[3:24] know, the origin story of the business, obviously, you know,
[3:27] it revolves around triathlon and Ironman in particular.
[3:31] And so being able to sort of go full circle after all these
[3:35] years and like, be a partner of the Ironman 70.3 World
[3:40] Championships is, yeah, unbelievable.
[3:43] Well, let's go back to the origin story then.
[3:45] Let's do in 2 minutes or less. Let's tell people because we
[3:49] knew each other way back in the day when we were, when we were
[3:51] both, well, I knew of you. You didn't know me, I think
[3:53] because you were the guy winning these things.
[3:55] So, so way back in the day. Let's go back to what originally
[3:59] led to you having the discovery that led to the founding of
[4:03] Precision Fuel and Hydration. Well, yeah, it was.
[4:05] It was late 1990s, early 2000s Triathlon in the transition from
[4:10] speedos to slightly longer shorts.
[4:12] Thankfully there were a few early Speedo shots, but most of
[4:15] my racing was done in like cycling length shorts at least,
[4:19] but definitely tank tops. And yeah, I was, I was doing, I
[4:24] was, I was throwing myself wholeheartedly into triathlon to
[4:27] try and be a professional athlete.
[4:28] And I had a few successes, you know, a few minor successes at a
[4:32] national international level. I gained 3rd at the half final
[4:37] and 70.3 UK one year. Cool conditions and stamped my
[4:42] ticket to Kona and trained really, really hard.
[4:45] Went there with a lot of some justifiably high expectations to
[4:50] do reasonably well. Not not to set the world alight,
[4:53] actually, but I thought I could be competitive in that
[4:56] environment. And my racing Kona like it
[4:59] Austin had done in the past where I raced in the heat and
[5:01] humidity fell apart completely. I ended up in the medical tent.
[5:04] I ended up, you know, slogging in a very, very long lonely day.
[5:08] And you know, all of those experiences in the heat led me
[5:12] to get quite frustrated to investigate why.
[5:14] Why can I, why can this body of mine seem to race pretty well in
[5:18] the cold and tenders terribly badly in the heat and I sweat a
[5:22] lot. I was always covered in salt
[5:24] after races. And a good friend of mine who's
[5:26] a doctor said, think you're just losing a lot of electrolytes.
[5:30] All the problems you have in the cramping, the the dizziness, the
[5:33] sort of the nausea, all of these things, they're all associated
[5:36] with massive electrolyte imbalance.
[5:39] So he he took me into a hospital, gave me a sweat test,
[5:43] which at the time was in the hospital for the diagnosis of
[5:46] cystic fibrosis. This sweat test showed that,
[5:49] yeah, my sweat is incredibly salty, about two times the
[5:52] average. So I lose nearly 2000
[5:54] milligrammes of sodium in a litre of sweat.
[5:57] We, we looked at the numbers of what I was taking in, in races.
[6:01] He advised me to massively increase my sodium intake and my
[6:04] salt intake and actually decrease the water I was
[6:08] drinking as well because I was drinking tonnes of water as I
[6:10] assumed my problems were related to dehydration.
[6:13] And it was like night and day, you know, I, I was back racing,
[6:18] I was never, I would never lie to anyone say my preference is
[6:21] to race in extreme heat. And I was never going to do my
[6:23] best performances. But it enabled me to be
[6:25] competitive. And that was the light bulb that
[6:28] then led to the sweat testing and the multi strength
[6:31] electrolytes and, and all that sort of stuff.
[6:34] And your story was actually not too dissimilar, was it?
[6:37] I was going to say, when when we first met and you told me your
[6:39] story, it was the light bulb for me.
[6:41] It it really was like, you know, my story mirrored yours, except
[6:45] you were racing at a much higher level.
[6:47] And for me, it affected me even in just relatively warm
[6:50] conditions. And it didn't even have to be
[6:51] hot and humid for it to destroy me.
[6:53] And when I remember doing the first race with the PF and H15
[6:58] hundreds, I remember you doing the sweat test on me and saying
[7:01] no one's ever had the sweat test as high as me.
[7:03] And you were like, oh, Oh well, now welcome to the.
[7:06] Club so it. Made a massive difference to me.
[7:10] And I think for the people who are very heavy sweaters or
[7:13] people who are very salty sweaters, there is this missing
[7:16] piece of the puzzle of why do I cross the finish line and go
[7:20] dizzy and end from the stretcher and end from the medical tent.
[7:24] And, and for everyone else, I think just being able to get the
[7:28] right level of electrolytes into the body to balance out what
[7:31] they're losing is, is really essential to keep everyone going
[7:34] well. Yeah.
[7:35] I'd, I'd like to think we know we've nearly 15 years into this
[7:39] business at this point. And when we first met, we were
[7:41] very interested to meet people like you because you represented
[7:45] quite an extreme case like me who dramatically benefited from
[7:48] this. And then over the years, one of
[7:50] the things we had to sort of test and adjust for was like,
[7:53] does does this apply to just a very small niche or is this
[7:57] useful and interesting to a lot of athletes?
