Are you a runner, or would you prefer the light mild flavour of our TORQ Hydration Drink over TORQ Energy Drink for longer endurance efforts on the bike? If either of these questions strike a chord with you, this short article is for you.

The TORQ Fuelling System page on this website provides comprehensive information on how to fuel and hydrate for endurance events using the following key products:

TORQ Energy Drink
TORQ Energy Gel
TORQ Energy Bar
TORQ Energy Chew

To fully understand how the TORQ Fuelling System works, click HERE.

Each of these products represents 1 TORQ Unit or 30g of fast-delivery carbohydrate, making the 2-3 TORQ Units per hour or ‘Easy as 1 2 3’ guidance very easy to follow. Is it possible however, to follow the TORQ Fuelling System whilst using our TORQ Hydration Drink even though it only contains 15g of carbohydrate (0.5 TORQ Units)? The answer is yes and it’s actually very easy.

Although 500ml of TORQ Hydration represents half a TORQ Unit, it contains exactly the same amount of electrolytes as 500ml of TORQ Energy. It’s also formulated with 2:1 Glucose-Derivitives:Fructose, so is optimised for energy delivery, consistent with TORQ’s fuelling range. It can therefore be seamlessly introduced into the TORQ Fuelling System.

We accept that some of our customers may prefer the lighter flavours that TORQ Hydration has to offer over TORQ Energy and may want to simplify the TORQ Fuelling System further by effectively keeping their fuelling and hydration separate – and this is the key difference/benefit to using TORQ Hydration as part of the TORQ Fuelling System instead of our energy drink.

As TORQ Hydration has a very low carbohydrate content, it is literally impossible to over-fuel with it. In order to achieve an intake of 90g of carbohydrate per hour through TORQ Hydration alone, you would need to drink an enormous 3 litres! It would be rare to need to consume more than a litre of fluid per hour in most endurance environments and since we know that a litre of TORQ Hydration will deliver 30g of carbohydrate, a valid approach to fuelling would be to consume 2 further concentrated TORQ Units per hour (either gels bars or chews). In other words, you could set a reminder on your watch or phone to beep every 30 minutes, at which point you would consume a gel, bar or chew. Your hydration would then be a separate entity and you would simply drink to thirst with TORQ Hydration. Consuming 1 litre of TORQ Hydration along with a concentrated fuelling unit every 30 minutes would provide you with the optimal 90g of carbohydrate per hour.

If you were only to drink 500ml of TORQ Hydration in an hour, with this approach you would only take on board 75g of carbohydrate per hour, but this is still a very good level of fuelling. It would still sit within the 2-3 TORQ Units per hour range and would put you somewhere between Intermediate and Advanced on the ‘Easy as 1 2 3’ scale.

In particularly hot conditions, if you were consuming as much as 1.5 litres of fluid per hour, you could simply throttle back your concentrated fuel ingestion to 1 TORQ Unit every 45 minutes. This would give you around 70g of carbohydrate per hour, again putting you into the 2-3 TORQ Units per hour range.

With runners, we recommend adapting the TORQ Fuelling System in this way and using either TORQ Hydration or plain water in combination with a regular intake of concentrated fuelling units (usually gels), because this will allow you to take on water at feed stations during events to satisfy your hydration needs, whilst ensuring you take on board the correct amount of fuel. TORQ Hydration is available in sachet form and can be added to a 500ml bottle of water at a feed station if perspiration rates are particularly high and the need for electrolyte intake becomes significant. The video below explains this concept clearly, although please note that any references to ‘TORQ Hypotonic’ refer to ‘TORQ Hydration’ as we recently had a re-brand.

For cyclists or people taking part in other endurance sports, there’s no reason why you couldn’t adopt this system too – the great thing about the TORQ Fuelling System is that it is hugely adaptive and the products you choose to take on board to fuel and hydrate yourself can come down to preference. Just stick to the key principles and choose the products you prefer to use.

If you have any questions about this article or anything else on this website, please contact us at enquiries@torqfitness.co.uk or phone 0344 332 0852.