You are correct, but

You need something more substantial, like an IPA and you need to add the lite salt

and they are best for post ride, recovery fluid

PRN

Frankly all these "sugar substitutes" scare the crap outta me... yes I break down and drink a diet soda a couple times a month but I am worried about my chemical intake.

I guess stevia is made from a plant extract too... but then cocaine is also a natural plant extract.

Maybe mix a little Pedia-lyte with some fruit juice and water? I usually just drink water but have found I'm really diggin' the cucumber/ lime flavored Gatorade in this last heat spell.

For reference: Chocolate Milk May Boost Post-Workout Recovery

Chocolate Milk Refuels Muscles After Workout

If this is the norm, just stick with water. Seriously. You don't need Gatorade/Vitamin water/various sugar-I mean-energy drinks. If you still feel the need for a energy drink, I've used the below recipe and have been happy with the results. I would save this drink for workouts of high intensity; 10Ks, half marathons or centuries on a cycle. You'll do your body a tremendous amount of good if you avoid the Gatorade.

-Slightly heat some coconut water on the stove. Don’t let it get anywhere near simmering. Just let it get warm enough to melt the next three ingredients easily.

-Add a few dashes of sea salt, preferably one with high mineral content. Sea salt provides sodium, an important electrolyte, plus trace minerals. You’re going to be burning through a lot of it during the race.

-Add honey, preferably raw and from a local farm.

-Add blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap molasses comes after the third boiling of sugar cane. It contains less sugar than either white sugar, brown sugar, regular molasses, or dark molasses, but far more minerals and electrolytes. Sugar cane is a plant with roots that stretch deep into the soil to extract nutrients (some research suggests sugar cane roots may go down as far as six meters). Very few of those nutrients make it into white or brown sugar, and regular and dark molasses contain some, but it’s blackstrap molasses which gets the bulk of the minerals. So, when you add just a couple tablespoons of blackstrap molasses to your energy drink, you’re getting more than twice the potassium than a banana, more calcium than a cup of raw spinach, and almost 100 mg of magnesium.

Mix it all together until everything melts and it’s a dark brown murky viscous fluid.

mmm...

i dont open them this way anymore..i just stab my oyster knife..(dull, so i dont pierce myself) a phillips screwdriver works too.. stab on the flat side..you just have to find one of those "eyes". then insert a straw.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1342456722.jpg

What do you think my "mix" is?

you know what? i think fruit juice is too much. too much "flavor"..it slams me in the face.

i now do about a 20% mix. 80% water, and 20% juice. it's in my lunch nalgene bottle now. lately my flavors have been grape juice, or pom juice. i cant do full juice anymore. even breakfast OJ is too much.

i find it hard to believe any modern person is not getting enough salt. my doctor told me gatorade is a young man's drink. too much sugar for me. the only time i drink it, is on my backpacking trips. i carry a few packets of powder for the moment pure mountain spring water with deer pee gets too boring. (yes i filter :D)

My kids have had pedialite now and then, and one day I tasted it to see why they hated it... it's like gatorade but 10x sweeter !!! I can't believe that stuff does not induce diabetic coma instantly, it's gross... Our pediatrician agreed and recommended the lighter gatorade G2 cut with water, for babies... Anyway, that doesn't help with the original question... carry on ! (I'd think unless you're into heavy duty exercise, water would work great ;-)

FRS lads. Pretty good stuff and really does help recovery. Armstrong, Telbow and DOD can not be wrong....

I like Recoverite if I dont make a smoothie shake with frozen berries, skim milk, and scoop of whey.

I would think that the stuff you eat on a typical longer ride would contain all the salt, potassium, sugar, etc you need. Dollar for milligram, it has to be far cheaper to get that stuff via a Clif Bar or a banana than via Gatorade or similar. In sports where you don't eat during, like football or tennis, then drinking a "sports drink" makes more sense to me.

Let's see. 8 oz Gatorade has 125 cal, 275 mg sodium, 75 mg potassium, 35 g sugar.

A medium banana has 105 cal, nil sodium, 422 mg potassium, 14 g sugar, 13 g complex carbs.

A Clif Bar (chocolate chip) has 250 cal, 210 mg sodium, 250 mg potassium, 20 g sugar, 23 g complex carbs, 11 g protein.

Gatorade costs $0.50 per 8 oz if bought in bulk.

So it looks like I am wrong. It is cheaper to get calories, sodium, potassium, and sugar via Gatorade than via actual food.

Of course, 8 oz of Gatorade is bulkier and heavier than a bar, but if carrying the stuff is not an issue, and yellow coloring etc are okay, then the Gatorade looks pretty good.

That assumes your body extracts the stuff from liquids like Gatorade as efficiently as it does from solid food. I think that, actually, the body does a better job with liquid foods.

Where the Gatorade makes a big difference in recovery to me is after a run in hot weather. You don't drink for an hour and come back dehydrated. Gatorade always got me back into shape very quickly, unlike straight water.

When I am on the bike, I take plenty of water and drink during the workout. Never get to the same level of exhaustion.

G

i have had two gout attacks. i talked it over with my doc, and i narrowed it down to dehydration as the trigger. both time involved nothing fun..it was yardwork. my piss was dark orange. needlesstosay..i am now a fluid drinking fool.

i have no idea what it is about a coconut. it takes one and my pee quickly clears up. that weird headache you get when you are dehydrating dissipates quickly. i'm sold on them. the bottle coconut water taste very weird to me. almost sour. i measured coconut water from one nut, and it is about 10oz..IIRC.

before i exercise, i slam 16oz of water. no exception. i'm obsessed with staying hydrated. there is some good info on this thread..thanks.

No way!

We make our own sports drinks and power gels. The cost for ~100 calories is right about five cents. Show me a cliff bar or banana that costs that low and is this light!

On a 75-100 mile ride, I carry 16-20 oz of power gel (1500-2000 calories) and enough pre-mixed powder to make 10 bottles of "Gatorade" (one bottle every 10 miles). Usually I carry 3-4 bottles of fluid and then refill them with water and add my powder, shake, and go. Take only slightly longer than using the events Gatorade. If I only carry 3, I pack a filter bottle, since the water in some places is terrible.

One bottle per 10 miles is for me, in temps over 75F. In lower temps it is 1 in 15 or 1 in 20. In temps over 90 in the humidity here, it might be 12 bottle in 100 miles! Yes, over 2 gallons of fluid. Think of how much minerals you lose if you sweat over two gallons!!!

I drink 1 gallon of PowerAde Zero or homemade lemonade/cherry juice every day. I take Allopurinol for gout and this combo works for me!