Sports Nutrition Blog

Fueling During Training

Now that you know your sweat rate for specific workouts and in various conditions (keep checking if you are not sure), it is time to think about fluid options and to develop your hydration skills during  training. For short workouts lasting only 45 to 60 minutes, water should be fine. However, if you train longer, for 75 minutes or more, at moderate to hard intensity, your best choice is a sports drink. Sports drinks have the complete package- carbohydrates to provide fuel during training, fluid to replace sweat fluid losses, and electrolytes to replace the losses in sweat. For moderate workouts, 30 to 60 g carbohydrate per hour fuels performance. How much fluid and carbohydrate can you currently consume during training? Check the label of your sports drink and detemrine how much carbohydrate and fluid you are taking in with your current drinking practices and see if there is room for better fueling and hydration.