Hello. First time poster.
I’ve got sodium citrate powder and sugar (sucrose) at home.
If I want to make a drink mix for hydration/calories, how much should I add of each dry ingredient per 1L of water?
I’ve read prior posts, including those with Dr. Alex Harrison, but I’m still having trouble locating a standard-ish amount.
-stu_tv
So the latest advice if you’re trying to maximize performance seems to be take as much carb, sodium and water as you can handle without having a negative impact on performance. Which is to say, there will be some trial and error involved to find what’s right for you.
Based on advice from Dr Alex and others, I’ve found a sweet spot (no pun intended) at an hourly intake of 1L water with 150g carb and 1500mg sodium. Of course, I adjust that based on the demands of the workout, the weather, etc.
It seems like the advice for adjusting your recipe is something like this:
A good starting point is probably 90-120g carb per hour and ~1000mg sodium then tweak from there
Thank you for this!
I also typically eat (GUs, Honey Stingers, etc) during races.
Do you recommend subtracting any food-based sucrose and/or sodium from those drink mix amounts above?
Here’s what I’d do if on the bike per hour:
1/2tsp of sodium citrate will be about 1150mg of sodium
120g of sugar will be a 50/50 mix of fructose/glucose (actually, I mix in some maltodextrin to cut the sweetness and have a little faster absorbing carb and til the balance more towards glucose)
If running you might want to cut the sugar content down to 80g per hour.
Yeah I adjust based on what I’m eating to target those exact totals per hour on the bike run
Hmmmmmm, I’m pretty sure that 1 tsp of sodium citrate will be about 1000 or so mg of sodium.
I’d ditch the Honey Stinger waffles. At 7 grams of fat per waffle they slow digestion and absorption of the carbohydrates you really need. They do taste great:)
Ya, sorry, I’m thinking table salt, sodium chloride. Sodium citrate you’re right is 1tsp for about 1100-1200mg.
Biggest conundrum of my life.
Lol. That’s says a lot.
Make your life MUCH easier and less expensive
I have easily saved thousands of dollars now VS precision hydration or Maurtens products
I hope(d) the sarcasm came through without old-school slowtwitch pink text!
[color=hotpink] it can be done[/color]
Well… It used to work. Hmmm…
+1 for the app! Has really helped me dial in the drink mix to hit my target.
Still haven’t freed myself from PF&H gels though, I’ve found the “eating” of some carbs per hour helps trick my stomach into thinking it’s food, staving off hunger. That and the water isn’t a thick slurry all the time.
Where to get some decent sodium citrate at reasonable price?
Amazon
does it need to have any specific characteristic? not an expert.
I don’t believe so
This is one that I have used a few times
I have no connection to the company
Sodium citrate is all the same. But, it doesn’t all cost the same. $0.50/ounce is about right.
There are numerous options on Amazon for less than that.
Disclaimer: This is a homemade sports nutrition beverage and we’re just eyeballing the electrolyte content because we are not hotshot scientists working for Big Sports Beverage. We don’t recommend setting out on a 50km run on the hottest day of summer with a few liters of Speed Swill®. Like, if you mix this up and then die in the desert, don’t blame us. We just make shorts and stuff. Also, Speed Swill® will not make you faster. If you want to go faster, you could probably add some caffeine, but we didn’t tell you that.