I recently started using tailwind. Great taste, goes down easy. There is just enough flavor, without being heavy. Some drinks are not not easy to keep down after many hours of drinking it- Tailwind gets in the nutrients, easy to swallow and refreshing without a hravy taste left in your mouth... For me anyway.

It's all personal and depends on what you like and can stand.

I've tried them all and am a big fan of a tailwind.

EFS - puked within minutes of using it (both times I tried it).

Infinite - too inconvenient for me. Would always forget to order, would run out and then stuck with nothing.

Tailwind - light taste, easy on stomach and readily available.

How many cals per bottle did you guys make with the tailwind? Was it your only calorie source for races?

In 10 years of racing, I've tried everything. For a few years, I had settled on Infinit but the cost kept rising and I had more then one mix where it just didn't seem or taste right.

Recently switched to Tailwind. Cheaper and works better IMHO.

I just did a 7.5 hr ride yesterday in 95 deg heat plus 80% humidity. Normally, this would have wrecked my stomach but tailwind rocked and no stomach issues.

I've tried it with CarboPro and it works if you want liquid only calories (I'm 6'1" 155 lbs and tried 300 cals per bottle - it was OK on a cool day that I tried it but for a hotter day, it was too many calories). For my IM, I plan to use Tailwind only plus a mix of Uncrustables, energy blocks, and Stinger waffles as I've found I do better with some solids.

I'm primarily running at the moment (ultras) and use 200 cals per hour of Tailwind plus random aid station solid food when I feel like it (chips, cookies, pbj's, quesadillas, etc).

2 scoops per 24oz bottle. Additionally a Gu or waffles every 45 minutes. Additional salt tablet occasionally... I sweat alot

I love Infinit. Tailwind tasted like nothing and I still felt energy lows while using it. I like that Infinit is customized to your caloric needs and also how much you sweat. Infinit tastes great and I have used only that during races and have had enough energy start to finish. Zero stomach issues too.

Definitely recommend TailWind! It's all relative to what works for you. I use Tailwind, 300 cal per bottle Hr on bike and 200 cal per 24 on run HR. No stomach issues, simple ingredients and they also have Caffinated flavors for a little pick me up.

I'd recommend using each in training and see what works best for you.

this is something I'm currently sorting out leading up to my first IM. Mostly liquid seems to work best for me. I'm just not sure how much I need for IM distance. Seems 300-400 calories per bottle seems pretty common.

I switched to Tailwind as I started doing ultras and it's so much cheaper than Infinit. I like the taste and it's been just great on the stomach for me. Plus you can get it from a lot of different retailers which helps as well...

^^This^^ Great summary of all the reasons why I switched from Infinit to Tailwind. The convenience of just being able to easily buy it at my LRS was huge and the price is right as well. The taste is very light and my stomach seems to agree with it. I have used it for a 50 mile Ultra and for training and will be using it for a 100 mile Ultra in September.

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

testing liquid nutrition for upcoming IMLOU.
currently trying EFS (grape flavored), having used it for two 3 hour long rides with 200-300 cals/hr of Carbo-pro, it's worked well so far.
haven't used the other two.

Have you tried the Gatorade Endurance Formula that is available on course? That could be a much simpler solution.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Actually, I'm trying to get on this eval that ST is offering for Gatorade Endurance.

Bumping this thread with a question. How do you guys use these mixes during an actual long-course race? Do you carry the powder with you and then mix it in at the water refill stations? I'm eyeing trying out Tailwind but want to make sure it's possible to actually use it on race day.

Thanks for any thoughts!

Yes. Depending on your definition of long course and your speed. For a flatter 70.3 you can mix 2-3 bottles and put them on your bike. For 140.6 I generally mix concentrate bottles and use my bta for water (and keep grabbing water on course) A big gulp from the energy concentrate and a few good pulls of water. Needless to say don’t let race day be the first time you try this. As a side note through an extra bottle in special needs in case you are slower and/or launch a bottle . Good luck

Very interesting - I hadn't thought about that before! Makes a lot of sense. And what do you do for the run on a 140.6?

I've been using the original EFS drink for years and have tried Tailwind several times. For whatever reason I cannot stomach Tailwind and it leaves me nauseous on even an easy run. I typically don't mix EFS for more than ~100 cal/bottle but find it works like a charm. EFS Pro, which is hard to find here in Canada, has an even milder flavour at ~120 cal/bottle (so far I have only tried Lemon Water flavour).

