All you need is sodium. You're more likely to get yourself in trouble with the other electrolytes than you are to do any good.

As for the quantity, that's going to be personal. Take into account how you feel over the course of a ride, how much you're sweating, and how much/little you need to go to the bathroom during a ride and adapt fluid/sodium intake accordingly.

Why not add carbs to this mix?

You may want to look at the Saturday app. It will give carb recommendations, in addition to sodium, but you can ignore that.

I don’t have any financial ties to the app, but enjoy using it.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

I get my carbs from other sources throughout the ride - maple syrup, Clif Bars, rice cakes - and so I don't feel like I need more from the drink, but maybe you're right and it would be easier to do that. Okay, so it sounds like I'd be fine just adding some sodium citrate to the bottle and making it simple, since I wouldn't taste that anyway. Thanks you two for the replies!

Love the DIY thinking here. Massive cost savings for sure, and much easier to optimize for your needs. Glad to see folks are moving in this direction.

1. The potassium and magnesium are unnecessary. Stick with just sodium. If you're going to add potassium, add 5% as much potassium as sodium. If adding magnesium, add only a trace. Both of them are more likely to cause GI issues or hydration issues than they are to enhance performance. Sodium citrate is the easiest on your gut.

2. Nope!

3. You're probably right. Sounds like for the longer rides at least 1000mg sodium per hour. (~1 tsp sodium citrate). Helpful Links page on our site has a few sodium citrate options and I honestly don't know if they're active affiliate links yet or not (we had a hiccup with our affiliate program, thanks amazon!)

4. Nope, just flavoring!

FYI: sodium needs increase exponentially with sweat rate and duration on bike. Short ride with moderate sweat rate might merit only X mg per hour. Longer ride with higher sweat rate might merit 4X or 5X mg per hour. Reason: sodium concentration of sweat increases with intensity of exercise and sweat rate. And, relative necessity of replacement increases with absolute amount of sodium loss and rate of sodium loss. As in, if you're losing a lot of sodium quickly, it pays even bigger dividends to replace a higher percentage of what's being lost, than if you're a small amount of sodium more slowly.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

one important note is liquid IV is based upon the WHO fluid replacement supplement for 3rd world countries where child dehydration is caused by diarrhea. Whether it is useful otherwise is a question. As for sport rehydration and issues Dr Harrison is your go to guy!

Dr. Harrison - thank you for the informational reply, as always! If I'm understanding correctly, it's better to be on the high side of sodium replenishment, better too much than too little? Also, you mention that sodium needs increase exponentially with duration. The trainer ride I did yesterday was 7 hours, and I am building up to a 19 hour indoor trainer ride by June. For something like that (and the rides building up of 9, 11, 13, 15, etc. hours in the coming months) should I just be safe by taking in significantly more than 1,000mg/hr? The foods I'm eating have trace amounts of sodium but should I try to take in at least 1,000mg from sodium citrate in addition to whatever is in my food sources? Thanks!

Yep, more than 1000mg/hr is probably a good bet unless you're able to keep it remarkably cold and windy in your pain cave. 19 hours on the trainer is brutal!

I should qualify: the exponential increase in sodium needs happens as durations move up from 0-2 hours out to 6-8 hours. After 6-8 hours, it's more of a linear increase because gut tolerance simply limits further increases in replacement (intake) and because it's unlikely that intensity will be sufficiently high to drive extreme sweat loss rates during ultra activities. (There is an app for this. Extremely shameless plug. Linked below.)

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

I’m curious what flavoring you end up using

I find myself reaching for lmnt (or even TriOral, which is $0.40) often, as it tastes great

Pure sodium citrate tastes like salt water. I tried crystal light packets and the flavor is too strong.

But to your question, I do 1.5g/hr for long rides. I’m a heavy sweater, and weigh ~175#. 1.0g/hr isn’t enough for me and I can feel the difference (at least I think I can)

 



lemon powder is working for me. When it's going to be really hot I add instant tea, which makes lukewarm (or worse) sport drink instantly palatable to me, warm tea being totally fine.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/