What’s the best way to keep your water/sports drink from freezing (or to delay it) when it’s nice and chilly out?
Sugar in the water slows down the freezing. I mix up hot water and gatorade in winter and it lasts quite a while before freezing.
On the bike, putting the bottle in the cage upside down helps keep the mouthpiece from freezing (the ice forms in the base of the bottle instead of the mouthpiece). I tried this running but the risk of a bottle leaking is too high.
Another option is an insulated bottle filled with hot liquid:
I did a 52K race last February and it was really cold out. The aid stations were 10K apart so a water bottle was needed and hard to keep from freezing. My bottle froze up at about 35k. A group of us talked about hydration after the race and the things we learned were: Sport drink worked but once water was put in the bottle it froze up hard. Stick to sport drink The only way to get water out when really cold is to remove the cap. Use a cycling style cap instead of a screw on because the screw on caps get stuck on (or off) Carry spare caps so when the cap gets too much ice in it to put on again you can use a dry, ice free cap People in aid stations are incredible. If you think it’s hard to run 52K at temperatures between -20 and -30 try standing at an aid station all day
When using a water-bottle, I find that the first part to freeze is the top. A small amount of ice in the top plugs it up. If you squeeze the bottle after drinking to blow a little air through that seems to help.
I have a couple of friends who use a small camelback and put it right under their clothes. They also use the insulated hose cover (you can just blow the water back out of the hose too).
I have those polar bottles and they are GREAT for keeping beverages either warm - or cold!
A freezing water bottle is God’s way of saying you should be indoors
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