You need to get sodium during a long race like HIM or running a marathon so folks advise drinking gatorade instead of water. But the gel has got sodium, too, and the salt tabs are sodium. If you take gels, do you not need salt tabs or gatorade? I know you need calories, too, so if you take salt tabs and AND gels, do you drink water? I will train with whatever I intend to race with but I am just wondering if taking all three means I’m ingesting too much sodium.
One word: InfinIT
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All depends on what you need (based on sodium lost in sweat and how much you are sweating). 300-600mg/hr is probably what most people need. 1000-2000mg apparently is necessary for a few people. Does not really matter how you get it. Just make sure you are drinking enough to keep the concentration in your gut at a level that is digestible. That is where infinit comes in. They mix their solutions to meet your needs and maintain proper concentrations.
Cheers,
Scott
I used a whole lot of salt tabs,Gatorade Endurance, gels and water today in the Boulder 5430 1/2, as it was well over 90 degrees, and the run course has no shade. I fared well in the heat with all that input.
I’ll second the InfinIT rec - for 1/2 IM and under, no reason to carry anything else.
It really depends upon your body and the conditions (environmental, exertion level, etc.) during the training/racing. If you’re a heavy sweater in extreme conditions, then you’ll probably need a higher level of electrolyte (not just Sodium) intake compared to someone with a different physiological response in cooler conditions (pretty obvious). While there are some general guidelines available on the web (gatorade, infinit, hammer nutrition,…) for figuring out what your ideal intake should be, you still have to go out and try a few strategies during long training sessions. Each sports drink/gel/supplement has its’ own mixture of “stuff” and not all of it will work for you… and what does work for you at some times (i.e. on the bike) might not work during others (i.e. running). You also have to factor in how frequently you should take each/all of these.
Sorry for the generalities, but you kind of have to read up to get a basic background, then go out and try it out. I went solely with gatorade and eGel for a few years before I realized that it wasn’t optimal. Now I’m on water and PowerGel, with an occasional Lava Salt tablet during hot running… but this is constantly evolving. You can search the forum archives for discussions and come up with tons of hits, but keep in mind that a lot of it is personal.