Really Salty Energy Drinks?

[roadie gal]

Oak, when I'm in heavy training periods I have to suppliment both mag and potasium. It's a pain to have to time all of it, but if I don't I have big problems. My doctor did some blood work once and it was scary.
I seem to remember her saying something about women leeching magnesium.

2+ on Infinit. I'm a very heavy sweater so I have the electrolytes dialed up pretty high. Infinit's worked very well for me. The nice thing about it is that you can also adjust how strong the taste/sweetness is as well as the electrolyte content.

[ny biker]

I'm also of the school that says that if you're not peeing, you're not drinking enough. I'm very susceptible to hyponatremia, but not replacing fluids isn't the solution to that - replacing electrolytes is!

I've been wondering about this for years. I don't pee much during long rides on hot days, but after the ride ends I have to go every 20-30 minutes for the rest of the day. So what does this mean - losing too many electrolytes?

Compounding this is the fact that my stomach will not tolerate food during these rides. I'm limited to gu (vanilla or orange), gatorade (orange or lemon-lime) and water. I can't force myself to ingest anything else.

[RoadRaven]

I agree with Andrea's first post (made at about 12:34am my time!!! )
Just add salt.
She suggests some into your normal drink.

My partner has this issue... sometimes he mixes glucose and salt into his tap water, sometimes he takes one or two pieces of rock salt and just pops one under his tongue, sometimes he just eats something salty when he gets home.

He does about 400kms per week in an average week (up to 850km when he is riding base, down to about 250km when he tapers) so he does alot of sweating and is very aware of losing those precious minerals.

Its great if you find a "brand name" manufactured drink/gu/bar which works for you... but you don't have to buy the ready made stuff - salt is salt - its in people's kitchens... and it much cheaper that way.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I can't help but wonder if you aren't overhydrating. That will also dilute your blood to the point where your electrolyte levels can drop too low. 2 x 20 oz is a LOT to drink on a 20 mile ride when its only in the 70s. I would barely drink that much on a 40 mile ride if it were that cool out.
My husband gets cramps from low electrolytes. He drinks a V8 at the rest stop. We both also tried pickle juice once that was served on a group ride rest stop. Tasted better than it sounds and also high in electrolytes.

I was just thinking this as well, and speaking for myself, I can't imagine drinking 40 oz of fluid for a mere 20 mile ride at 70F degrees either. I rode 20 miles this morning at 50F and didn't feel like drinking at all, but I made myself drink about 8 oz midway through anyway (eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty and all). I started my ride after drinking a glass of water anyway. At 70F I probably usually drink about 16oz over a 20 mile ride and feel comfortable. I drink a lot more when it's hotter of course.

Unless you are sweating huge amounts during that 20 miles, you might think about cutting down on the sheer volume of your fluids, while adding some electrolytes to your water and continuing to have nutritious snacks in your stomach.
Drinking way too much water within a certain period of time can actually cause severe headaches.

One other thing worth mentioning, simply because it seems odd to me that a young person would consistently get headaches after riding 20 miles. (and by the way...do you get headaches frequently when not riding?)
This happened to me- I was wearing some Polarized sunglasses that i 'thought' were high quality, but as it turns out they were giving me terrible headaches. I only wore them while riding my bike, and I would get a nasty headache every time after about 30 minutes of riding. When it dawned on me, I experimented with removing the glasses and sure enough my headache would totally disappear after 10 minutes of riding. I put them back on and the headache would quickly return. I dumped them and got better sunglasses and the headaches disappeared. Maybe not what's going on for you, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

[smurfalicious]

Ha ha NY, I'm the same way. I get back from a ride and start going in and out the bathroom like Barkley on Sesame Street wanted outside/inside. On the Tour De Cure though, OMG I would pee twice at rest areas and sometimes water trees and I really don't think I was drinking much.

I don't normally get headaches, but my "30 mile headache" usually feels exactly like a wicked hangover. My brain does not fit in my skull, light hurts, bumps in the road hurt, etc.

The sunglasses are a good call, I've heard that before. I wear these sunglasses all the time though, so I think they'd do it other times, right?

