FYI, I have a food scale that can go down to the gram, and max weight is 15 lb or ~7kg, but of course there may be inaccuracies if you’re just trying to measure 1g. I think your hunch is right that volumetric is easier/better for most people, especially for these small quantities, but then you run into the inaccuracies of volumetric measures - a quick internet search shows that some teaspoons can be as much as 1/3 off. Unfortunately, the calibration requires a graduated cylinder, which most people don’t have lying around.
How do YOU measure your sodium? Do you have a scale that goes down to the 0.1g?
I can see this is definitely a challenge. Probably only a real issue if you’re planning to take really high amounts of sodium in a short period of time…
For Mohican I mixed a drink similar to what I was going to race with to drink with breakfast but with more sodium citrate, 2 tsp/2000mg. Also had a “warm up” bottle I could toss for the ride to the start and a little warm up on the first climb that had 1/4tsp. I then had around 6000mg during the race including the Gatorade.
No cramps and was still putting out decent power till the end 
I have a pair of mismatched tsp’s that are exactly that!.
I used to do volumetric for sugar and sodium.
Now I weigh carbs. Faster.
Process:
- Bottle half full of water.
- Scale on counter.
- Half full bottle on scale.
- Use app to calculate sodium & carb needs, while bottle fills.
- Funnel on bottle.
- Tare scale.
- Scoop some Gatorade in.
- Pour sugar in, up to carb total.
- Mental math how much sodium I got from gatorade. (app does this soon)
- Measure remaining sodium in tsp and pour it in the funnel.
- Fill remainder of bottle(s) with water.
- Lids on, shake while walking out the door.
Here’s my procedure for mixing my gatorade/sugar/electrolyte mix.
- I have 2, 2 liter bottles that I premix at 10% carbs, with electrolytes for that concentration that I keep ready to go in the fridge. I do this with a scale - 1 scoop of gatorade, then fill to 200grams total with sugar, measure electrolytes with teaspoon.
- I then dilute those with water as desired to get the carb content I want. I add electrolytes if I dilute it significantly. (I have been skipping the added electrolytes recently, as it’s cold enough in the morning and my workouts aren’t generally long enough to need them.)
This makes it very quick for me in the morning before I get on the trainer. I do need to be better about the electrolytes as things warm up - I failed at this on a recent afternoon trainer ride at 80 degrees.
Even with tequila I just can’t slam salt.
Heat acclimatization update, HR at 120W
- Wed the 18th: 131bpm at 95F avg temp
- Mon the 23rd: 116bpm at 93F avg temp
No preload today. HR dropping toward normal at 120W. The first hot day on the bike is always brutal.
That’s quite possible. I suppose walmart teaspoons don’t qualify as research grade.
This thread has been great and a huge help. Thank you all.
What you don’t just measure out chemicals in the lab with spoons and call it good??
Had a question/idea pop in my head over the weekend. Lets say I’m doing a 5hr race in the heat, I’m well carbed up and preloaded with a little sodium pre race.
Would there be any benefit to altering the amount of sodium intake during the race, as in heavier intake on the front end vs the last half? Or vise versa? Not just a steady constant amount…?
Idea being not needing to “store” water as much on the last half or something. Just thinking…
Not knowing the temperature or your sweat rate, it is very likely you are loosing more water than you can take in and your body can process. You aren’t storing water as you will gradually become dehydrated over the course of a multi hour event/race. I don’t see any benefits in accelerating this deficit.
Time for me to load more sodium pre ride, I have been coming apart pretty bad when its warm.
This one is cheaper and has nutrition facts stating 1210mg per tsp.
Nice find. 
Can you @Dr_Alex_Harrison, tell me if such that kind of sparkling water is suitable for sodium preload and for endurance events >3H ?
Cheers
That’s a lot of bicarbonates for a sodium pre-load beverage and I’m not sure I’d recommend a carbonated beverage for preloading anyway. Hope I’m understanding your question here!
My question was more on the sodium side than the bircarbonate one (maybe wromg topic). I’ve seen that Precision Fuel&H recommend sodium preloading with their ph1500 product and this product is way more cheaper, tatse just like water and has the same amount of sodium/l. Hence my question.
I hope this clarify my point!
Thanks for answering & reading anyway
In this answer are you assuming someone drinking those 2 liters consecutively and in a short amount of time? Or with some sort of interval between them? Unless it’s the first option, it seems like you’re contradicting yourself and that the second liter would eventually compensate for the retention of the first one… Which tracks with the way the pump works.
I’m not sure I understand the question. Maybe you can rephrase with enough clarity to get through my thicker-than-normal skull.
I’ve long since forgotten what I might have been referencing here. Help me out a little if you can. Happy to answer specific / targeted questions spelled out for me a bit.
I included the relevant quotes so it should be easy to follow. But I’ll try again:
Is it your position that drinking 1L + 2g NaCl and then 1L w/o any NaCl is the same as drinking 1L + 1g NaCl twice?
To make this even more obvious, would the same result be achieved with
- one 1L infusion of hypertonic saline followed by 1L of hypotonic saline
VS - 2L of normal saline?
Depends on timing. If very close back to back, effectively yes. If not, then no, probably not the same effect.