On course Gatorade Endurance is just as easy to drink which is very handy during a race even though I don't use it otherwise (I understand either the formula is different or it is simply not available here in Canada). Regardless, what I don't like about Gatorade is the excess amount of food colouring used. A single race was enough to permanently stain my Xlab Torpedo bottle lid. Not sure what it would do to your insides with regular use, but I find that gross and entirely unnecessary.

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Kiwami NA Racing Team

Did you like the EFS Pro more than the regular?
Worth going through the trouble to ship it from US to Canada? I'm able to buy the regular EFS locally here in NS...

I use Spizz, 500 calories per bottle.

Tried Tailwind, if I make each bottle 500 calories it taste like I am drinking salt water.

I tried Infinit and I do not like that I cannot just make my own and I need to plan too far in advance. Also if weather changes so does my Infinit needs.

For am IM race I will use 2 bottles of Spizz totaling 1,000 calories and eat an uncrustable giving me 1,250 calories which is about perfect in my goal to consume to 250 calories per hour.

i like the infinit custom blend. you can get more / less of anything you want based on your own needs. flavor, i've had it dialed back because it can be strong. its worked very well for me, and given some GI / colon issues, i prefer to get as many of my calories in liquid form. a lot easier to pee than poop via a colostomy for me.

tailwind - tried twice, tasted fine worked well but lived up to its name... i had a lot of gas.

Michael Folan of Infinit just posted an image with Tailwind mixed at 300 calories. The osmolity measured at 700, indicating that it could very possibly cause gastric issues. Perhaps he can share his wisdom here, as osmolity is pretty huge with high caloric mixes.

I use the Infinit on the bike only. I can get by with not having to deal with additional "food-food" On the run i use whatever is served on course and bring salt.

I've used Tailwind and Infinit, I like to concentrate my bottles so I don't have to fumble with anything during the race. For me personally I like Infinit better than TW, it does cost more to do the custom blend but I don't mind since I don't use it except for a couple race simulations and then during the race since I know it works well for me with no issues. I like to keep TW around as a backup and have nothing negative to say about it at all, flavors are all pretty good and if you use their unflavored combined with any of their other flavors you can manually dial the taste back yourself.

Pro is a bit more like a non-flavour if that makes sense, definitely not sweet, great if you are out for a very long time and/or don't want flavour build-up. I think I do like Pro better, but for training I still switch it up with regular for variety. I wish I could find the watermelon flavour, I've heard it is quite good.

The only Canadian place I found so far that sells it (online) is TriBoutique (http://www.triboutique.ca/...-Mix-p/fe_efspro.htm). They also carry the regular version. Athleti.ca (https://www.athleti.ca/...ctions/1st-endurance) carries just the regular but I will buy from either as they go on sale from time to time.

I imagine you'd get hit with duty and/or taxes in addition to an unfavourable exchange rate when shipping up from the US so it probably wouldn't be feasible.

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Kiwami NA Racing Team

Oh, that must be a somewhat recent addition to triboutique, as no one in Canada used to carry it, confirmed by First Endurance.

So it is twice the price of the regular stuff (both 25 servings). I'll stick to the regular stuff I guess.

That is/was my rationale for using the regular EFS during training although since I don't mix it at full strength (I use 2 scoops max instead of 3) Pro lasts longer than I would have thought.

Edit: Serving size for Regular is 1 scoop; serving size for PRO is 3.

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Kiwami NA Racing Team

I get this as well with my Infinit bottle, but I also put 3 servings in a bottle for just under 900 calories. Strong taste. But when I'm out on a ride, I kind of like that salty sweet taste. Just have to make sure to have separate water to dilute in my stomach and wash the taste out of my mouth after a bit.

Never really looked into TW and just bought more Infinit during their sale, but I notice TW is only 100 calories per serving, whereas Infinit is 280. For an 18 serving bag of Infinit it's like $39 which gives you 5040 calories(18*280). TW is $36 and gives you 5000 calories (50*100). Is there really much of a price difference outside of Infinit only being available in orange and requiring custom blend for anything else. I'm comparing the TW endurance and Infinit Go Far.

For me at least, I would need to include the shipping cost into Infinit since no retailer carries it locally. When I was buying the custom blend, it was $58 for the bag plus $10 shipping. I sometimes had a coupon for $5 off.

