The high carb fueling revolution has transformed endurance sports over recent years, with athletes pushing carbohydrate intake from 60 grams per hour all the way to 120 grams and beyond.
But as Swedish endurance coach and runner Göran Winblad discovered, the expensive commercial products driving this trend may be far less necessary than the sports nutrition industry would have you believe.
Winblad made the switch after noticing just how quickly his gel and sports drink budget was climbing during marathon training blocks. A single commercial sports drink can cost around $4, while a homemade alternative delivers the same carbohydrate content for roughly 20 times less.
“Why does this have to cost so much? Isn’t it basically just sugar?” he asked himself, and after some research, found the answer was essentially yes.
Sports drinks are built on a straightforward formula: fast carbohydrates, a small amount of electrolytes, and water. The carbohydrates are almost always a combination of glucose and fructose, which matters because they use different intestinal absorption pathways.
This dual-pathway approach is what allows athletes to consume high amounts of carbs without gastrointestinal distress. Most commercial products target a roughly 1:0.8 glucose-to-fructose ratio.
Regular table sugar, sucrose, is a natural 1:1 mix of glucose and fructose, hitting both absorption pathways and available at any grocery store for almost nothing. Winblad’s homemade recipe is simple: dissolve sugar in water and add a pinch of sea salt for sodium, along with trace amounts of potassium and magnesium.
“I took this for a long run and had no stomach issues and steady energy the whole way,” Winblad said. He has since used the mix through six months of training, including a Strava record attempt on Norway’s second highest mountain, where he reported feeling strong throughout with no gastrointestinal issues.
The approach also has elite backing. While producing his video, Winblad came across a post from Jon Albon, one of the world’s top trail and ultra runners, sharing a strikingly similar fueling method.
Albon noted he used it for “75% of his training and racing,” an endorsement coming from well outside the commercial sponsorship system.
Winblad also points out that the flavoring, coloring, and additives in commercial drinks, not the carbohydrates themselves, are often what trigger stomach problems in runners. Stripping those out with a simple homemade mix may actually reduce gastrointestinal risk for some athletes.
He continues to use commercial gels during races for the convenience of pre-packaging, but for training, his position is clear. Every athlete he coaches who has made the switch performs just as well on sugar water as they did on expensive commercial alternatives.
