It’s been hard to buy even relatively cheap Gatorade powder in the grocery store, so I figured if I’m ordering this stuff online I might as well do it right. I’m typically a heavy, salty sweater (not sweat tested, but doing Precision Hydration’s online questionnaire they recommend I use the 1500 product for everything), and I’m trying to stick to the high end of carbs for sweet spot, threshold, or VO2max workouts. So I’m doing the following right now, in batches of 6 bottles’ worth:
- 240g table sugar
- 240g maltodextrin (Mike’s Mix Tapioca Maltodextrin)
- 6g table salt
- 6g sodium citrate (technically trisodium citrate)
- 1 packet unsweetened Kool-Aid powder
Stir thoroughly in a mixer at the lowest speed.
That yields 20g fructose, 60g glucose, 667mg of sodium in about 80g, which seems to be near the upper limit of what I can get mixed into water. I did 1.5 and 2.5-hour trainer workouts this weekend on 2 and 3 bottles of this mix and I didn’t have any GI issues nor did I feel undernourished or wasted afterward.
This works pretty well in the relatively controlled environment on my trainer: temperature and humidity stay pretty constant, and I feel great sticking very closely to 1 bottle an hour. Doing a long endurance ride outside I’m inclined to separate calories and hydration, because I might drink anywhere from 1-3 bottles in an hour, and that could mean massively overpacking my gut.