Let's Talk About SWEAT!

Let’s talk about SWEAT baby! {Let’s talk about you and me }. Seriously folks ... this is important stuff. I promise. Keep reading.
Do you know your sweat rate?
Should you know your sweat rate?
Heck yes you should! It’s important, so here’s the why and how to. ▶️Why? When you know how much you sweat you know how much you need to properly hydrate. Sweat loss can vary a great deal from athlete to athlete. It’s not a one size fits all or drink when you are thirsty type of answer! Dehydration is one of the #1 causes of “bonking” or “crashing” or hitting a “wall” during a race. It also greatly affects how you will feel for the rest of the day after a tough workout or a race. Have you ever been medically dehydrated after race? I have... and it sucks! {Being pushed away in a wheelchair and getting an IV instead of hugging your kids and hubby is not the way I like to celebrate the end of a race}. Also, you feel crummy the rest of the day too.

▶️Here’s how to figure out your own unique sweat rate.

KNOW THY SWEAT RATE (From @runnersworldmag ).

1️⃣Weigh yourself nude right before a run.
2️⃣Run at race pace for 1 hour, keeping track of how many ounces you drink.
3️⃣Weigh yourself nude again.
4️⃣Subtract your current weight from your original weight and convert to ounces. Then add to that number however many ounces of liquid you consumed on your run. (For example, if you lost a pound and drank 16 ounces, your total fluid loss is 32 ounces).

5️⃣ To determine how much you should be drinking every 15 minutes, divide your hourly fluid loss by 4 (in the above example it would be 8 ounces). ▶️ An important note- weather and temperature affect your rate so test a few times to know how you do in cold versus hot versus humid. Additionally- your rate will change based on your fitness, muscle and fat.
Ya get me? ▶️Phew! That’s kind of a lot of numbers but it’s so worth doing. It’s especially important to know your ratio for races and hard training sessions. Do you know yours? Have you done this test before? Let me know how it goes if you decide to try.