[7:59] And the fact that we're still here 15 years later with the
[8:02] successful business and, and a lot of 10s of thousands of
[8:06] athletes that have been tested, that have had their, you know,
[8:08] their hydration advice kind of fine-tuned, I think suggests
[8:13] that it is, it is quite, it's quite a broad fit for a lot of
[8:17] endurance athletes. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
[8:20] And just the fact that I, I remember thinking back to when I
[8:24] used to buy salt tablets to take during training and each one had
[8:27] 250 milligrammes in and I would take one an hour thinking I was
[8:31] really on top of my electrolytes for most people.
[8:34] I mean that that was how much was in a bottle of what we'll
[8:38] say was commercially available sports drink at the time.
[8:41] You know, if an average person's losing 900 or 1000 milligrammes,
[8:44] it's that massive loss happens across a really long day, isn't
[8:47] it? Yeah, and that and that was the
[8:49] difference. A lot of the early sports drinks
[8:51] were designed for soccer players and American football players,
[8:54] people who were playing like 1690 minute games, that kind of
[8:58] thing. You know, we identified pretty
[9:01] early on that the even the average athlete doing an Ironman
[9:05] in hot conditions will probably benefit from taking
[9:07] substantially more in terms of electrolytes and sodium in
[9:10] particular. So we, you know, that's that's
[9:14] when we came up with the concept of the multi strength drinks.
[9:16] It's why we've got pH thousand, which has got 1000 milligrammes
[9:19] a litre on course. The Ironman races that we
[9:22] support, including the world champs in Marbella because it is
[9:25] a really useful addition to most long distance triathletes
[9:31] nutrition strategy. Yeah, 100%.
[9:34] All right, Well, listen, it's, it's great to get you back on
[9:36] and hopefully that's covered the the origin story for people
[9:39] who've who've not heard it before.
[9:40] But I think it's it's great when you get people who are coming
[9:43] into the sport now and see you as this massive established
[9:46] brand sponsoring the World Championships and people forget.
[9:49] I think that every business has to start somewhere and and it
[9:53] starts with a person trying to figure out a problem rather than
[9:57] someone trying to grow a business empire which.
[10:00] Absolutely right. Yeah.
[10:02] No, it's just I've been very fortunate to be able to work in
[10:04] a space that I was very passionate about for a long,
[10:07] long time now. Yeah, it's great, man.
[10:10] So listen, what I've got here is some some listener questions
[10:13] that have come out. I've kind of compiled them from
[10:14] all the the questions that get sent in from the podcast, from
[10:18] emails from viewers, from people on YouTube, and I've tried to
[10:22] break it down. So we'll have a set of questions
[10:24] about carbohydrates and then a set of questions about
[10:27] electrolytes and hydration. And hopefully in the answers to
[10:30] these questions will be the answers to everyone's questions
[10:34] about carbs and hydration. So we'll kick off today then
[10:38] with talking about questions about carbohydrate intake and
[10:42] specifically for 70.3 and for Ironman triathletes.
[10:46] So first up, how many grammes of carbohydrate should I aim to
[10:50] take per hour during an Ironman? Yeah, that is a hot topic
[10:54] question at the moment, isn't it?
[10:55] Because you hear a lot of really big numbers.
[10:57] You know, I've heard some athletes allegedly taking
[11:00] A150182100 grammes an hour lately and there's this like
[11:04] massive escalation. And I think what is fair to say
[11:07] is that athletes, we now understand that athletes can
[11:11] probably benefit from taking significantly more carbohydrate
[11:14] per hour than we used to think, certainly going back 1015 or 20
[11:18] years ago. In reality, it is somewhat
[11:24] individual as to what you can tolerate, what you can use it.
[11:27] That would depend a bit on your Physiology.
[11:29] It would depend on how to an extent, how big or small you
[11:33] are, but less than you might think actually, and a lot to do
[11:37] with how fast you're going. But if you want to like get some
[11:40] ballpark numbers, for most people, most of the time,
[11:44] somewhere between 60 and 90 grammes of carbohydrate is a
[11:47] really, really solid amount to be aiming to take in during an
[11:50] endurance event. And that is, yeah, per hour.
[11:53] And that is going to sound low in comparison to a lot of the
[11:56] chat that you hear online. Now, we do work with lots of
[12:00] professional athletes who take A100110120 grammes of carbs an
[12:05] hour quite routinely when they're racing.
[12:08] And I believe that to be appropriate for most of them
[12:12] most of the time because we're seeing fantastic performances
[12:16] off the back of it. We're seeing them able to, you
[12:19] know, look at my own personal situation.
[12:21] I'm taking way more carbohydrate per hour in my current training
[12:26] regime than I have already considered to be normal 1520
[12:29] years ago and seeing some benefits in terms of both
[12:32] performance and recovery. But if you take the the average
[12:36] middle of the pack athlete, I think aiming to get between 60
[12:40] if you're smaller and on the slower side.
