What to add to your waterbottle?

Triathlon Forum
1

For my bike and run fluids, I like to “experiment” with adding other ingredients to the water bottle. Normally, I’ll start out with one scoop of Maurten/SIS/Gatorade/Gu Powder and then add in the some combination of the following:

  • Touch of Olive Oil (A little bit of good fat and it helps to coat the throat for dry energy bars)
  • Honey (Extra Carbs)
  • Maple Syrup (Extra Carbs and it tastes great)
  • Ground Ginger (Definitely wakes up the throat with a tingly action)
  • Vitamin Water (Add this to Maurten because Maurten tastes so bland)
  • Red Bull (Gives me wings)
  • Endurox (It has a small amount of protein, but I’m unable to find Endurox Fruit Punch Flavor any more. Endurox is supposed to be a “post workout” drink, but I drink it during long runs and long rides).

I noticed that Hammer Nutrition has long been an advocate Heed, which has no fructose, no glucose and no sucrose. Since everybody is trying to get 100 grams of carbs an hour, Hammer is now offering a 100 gram sugarfest powder.

Does anybody have other suggestions?

2

Username is candyman but no love for plain old sugar?

3

I do tailwind. I will add ReLyte in summer. 1 scoop adds 800mg of sodium. Sometimes I will add a packet of sugar as well.

4

I used to experiment but I got tired of taking so long to prepare my bottles. Now I keep it simple. Either one, two, or three scoops of NeverSecond. When it’s really hot a packet of LMNT in my bottles.

5

I spend too much money on other things, I’m glad to have settled on concentrated bottles of sugar, sodium citrate, and gatorade powder. So easy and customizable. And CHEAP.

6

Gatorade or if I want a high calorie concentration, Gatorade and bulk maltodextrin.

I don’t see a need to make this complicated.

7

Didn’t mean to make it complicated but since we live in Florida, the temps and humidity make it challenging. For a 5 hour ride, I need 5 water bottles with carbs and 3 water bottles with H2O. If I put the same mix in the 5 carbo water bottles, then my taste buds and body gets tired of the same boring flavor, which is why I like to mix it up with a variety.

8

I spend too much money on other things, I’m glad to have settled on concentrated bottles of sugar, sodium citrate, and gatorade powder. So easy and customizable. And CHEAP.

Just sugar and table salt. Even cheaper, still works great.

9

You need Dr Harrison’s Saturday app badly. Regular old sugar and table salt (or better yet sodium citrate) is all you need.

10

Candyman makes THE point!

When drinking large amounts of this stuff, it has to be appealing to drink.

True indeed that it’s all about the sugar, salt, and water, but the better you can make it taste, for folks like CM + myself, the more and more frequently we are going to imbibe.

For that purpose (flavour) I like to alternate sugar with maple syrup and I also buy those water enhancers with electrolytes.

INFINIT-LY (pun intended) more economical than the well-advertised stuff.

11

My mix is SAMS club generic sports drink, tailwind, 200 mg powdered caffene
.

12

Salt, sugar, and caffeine are the only thing proven to help. Everything else is a plecebo.

13

Also in Florida -

Slightly diluted apple juice + Morten Lite Salt (which has both sodium and potassium)
.

14

squeeze in some fresh lemon juice. makes it pretty refreshing

15

Thanks, I didn’t know about Morton Lite Salt. On my next trip to the grocery store, I’ll buy some along with some Apple Juice.

16

You need Dr Harrison’s Saturday app badly. Regular old sugar and table salt (or better yet sodium citrate) is all you need.
Thank you for the support!!

17

On the bike leg I’ll have one water bottle with all my nutrition needs (1g CHO and some salt per kg body weight per hour) for the bike leg portion in the form on Gatorade powder (lemon) and Maurten gels. It makes a highly concentrated soup of sugar that I sip throughout the bike and flush with water.

On the run I’ll stick to water / coke.

18

Doctor, as much as I appreciate the simplicity of sugar and salt in a water bottle, it lacks a lot (In My Humble Opinion).

First, this combo does have Sodium and Chloride electrolytes from salt, but it does not have

  • Potassium,
  • Calcium,
  • Magnesium or
  • Manganese electrolytes.
    Thus, the simplicity is great but the lack of a complete electrolyte balance makes the solution incomplete.

Second, I like flavors

  • Caramel,
  • Orange,
  • Fruit Punch,
  • Cherry,
  • Honey,
  • Maple Syrup
    This makes the drink not only taste great but also encourages me to drink more of it because it fills my taste buds.

Once again, I know that you have many followings that like your formula, but it just doesn’t work for me.

19

I assume you are looking for ways to hit that magical 80-100g/hour of carbohydrate. The Skratch High carb has an amazingly light taste and viscosity. I would bet that if you did a blind taste test and asked people to guess the carbohydrate content, people would guess 20g/bottle.

I also find that adding a bit of concentrated lemon or lime juice helps reduce the syrupy feeling you get if you are loading up on the cheaper carb alternatives.

20

I like flavors too. Many folks who have learned from me apparently are tougher than me and can go without flavor. :slight_smile: (my wife included)

Not this guy.

Re: other electrolytes, i need to dig up a YouTube video we did on that. I’ll get back. TLDR: there is a move towards less and less electrolyte quantity other than sodium in all products across the market because companies realize they do not harm than good, but they retain them because they’re great marketing.