Gatorade alternatives? Salt on a ride?

[lph]

Maybe I should start a separate thread but anyhoo. I have the opposite experience: drinking a regular sports drink on longer rides my belly swells up which is quite uncomfortable! so I think I'm retaining more water than I need. And I had to stop munching a handful of salted nuts before bedtime (always get the munchies then..) instead of the unsalted ones I usually buy because I'd swell up like a beach ball. I like salt but I rarely crave it. And I sweat a whole lot on my bike but I never notice the salt stains some people have mentioned. Does this mean I'm not a "salty sweater"? And I'm guessing I'm a little sensitive to sodium. Not noticeable during a normal day, but squeezed into tight lycra I do notice the difference.

But I guess I still need the various minerals I lose in my sweat, so I'd better go looking for a sports drink with less sodium.

[Miranda]

Elyte Sport...

http://www.elytesport.com/

The thing I like about this is that doesn't have the calories in it.

No, it doesn't taste all "yum yum", but anything with a sweet taste just makes me sick anyway, so that's ok to me. I have not tried adding anything for taste, but maybe a bit of lemon juice or a sweetner packet might cut it for a try.

I'm not a dainty sweater. Regardless of what I'm doing, I look like someone poured a bucket of water on my head.

EDIT: The web site has a lot of good info, but here's one link from it that has a chart comparing the components to a variety of other drinks. Kinda interesting...

http://www.elytesport.com/sportshealth/comparison.html

[Miranda]

Maybe I should start a separate thread but anyhoo. I have the opposite experience: drinking a regular sports drink on longer rides my belly swells up which is quite uncomfortable! so I think I'm retaining more water than I need. And I had to stop munching a handful of salted nuts before bedtime (always get the munchies then..) instead of the unsalted ones I usually buy because I'd swell up like a beach ball. I like salt but I rarely crave it. And I sweat a whole lot on my bike but I never notice the salt stains some people have mentioned. Does this mean I'm not a "salty sweater"? And I'm guessing I'm a little sensitive to sodium. Not noticeable during a normal day, but squeezed into tight lycra I do notice the difference.

But I guess I still need the various minerals I lose in my sweat, so I'd better go looking for a sports drink with less sodium.

One of our spin instructors at the gym mentioned one day weighing yourself immediately before and after a ride. She had read somewhere that if you lose a pound, drink more water. If you gain a pound, consume less. I know the later doesn't make sense. Usually the push is to drink more. But there is such a thing as water toxification in certain situation. I'm sure how your body processes the fluids has something to do with it too.

[PscyclePath]

I like Gatorade, which is a little beneficial since that's most of the supported long rides use at the rest stops. I like the green kind and the blue kind best (Gatorade doesn't really have flavors... just colors) and buy it in the powdered form both for convenience and to avoid the HFCS that they use to sweeten the liquid version.

Some old school stuff:

John Forester's recipe, Effective Cycling (pp. 216-217)

-- 1 2-quart envelope of powdered Kool-Aid or Wyler's unsweetened lemonade mix
-- 8 tablespoons sugar
-- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix well, and divide into 4 equal portions. Use one portion per water bottle.


Arnie C. Baker, Nutrition for Sports:

-- 16 oz. water
-- 1/2 cup maltodextrin
-- 1-2 tablespoons lemonade or fruit juice concentrate
-- 1/16 teaspoon salt.

This mix provides 200 calories per 16 oz. bottle, and 100 mg of sodium. Baker admits this is a little sodium lite, and recommends that if you need the extra sodium, include salty snacks (potato chips, PayDay bars, peanuts, etc.) in your ride day snacks.

He also recommends 100% fruit juice, cut 50/50 with water as a during or post-ride recovery drink.

Something that I've started using back the middle of the summer, and that's really worked well for me has been these little individual tubes of powdered drink mix that are made up to add to bottled water. Crystal Light is one brand, but what I like is the Kroger generic, in apple flavor. The CL brands in green tea blends are good, as well. They don't really add a lot of caloric value, but then I'm trying to ride off some of the extra insulation. They do make tepid tap water taste a lot better, so that I'll drink more of it.

Tom

[ttaylor508]

I like gleukos for longer rides. I can't stand the sweetness of gatorade and gleukos just has a slight flavor and isn't sticky or heavy. It has worked really well for me on long rides and the powder packets are really easy to pack and dissolve quick when mixing by simply shaking your water bottle. On really hot rides I will supplement with electrolyte tablets too.

[OakLeaf]

If you gain a pound, consume less. I know the later doesn't make sense.

Actually, it makes perfect sense. I wish I had a link to the thing I was just reading about hyponatremia in long distance runners - the number one sign of hyponatremia was weight gain during the run. It was a much stronger correlation than quantity of water consumed or several other factors that were studied.

That said, it's difficult to get into trouble either way in a one-hour gym class unless you're dehydrated or hyponatremic going into it, and weighing yourself before and after the class won't tell you that. In the past - when all my workouts were afternoon gym workouts of short duration - I'd typically gain a couple of pounds during the workout, because of the simple fact that before the class, I'd be dehydrated from being at the office all day (this was before I learned to carry water with me wherever I go).


A lot of people were drinking pickle juice at the rest stops on the Lone Star Ride. That's one way to get your sodium without sugar... but with just as many preservatives and artificial colors as the sugary drinks

[Blue_Wildflower]

Hello everyone (newbie to the board),

When I ran, I made my own drinks.

I use the following:
2TBS of lemon juice
1TBS of blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
a pinch of two of salt
a very small pinch of epsom salt (for magnesium)
10 - 12oz of water

I prefer the maple syrup during the ride. After, the ride I prefer to have a drink with blackstrap molasses because it has potassium, iron, and calcium.

[RoadRaven]

When my partner first started doing longer rides, we made a concoction of glucose water, and a teaspoon of salt.
It worked well
He does several 70-80km rides per week now, plus 1-2 100-140km rides per week, and he only takes plain water as well as a handful of fruit bars to eat along the way.

[Aiacha]

I will have to try some of these products, thanks! And I'll mention the low salt causing cramps to a friend of mine. She gets cramps in her calf so bad she can hardly walk and we've been trying to figure out why.

[carback]

[QUOTE=firenze11;371562] I can't find nuun here and they told me to order it from a wholesaler. . .


Mountain Equipment Coop sells Nuun. (at least the one in Vancouver does)

[Jolt]

I really like Nuun for salt and if you add a teaspoon of sugar, it's good for a little longer rides too. I've tried finding ones that have more potassium (I tend to be low), but most of them just taste gross. Maybe next I'll try the DIY version with salt substitute and normal salt, but then I'd have to decide on flavoring and think ahead!

You can use Koolaid packets (the kind where you add your own sugar) or if you want to skip all the artificial crap that's in there, you can use herbal tea (fruit flavored ones are best--Trader Joe's has a blackberry one that works really well) or even green tea.

[wildhawk]

DH has a new 12-hour shift job that is physically demanding - he was getting some cramping the other night and remembered that I had tucked a couple of the electrolyte packets from PowerBar into our lunch kit, mixed one with a bottle of water and it straightened him right out. Now he is packing them on a regular basis. Makes a difference!

[spindizzy]

I can't find nuun here

Firenze:

Try this link.

http://www.nuun.com/shop/canada.php