[12:43] And if you're 90, if you're on the bigger and the faster side
[12:47] with a little bit of personal adjustment up and down on those
[12:49] numbers, you're not really too far off the mark.
[12:52] So it's not rocket science that there's a lot of literature out
[12:56] to support that stuff. But I say if you want to like
[13:00] they spin it down into the basics, that's the zone that
[13:02] you're in. Yeah, I think it's a really
[13:04] good, really good starting point, Really good, solid
[13:06] advice. Thank you.
[13:08] Right, next question. How do I and can I train my gut
[13:11] to tolerate higher carb intakes without stomach issues?
[13:15] Yeah, I would say the science around this is younger than the
[13:19] science around carbohydrate utilisation, you know, and the
[13:23] amount of carb we should be taking.
[13:25] But there is an increasing amount of evidence, particularly
[13:28] anecdotal evidence from the athletes that we're working
[13:30] with, that if you stress test your stomach a little bit more
[13:35] in training by taking increasing amounts of carbohydrate in your
[13:39] harder training sessions on a frequent basis, you become more
[13:42] tolerant of that and you're able to process it with less
[13:46] discomfort. Whether some of that, I'm sure
[13:48] there is a psychological element to that because you get used to
[13:51] the feeling of it. There's also, I think a
[13:53] physiological element where you start to change the profile of
[13:57] the gut a little bit. You, you enable the uptake and
[14:00] more carbohydrate. But like anything, it tends to
[14:03] be that you've got to do it progressively.
[14:06] You know, it's like, you can't if, if I, if someone listens to
[14:09] this and thinks, right, well, I'm a biggish athlete and I'm
[14:12] going really quite fast and I want to take 90 grammes an hour,
[14:15] but currently doing 50. Going from 50 to 90 is an
[14:20] inappropriately big step. You want to be nudging it up
[14:22] 607080 whatever the small steps are on the way and kind of
[14:27] feeling your limitations. But really it's, it's, it's
[14:31] practise, It's using your biggest training sessions for
[14:34] triathletes. That's long rides, long hard
[14:36] runs and brick sessions and and recording what you eat and drink
[14:41] and trying to, you know, increase your fuelling numbers
[14:44] over time so that you you get the body ready to to absorb it.
[14:50] Nice, is there a difference between using gels, drinks and
[14:54] solid food for carb intake and is the one that's best for long
[14:58] races? So there are differences, but
[15:01] they're relatively small in terms of how the body treats
[15:04] those things because most sports nutrition is a is glucose or a
[15:08] combination of glucose and fructose.
[15:10] Whether that's in a a bar, whether it's in a gel, whether
[15:13] it's a drink, there might be, you know, the more liquid a
[15:19] carbohydrate source is, typically the quicker it will be
[15:22] absorbed and assimilated. So a drink is probably going to
[15:26] be absorbed and assimilated a bit faster than an energy bar
[15:30] bit. But if an energy bar is a simple
[15:33] carbohydrate structure, it'll also be absorbed pretty quickly.
[15:37] The differences start to come a little bit more around what's
[15:40] practical and what's usable. You know, eating bars on the run
[15:45] is tricky and chewing, you know, when you're breathing hard, all
[15:49] that sort of stuff. It's, it's just not the best
[15:51] format. That's why a lot of people use
[15:54] gels a lot of the time or liquids because they're easier
[15:57] to take in. Same, same argument on the bike.
[16:00] You know you can, you can easily slurp down a gel or drink from a
[16:05] bottle on the bike, but unwrapping and chewing down a
[16:08] bar, they're more appropriate for use on the bike.
[16:11] But in a race, you wouldn't see many top athletes using 1.
[16:14] So when it comes down to choosing your former of energy
[16:17] product, a lot of it comes down to like practical considerations
[16:21] more than physiological ones. It's like whatever works for
[16:25] you. We always say, and I've said
[16:26] this to you before, our blur like this, there's the three
[16:29] things you need when you're racing.
[16:30] There's carbs, there's fluid and there's electrolytes.
[16:32] It's the amount of each of those that that you get in that
[16:36] matters most of all. That's the bottle of the pyramid
[16:38] of the hierarchy of needs. You know how you do that?
[16:42] What kind of products you use Is is, it can be important, but
[16:46] it's very much secondary to getting the right numbers in.
[16:49] Nice one. OK.
[16:50] Next question, Should I use carb sources that have got glucose
[16:55] and fructose and will that help increase absorption?
[16:59] Yeah, that's a really easy like yes, basically whether that's a
[17:03] 2 to one or 1 to 0.8 ratio, which is showing some, you know,
[17:09] some people are getting excited about that.
[17:10] I think perhaps a bit over excited about differences in
[17:13] ratios. But basically in your gut you've
[17:16] got receptors that absorb carbohydrate.
[17:18] The receptors that absorb glucose are separate to the ones
[17:22] that absorb fructose and you can you can absorb more
[17:26] simultaneously if you have a mixture of glucose and fructose.
