As an engineer, no one appreciates metrics more than I do. However, nothing replaces listening to your body. Thanks, Matt, for another fun-to-watch review.
I agree 100% about listening to your body, but the main benefit i've found from the Nix pod is actually getting a number on my sweat loss. It's made me realize I need to drink/fuel even if my body will let me run without too much complaining.
Great info, Matt. I'm not surprised that you're a 100th percentile sweater. Being tall and having long limbs, you've got a lot of skin. Conditions here aren't as severe, but I'm a half a foot shorter and significantly heavier and I struggle on steamy days. Simply overheating is the problem, well before my hydration level comes into play. For me it's enough to be well hydrated before I go out and to start loading up again as soon as I get back, and to keep on drinking because I'm still sweating long after the end of the run. Drinking something really cold during the run, if that's available, helps more than the limited volume I can take in while running. Anyway, the usual rambling comment from me... It sounds like a nicely executed device and it's really interesting to see concrete numbers on your water and electrolyte losses, just to get an idea of the quantities involved.
I have thought it was enough to pre/post hydrate, but the numbers made me second guess that thinking. I also realize that when I do fuel enough I feel better. It's not that I felt bad when I don't hydrate during a run, it's just I feel slightly better when I do. I'm not sure knowing all this info will make me take a bottle on every run, but perhaps my workouts... How has the weather been where you live? Warmer than average, right? The weather has been the top news story for a few days now.
@@its_Matt_B_ We're all different in so many ways. There were summers where I carried a bottle or wore a hydration pack but it didn't keep me from blowing up on runs. I'm fleshier than the lean real-runner type and might also have several camel genes, and my core temperature gets too high long before I run low on fluids. I wish I cooled myself well enough for that to be a factor. A big step for me was realizing that the challenge was to stay within the thermal envelope. Drinking and fueling to feel better and work harder made matters worse. But yeah, we love to complain about the weather, don't we? Honestly it's been unseasonable here but not extreme. Summer showed up at the start of May and has been here ever since, but it's been normal for us as summer weather goes, just early. We've had a couple of days with dew points over 70° and I really feel that. The days when it's gone above 90° were less humid -- easier to raise the temperature of dry air so it's a double win on the relative humidity fraction, warmer air having the ability to hold more moisture but less water vapor actually in the air. At 35% relative humidity I can do something, and my afternoon runs went surprisingly well on those days. I hope you're holding up well. It looks like you're still putting in some great runs from what I see on Strava.
That is some interesting data! I feel like I just jumped in the pool 5 minutes into a run. I can’t imagine how it is in FL This time of the year! Even on 9°F days I have sweatsicles hanging off my sunglasses 😂during the cooler months I cut way back on sodium intake but in the summer I can’t get enough it seems…
I am interested in this sensor as I am a very sweaty person and I could help me stay hydrated during a race. Obviously, the limiting factor is cost of consumables. I wish there is more competition among gadgets for monitoring hydration and blood glucose. Maybe there will be a device that will combine both in one strip. Did you verify the amounts reported by weighing yourself before and after a run (assuming that you are not doing bathroom stops)? Interesting that Maurten 160 has double the hydration (salt) as Maurten 320. I would have thought 320 packs was just double the size. Their list would be more useful if one is allowed to add a custom hydration.I use SIS and Nuun hydration but recently has also incorporated jars of nuun which is different than the tablets (also incorporate some carbs)
The cost of patches is a limiting factor, but also not as this is not something one would use on every run. No, I did not verify with by weighing myself, although in the past there had been a time when I was curious about that and found I repeatedly lost +/-10 lbs of sweat on 10 miles runs in the summer.
This is a great concept - a bit pricey for me. I'd be interesting to see your thoughts on this device after couple weeks and more runs. Also would be curious to see how its results compare to the fluid loss estimate in the Garmin watches. And does the device provide more hydration recommendations before a run using the stats?
I wish I would have thought about comparing Garmin's fluid loss with Nix, but FYI, as an example on that trail run: Garmin reported a loss of 1613ml when Nix reported 2741ml. There is no hydration recommendations before a run, but this isn't something it could accurately do because it has no idea what we would have already drank.
As an engineer, no one appreciates metrics more than I do. However, nothing replaces listening to your body. Thanks, Matt, for another fun-to-watch review.
I agree 100% about listening to your body, but the main benefit i've found from the Nix pod is actually getting a number on my sweat loss. It's made me realize I need to drink/fuel even if my body will let me run without too much complaining.
@@its_Matt_B_ I used a spreadsheet-based sweat-loss calculator until I developed an intuitive feel for when to hydrate. Cheers, Matt.
