Disclaimer: I received four tubes of SiS Go Hydro to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro , and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

Happy Summer! The time of year where you go outside and are immediately coated in sweat. Is that just me? When I workout, indoors or outdoors, I’m a super sweaty mess, and in the past, I’ve struggled with proper hydration.

Hydration isn’t just about water intake, but as many of us know, it’s also about electrolytes. As great as it would be to be able to just get some water from the faucet during or after a workout, I definitely need more, or I end up with crushing headaches.

I got the chance to try out Science in Sport’s GO Hydro this summer and I’ve been really pleased. I tried the cola, lemon, and pineapple and mango flavors. They’re all very different, and I think I like pineapple and mango the best, which was not the result I expected. I’m usually a sucker for cola flavors, but I don’t love this one as much as I had hoped.

GO Hydro comes in tablet form and meets your sodium requirements at a specific concentration (30mmol/L) that is scientifically proven to produce superior hydration compared with water alone. It was developed to keep the British Sailing team optimally hydrated at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The tablets only contain 10 calories, so while you may need more fuel for a long workout, these are perfect to keep you hydrated through a workout or even a just a sweaty summer day. They don’t have the weird taste that some electrolyte drinks can get, and I’ve been generally pleased with all of the flavors I’ve tried.

On the recommendation of a fellow BibRave Pro, I tried putting the pineapple and mango Go Hydro tablet into a glass of iced tea (pro tip – put the tablet in before the ice – the cold makes it dissolve very slowly). It was super tasty and definitely a great afternoon beverage before an evening workout. At some point, I’ll probably try the lemon in tea as well (maybe hot!). The cola… probably not made for combining with tea.

Right now, you can get 20% off SiS Go Hydro tablets with the code BIBRAVE20.

“Disclaimer: I received three boxes of Built Bar to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!”

Though I’m well aware that eating on the run isn’t good for me, I often find myself doing so, thanks to work, training, and various volunteer gigs. And, well, life. So I was excited to try out Built Bar protein bars. I liked the fact that they’re lower calorie (so good for breakfast or a snack, not really a meal replacement) and they allegedly weren’t chalky like a lot of protein bars.

Guys. These things taste like delicious candy bars. They are gooey and full of flavor, and thanks to the protein, they’re also filling without being total calorie bombs.

Thanks to Built Bar, I got to try a bunch of different flavors, then went back and bought myself some of the new limited edition flavors as well. I’m not sure what my favorite is, but I really like the coconut almond and the orange chocolate cream.

The texture isn’t for everyone. These bars have a chocolate coating around a sort of gooey, sticky filling. If you aren’t a fan of the texture (some people said it stuck to their teeth), if you refrigerate or freeze them (or leave them in the car when it’s 30 degrees out and you’re at the pool), they firm up a bit. Personally, I like them both room temperature and cold.

Built Bars have become my new breakfast on the run and occasional mid-day snack, especially when I’m craving something sweet. There is always a ton of candy in my office and that can be hard to avoid. Not that I avoid it all the time – but I try to have the candy in moderation. Now, I can sub in a Built Bar (or have a small piece of candy with my Built Bar, let’s be honest) and not be hungry an hour later.

If you want to try Built Bars, you can use code BUILTNOW for 20% off, but hurry, that code ends soon! I know I stocked up, so if you’re local, you can come raid my pantry too. I’m sure I’ll be buying more again soon.

Disclaimer: I received a set of Xtrainerz to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

As a triathlete, I go to the pool a lot. Okay, not a lot. In fact, not even as much as I really should. Sorry, Coach. But one thing that I’ve found makes swimming so much easier is listening to podcasts while I swim. A year or so ago, I bought a waterproof iPod shuffle with waterproof earbuds. I would load up my podcasts at home, clip the shuffle to my swim cap, and swim, listening to the dulcet tones of a random podcast (often The Baby-Sitters Club Club, let’s be honest).

But this system came with a few annoyances. First, earbuds have cords, and every so often, I would have things all twisted up such that when I turned my head to breathe, the earbud would pull in a weird way. Second, the earbuds had “custom” rubber things on each of them to fit any ear. You know what? Those things fall off and end up at the bottom of a swim bag way too easily. But the biggest problem I had was that water would get in my ear around the earbuds and then completely block the sound so I couldn’t hear anything. It was incredibly annoying, and if I wanted to keep listening, I had to stop and reposition the earbud.

Then I got the chance to try the Xtrainerz by Aftershokz. These probably look somewhat familiar, if you’ve used Aftershokz products before, and they work in a similar way – rather than the sound going into your ears, it uses bone conduction. The Xtrainers, however, are designed to be used in water (or out of water, but more about that later).

I will admit, I didn’t have the highest of hopes. I figured they would work, but wouldn’t be a huge difference from my current system.