[17:30] And most of them, the solid science points towards the idea
[17:34] that a 2:00 to 1:00-ish ratio of glucose to fructose, which is
[17:38] what pretty much all good sports nutrition these days is based
[17:42] on, is is worth doing. You know, it's it's certainly
[17:45] should set. When you start to get above 60
[17:48] grammes an hour particularly, that's when it really gets
[17:50] helpful. Right, nice.
[17:53] And then how much carb should I take in before the swim start of
[17:57] a triathlon? And how soon before the gun
[18:00] should I have it, if at all? Yeah.
[18:04] So I think there's two parts to that.
[18:06] There's probably like breakfast and then there's there's
[18:09] carbohydrate. Do you take anything like in the
[18:11] immediate build up to the start breakfast?
[18:14] First of all, I would say yes, breakfast is important for long
[18:18] distance triathletes and but it's difficult or it can be
[18:23] difficult, especially on a nervous stomach, especially with
[18:26] a very, very early start. Often Ironman races in
[18:28] particular start really early in the morning.
[18:30] You've often got a whole logistical nightmare of getting
[18:33] from wherever you're staying to the start.
[18:35] And so you might be having breakfast like at 4:00 AM, three
[18:38] hours before you start time or something.
[18:41] It's difficult to eat a lot. So, you know, going back even
[18:44] further than that 48 hours prior, really good carb load is
[18:48] the foundation that you really need because that's going to
[18:51] stock up your muscles. Your breakfast on the morning is
[18:54] about replacing liver glycogen that was burned overnight while
[18:57] you're sleeping because you because your glycogen stores and
[19:01] your muscles don't get depleted overnight significantly, but
[19:03] your liver ones do. So usually it's a carbohydrate
[19:07] rich breakfast between, you know, like 3 hours and 90
[19:11] minutes before the start ideally.
[19:13] And the amount is really down to what you can comfortably
[19:16] tolerate. It's usually like a bagel and
[19:19] some honey and a cup of coffee or something like that.
[19:23] And plus maybe an energy bar or a little bit of sports
[19:27] nutrition. But you need you need to get
[19:28] some of the in just to replace that liver glycogen in the
[19:31] immediate run up to the swim start.
[19:33] We encourage a lot of athletes to experiment with either taking
[19:36] gel or a caffeine gel or a chew about 15 minutes before the gun.
[19:41] And that's because it takes about 15 minutes for that
[19:45] glucose and that energy to sharpen your bloodstream.
[19:49] And if you can put a little bit more energy in just before the
[19:54] start and time it so that that's being released and is available
[19:58] to your circulation when you get going, then that will further
[20:01] help spare muscle glycogen when you're racing.
[20:05] So when we do the case studies that we do with athletes on how
[20:07] much carbohydrate they've consumed during a race, we
[20:10] actually include in that calculation the gel or.
[20:14] Chew or whatever they took 15 minutes before the start because
[20:17] effectively that sort of in race fuelling.
[20:19] It's just that you're taking it pre emptively.
[20:22] The caveat to that is you've got to practise that to make sure
[20:25] you you can comfortably tolerate that.
[20:27] You're not going to get any funny wobbles with blood sugar
[20:30] or it's just not going to make you feel sick.
[20:32] Most athletes can can do it in our experience, but you don't
[20:35] want to just be doing that on race day.
[20:36] You need to practise that in training all.
[20:38] Right. Great.
[20:40] OK, so we've got some questions on hydration and electrolyte
[20:44] intake and again mainly focusing on Iron Man 70.3 athletes.
[20:48] So firstly, how much fluid should I be drinking per hour on
[20:53] the bike and on the run? That is a real how long is a
[20:57] piece of string question, as you, as you sort of know from
[21:00] the wry smile on your face, because trying to tell people,
[21:04] you know, like, how much should they drink?
[21:06] It's that's the most individual thing I would say about the, the
[21:10] in race sports nutrition going to depend on how much you sweat
[21:14] as an individual, how hot it is and how hard you're working.
[21:18] So to give you the range, you know, we see in our case study
[21:21] data, some athletes drinking as little as probably 3 or 400
[21:25] millilitres an hour throughout an Ironman and completing it
[21:29] successfully if they're not a big sweater.
[21:33] And if the conditions are cool or cold, which is rare honestly,
[21:38] in in Ironman races. If you go to the other extreme
[21:41] with some of the fastest, biggest professional athletes we
[21:46] work with, or some of the biggest sweaters and we put them
[21:48] in hot and humid conditions, we can see people drinking 1.5
[21:52] litres an hour on average throughout the course of the
[21:56] full distance race. And therefore that should range,
[22:01] you know, like the lower end to the upper end, somewhere in the
[22:05] middle. You know, A bottle an hour on
[22:08] average, IE 500 to 750 mil depending on what size you're
[22:12] doing, is probably not a horrendous ballpark figure.
[22:17] But it is going to need a lot of adjustment.
