yep - its on the low side but right now those rides are typically z2 in cool/cold weather so I’m not finding any issues with that and we dont stop, so refills are a challenge!
As the weather warms and hydration becomes more of an issue I’ll be swapping to the 2 x 1L/32oz bottles and I suspect we’ll restart some pit stops as well, so a refill is easier to organise.
My challenge really is about these 6-7hr GF events where I will be reliant on food stop supplies. Experience tellms the options are always just water or very (over) diluted energy drink mix where organisers try and save money, so I like the idea of the super concentrate bottle to sip from and water top ups along the way in the other bottle.
@Dr_Alex_Harrison potentially a very stupid question, but a thought I’ve had for a while. Apart from how easy to it is to mix, is there any difference what type of sugar you use for sucrose? Basically, is there anything functionally different between white sugar, caster sugar or brown sugar (or any others)?
Not stupid at all! I had the same question a while back.
White sugar and caster sugar are the same, assuming they both dissolve.
Brown sugar has molasses which probably isn’t optimal, but I haven’t looked into it specifically.
Powdered sugar is white sugar (crushed smaller), mixed with corn starch. Corn starch is not as easily digested/absorbed during exercise and should be avoided.
Oh! That’s good to know. I had mistakenly thought it was a much larger amount of corn starch. I would have little fear of using it if the 10g/200g ratio is true.
In Sweden that would cost me about 8 dollars per water bottle if I were to use maple syrup that’s how expensive it is here for real Canadian maple syrup…
@Dr_Alex_Harrison
Any thoughts of this product? I came across it today and curious on your thoughts. With all your contributions to the forum you’ve become to go to guy for questions like these
Is there a difference in consuming sugar in solution vs in “harder” form? I do wonder about GI issues that many people get (no personal experience, but I don’t think I’ve really pushed the limit with high-sugar drinks). I’m really just wondering because I can easily eat a bag of Haribo (or similar) sweets in less than an hour, and they are around 80-90g carbs / 100g. A bag is between 150-200g. No issues with eating 200g, ie 180g carbs, in less than an hour. Is the problems the added water in drinks? Or do the gummy sweets just take longer to digest, so even if I eat them in an hour, I don’t actually end up with all of them digested in an hour?
Yeah, maybe they accumulate. But I can easily eat a big bag of Giant Strawberrys for example on the bike, so its not just on the couch. To be fair the most I’ve eaten in total is two bags of sweets like that, over the course of a maybe 6 hour ride, so wouldn’t have pushed up against the carb digestion limits. Though it never feels like that would be a problem, I have to pace myself or I’d scoff them all early on.
Giant Strawbs are 82g carbs/100g. They are slightly too chewy, but still good. The most carbs I’ve found are jelly beans with 89g/100g. I don’t actually eat most gummy bears because they usually have gelantine and I’m a veggie, but I also find them a bit too small and too hard to eat quickly. Current favourite are “Harry Hippos”, 86g carbs/100g, easy to eat, and come in 200g bags for just over £1. So much for my very sophisticated fuelling strategy!
After reading through these threads for the last several months I have been experimenting with bottles. I have tried the Gatorade (for flavor), sugar and salt combo described by Dr. Alex and found it a bit sweet. I was able to stomach it, but it was not “refreshing”. Lately I have been doing approx 1/3 Gatorade/sugar/ malto w/ 1/2 teaspoon table salt. I found this works for me and is a bit more appealing. What do you think the ratio is?
I’m not racing so not necessarily looking for optimal, just good enough. Now that I’m putting 90g in a bottle I do notice a positive difference at the end of the ride (typically 2.5-3hours). Before I just dumped a scoop or two of Gatorade/malto and was on my way.
Also, funny enough to an earlier post of Dr. Alex, I notice once I put over 95-ish g in my bottle I start to get stomach issues. So if I wanted to go more, I definitely need a bigger bottle to increase the water/ carb ratio.
that’s how expensive it is here for real Canadian maple syrup…
