Have just done some lookback on 2025 triathlon expenses, specifically on training supplements, i.e., stuff to make sports drink out of, and “food” that is easy to eat during long efforts (goos, gels, gummies). Mostly sugar and salt, but in specific types: glucose and fructose, sodium and potassium and magnesium.

I added up all the expenses from all the vendors we buy from over all our accounts and credit cards, and then split it in two because my wife and I buy these things together and our training is quite similar. So for me, it comes out to a little more than $100/mo. It COULD be cheaper, especially if I start to get into making my own mixes with sodium citrate, but as things get closer and closer to actual chemistry, I feel it’s safest for me to back away! Though I am interested in this generally.

An easy place to reduce some costs is with maltodextrin, an extremely processed sugar that does not really taste sweet. Note: you should not buy or use maltodextrin unless you are trying to hit specific carbohydrate quantities, usually for athletic reasons! You want to drink it, process it, and for it to be gone, it is not any kind of sugar replacement for everyday use! A five pound bag of the stuff was $17 as of a couple months ago, which is such a fraction of a fraction of any carbohydrate sports drink mix. So you start with the good stuff, and then add malto til you hit the carb quantity you’re looking for. For an hour-long, hard-effort bike ride, I’ll do about 3 servings of $BRAND sports drink mix with 400mg sod and 20g cho per serving, and then another 30-40g maltodextrin, which is 1:1 carbohydrate by weight. This might sound like a lot of sodium, but I’ll save that discussion for another day!

It would be interesting to try to experiment with more natural sugars, but it tends to not process as quickly as the a) cheap stuff like malto, or b) tailor-made sports drink formulations which often include a good ratio of fast to slow processing sugar. So it would take some experimentation! For me, this is a big part of why triathlon is so engaging, there’s nothing I’m not tweaking at any given time!

It might be interesting (and sobering..) also to add up everything I spent on triathlon last year. It is a very costly sport. Honestly, I have a number in mind, some mental napkin math of expenses, but I’m not going to share it here!! Get at me if you want to know!!