[22:20] Because if your true needs are down at 3 or 400 millilitres now
[22:24] and you drink 750 an hour, you're nearly doubling your
[22:27] needs the same time. If you drink 500 mils an hour, 1
[22:31] bottle and your, your needs are closer to 1 1/2 litres an hour,
[22:34] you are a massive amount. You're, you're a third, you're
[22:38] 33% of what you actually need. So I think it's like understand
[22:44] a bit about your sweat rate, understand a bit about your
[22:47] pacing and then understand what the weather conditions are going
[22:51] to be. And then it's it's trial and
[22:53] erroring within that, within that range and.
[22:57] I think that's, that's a really important point is that it's not
[23:00] something we can read off a card and give people direct advice
[23:03] about something that's really important for athletes to trial
[23:06] and training and to become aware of.
[23:09] You know, we're always talking to our athletes about if you're
[23:11] going out on a day that's hotter than usual, you're going to need
[23:15] to drink more than usual. But start making a note of this
[23:18] in the 12 weeks leading up to race day, the temperature was
[23:21] this, I drank this much on average.
[23:24] The temperature, you know, if it's higher or lower than that,
[23:26] then you can get some really good data and be able to adjust
[23:29] that on the fly. It's the it's a situation I
[23:32] think where athletes just guess at it on race day with with no
[23:37] background that that can maybe get them into some difficulty
[23:40] there. I could not agree more.
[23:42] It is absolutely about going through that process in smaller
[23:45] races and big training sessions. You know, I'm training for a
[23:49] marathon at the moment and I, it's going to be in like fairly
[23:52] optimal conditions, I think based on the weather conditions
[23:55] of where I'm going to be racing. But I'm working on trying to,
[24:00] trying to figure out is 500 millilitres an hour give or take
[24:04] about the right fluid intake. To me, it kind of feels like it
[24:07] at marathon pace and it's it's kind of a comfortable amount for
[24:12] me to tolerate getting down. And it will leave me a little
[24:16] bit dehydrated and depleted at the end of a 2 1/2 hour run.
[24:20] But at the same time, not to the point where my performance is
[24:23] falling off on the bike. Though if I was training for
[24:26] swimming cycling, I'd be taking significantly more because of
[24:29] the ease of being able to take it.
[24:31] So they said use your training sessions to try and you know,
[24:35] like dial in a combination of what you can tolerate and what
[24:39] leaves you feeling good at the end of it.
[24:42] And you'll start to zone in on what the right number is for
[24:45] you. But yeah, a lot of athletes
[24:47] don't do that and they do leave that to chance on race day, and
[24:52] that's not a good strategy. OK, next question.
[24:55] Why do I need to use electrolytes in my in my drink?
[24:58] Isn't plain water just OK? Plain water can definitely be OK
[25:03] for some athletes some of the time, and most athletes will
[25:06] drink some plain water during their races.
[25:09] But basically the problem with drinking only plain water in a
[25:13] long race and if you're someone who sweats a lot, is that you
[25:16] can progressively dilute the electrolytes that are in your
[25:20] bloodstream that are in your body.
[25:22] Your body maintains very, very tight control over the sodium
[25:26] levels in your blood. It tries to keep them at about
[25:28] 135 milligrammes per litre and if sorry, millimoles per litre.
[25:36] And if you if you dilute that down by drinking too much water,
[25:40] you can get what's called hypernatremia, which is a
[25:43] condition a lot of athletes will have heard about.
[25:45] And it it can be certainly it's very detrimental to your
[25:48] performance. Even at a low level, it can be
[25:50] very detrimental to your health and athletes who even died of
[25:53] it. So there is this, there's this
[25:56] strong case as the bases get longer and hotter and as your
[25:58] sweat rate goes up, that you need to start taking some level
[26:02] of sodium in the other. The other factor that plays into
[26:06] this though is like how much sodium do you lose as an
[26:09] individual? Because as we know from sweat
[26:11] testing, some people sweat out very, very dilute sweat and they
[26:15] don't have to take too much electrolyte in because the
[26:18] amount that they're losing is relatively constrained.
[26:21] Some of us, like you and I lose tonnes of sodium and immediately
[26:25] feel the benefit of supplementing A relatively
[26:28] aggressive amount. And when I say like a little bit
[26:31] of sodium or lot. So some athletes will get away
[26:33] with two or 300 milligrammes of sodium per hour in a race and
[26:38] others will be up at 1500 or even a little bit more 1500
[26:42] milligrammes an hour or per litre.
[26:44] And so it's again, it's it's one of those questions where there's
[26:50] no one-size-fits-all answer. But the longer the race, the
[26:54] heavier a sweater you are, the hotter than your humid the
[26:57] weather, the more your likely to want to take some some
[27:02] electrolytes and progressively stronger ones.
[27:05] And I would say if people are like unsure about digging into
[27:10] that, like we've got loads of articles on the precision fuel
[27:13] and hydration knowledge of website.
[27:14] That is the bread and butter of what we've built the business on
[27:17] is trying to help people get that conundrum right.
