A follow up question for the good Dr....

Is it a problem to chase a gel with something other than straight water (specifically a bottle of tailwind, skratch, EFS, etc)? Does that still help the gel's absorption or does it hinder it at all?

I'll post my most recent experience with this. I tried the sugar/salt mixture Dr. Harrison has posted about in the forum during Eagleman this past weekend. My plan was for a 2.5hr ride. I combined 1.5 cups of table sugar with 1.5 teaspoons of salt and then 2 scoops of cytomax. I added the cytomax for flavoring, caffeine and some extra carbs and salts. The 2 scoops of cytomax equals about 46g (hopefully I'm remembering correctly) of carbs so total during my ride I consumed around 330g of carbs (ride ended up being a little over 2:25). I did end up splitting this into two bottles. I split the whole mixture into thirds and added 1/3 to one bottle and 2/3 into another. My plan was to drink the first bottle straight (without water) into the first aid station to kind of top up my fuel after the swim. Then I would grab a bottle of water at each station. Drink about half the bottle once I got it and then drink the 2nd half about mid way between aid stations. I sipped on my concentrated bottle over the course of the entire ride. This seemed to have worked out very well. Going into the run I felt strong and topped up with calories. I did teeter on some stomach issues but nothing actually came of it. Took in gatorade and water for the first 4-5miles and then started with the coke after that. Ran a pretty evenly paced half too.

Yep, I do the double bottle strategy almost every ride. I make the concentrate and always chase with water. Makes swallowing and breathing easier for me, as well as protects dental health a bit.

Biggest focus should be on paying attention to your gut concentration overall. As in, if you were to mix the two bottles you're sipping from, what concentration would they be. Assume equal rate of consumption for ease of thinking at first.

In well hydrated scenarios you can probably tolerate 10-14% pretty well, but going over 12%, be careful if you're also pushing the 1L/hr fluid recommendation.

If dehydrated due to sweat loss, staying under 12% is very wise. Bumping it down to 8% may be necessary. For me, unless I'm severely dehydrated 10% remains GI-tolerable for many hours.

One reason certain carb supps may work worse than others is their sugar ratio. If you're much over 60-75g of glucose per hour, you're going to saturate your glucose transporter proteins in your gut and end up with cramps.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on how dehydrated you are and how full your stomach is, and how concentrated the tailwind/skratch/efs is. The gel is super concentrated, so almost 0 volume for 20-25 carbs.

If you add concentrated (like 20% carb solution) of some fuel bottle on top of that you're adding insult to injury. If your bottle is more like 8% and you consume 8oz of fluid from that bottle, you'll have ~20g carbs from the fuel bottle mixed with ~20g carbs from the gel, all in 8-9 oz of fluid in your gut. That's now roughly a 16% solution, which is much more tolerable than the >>30% solution you'd have had in other scenaario. If you drank even more of the 8% it would slowly start to challenge volume tolerance while simultaneously bringing down the concentration of your gut. If you had an empty gut to start, that would be a wise thing to do. If you were already teetering with fullness, it might be best to sip water if possible and or just drink nothing additionally to the 8oz aforementioned, and just hope for the best with your resultant 16%.

There is no inherent interruption of one product to another.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Nice! Super well-managed.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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in this context, 10% would be 100 grams carbs to 1 Liter (100 grams) of water?

Correct.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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I appreciate your very specific and quantitative explanation.

I used 48oz Gu Roctane/water mix on the bike, which is apparently 500 calories. I also had a "gel bottle" with 5 Gu Jet Blackberry packets mixed with 20 oz of water. I also used one aid station and pour water of my head while taking in about 6 oz of water from the bottle. I drank everything and ended up having some quad cramps on the run starting within mile 1 and had cramping in my back around the right flank. (also was racing eagleman)

I am guessing the cramping was lack of fitness as I am about 15-20lbs over my normal race weight. 5'10" 178lbs.

Any thoughts?

I'd agree. Probably fitness and maybe insufficient intake of sodium given that sweat rates will also be higher at heavier body weights.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Thanks! Me too haha. I was so tired of hearing "its all very individual and trial and error" as the only suggestions.

Those are both true, but we can at least set some basic constraints and understand population averages before starting the trial and error process!

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Thank you sir! Much appreciated, and very helpful.

As a side item, one reason washing it down with water is a good choice is that many of these liquid calorie substances aren't good for your teeth. Rinsing it helps it not sit on your teeth as along.

What are people doing to get the sugar properly dissolved?

I've also been trying Alex's Gatorade+sucrose+sodium citrate. For a 3 hour concentrated bottle however, the sugar doesn't fully dissolve and there are significant solids stuck at the bottom. Powdered sugar goes in but has cornstarch.

I end up having to boil the sugar, essentially making simple syrup. Just curious if anyone has other tricks or has found a cheap supply for fine sucrose powder (without cornstarch).

There is very little corn starch (5%ish).

I just shake vigorously and use a L bottle. I sometimes use tap hot water and then add ice after shaking.

I also sometimes just let the solid hang out down there until i can add 8oz more water and shake vigorously during ride.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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I get my sugar melted but warming the water in the microwave for less than a minute and then just stirring, it seems to work just fine but I'm doing 2/3 cup to 1 cup of water