What Should I drink When Running?

What’s best to drink whilst running, a sugar sports drink or just water?

Well, the main problem you are likely to suffer is dehydration, and that requires taking in water to replace the sweat. However, Sweat doesn’t just comprise of water. You also sweat off important salts or electrolytes which are essential for your body. I cover the minerals you lose when running in this article on electrolytes in sports drinks. However, this will only really start to effect performance after quite a distance. If you’re running upward of say 12-15 miles you probably want to start thinking about it. Problems like sodium deficiency can happen but are not all the common.

However, as your question suggests, sports drinks also contain energy , and this can be useful. You can get energy gels which you can take whilst running, but I find them particularly nice and leave an after taste. However, they do contain the energy, and you should at least consider them. Being liquid a sports drink is very easily digested.

The main problem you need to stave off though, is dehydration. It’s very common, it can be hard to manage over long distances depending on the climate, and it will severely effect your performance. Just a few percent of body weight lost through water loss will start to have a noticeable impact.

So water is by far and away the most important thing. However, if you going out for a long run, the energy could be useful so perhaps go for a sports drink.

Don’t forget to clean your hydration pack after wards though. Bacteria will love the sugary fluids left in the reservoir.