[27:19] We've also got loads of case studies from Ironman races with
[27:22] different examples of how people have managed their hydration and
[27:25] I would say get stuck into those and sort of look at scenarios
[27:29] that are similar to yours and it'll be helpful in dialling
[27:33] that number in for you. Yeah, I was going to say that
[27:35] that's the first place to go and and to get on and take your
[27:38] online sweat test, that they can just answer some questions and
[27:41] that really points them in the direction of heavy sweater,
[27:44] light sweater, salty sweater, not so salty.
[27:48] Just that basic information I think can be really, really
[27:50] helpful for people. OK, how can I tell if I'm
[27:54] drinking too much or too little during the race?
[27:57] Now that might seem like an obvious question, but but let's
[28:00] go through the answer anyway. Kind of, but also maybe not
[28:04] until you've really thought about it or experienced it,
[28:06] because when you're racing, especially when you're new to
[28:09] the sport and you're a bit, you know, there's a lot going on.
[28:12] It's a bit like being a novice that anything is overwhelming,
[28:15] you know, being for you and I driving a van car.
[28:19] You look, you're driving along, you check the mirrors, you do
[28:22] this, you feel very relaxed. You can see what's going on.
[28:25] Learners like grip the wheel like that and they can't if you
[28:28] ask them what's going on behind, it's an effort to take their
[28:31] vision from what's down the road to the the rear view and they're
[28:33] not thinking about that. And novice athletes, you know,
[28:37] we know they, they struggle with pace judgement.
[28:40] You know, they don't know how fast they're running or how fast
[28:43] or how much power they're putting out when they're riding
[28:44] without feedback. And it's the same with it's the
[28:48] same with your nutrition and hydration requirements.
[28:51] You probably aren't thinking about how thirsty you are when
[28:54] you're doing your first ever race because you're thinking
[28:56] about all these other feelings that you're feeling in the and,
[29:00] and what's going on in the race. So I'd say like if you're not
[29:03] drinking enough, at some point you're going to get really
[29:05] thirsty, but then it might be a bit late.
[29:09] So you have to be mindful to think about how thirsty you're
[29:12] getting. And thirst is a sure sign that
[29:15] you're under hydrating. On the flip side, you've got if
[29:19] you're over drinking, if you're like drinking to a schedule and
[29:22] you just keep you or you're nervous about getting dehydrated
[29:25] and you're starting to feel fluids flush in your stomach.
[29:28] If you're stopping to have to have a pee numerous times.
[29:31] These are all signs that you over cranking the fluid intake.
[29:35] And it is all about staying within those those guardrails.
[29:39] Ultimately, you get better at monitoring and listening to your
[29:43] body and deciding, have I just got a bit of a dry mouth because
[29:46] I've got out of a salty swim and it's a warm day?
[29:49] Or am I, have I got a really dry mouth because I'm becoming
[29:52] dehydrated? They're two different.
[29:54] There's a subtlety in the difference of those sensations.
[29:58] Yeah, good. OK.
[30:00] Next question then. Should I adjust my hydration
[30:03] strategy for hot races versus cooler races?
[30:08] Absolutely, and that's where practise comes in and that's
[30:10] where, you know you want to look at different scenarios.
[30:14] Obviously with some races where the conditions can be reasonably
[30:17] predictable and those ones allow you to forecast ahead.
[30:20] We know if you're racing in Kona, it's going to be hot and
[30:23] it's going to be humid. You know, I don't know how many
[30:26] years I've been there and it's never been anything other than
[30:29] that. So guarantee, you know, Iron
[30:32] Man, you know, Leeds though, for example, it could be 28°,
[30:38] beautiful sunshine, really hot day, it could be 8° and peeing
[30:43] with rain. And so you're going to need to
[30:46] have an idea of what you might need on those different
[30:48] scenarios. So yeah, that comes down to
[30:50] simulating different conditions where you can, figuring out how
[30:55] much fluid, how much electrolyte you're going to need in those,
[30:58] and then really making sure that you've got, you've got what you
[31:04] need available at the right time.
[31:06] Because we every plan needs a bit of adjustment on the fly.
[31:10] But the one thing you can't do is you can't on a hot and humid
[31:13] day, conjure up more fluid in an electrolyte that you don't
[31:16] already have. You know, you need to have more
[31:18] available. You don't necessarily need to
[31:21] drink it all. But if it's really hot and
[31:23] humid, I'd be carrying extra electrolyte captures with me.
[31:25] I'd be making sure I understand where I can access more water,
[31:28] and I'd be having a plan to say, yeah, I'm going to slow down on
[31:31] the bike and stop at an extra aid station and fill my bottles
[31:33] back up in order that I've got the options to keep drinking
[31:38] rather than not. Because no one likes that
[31:40] feeling. We've all had it on in a race on
[31:43] a trainer. You pick up the bottle and you
[31:44] shake it and you're thirsty as hell.
[31:46] Isn't you just sucking air out of it?
[31:48] It's a horrid, horrid feeling. So you definitely need a plan.
