Hydration tips based upon length of workouts

Hydration is the most important part of "performance nutrition". No gel, chew, or bar will help you if you fall behind on your hydration during your workout.

And when you’re going hard, just plain water isn’t going to cut it. You’ll need to rehydrate with electrolytes.

I realize there are a lot of choices, so here's how I decide what hydration to use each day:

• How long is my workout?
• How hard am I going to be going?
• How much am I sweating, OR is this an indoor workout?

Shorter Workouts (30 to 75 minutes)

Here, you just want the basics. If you're also trying to burn calories (lose weight), then go with SOS Hydration or Skratch Everyday Hydration (don’t miss the Limited Edition Salted Margarita flavor). Both are low-calorie, but if you don't care about weight loss and your intensity is high, then go with Skratch Sport Hydration (the new Cucumber Lime flavor is great).

Drink 21oz in a one-hour workout.

Indoor Workouts (45 to 75 minutes)

If you are training indoors, you need to double your hydration and consider a higher sodium (more electrolyte) style of hydration. I'm really partial these days to LMNT for indoor workouts. It has almost double the sodium/electrolytes as other drinks, which is great when you are sweating a lot. That said, some athletes find it tastes really salty.

If you want something a little less salty, then Gnarly Fuel2O also works great for indoor training.

Drink 2x 21oz per hour when training indoors, anything you have leftover, use to kick-start your post-workout rehydration.

The 2 Hour Workout (75 minutes to 120 minutes)

This is the sweet spot workout for many people. It's also the trickiest to plan for as your hydration plan is much more tied to the intensity of the workout.

If your pace is what you would consider easy to a fast endurance pace, then you can stick with the hydration plan of a shorter workout for the full two hours. Personally, I'm mostly trying to burn calories (i.e. lose weight) on these workouts, so I stick with SOS or Mortal Hydration. Occasionally, I'll mix it up with one of these low-calorie options in one bottle and Skratch or Untapped Grape MapleAid in the other.

If your pace is faster than an endurance pace, you need to up your game with Carbs Fuel Sport Drink Mix or Maurten 160. Both will provide you with the carbs you need to maintain your best effort throughout your workout.

My perfect formula is one 21-oz bottle of Skratch and one 16-oz bottle of Maurten 160. I'll switch between the two: I'll take a sip of Skratch, wait 10 minutes, and then take a sip of Maurten.

Long Workouts (more than 2.5 hours)

On longer workouts, I like to think of one bottle as an "energy" source (e.g., Maurten 160) and the other as your hydration source (e.g., Mortal Hydration, Skratch, SOS, Untapped). That's not to say that Maurten isn't also hydration - it is, but this is just a simpler way to think about it.

I start with my hydration bottle with any of the options I've mentioned above and aim to finish it in the first 60 minutes. Then, for the second hour, I'm on to my "energy bottle." After the first two hours, you can alternate between sips of energy and hydration.

For your energy bottle, Maurten 160 or Skratch's Superfuel is great for these longer workouts.

Aim for one 21oz bottle per hour and double it to 2 bottles if you are training indoors or if it is hot outside.

Post Workout Rehydration

You have finished your workout, and now you need to get on the rehydration game. Here is my recipe:

• 1x Quintessential Salt Water Packet. These things are magical for post-workout rehydration.
• Try out Neotein Drink Mix or RNWY for hydration, which includes collagen to help your muscles and joints.