A carbohydrate source during long runs or events is essential to maintain your performance and stay hydrated. As an example, for a half marathon you will need 3-4 bottles of an isotonic sports drink in order to stay hydrated and keep your muscle glycogen levels up.

Unfortunately, typical isotonic sports drinks can cost around £1 per bottle, so ensuring that you are fuelled efficiently during longer runs can become expensive! Luckily, there are only four basic ingredients of an isotonic drink:  water, carbohydrate, salt, flavouring. All of these ingredients are cheap to buy and easy to combine, so you only need to get the measurements right.

Here are two recipes for you to make your own isotonic drink at home!

Basic recipe (2 servings)

500ml water

500ml no added sugar fruit squash (diluted)

Sugar (3 tbsp)

¼ tsp salt

 

Optimal recipe (2 servings)

950ml water

20ml high-juice fruit squash (undiluted)

50g (4 tbsp) maltodextrin*

¼ tsp salt

 

*Maltodextrin is a non-sugar, fast-acting carbohydrate powder that is very cheap to buy and is available from many online sports food retailers.