[31:53] And I quite commonly say on the podcast, and I genuinely mean
[31:57] this, I think getting electrolytes, fluid and carb
[32:01] intake right on race day is as important as getting the
[32:04] training right and the lead up to race days, it's like this
[32:07] little set of keys that can unlock the performance or can
[32:10] completely lock you out of any kind of performance.
[32:13] Absolutely. That and pacing, you know,
[32:15] they're the two things fundamentally that are in your
[32:18] control on race day. And so, yeah, getting those
[32:20] right, this is, is essential. OK, last question then.
[32:24] How do I know how much sodium I personally need compared to
[32:29] other guidelines? Because, you know, we've already
[32:31] learned that this is very different from person to person.
[32:34] So how can people find out what they need?
[32:36] Yeah, the, the gold standard is to to have a sweat test is to
[32:40] understand, you know, how much sodium you're losing and how
[32:43] much total sweat you're losing. And now even with that, there's
[32:47] no linear mathematical model you can punch the numbers into and
[32:51] get an exact amount. I need to drink this, I need to
[32:54] take that amount of sodium. But it helps you to get in the
[32:56] right ballpark if you do a sweat test, you understand.
[33:00] Yeah, I'm Rob. I'm a really salty sweater and I
[33:03] have a high sweat rate. Then there is plenty of guidance
[33:07] out there to suggest that you should be taken somewhere north
[33:11] of 1000 milligrammes of sodium per litre of fluid that you
[33:14] drink. And you then start to do that
[33:17] and you test and adjust that in training in a races to, to dial
[33:21] it in and refine it in. You know, if you can't have the
[33:24] sweat test, there are tools online like the one on our
[33:27] website that help you to estimate whether you're a salty
[33:30] or sweater or a less salty sweater.
[33:33] And again, that can give you guidance as to what your number
[33:36] is likely to be in terms of sodium electrolyte requirement.
[33:39] And then you need to practise and fine tune.
[33:41] And it comes back to that like organised scientific trial and
[33:44] error that you do in training and in races.
[33:47] The, the range that we're normally talking about is like
[33:51] in long distance races, it's very rare that people will take
[33:56] or want or need to take 0 electrolytes.
[33:59] You know, there's usually a small requirement. 200, two, 150
[34:02] milligrammes per litre or per hour would be a really, really
[34:05] low amount of sodium to be taken in for a long distance race.
[34:09] Right up to in excess of, you know, we have case studies where
[34:12] people are taking 15-18 hundred milligrammes of sodium per litre
[34:16] of fluid that they drink if they're very heavy and salty
[34:19] sweaters and everything in between.
[34:21] And you know, pH thousand is the midpoint of our product range.
[34:26] And it's the, and we have 1000 milligrammes in our carbon
[34:29] electrolyte drink as well for a reason.
[34:31] And that's because the average person lives is about 900 to
[34:35] 1000 milligrammes of sodium per litre of sweat.
[34:37] And putting something in. If you if you really don't know
[34:39] where else to start, putting something in around that kind of
[34:43] level and then adjusting it is probably a good way to go.
[34:47] Yeah. And then last question then just
[34:49] to add on to that, I sometimes have athletes ask me, is there a
[34:54] danger for me taking a bit too much?
[34:57] If should I worry if I'm taking 1000 and it turns out I only
[35:00] need 500? Is there any danger to me?
[35:03] Danger is quite a strong word. I mean, taking more than what
[35:07] you need of anything is not a good idea.
[35:09] You know, if you take more carbohydrate than you need and
[35:12] could tolerate, you're probably going to be sick.
[35:13] If you take more water than you need, you could become
[35:17] hypernatremic or you can certainly get, you know, feel
[35:20] nauseated and get sloshing around your stomach.
[35:22] If you take too much sodium, you'll generally find you'll
[35:25] feel thirsty because that rising in sodium levels will will
[35:32] you'll start to crave plain water to dilute it back down.
[35:35] So that's the sign. There's a whole different kind
[35:38] of worms out there about chronic high sodium diets and sodium
[35:43] intake, especially incidentary people who are not exercising
[35:45] and that and there's a it's relatively well proven that that
[35:50] is not a good thing. You know, you're right.
[35:51] It's very well proven that excessive salt intake, sodium
[35:54] intake's not good for your general health.
[35:56] But in the context of athletes exercising hard and sweating a
[35:59] lot, I think there's probably as many cases of people
[36:03] inadequately replacing sodium as there are over.
[36:06] So you are looking for a sweet spot.
[36:08] It's, it's very possible to not take enough and it's very
[36:11] possible to take too much. So I wouldn't routinely advise
[36:15] people to, you know, we, we have the pH 500,015 hundred in our
[36:20] range. We do get asked the question a
[36:21] lot. Well, why don't I just take the
[36:22] strongest 1, you know, because what you're looking for is the
[36:27] most appropriate one for you. You want to replace your
[36:30] individual needs relatively closely, not give your body an
[36:35] excess, but not give it a deficit.