Friends, I was so very wrong. Once I figured out how best to position the Xtrainerz on my head inside my swim cap along with all of my hair (I have a LOT of hair), I started the podcast playing and began my swim. Instead of the water entering my ears blocking the sound, it enhanced it. Which, of course, makes total sense if you’ve worn other bone conduction headphones before. If you block out the external noise, you can hear the sound through the bone conduction that much better. So when the water blocks out the noise, the sound becomes even clearer.

I am still so impressed at the sound quality. With podcasts, it’s always a risk, because words can easily be lost with poor sound quality, but it’s seriously not an issue here. This is definitely a game changer if you want to listen to music or podcasts while you swim.

Now, let’s go into some of the details and the questions many people have.

Can I stream music? Nope. Though this isn’t unique to the Xtrainerz – you can’t stream with any of the currently available swim music players. Why? Bluetooth can’t transmit through water. So you will have to physically transfer the music to your phone. That means that you won’t be able to transfer your Spotify playlist. If you still have old school music from iTunes, you can use that, or go my route and use podcasts. They’re free and entertaining and definitely make the laps go faster. The Xtrainerz will hold 4GB of music or podcasts. That’s around 1200 songs, or many, many hours of podcasts. If you really want to swim longer than that, well, you might be a fish.

How do you load music or podcasts? You just connect the Xtrainers to your computer using the cord that comes with it (also used for charging), and it appears as a new disk. You can then drag and drop your files. I used iTunes to download some podcasts, then just dragged them directly from the iTunes screen onto the Xtrainers. I’m on Mac, and was worried I’d have issues, since it seems like so many things are made for PC. I had no issue at all.

Can I use these while running? You can! The Xtrainers have a little button on the side to change them from general mode to swim mode. On swim mode, the pitch is apparently changed slightly to make it easier to hear underwater. But you can definitely load up the Xtrainers for a run, and you won’t have to worry about killing your phone battery or whether or not the rain (or your sweat) will damage your Xtrainerz.

How’s the battery? The battery lasts 8 hours, and will fully charge in 1.5 hours. What I like best is that when you turn them on, the voice over (named Audrey) will tell you if the battery is high, medium, or low, so you know when you need to charge. I have yet to need to charge mine (because I need to go to the pool more often), so I can confidently say I’m happy with the battery. And if you forget to turn them off, they do have an auto-off, so no worries there.

If you’ve been considering getting a music player to get you through all those laps at the pool, I definitely recommend the Xtrainerz. I’m so impressed by how well they work, and how little trouble they cause me while I swim. No more excuses for a long pause between sets!

“Disclaimer: I received tubes of Nuun Rest to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!”

I’ve been using Nuun products for years, and last year, started drinking Nuun Immunity thanks to an opportunity to try out the product. So when I got a chance to try Nuun Rest and do a review, I gave an emphatic yes.

Nuun Rest is very different from other Nuun products. Rather than a standard electrolyte beverage, Nuun Rest is designed to help with recovery. It contains magnesium, tart cherry, and potassium, all of which have been proven to aid in recovery for athletes.

Did you know that magnesium is important to helping the body restore to a restful state? And that many athletes are magnesium deficient? I had no idea. Magnesium helps calm the nerve functions in large muscle groups and helps to keep the heartbeat steady. Magnesium deficiency actually prevents optimal recovery, so adding a magnesium beverage before bed is definitely helpful, especially on hard workout days.

Tart Cherry is definitely something I’ve heard of recently, as it can help reduce inflammation and muscle soreness. And, of course, our old friend potassium helps muscle relaxation and prevents cramping.

Nuun Rest is best dropped into 4-6 ounces of water, and they suggest trying it in hot water. It comes in two flavors, Lemon Chamomile and Blackberry Vanilla, and personally, I much preferred the Lemon Chamomile hot and the Blackberry Vanilla cool.

Magnesium doesn’t fully dissolve, in this product or any other, so there will be a bit of a residue in your cup. It seems a little less prominent in hot water than in cold, but either way, I found that as I neared the end of the drink, if I swirled my cup, I made sure I got all of that good-for-me magnesium. And then I made sure to rinse out the cup so the residue didn’t dry.

So did it work? That’s definitely a hard one to judge, since recovery is based on so many different elements, but I can honestly say that the nights where I drank Nuun Rest, I woke up feeling like I had slept well and was ready for the day (well, as ready as I ever am at my 5am alarm). It was a great part of my evening routine, helping me wind down at the end of a long day. As I continue to ramp up my running workouts, I think adding in this supplement will be a good piece to my recovery.

While I may not drink it every night, I plan to keep Nuun Rest as part of my routine, especially after a long, stressful day or a big workout push. If you want to try Nuun Rest, you can use the code HYDRATEBIBPRO for 20% off through 10/31 at nuunlife.com.