I’ve seen a variety of ways proposed - All the sodium in your fuel, some of the sodium in your water, salt pills, salt on the tongue… What is the proven best way of getting the sodium needed without feeling sick or getting stomach slosh?
I use EFS as my sports drink. It contains tons of the big four electrolytes (a multiple of drinks like Gatorade) and it doesn’t upset my stomach. (This is a big deal for me. I can’t use any kind of gels because my gut is pretty fussy. EFS is tasty and agrees with my system.) If I’m doing a long race (12 hours or longer), I keep some Skratch drink ready at my checkpoints just in case I need a change of flavor.
I think pills are the way to go. Control the timing and dosage. Food is for calorie dosage. Drink is for water and calorie dosage.
Gatorade or Gatorade Endurance
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I use efuel from crank sports on the bike. On hot days I add 1-2 scoops of BASE salt per bottle.
Run is eGel every 45 min and water at aid stations. Then more base salt about every mile.
For Augusta this year I pre-loaded sodium the night before and the morning of. I did not have any cramping issues during the race with this strategy.
You’re going to need to drink water with whatever method you use (tabs, pills, gels, etc) so the sloshing really is a function of how much water you ingest. Personally, I take gels and liquids on the bike because it’s hard to fumble around with pills while riding in aero, and I switch to pills on the run, but YMMV.
+1 for EFS Pro; sip prerace and then have it on the bike. Mild taste compared with Gatorade Endurance with considerably more electrolytes. Easy on the gut too.
Fortunately I have no issue with consuming GE and water on the run (I only carry a gel bottle tucked into my race kit) and will take a salt capsule every 30 if warranted.
You’re going to need to drink water with whatever method you use (tabs, pills, gels, etc) so the sloshing really is a function of how much water you ingest. Personally, I take gels and liquids on the bike because it’s hard to fumble around with pills while riding in aero, and I switch to pills on the run, but YMMV.
Question for everyone who is liquid only on the bike…
I go with the same method, but I think my brain must be broken. For the life of me I have not developed a good system to carry all the calories needed.
I tried 5 scoops of UCAN (carb of choice) in a condensed bottle that I squirted into my BTA bottle before aide stations, but by the time I got the bottle from my rear mount, got 1/4 of it in my aero bottle, put the bottle back, got water from a station, filled my bottle again… it was a mess on non-aeroness. And half the stuff ended up on my damn bike anyway.
If you have a system for storing your liquid cals on the bike that you love I’d love to hear it and copy it. I’ve resisted adding a 3rd bottle to my bike because I’m pretty aero-obsessed, but fumbling around is pretty damn non-aero so I’m open to it.
Saltstick
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Why not just sip an ounce or two from your condensed bottle and chase it down with as much water as needed?
Top off the BTA bottle with water at each station.
Scott
I would do 2 concentrated bottles of Infinit (~750 calories each) and just chase with water from my BTA. Clean and easy.
Check out Precision Hydration
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I just have to bite the bullet and carry 2 double concentrated bottles BTS, and then carry 4 gels in my trisuit, plus a BTA bottle that I start with normal concentration and refill with water . I can eat/drink all of that while staying in aero and reaching behind with one hand. It’s not the most aero solution but nutrition is critical for me so I can’t afford to skip sodium/calories.
Saltstick
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Ha!
Lick you arms… 
I did it one way last year at Maryland with disastrous results (that worked in training), and am going with a different method this year.
IMMD 2018 - Bike nutrition plan. 3x 24oz bottles of super concentrated EFS Pro. 15 scoops each bottle for 600cal/bottle, 1800 cal total. Also had a snickers if it sounded good. Started bike with all 3 bottles (2x BTA, 1 BTS). Once first bottle was gone, ditched it and picked up water bottle. Alternated water with the EFS bottles rest of ride. Had couple bites of snickers. Ended up drinking all of the EFS plus 3 water bottles iirc, and was super pumped about getting all of that down and feeling great getting off the bike. Then 1.5 miles into the run I puked my guts out. 4 giant exorcist style pukes. My stomach felt great before and after that. Only thing I can think of was it was much cooler in Maryland than it had been for all my training rides in Texas and I drank too much? I vividly remember being very thirsty on the bike though, and slugging down water. I’m thinking the concentrate made me more thirsty?
Anyway, after reflection, I felt I needed a plan that would allow more flexibility with total fluids, as well as bottles not mixed as concentrated. So plan for Kona is 4x 24oz bottles of GU rocktane + 5 GU gels. The bottles are just very slightly over-concentrated at 3 scoops for the 24oz for 275 cal/bottle (serving is 2 scoops for 21oz). The grape GU is very mild and even over concentrated doesn’t have a strong flavor at all. The GU gels allow me to take in less liquids to get all calories in if necessary. Now for this method I am planning to hit special needs. Start with 2 bottles then get 2 more at special needs. Since I’m not “racing” I’m not worried about losing a minute. I would carry all 4 if I was racing for a slot or something (2x BTA, 2x BTS)
Saltstick
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Ha!
I do, and do, smartass. 
But if you go back and read my question isn’t what to use, it’s how to use what you use. Take electrolyte (capsules) whole? Break them open and mix with fuel? Break them open and mix with water and fuel? Or just mix with water?
And I’m not totally lost on this - just taking them works ok for me. I’m curious what people find works best for them and what science says is the best way.
Saltstick
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I use Saltstick pills, but I don’t feel like they are working.
Base salt seems working for me during the run.
Tailwind is definitely better than UCan.
I want to try EFS.
Skratch Hyperhydration works well for me. I highly recommend but your gut and ymmv.
Saltstick
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I use Saltstick pills, but I don’t feel like they are working.
Base salt seems working for me during the run.
Tailwind is definitely better than UCan.
I want to try EFS.
One reason why may be because salt on your tongue doesn’t have to pass your stomach lining to get into your blood stream. Now that it’s in your blood, it pulls fluid in your stomach to your blood better. It’s one way to prevent or get rid of stomach slosh. When I interviewed SaltStick on my show, he mentioned that. We can get stomach slosh when there’s not enough sodium in our blood to pull the liquid through the stomach lining. I imagine the same could happen for another reason too - Sodium in the stomach is too high and it doesn’t want to let water cross over to the blood. Both are helped by sodium absorbed through the tongue to skip the stomach and get it into the blood directly.
You can take the powder in SaltStick capsules and put it in a Base Salt container and use it the exact same way.