electrolytes, whats your preference?

[Owlie]

When I get to the point of doing metrics and beyond, I'd just stop to get real food at some point, as well as take a little break. 35-40 seems to be my break point, at which no amount of gels/blocks/bars will do much to help.

For electrolytes, I use slightly diluted Gatorade--I dilute it because I hate the strong taste of undiluted stuff. Plus, adding ice helps keep it cooler. Warm Gatorade is nasty. I need to tweak this a little, because I find I'm losing a lot more salt than I think. Maybe I should look into the extra-salt shot blocks...

[OakLeaf]

I like Zenergize Hydrate. Plenty of sodium, a noticeable amount of calcium and magnesium, and no antifreeze.

+1 on real food on a long ride. I need my protein and, as a recreational rider, I don't have to worry about eating something I can scarf and digest quickly. When I'm on a supported ride, a lot of times they don't offer much protein and don't go near any stores, so I will pack some Perpetuem even though I normally avoid soy. It's what I use on runs over 15 miles.

No Gatorade for me. I just can't tolerate much fructose during a workout. It doesn't matter whether it's HFCS or fresh fruit.

[itself]

Ultima Replenisher in Grape or Wild Raspberry. Those were the only two flavors where I could tolerate the stevia.

[badger]

Ultima Replenisher in Grape or Wild Raspberry. Those were the only two flavors where I could tolerate the stevia.

+1. I just ordered the wild raspberry so I'd be curious to see how it tastes. I've tried the lemonade, which is ok but I'm not a lemon fan.

[OakLeaf]

Remember that sweat normally contains more or less a gram of sodium per liter - there's a lot of variability depending on the individual and their heat acclimation. If you're eating salty foods, then good, but if you're relying on gels and electrolyte supplements for your sodium, make sure you're getting enough. Ultima wild raspberry only contains 37.5 mg sodium per packet! If you took enough of those to replenish even an hour's worth of sweat, you'd be way overdosing on some of the other heavy metal minerals in it.

[Catrin]

My stomach doesn't care for real food on long rides - outside of bananas (as long as I only have ONE) - outside of that Cliff bars, shot blocs, Hammer Heed, Accelerade all do well by me. I am unsure why I can tolerate Cliff bars, but my stomach accepts them. PB sandwiches also go down well if I can keep from smashing them - on a banana is even better.

[Becky]

Vitalyte if I need to drink my carbs. Nuun or Elete if I don't. I love the little Elete dropper bottles for keeping in my jersey pocket on long rides.