Ok what am I doing wrong?

[skibum]

Gatorade is big in the States, huh?
Isn't it just a juice or cordial? Or is it actuallyan 'official' sports/energy drink?

Gatorade actually is a sports/energy drink. A little useless trivia... it gets its name because it was originally created for the Univ. of Florida Gators football team to help them when training/playing in the miserable Florida heat/humidity.

[runnergirl]

Being that the heat index today is over 105, I'm stuck inside till at least 7...

Especially in this heat, only taking in water is downright dangerous for any excercise over an hour. Last summer, I nearly landed myself in the hospital with hyponutrimia (cramping, heart palpitations, etc) from drinking "heaps of water" because I didn't like the taste of gatorade. Learned that lesson the hard way, now I'm a dilluted gatorade with pretzels girl, but I think I may order the Clif Shot electrolyte replacement mix, since it has waaay more sodium/potassium than gatorade, which is what's really important.

[Technotart]

When its hot and dry or windy, you sweat but it evaporates really fast so you think you arent sweating much because you are still dry. Even more important to replace both water and lytes!

There are some small packets you can mix in your water bottle that have absolutely NO taste to them - if you really can't stomach all the flavored stuff, these might be a good option. Even with all the ades and lytes, you still need water too.

You are lucky! Hyponatremia is dangerous for a lot of reasons. Humans just dont tolerate very low or high levels of any salt - and it doesn't take much to throw things WAY out of whack. It's pretty amazing that our bodies let us do the things we do to them!

[Dianyla]

For those that don't like the taste of most electrolyte drinks, you can make your own homemade drink using Morton's Lite Salt. You can find this at almost any grocery store, it's in a light blue canister, and contains both sodium chloride and potassium chloride.

A basic recipe:
1 teaspoon of "Morton's Lite Salt"
1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
10 teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose)
1 Quart of water

I believe you must have a certain amount of sugar in order to facilitate absorption of the salts, but not too much. If you decide to flavor this with something already sweet like juice you may need to decrease the amount of sugar you are adding. Google on "morton's lite salt" and "electrolyte" to find more recipes.

[RoadRaven]

OK... thanks skibum. I go to bed a little wiser today - I love trivia and I am sure knowing that Gatorade was developed for the Uni of Florida Gators will stand me in good stead to surprise someone here one day

I honestly thought it was a cordial drink (like raro or refresh... if you have those half a world from here)

[emily_in_nc]

I honestly thought it was a cordial drink (like raro or refresh... if you have those half a world from here)

Raro or Refresh? Nope, never heard of them here on the other side of the pond. To me, a "cordial" is a liquer (not sure how to spell that!) like Amaretto or B&B (i.e., very high-sugar alcoholic beverage). Definitely not something to drink from one's water bottle on a ride!

~Emily

[RoadRaven]

LOL
So funny

Cordial here is def not anything remotely alchoholic... its a synthetic juice --- usually in concentrate form as a syrup or powder

So it comes in orange, raspberry, lime, pineapple etc etc and you just add water and drink - a nice combo of sugar, flavouring and water, but def no alchohol

Isn't language amazing? We both speak English but it doesn't mean we're gonna understand each other