[36:37] So danger is a strong word, like anything to which of way too
[36:44] much of it is dangerous. But I would say it's more just,
[36:47] you know, I encourage athletes to wear a little bit on the side
[36:50] of caution in long hot races because a little bit more is
[36:54] probably better than a little bit less.
[36:57] And if you start to feel thirsty for plain water, that's a sign
[37:00] that maybe you'd rather be coming just straight up
[37:03] dehydrated or you've taken a bit too much salt.
[37:07] And without going down another rabbit hole, the other thing,
[37:09] and I think we've talked about this before, is the danger with
[37:12] athletes as a breed is that if you say take a little bit more,
[37:16] people will like, oh, a little bit more.
[37:18] That means like loads more or then what is a little bit more
[37:22] a? Little bit good then, surely
[37:24] lots were it. Even better.
[37:26] Yeah. Like, why would I run 50 miles a
[37:28] week when I could run 150 miles a week?
[37:30] You notice that? Well, there's a diminishing
[37:32] return and a negative on it. So it's about understanding the
[37:36] appropriateness of the numbers. And again, just to frame that in
[37:38] people's heads, like 203 hundred milligrammes of sodium a litre
[37:42] is a very, very light amount for an endurance athlete.
[37:45] And 1500 milligrammes a litre is a very, very strong amount.
[37:50] You'd very rarely see people outside of that band.
[37:54] And a lot of people are going to be kind of somewhere in the
[37:56] middle. 1000 milligrammes a litre is a good catch all, if
[38:00] such a thing exists. Yeah.
[38:02] Nice, great. But we know your products are
[38:04] going to be on course in all of the major European 70.3 and Iron
[38:10] Man races over the coming seasons.
[38:13] So people have got, it's great that people have got access to
[38:15] them just on course rather than needing to worry about
[38:18] necessarily take it with them. What have you guys got lined up
[38:21] for the future then just to wrap up our interview today.
[38:24] Continuing, I think to build on the, the product line, you know,
[38:28] as, as we figure out how we can improve project share, we we not
[38:32] long ago, only a few years ago brought out a gel and then we
[38:34] did the 90 gramme gel pouch, which is bigger and easier to
[38:37] carry and you can get more gel in one.
[38:39] We then got the flow gel, which is fantastic for Iron Man, you
[38:42] know, on the, on the bike. So we've got other products in
[38:46] the pipeline, you know, that that that complement what people
[38:49] are doing with their fuelling and hydration like developments
[38:51] on that. We're really big on continuing
[38:54] to build out our education services, our consultancies that
[38:57] we do with athletes. So anyone who's listening to
[39:00] this can book a free video consultation with our sports
[39:02] science team, the links on the footer of our website.
[39:05] So we're, we're building the team aware and we're building an
[39:08] education programme internally in the company with the team.
[39:11] So, so that we can help consult, work with athletes better.
[39:15] We're also looking at the tools like our free fuel and hydration
[39:18] planner online because we think there's massive room.
[39:20] It's a good tool already, but we think there's massive room for
[39:23] improvement with that. So honestly, Rob, it's a lot of
[39:27] like more of the same, but better.
[39:28] It's like it's iterative improvement is what we're aiming
[39:31] for. Nice.
[39:32] Well, I've, I've got the link down below in the show notes in
[39:36] the podcast and the YouTube videos for people to book calls
[39:39] with you guys. That's great.
[39:40] But Andy, thank you very much for coming on and answering all
[39:43] the listener questions. I think that's going to be
[39:45] really helpful for athletes and we look forward to seeing you on
[39:49] course on the video of the Iron Man 70.3 World Championships in
[39:52] Marbury coming up very shortly. Yeah.
[39:54] It's going to be a very exciting weekend.
[39:56] Very, very. Yeah.
[39:57] Can't wait for that. Brilliant.
[39:59] All right, you take good care. Thanks man.
[40:01] Thanks, Rob. OK, so to wrap up this week's
[40:04] show, here are some discount codes and deals for you over at
[40:07] Precision Fuel on hydration.com. If you've been inspired by
[40:10] today's interview with Andy and you want to, you want to invest
[40:13] and get yourself some of the best products on the market, in
[40:15] my opinion, you can use the code Oxygen Fuel 25 for 15% off your
[40:20] first order of electrolytes and carbohydrates.
[40:22] And over at teamoxygenaddict.com, like I've
[40:25] said, I think we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching
[40:27] programme specifically designed for busy age groupers.
[40:31] If you're looking for coaching to go into the 2026 season,
[40:34] please get in touch quickly. Our annual price rise happens at
[40:37] the end of September, so you get to get in now, lock in the 2025
[40:42] coaching rate and hopefully get one of the 3 or 4 remaining
[40:47] slots as I speak for you right now.
[40:49] So there's a link in the show notes.
[40:50] You can book a membership call and we'll see if you'd be a good
[40:53] fit for joining the team. So remember, there's links down
[40:56] below in the show notes. You don't have to remember them.
[40:58] And until next week, have a great safe training and racing
[41:01] week. I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've
[41:03] been listening to the Oxygen Addict Triathlon Podcast.

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