Sport Drinks & Foods during Training, what do you use ?

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Hi Guys,

Just wondering what your thoughts / opinions were on the different sport style drinks and foods to consume on your training rides.. pre / during / post training.

I've had the High5 Zero Tablets for after training.. they were ok.. non-carbs I believe.. but was considering getting Endura.. though quite costly... thoughts ?

[g-boaf]

Skratch labs for drink mix, perhaps some sort of oatmeal bar - but nothing much more than that.

Endura is okay as well - but I'd never use much of it.

[dalai47]

Used to use half strength Gatorade powder in my bidons for training rides. Rots your teeth / thins the enamel so now just drink water training.

Nutrition if rides longer than 2-3 hours banana / muesli bars.

Leave the gels and powerbars to racing only (pretested prior to know I can stomach it).

Choc Milk post training / racing if I don't have food handy as it has a near perfect mix of carbs and protein.

[Gunlock]

Training: Water in the bidons and Carmens brand muesli bars with a PB&J thrown in for longer rides.
Racing: Gatorade in one bidon, water in the other and a mix of gels and bars (Using Winners bars + gels at the moment) for food.

I would use Winners bars for both training and racing if they weren't so expensive. I keep meaning to look at making my own bars but never seem to get around to it.

[you cannot be sirrus]

Water and dates for training
Staminade and dates/gels for racing

[march83]

Hammer stuff. Perpetuem for training, Heed for short races and their bars because they're addictive like crack.

[rusty842]

Nuun tablets. I find easy to keep a tube for longer rides 130kms etc. usually take some sis gels for climbing rides or long ones just as every now and then hit but cliff bars I find are the best for food. And nuun tablets I have always used. Golf and all

[ItsDank]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering what your thoughts / opinions were on the different sport style drinks and foods to consume on your training rides.. pre / during / post training.

I've had the High5 Zero Tablets for after training.. they were ok.. non-carbs I believe.. but was considering getting Endura.. though quite costly... thoughts ?

I got through one of these packs every month: http://www.this link is broken.au/high5-race-pack/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It'll last you easily 4 crits, training rides every week etc. Also I like replacing my waterbottles on the regular, especially if you're putting that much sugar in them for long periods of time.

[Paul 62]

Water, plus jam and sultana sandwiches, no butter.

[trailgumby]

For race pace and the high intensity weeks approaching a race before taper, 1-1.2g/kg of body mass per hour. Mix of water, carb & electrolyte drink, and carb bars to meet that input requirement depending on heat/sweat loss conditions.

Typically for me at 80kg on a 50km mountain bike race, that looks like 1 x 750ml bidon of High5 EnergySource drink mixed to instructions, 1 x High5 EnergyGel sachet, and 1/2 Clif bar per hour. When I'm fit that distance is about 2 1/2 hours depending on terrain. When it's cooler I go through less bottles and more gels.

For training rides I still use a similar mix, but can consume more solid food such as white bread jam sangers (no butter) as the pace is more sedate and the risk of choking/gagging while breathing hard is less, depending on where I am in the training cycle. The jam gives the quick hit to get you back up and the white bread the sustained burn. Don't want fibre for this as impedes uptake.

Gatorade/Staminade/et al (supermarket/mass market product), being almost completely table sugar, is pretty useless unless you like massive insulin spikes and unnecessary suffering when trying to push your limits. Also, excessively sweet. After an hour on that stuff I find it really hard to continue drinking, with obvious risks for dehydration and bonking.You might as well drink fanta.

For the same money or less you can buy High5 in 1kg packs from Wiggle and Chain Reaction that is a vastly superior product. Endura and GU are much the same thing with very minor tweaks, albeit more costly. SiS is also good performance-wise, but again much too sweet (and i have a sweet tooth). Would prefer they dropped the aspartame, which carries brain health risks with long term use.

If I'm going to use caffeinated gels I prefer the Endura ones, as the 8mg has more than enough effect on lifting the fatigue burden without the excessive dryness a higher dose causes. The 30mg that High5 EnergyGel+ and GU Roctane have is too much for me.