I get that, but the reality is the same thing can be said about whatever solution they have in place. You think it’s appropriate to drink extra bottles of sweet low cal drink to get the sodium in?!
There’s no denying the simpler solution for their customers is cal + soodium in a bottle and plain water. The if more calories or sodium is needed, add in a gel or salt tabs.
That has to be a better solution than juggling three different bottles of fluid, making sure you down even more sweet liquid sodium drink etc.
Water is there for those that want their own stuff. And that’s what I did for the first decade I was doing ironman, and indeed the last time. Mix of concentrates and powder ‘baggies’ to drop into the torhans.
I love that they are going with a mainstream product that has worldwide availability. A few years ago they used their own branded gels and bars, which not only were the worst tasting thing since cocktail night at the student hall freshers party, but you literally could not buy or import them into the country until the month before the race.
Honestly, with modern kit and knowledge of training, nutrition is now about the hardest part of racing irondistance unless you’re someone with ironstomach (which I certainly don’t).
I have not. If water and salt tablets are sufficient, that is something I’ll take into account. I don’t know why but I’ve always figured there was “more” that you needed in long races. But then again, I don’t do long races so it’s not much of a consideration for me. On my short races I just carry a bottle of water. Sometimes not even that.
I try not to be super-critical of the writing on Slowtwitch, but this reads like a press release, not an informative review.
Where in this article can I find out how many calories are in the drink, what strength will be served to cyclists and runners at an Ironman race, what type of sugar or sweetener is in the drink?
Thanks for coming on here and clarifying. So, each bottle will have 750mg of sodium. This means we should be buying the 1500 tablets, and add 1 tablet per bottle for practice = 750mg, vs. buying the 1000 tablets which 1 tablet would only have 500 mg sodium, correct? It’s confusing, as the PFandH marketing when registering for Ironman and even this week on an Ironman Instagram post, was marketing the 1000 mg tablets.
Yes, I think that is the best. I honestly had a hard time figuring this out and I am worried that it gets mixed properly out on the course. I bought the 1,000 and have cut some of them in half so that I put one and a half in a water bottle. I guess I’m doing the right thing. I sure do appreciate PH and I appreciate them being active here. I do think that they’ve set up a confusing situation.
I think the whole labelling scheme is confusing on the hydration side, even the drink (carb) mix is labelled as per litre. Give me a sachet that says it has x grams of carbs in it, rip it open and put in any bottle I have, be it 500ml, 660ml or 900ml - I know exactly what I’ve got.
I love the Chews and 90g gels - but the drink and hydration just seems complex for the sake of being different.
Here’s what’s currently on the PH site. Marketing the 1000 mg tablets as the on-course hydration for Ironman. Which, actually, 1 of those tablets = 500 mg. Then, somehow the volunteers are going to mix all that up and it come out to 750 mg in the bike bottles. Sounds dicey. I do like their gels as well and even the 750 mg in the bottle tastes fine by me. Just not sure about race day.
To add, I am wondering if you have thought about making the PH 1500 hydration tablet the on-course tablet for Ironman instead of the PH 1000? If the goal is 750 mg per bottle, the volunteers would only need to drop a single 1500 mg tablet (which is 750 mg sodium) into each bike bottle. No pre-mixing needed. It would be hard to mess that up and would save your company and Ironman a lot of volunteer labor and materials, not to mention assure athletes they are getting the expected amount of sodium. Thanks for considering.
Thanks, I also would rather not ingest Sucralose any time (and prefer not to in racing). @_BW_Tri would you consider a product that offers 750mg sodium and 200 cals from maltodextrin as a standard base product on course with no sucralose. Or even zero cals but no sucralose (really we don’t need sweet on course, it’s not a dessert buffet, it’s just fuel for racing).
At 70.3 distance I just start with my own mix with 400-500 cals in a large bottle and 1000mg (approx) of table salt, and I dilute with off course water. In Taupo and Marbella, I used precision off the course and added a Cliff bar and that was enough cals and sodium to get to start of run and on run, I just took 4 gels off the course (Maurten), and whatever i felt like drinking off course (I guess a combo of water, coke and Precision).
@david we work closely with Ironman to ensure each 750ml bottle delivers a sodium concentration of 1000mg per litre. Volunteers use large vessels to pre-mix the electrolytes in the correct water-to-tablet ratio, then decant the solution into bottles. This allows the team to prepare high volumes efficiently, keep them cool, and replenish quickly.
The same method is used on the run, where you’ll find PH 1000 in the cups at the aid stations. The drink is pre-mixed and poured to maintain that same 1000mg of sodium per litre concentration.
What you’re doing by adding 1.5 tablets to a 750ml bottle is absolutely the right thing to do to match what you’ll be receiving on-course.
@thetrickster we carry relative concentration across our drink range to allow athletes to understand how mixing their bottle affects what they take in, and, how they respond to it. Athletes can be much more intentional with things such as gut training, or, identifying areas of change when something doesn’t quite go to plan in training or racing.
Instead of saying “each 750ml bottle delivers a sodium concentration of 1000mg per litre”, just say “each 750ml bottle delivers 750mg of sodium”. I’m a big PF&H fan, but the naming scheme of some of the hydration products is so wacky. A single PH1000 tablet doesn’t give me 1000mg of sodium? Just name it PH500.
