Recommend me an energy/electrolyte drink

colm_gti

Until now I've been taking 800mls of a mix of water and fresh smooth orange juice at a 1:1 with 0.9% table salt (and then refilling with water half way through a spin if it's a longer one). But I'm placing an order with CRC in the next while and was considering getting one of the energy/electrolyte drinks if it will be any improvement over what I've been using til now, considering it doesn't cost much more per serving, and can be gotten in sachet/tablet form to use when refilling mid-way.

Are there any ones in particular that people would recommend? Would I be better off going for the likes of high5 energy source 4:1 or something along those lines over a pure isotonic drink?

rab!dmonkey

I've been using High5's Zero eletrolyte tabs (Xtreme and normal versions) while mountain biking and I've found them to be excellent. In the context of lift-assisted mountain biking in the Alps, I went from having to refill my 3 l Camelbak three times a day and having to urinate a lot to needing no refills at all (and not needing to stop to pee so much either). Their claim of 'burn 41% more fat' is pure puff though: the study that made that finding was comparing two groups of people who were excersing after fasting the night before - one group used Zero tabs and the other an isotonic drink with calories.

I have tried making my own sports drink using a similar recipe to yours, but it is a bit of a hassle and I'd have to buy a lot of orange juice. I always found my drink to taste a bit too salty and it didn't treat my stomach as well as the electrolyte drink. High5's electrolyte tabs are super easy to use - I just drop a few in my Camelbak while I'm filling it in the morning and that's it.

Four of a kind

I use the zero X-treme and find it good.

However, I would like to know of any methods to create a simple home made energy drink using orange juice/salt as an alternative when I don't have any zero left?

Lumen

This is Ireland. What's wrong with water?

Unless you're cycling in extreme heat and drinking several bidons an hour or suffer from the sort of cramp which is alleviated by salt consumption, electrolytes are complete overkill IMO.

colm_gti

Cool, cheers lads, just ordered this so I'll see how I get on, worst case scenario is that I've just paid for an expensive drinks bottle :rolleyes:

As for a the homemade one I've been using til now:
400mls fresh orange juice (smooth, not from concentrate)
400mls water
7-8g table salt (Isotonic (0.9%) is 7.2g but the scales at home isn't accurate enough to weigh out to 1 decimal place :rolleyes:)

rab!dmonkey

Four of a kind wrote: »

I use the zero X-treme and find it good.

However, I would like to know of any methods to create a simple home made energy drink using orange juice/salt as an alternative when I don't have any zero left?

When I was in the same position as you I tried this recipe, similar to Colm's. Like I said earlier, it's not quite as convenient as the tabs. You use a lot of orange juice filling up a 3 l Camelbak too.

kumate_champ07

A bag of crushed tayto, should fit it all in the mouth in 1 go, a pretty intense flavour bomb Im guessing