Gatorade substitute?

I've mixed up 1 tsp frozen concentrated juice with 1 tsp salt in a water bottle shaken well. It's okay.

For some reason, Powerade is always less expensive at my local grocery store than Gatorade, and they're pretty similar in ingredients.  You might check that.

Also, I keep an eye out on nashbar.com and performancebike.com for sales on powdered drinks (and gels, etc) and can usually find some decent deals that way.

Consider looking at the rest of your diet.

Browse through the nutrition forum.  I found these two links and I'm sure there are more. 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=78966&posts=13&highlight=sports%20drink&highlightmode=1#M861718

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=39145&posts=6&highlight=gatorade&highlightmode=1#M410712

The "lite salt" provides potassium. 

Both.

Although I was thinking more in terms of the cramping issue mentioned.

I also think people overthink their sport-specific nutrition, and ignore the rest of their nutrition.  Most people have plenty of salt in their diet as it is. 

Those cramps are more likely a fitness issue than an electrolyte issue.

If you're NOT going to supply your own food/fluids at a race...  If you rely on what's being handed out...  Then the ABSOLUTE BEST thing to drink while training is... (drum roll please)...

THE SAME STUFF THEY'LL BE PROVIDING AT THE RACE!!!

Simply send the RD an e-mail and ask what'll be offered up at your scheduled races (again, only if you don't plan to bring your own) and train with that.  Why?  The Golden Triathlon Rule:  NEVER TRY SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME DURING A RACE!

I used to couldn't stand the taste of lemon-lime Gatorade.  And then I raced an Oly and of course what did they serve on the course?  Yup.  The stuff I hated.  After that I learned to get to used to it if I was going to have to drink it.  The same goes for defizzed Coke and chicken soup in IM's.  If you plan to consume it, you better be training with it at some point.

Possibly so. But when I upped my intensity on swimming and running, more than I had been doing, I started getting foot cramps in the pool. My trainer said to drink some electrolytes during the day and once I started doing that on the long training days, I didn't have any more problems with it.

Really, water is fine for stuff under an hour.  Consider also that you can get your electrolytes during the course of the day from other, non-super-sugary sources that are a much better source of fuel and calories.  I see loads of people chugging gatorade for no good reason and it makes me feel bad for their poor teeth.

For the longer training sessions, you can get Gatorade Endurance in powder form, which will be cheaper and also better for the environment because you won't be using all those plastic bottles.  Gatorade Endurance also has 50% more electrolytes than regular gatorade, while tiger has 25% more... so you can dilute the stuff and get the same amount of electrolytes.

-Danielle (not a fan of Gatorade's marketing empire) 

Also, if you are prone to cramping, you could consider the electrolytes from Hammer Nutrition. 120 capsules come out to about 16 cents each... and they contain a broader spectrum of electrolytes than a standard sports drink would.  Read about them here in this lengthy link...

http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=PRODUCT&CAT=ELECT&PROD.ID=4037&OMI=10104,10082,10047&AMI=10104 

Hammer Endurloytes have very little sodium only 40 mg each. I take Lava Salts which has 255 mg per capsule.

Cheap way to save money is use normal Gatorade powder which is much cheaper than buying pre mixed and then add sodium via sea salt or endurloytes  powder and make your own equal Gatorade Endurance blend or just use regular Gatorade powder and take extra sodium to make up the difference you need.

Gatorade powder is about $7.00 at my supermarket, and it makes 5 gallons of gatorade.  Are you getting Gatorade Tiger for less than that?  That's like 20 32 ounce jugs for 35 cents each.  Maybe I need to join Sam's club.