Great info, Matt. I'm not surprised that you're a 100th percentile sweater. Being tall and having long limbs, you've got a lot of skin. Conditions here aren't as severe, but I'm a half a foot shorter and significantly heavier and I struggle on steamy days. Simply overheating is the problem, well before my hydration level comes into play. For me it's enough to be well hydrated before I go out and to start loading up again as soon as I get back, and to keep on drinking because I'm still sweating long after the end of the run. Drinking something really cold during the run, if that's available, helps more than the limited volume I can take in while running. Anyway, the usual rambling comment from me... It sounds like a nicely executed device and it's really interesting to see concrete numbers on your water and electrolyte losses, just to get an idea of the quantities involved.
I have thought it was enough to pre/post hydrate, but the numbers made me second guess that thinking. I also realize that when I do fuel enough I feel better. It's not that I felt bad when I don't hydrate during a run, it's just I feel slightly better when I do.
I'm not sure knowing all this info will make me take a bottle on every run, but perhaps my workouts...
How has the weather been where you live? Warmer than average, right? The weather has been the top news story for a few days now.
@@its_Matt_B_ We're all different in so many ways. There were summers where I carried a bottle or wore a hydration pack but it didn't keep me from blowing up on runs. I'm fleshier than the lean real-runner type and might also have several camel genes, and my core temperature gets too high long before I run low on fluids. I wish I cooled myself well enough for that to be a factor. A big step for me was realizing that the challenge was to stay within the thermal envelope. Drinking and fueling to feel better and work harder made matters worse. But yeah, we love to complain about the weather, don't we? Honestly it's been unseasonable here but not extreme. Summer showed up at the start of May and has been here ever since, but it's been normal for us as summer weather goes, just early. We've had a couple of days with dew points over 70° and I really feel that. The days when it's gone above 90° were less humid -- easier to raise the temperature of dry air so it's a double win on the relative humidity fraction, warmer air having the ability to hold more moisture but less water vapor actually in the air. At 35% relative humidity I can do something, and my afternoon runs went surprisingly well on those days. I hope you're holding up well. It looks like you're still putting in some great runs from what I see on Strava.
That is some interesting data! I feel like I just jumped in the pool 5 minutes into a run. I can’t imagine how it is in FL This time of the year! Even on 9°F days I have sweatsicles hanging off my sunglasses 😂during the cooler months I cut way back on sodium intake but in the summer I can’t get enough it seems…
Us big sweaters have to know when to ramp up on electrolytes. The run definitely feels better when we take in enough!
@@its_Matt_B_ absolutely! I’ve been working so much outside that I can’t keep up with it!
I am interested in this sensor as I am a very sweaty person and I could help me stay hydrated during a race. Obviously, the limiting factor is cost of consumables. I wish there is more competition among gadgets for monitoring hydration and blood glucose. Maybe there will be a device that will combine both in one strip.
Did you verify the amounts reported by weighing yourself before and after a run (assuming that you are not doing bathroom stops)?
Interesting that Maurten 160 has double the hydration (salt) as Maurten 320. I would have thought 320 packs was just double the size.
Their list would be more useful if one is allowed to add a custom hydration.I use SIS and Nuun hydration but recently has also incorporated jars of nuun which is different than the tablets (also incorporate some carbs)
The cost of patches is a limiting factor, but also not as this is not something one would use on every run.
No, I did not verify with by weighing myself, although in the past there had been a time when I was curious about that and found I repeatedly lost +/-10 lbs of sweat on 10 miles runs in the summer.
This will be very useful for university athlete programs.
Yeah, I agree! This is going to provide a level of protection for the student athletes to ensure they’re taking in enough liquid/electrolytes!
This is a great concept - a bit pricey for me. I'd be interesting to see your thoughts on this device after couple weeks and more runs. Also would be curious to see how its results compare to the fluid loss estimate in the Garmin watches. And does the device provide more hydration recommendations before a run using the stats?
I wish I would have thought about comparing Garmin's fluid loss with Nix, but FYI, as an example on that trail run: Garmin reported a loss of 1613ml when Nix reported 2741ml.
There is no hydration recommendations before a run, but this isn't something it could accurately do because it has no idea what we would have already drank.
Thanks Matt. How did you set up/connect Garmin with Nix? I run in FL also, know the sweat feeling.
The directions are on the Nix site. You can find it here: nixbiosensors.com/pages/troubleshooting-support-hub
Maybe a little over the top, perhaps ultras only.
Yeah, I agree the value of this definitely increases with the length of the activity.
🥵
That definitely should have been the emoji!