I think I'll look into the Elete since I can get a little starter bottle cheap and take it from there. That way I can use up the Power Bar Endurance. And it could turn Odwalla Superfood into an energy drink, or any other delicious beverage.

This is going to sound weird, but if I liked cherry or apple flavors, I'd get some horse electrolytes for me. I used to give them to my horse in the summers when we were doing hard workouts 5-6 nights a week. I've tasted it, it's not that bad. And $10 for a 5lb tub, just cannot be beat. For once, my most expensive hobby has a cheaper resource than my other drain.

http://www.farnamhorse.com/product.p...t=Electrolytes

Yeah the simple answer is tossing salt into my beverages but I am much too spastic to remember to do that. I'd have to figure out what's left in the container, how many servings it is, and mix salt into it.

[OakLeaf]

Ooooh, looky what I found.

Homemade Energy Gels

I started wondering about using plain barley malt, like brewers use (which is pretty much a gel as is, contains simple and complex carbs, electrolytes and protein e-venn).

I may still do that, but this page is very interesting!

[smurfalicious]

Ooooh, looky what I found.

Homemade Energy Gels

I started wondering about using plain barley malt, like brewers use (which is pretty much a gel as is, contains simple and complex carbs, electrolytes and protein e-venn).

I may still do that, but this page is very interesting!

Yeah I've been scoping out some recipes too. The little tubes from Hammer and other brands are pretty cheap. I still suck at gels, they make me gag like all get out. Probably just gagging by association because I'd always take them before races when I wanted to puke anyway. I figure if I get an empty squeeze bottle from the cake decor section at the craft store it will make it easier to fill the little bottles.

[fidlfreek]

Gatorade makes a special kind of Gatorade thats called Endurance. It has like 3x the amount of sodium.

[smurfalicious]

Hey just wanted to say thanks for recommending Elete. I love the stuff! Everyone at work was grossed out when I got it in. Apparently they are not fans. I totally dig it. Then again when I grew up consuming salted koolaid when certain stomach upsets happened and I loooove Pedialyte for that these days. I got the little tiny bottle, but ordered a big 16oz one the other day now that it's tested and approved. Hurray, now Vitamin Water XXX can be my riding beverage!

[ZenSojourner]

From the Infini-T website:

Osmolality is a measure of how much “stuff” is in your sports drink. If there is too much “stuff” your drink will be too dense and your body will treat it like a food. The unfortunate result: Failure. Your system shuts down and stops processing it, resulting in gastric distress, cramping, and worse.

http://www.infinitnutrition.us/information/osmofit.asp

Is THAT why I get cramping and nausea if I try to drink uncut gatorade when I'm riding????

I have never been able to drink Gatorade or any of it's look-alikes, not while I'm riding anyway, and I can't use any of the energy bars I've ever tried. I actually threw up a couple of times in the beginning before I learned to cut the Gatorade 1:3 and leave the energy bars STRICTLY ALONE.

Lately I've been drinking Propel on long rides because it's the only thing I know I can keep down. I take extra Propel with me on long rides even if they're SAGged because all they ever give you at rest stops is Gatorade and if I forget to cut it, I'm in trouble. It's slightly better than water but I really don't think it has a balanced proportion of electrolytes and vitamins, it's just all I've ever been able to keep down.

Honestly I've been afraid to experiment because I can't tell for sure whether or not something's going to affect me unless I try it under stress, like on an actual ride, and you do NOT want to be in the middle of a 50 mile ride and be overcome with stomach cramps!

InfinIT, Enervit, the Motor tabs - is any of this stuff safe for me to try? Has ANYBODY else had the problems with Gatorade they describe above, or is that just marketing hype and I'm still some kind of loner freak? I've never found anybody who has the same trouble I do with Gatorade and energy bars/gels, but that blurb from the InfinIT website makes it sound like it's a known, common problem

[Becky]

ZenS, like you, I don't tolerate straight Gatorade well, though not to the extent that I regurgitate it. I can't speak to some of the other recommendations in this thread, but I've had good results with Vitalyte (except the orange flavor). The citrus flavor is probably the easiest on the stomach. They sell little 4 serving trial packets if you want to try without a big commitment: http://www.vitalytestore.com/

It might be worth experimenting with some different products to see what your stomach likes.