Some people — like me — sweat a lot when they exercise. Some people — like me — lose a lot of electrolytes when they sweat. Some people — like me — don't enjoy spending a lot of money for fancy "sports drinks". That chain of geometric logic has led me to a trivial concoction that costs a tenth as much as commercial electrolyte-replacement fluids, and as far as I can tell does the job about as well. The flavor is decent too; it's based on the "Arnold Palmer" concept, a tea + lemonade beverage.

To a 20 ounce (~600 ml) bottle of water, simply add:

• ~1 tablespoon (~15 g) of pre-sweetened sugared instant tea mix
• ~1 tablespoon (~15 g) of pre-sweetened sugared lemonade powder
• ~1/10 teaspoon (~0.5 g) table salt
• ~1/4 pinch (~0.1g) of potassium chloride salt-substitute

This formulation provides:

• ~200 mg sodium
• ~50 mg potassium
• ~25 g carbohydrates (sugars)

For comparison, the same amount of Gatorade claims to contain 270 mg of sodium, 75 mg of potassium, and 35 g of carbs — hardly a significant difference — at an order of magnitude higher price. (If a stronger blend works better for you, just use a third less water or a third more dry ingredients in the above.) It takes only a few seconds to mix up a batch of my recipe, and since I've begun sipping it during long hot runs I've totally avoided the muscle cramps and fatigue that used to trouble me, which I suspect were caused by loss of sodium and potassium.

Now, all I need is a sexy name for the brew: ^zelectrolyte? ^z-lectrolyte? ^zeelectrolyte? ...

TopicRunning - TopicScience - TopicPersonalHistory - TopicHumor - 2006-06-21

(correlates: GovernmentJob, DoWithout, Critical Eyes, ...)