After volunteering at Lake Placid this year, I found out that Ironman has been replacing Gatorade Endurance for Powerbar Perform as the sports drink of choise. This is somewhat concerning to me, because I have been training with the Gatorade for a few years now (ever since my friend Dave introduced it to me, having seen it at the aid stations at IMLP '04 and '08). Most people probably figure a sports drink is a sports drink - but as in the words of John Pinette, 'nay, nay!'. The issue of concern to me is not necessarily the amount of sodium, but rather the amount of potassium. The Gatorade Endurance formula has a significant amount of potassium - if I remember correctly the ratio of sodium to potassium is close to 2:1, whereas other gatorade formulas (and many other sports drinks) are closer to 3:1, and even 4:1.
Ironman Perform? The ratio is a whopping 19:1.
Granted, part of that is because the sodium content is boosted, but the potassium representation is virtually nonexistent. I could be fretting over nothing, though. For one thing, when I use endurance, a LOT of salt is lost through sweat -significantly more than normal. That lends me to believe that the endurance formula is probably providing me with more than enough sodium and/or potassium (even at 2/3 strength). So there is potentially some validity to the thought that I simply don't need as much potassium as I might think. The other thing is that I have to have faith in the idea that if everyone else is using it successfully, and crossing the finish line, that the Perform drink is probably perfectly adequate.
Still, until I actually do some long runs and rides without the potassium, I'm hesitant to just assume it'll work on the spot come July 22, 2012. As a result, starting this past weekend, I'm toying around with some different fuel and nutrition possibilities. It also helped that my endurance formula happened to just run out.
Late last week I picked up a bottle of Accelerade. This is a sports drink product with protein, going on the idea that having some protein in a sports drink helps speed hydration, and help performance by allowing some regeneration (or slow down degeneration - whichever) of muscle tissue during exercise. Part of the reason I wanted to try it was because I thought I might be able to get away with not having to eat a protein bar periodically during my rides/runs. I tried the Accelerade during my ride this weekend, and I almost immediately remembered why I didn't pick up more after using a trial package of it a few years ago - the damn protein makes a mess. First off, it doesn't always dissolve well and easily - but that was the least of the concerns. The biggest concern is that the protein sticks to the side of my water bottle, leaving a residue. I know from experience that when this happens, if it gets really dried out, it is a bitch to remove. It is mildly annoying on the side of the bottle, but a real pain in the ass when it sticks to the nozzle part of the bottle. Lastly, it's just not incredibly palletable - which is not something you want in a product that you are supposed to consume rather large quantities of in order to keep energy and muscle function from bottoming out. Oh, and even with the protein, I eventually craved solid food.
So, Accelerade is off the table. I ended up going to BJ's and getting some regular Gatorade - it doesn't have as high an absolute level of sodium as the endurance formula, but it has a higher sodium to potassium ratio than endurance. Still not quite as high as the perform drink, but it will give me a chance to see if I end up feeling like the lower potassium content affects me negatively.
One idea I had thought of was taking advantage of the aid stations and eating half a banana every 10 miles on the bike ride. It would provide fuel, lots of potassium., and very importantly - the taste of something different! However - I'm hesitant to do so without training in that fashion, and its not like I'm going to ride with a backpack full of bananas. But who knows - maybe I can work something out, like doing a century comprised of 2 x 50 mile loops, or 3 x 33 mile loops around the house, giving me an opportunity to pick up two halves of a banana from the house. Or plan stops at convenience stores that sell individual bananas.
Another option that came to mind was using electrolyte tablets, such as nuun, as a supplement. In my experience, the sugars and carbs in a sports drink are incredibly important to sustaining energy output, and with nuun providing basically no calories, it can't be the one trick pony. I also wouldn't want to mix it with a sports drink either, as that would shoot the sodium content through the roof. So maybe one idea is to alternate between a bottle of gatorade and water/nuun. The appealing thing about that is that after a while, just having gatorade by itself gets tiring, so sometimes plain water is a nice change of pace.
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