Trial #3 GeWilli Sports Beverage

So 90°+ F degree days are good ones to test out energy/electrolyte drinks. Esp when your total ride time is around 2.5+ hours and you stick 20 minutes of at limit riding in there.

Did a trial test run of a quick mix on the mid-day 5 mile round trip ride down to the Playground. Seemed positive. But riding the mt bike around with my oldest isn't the same as race pace.

Along the lines of using less "refined" sugars I thought heck lets try some juice. What do we have? Hmmm. Orange Juice. Ah what the heck.

Run down on what is in 8 oz of Tropicana Premium stuff:
22g sugars
450mg potassium

HOT DOG that's a boat load of Potassium for 8 ounces.

Final trial batch was made up like this:
8 oz Not from concentrate Orange Juice
22 grams of raw (turbinado) sugar
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon calcium ascorbate (vitamin C)
1 teaspoon honey
16 oz water (fill the balance of the big water bottle)...

It seemed to work. But there was a slight bit more gastric commentary than #2. Nothing distracting.

Fueling was good. Caffeine was non-existent aside from one cup of long drawn espresso at 10am.

The taste wasn't like watered down orange juice which to me is yucky tasting. The additional sugars I think make up for it. I'm not sure it was better than the previous but the citrus juice flavor was better. It did taste a bit salty, but only a hint of it. And when you are sweating that much, salt is important.

I did also consume about 25-30 oz of water in addition to the two bottles of Trail #3 on the ride (from the hydration pack). So in someways this was more of an energy/electrolyte beverage to go along with the plain water. Trial #2 I consumed only an extra bottle of water (3 24oz bottles of fluids for the 2.5 hours). So getting 64 oz of water a day? No problem. Actually would have wanted a bit more fluid. Ran out of water in the suck bag about 1/2 mile from home or so. Wanted more, but it was dry and bottles were empty. So I topped off with 20 oz of water after getting inside.

1/8 teaspoon might be too much salt, in retrospect. But, AFAIK, I don't have physical issues that would require me taking in less sodium, and combined with the fact I eat little to no processed (salty and sodium ______ loaded) foods, even with a bit extra there I'm probably well within the caloric intake balance for the 'nutrient.'

A bit verbose on this Trail #3.

We'll see what the next trial brings. Maybe an apple beverage with a touch of apple cider vinegar to cut some of the edge... Could be something to drinking pickle juice? no?

There ya go
Heddwch
G