After being selected as a Precision Hydration reviewer, the first step was completing their Online Triathlon Sweat Test to determine which products to use. The test itself was quite brief and not overly scientific. While I appreciate the effort to tailor the product for a user’s specific needs, my opinion is that the test is too simplistic and subjective to accurately identify an individual’s sweat rate/hydration requirements and Precision Hydration’s recommendations were too general to instill any confidence that the recommendations are truly customized to an individual. Rather it is a simple means to categorize you as either a light (PH 500), medium (PH 1000) or heavy (PH 1500) sweater.

Precision Hydration provided me with a recommendation to use their PH 1500 mix which is the strongest mix but also included their PH 1000 mix and a couple packages of SweatSalts capsules. They also followed up with a series of emails on suggested usage for training, recovery, and racing. These emails provided a useful template for product consumption in each of these scenarios.

Their emails discussing race strategy were also savvy enough to acknowledge that many athletes prefer to keep it simple on race day and live off the course offerings. For my races, that meant I would be using Gatorade Endurance during Ironman Coeur d’Alene. Instead, Precision Hydration sent recommendations for pre-race hydration on the day before race, morning hydration before race start, and post-race recovery hydration.

The Precision Hydration products were delivered promptly and, since my target race was Ironman Coeur d’Alene in late August, I had almost a month to train with the products. The PH drink mixes are provided in tablet format (similar to Nuun products) and was easily mixed – just drop a tablet in a bottle of water and it dissolved almost immediately. The tablets were also very portable so it was easy to toss a few in my cycling jersey and refuel partway through a ride at any water fountain. The SweatSalts capsules are similar to SaltStick or equivalent products.

The taste was pleasant – mildly lemon lime flavor, not overpowering, not sweet, and with a bit of effervescence that was easy on the palette. No digestion problems, no GI issues. No concerns with cramping. From that perspective, Precision Hydration’s products were good and I would have no issue using them for short to mid-length workouts. And the SweatSalts capsules seemed to work and certainly caused no issues GI or otherwise.

For longer training sessions or as a race day option where you the course products don’t appeal to you, Precision Hydration could be used. But here is my “Keep it Simple” gripe; while the product provides sufficient sodium/electrolytes, it only provided minimal calories so gels or equivalent would need to be integrated more heavily into a race nutrition plan. For me, I prefer a steady dose of calories delivered with my hydration. Having to up my gel intake to compensate for the lack of liquid calories just creates another opportunity to mess up during a race.

So that’s my conundrum. The lack of calories in the PH drink mix was a drawback for me during longer sessions and races. And, since I have had race GI issues in the past, I like to train with the products that are provided during a race. That is a challenge that many products not named Gatorade must face. How do they carve out a niche and persuade consumers to buy their products?

For Precision Hydration, they at least acknowledge this situation and provided an effective pre/post-race hydration plan. And that, coupled with a tasty drink, that is easily mixed, and is very portable are attractive attributes that make it a convenient choice for training. And, as for racing with their products, if you don’t mind the added level of complexity (i.e. hauling your nutrition and upping your calories from other sources) then there would be no concerns with using Precision Hydration as a viable and effective hydration option.

Cheers, Brian