For Triathlon, I’m curious what everyone has found to be the best bang for the buck with nutritional content also considered. I’ve compared several options, Infinit, eFuel, Skratch, Gatorade Endurance, Tailwind and cost per bottle made (20-24 oz) seems to favor Gatorade Endurance at the moment. I’m curious if anyone has other recommendations or also best economical place/website to buy from? Thanks in advance for the help, and any codes that can be shared for ordering. Looking for something to last me anywhere from a 1 Hour ride up to 3 Hour Ride for Olympic & 70.3 distance training for this summer.
I like Nuun because I can decide how much carb I want to add (down to none, if just for a <1.5hr workout). Nuun Perform is what I’ve defaulted to for racing… it has the carbs pre-mixed with it, seems to work well for me. You can get it in a big bag or individual packets… I like the latter, mainly because it’s easier to chuck a few packets in a race bag and not have it get messy or wasted.
Maltodextrin+electrolyte pills. A 5 lb bag of malto is like $5 from local beer store, and lasts most of a season. Throw in the appropriate number of electrolyte pills, and you have the cheapest option energy drink/liquid nutrition. Also has extremely mild flavor.
I personally don’t take any food generally unless I go close to over an hour and then carry a banana or two as it is cheap and healthier for you. Closer to race day I start using race nutrition on longer rides or if I have another session after my ride. I use Generation Ucan.
Agree. Cody Beals has a DIY mix on his website. I looked at what’s in gels and mixed up a similar formula using maltodextrin, honey, gastrolyte, salt and flavouring (ginger ale). Its not hard but I’d probably be arrested travelling OS with a white powdery substance so I just use it for training and buy regular gels OS.
Another option instead of gels is pure maple syrup, bought very cheap at places like costco. I put that with a little bit of salt into one of those flasks that hold the equivalent of about 5 gels volume.
I use EFS in my bottles, but chances are plain ol gatorade with a extra sprinkle of salt would be just as good…so much marketing bullshit with all this stuff…
As a few others have said maltodextrin powder will be the cheapest calories you can find. Then add in whatever flavor and electrolyte mid you’d like!
I’m looking for recommendations on good cost effective hydration, electrolyte, sodium, etc to make for my bike bottles. I obviously will mix in solid foods/bars also while on the bike, just want to hone in on a solid bike liquid option that is cost effective and economical
If you want the most cost effective and economical then do what the other guys said and get a big bag of maltodextrine, mix with water, some salt and throw in some powdered sports drink (gatorade/powerade) for flavouring and electrolytes. It’s not that hard.
I use E-fuel… not the cheapest but works especially in events and zero GI issues.
For training I sometimes use Gatorade Endurance concentrate because I work for an event company and sometimes end up with concentrate gallon/s of it for free.
Tailwind (Green Tea Buzz) works great for me. 100 cals per scoop (usually three per 24oz bottle). Has electrolytes, caffeine and calories that are easy to digest. ~$30.0 / 50 servings
Maybe this is just my internal curiousity rearing its ugly head, but of all the things to “cheap” out on, you pick one of the things that can potentially sabotage your race that you paid $$ for to register and train?
An hour ride I can get away with water and replace my electrolytes with some decent salty and nutrient-packed food afterwards. Anything north of that and I’m using Tailwind. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s FDA approved, the owner spent a good chunk of time working on the formula, and I know it works for me at set but different concentrations on the bike and run- I’ve sworn by it for the past five years now. Others have said you can make your own using bulk dextrose and salt but it’s going to take some trial and error to figure out the formulation of what really works for you and what will get you to where you want to be on race day.
“I obviously will mix in solid foods/bars also while on the bike,”
Why is this obvious? I personally would not do anything solid for a 3 hr bike ride, and would just do water for anything ~1.5 hours or less. Depending on the effort level, I’d want 250-300 calories/hour and 20-25 oz of liquids/hour in my energy drink.
A favorite of mine is 2 tbsp of maltodextrin and a quarter cup of maple syrup in a 22 oz bottle, filled the rest of the way with water. Since the malto is a complex carb, and the syrup is a simple carb, the calories will be absorbed more quickly than either on their own. YRMV.
I’ve enjoyed success recently with a mix of Vitargo and Precision Hydration. I suffer quite badly from cramp and the two of these combined has yielded a good mix of fuel and electrolytes. The texture is a bit… gooey? But I don’t mind, although my wife tried it and spat it out, she thought it wasn’t nice at all. Had issues in the past with maldodextrin resulting in a bad stomach so pleased to have found something that settles easily and mixes well with solid food for 3/4+ hour rides.