When To Use Active Root During Training And Racing

At Active Root, we have a number of products to work alongside the Sports Drink, such as ElectroLite and the Gel Mix. In this article we will explain how to implement all these products together into a race or training strategy and how it can assist you.

NUTRITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY

The best place to start is the actual functionality of each product, i.e. what it's going to do to help you perform and keep you going. The functionality of sports nutrition is usually divided into 'Fuel' and 'Hydration' and with Active Root we also have 'Balance' - how much is the product going to settle your stomach.

BALANCE - GINGER: Let's start with our main ingredient, ginger. All our products contain 204mg of ginger per serving, the proven optimal amount to keep your stomach settled and help prevent nausea and bloating.

FUEL - CANE SUGAR: When working at a steady intensity, you need about 60g of carbohydrate per hour to keep fuelled. Both our Sports Drink and Gel Mix contain about 50% of this per serving, whereas ElectroLite only contains about 1/8. A lot of athletes work backwards from the 60g of carbs per hour mark to work out what they should be taking in. In the case of Active Root that would mean: 1) 1 x Gel Mix serving & 1 x Sports Drink serving; 2) 2 x Gel Mix servings and 1 x ElectroLite serving or 3) 2 x Sports Drinks servings, to get you to the 60g per hour mark. 

HYDRATION - SEA SALT: Hydration is probably the most difficult element to measure as everyone sweats differently. Both our Sports Drink and ElectroLite have 400mg of sea salt per serving, in line with industry standard for rehydration products. Without any reliable evidence it's hard to be exact, but we'd provide two bits of advice. Even if it's not hot, you're going to sweat so make sure some form of hydration is part of your plan (take more than you expect to need), especially if you're going to be out for a long time. And, like fuelling, try to drink little and often.

LOGISTICS

After working out what you need, the next thing is to think about how and whether it's going to be possible to take it with you. For instance, if you're running the London Marathon in April, you aren't going to be able to rely upon 6 x 500ml Active Root bottles. You'd probably think about taking one bottle and a couple of 150ml gel soft flasks. If you're riding a tour however, you'll probably have 2 x bottle cages and a couple of pockets for soft flask in your cycle jersey as well as plenty of space on the handle bars.

The golden rule when it comes to nutrition is 'try before race day', multiple times if you can. The last thing you want is to hate the taste of the fuel that you're going to be using for the next 3 hours, or not be able to get your soft flask out of your waist belt without stopping and taking it off!

NUTRITION GUIDE

Here is a brief nutrition guide on what to use for a race:

BEFORE: For intense exercise, use standard Active Root Sports Drink. For light exercise, use Active Root ElectroLite Drink.

DURING: One bottle of Sports Drink & one Gel Mix serving per hour (56g carbs + 500mg electrolytes) OR One 500ml ElectroLite Drink & two Gel Mix per hour (48g carbs + 600mg electrolytes)

AFTER: Use Active Root ElectroLite to replenish electrolytes. If you need to refuel, a standard Sports Drink can also be used.

Below are some examples from our own racing/training:

2.5hr Trail Run

  • 3 x Gel Mix servings in 150ml soft flask
  • 1 x ElectroLite serving in 350ml soft flask
  • (Post Run) 1x bottle of Sports Drink

4hr Hilly Cycle

  • 2 x 500ml bottles of Sports Drink
  • 6 x Gel Mix servings in 2 x 150ml soft flasks

Morning Run & Gym Session

  • 1 x 500ml bottle of Sports Drink
  • (Post session) 1 x bottle of ElectroLite 

As previously mentioned, testing out before a race is important. That way you can tweak it to your own personal needs.

We hope this goes some way in explaining how you could create an Active Root nutrition plan.

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