For me, it worked out to $2.72 per bottle for Infinit and $2.12 per bottle for Tailwind. The bigger difference was 1) availlability of TW, 2) whole family likes TW, 3) I had a few bad batches of Infinit and never trusted them again after that.

From Infinit:

in reference to Tailwind....

You can't have 2-300 calories AND 6-900 MG of sodium in 20oz and keep the solution isotonic.

I searched for the facebook post of the Infinit CEO talking about Tailwind and couldn't find it. Despite that, the suggestion of the video plus the statement on the website you reference seems to me like the CEO is trying to create a turf war. I hope not. The fact is, lots of people use Tailwind and do more than fine.

He shared a photo of the mixture with the readout of 700 on the VAPRO machine. Whatever his motives, I know from years of experience that one cannot simply add more scoops of a mix like this and get the osmality needed. That's why people use Infinit in the proper mix or Carbopro.

Im another Tailwind user. I dont use it alone though, in a 70.3 I take one bottle with 3 scoops in it for the bike, I then take a mouthful every 30min starting at 15min, I then have a endura gel 15min between each of my mouthfuls of tailwind.

For an ironman I start the bike with 2 full bottles of tailwind and have a similar protocol but with a longer time between gels as its less intensity. I also put another 2 bottles of tailwind in special needs.

Personally I dont like to carry all my nutrition in one bottle like some people. I dropped one of those tailwind bottle in a race a couple years ago and I still had plenty to get me through. If that bottle had been my only source of nutrition I would have been in a whole "Wurf" of pain...

I use Infinit GoFar for long course, and split it up between my BTA and two 24 oz bottles like so: start the race with a two-scoop mixture (310 calories) in the BTA bottle, and a 3-scoop mixture in each other bottle (465 calories each). Once I empty the BTA, I refill it at aid stations with water only. To round out the roughly 1500 calories I take in on the bike, I eat solids (such as a Bonk Breaker bar or a GU waffle) but only in the first half of the ride. On the run, I carry a fuel belt with two slightly concentrated bottles of Infinit Jet Fuel and drink water at aid stations. If I need anything else after that, I get it on course, usually something like a Red Bull. I'm lucky enough to have an iron stomach. I can eat or drink basically anything I want without worries. But the Infinit just really works well for me in terms of keeping my energy levels where I want, and seems to absorb very well. I do have a custom race mix where I dial down the flavor versus what I train with, however.

I've used both Infinite (Speed is usually my go-to) and Tailwind and both have worked for me. Dissolves clear, light in taste, sits well in the stomach.

Wanna resurface this thread. I've been an infinit guy past 2 years, love the stuff for my long training days and 70.3s. Not custom blends, I've gone for the go far and jet fuel. Doing first full IM this coming August,and really want to train all these months pretty much exclusively with the stuff I plan to have on race day.

The flavor of those infinit blends gets really strong and kinda nasty with concentrated bottles. The fix for that obv is to go custom blend to dial back flavor, but then price really becomes an issue. With shipping, the custom blends are what, $65 or 70 per 25 serving bag? If I'm going to be using that as my sole training food,that's going to burn a large hole in my wallet.

I'm very intrigued by tailwind after some quick reading here. It's much less $$, and while folks say tailwind flavor is more mild to begin with, seems I can get it unflavored,so I can mix that with flavored to dial it back if need be.

Main question, I see tailwind says to do 2 to 3 scoops (100 Cal per scoop) with every 24 oz of water. Anyone doing more scoops/higher concentrated with tailwind to get more calories per bottle? If so, how much?

I just spent the weekend at the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival and Tailwind was letting people fill up their hydration packs. I rode 30-40 miles per day every day (keep in mind this was off road in some pretty technical terrain... so maybe 80-100 miles on the road). I had their Mandarin Orange flavor and really enjoyed it. Mild flavor, no food coloring, and my body seemed to handle it well. I’ll definitley try it again in the future.

Thanks. Another positive review of tailwind, really eager to know if others are upping the concentration, to what amounts, and still seeing these good results.

I've double the "dosage" for tailwind and still found it great - mild flavor, easy to drink

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

to me, tailwind tastes the least offensive when warm which we all know they get warm really quickly unless winter riding. I've done 5 scoops of tailwind in a 20oz bottle. Although pretty sweet tasting, I will drink from that then drink water to wash away that sweetness

I'm glad I run into this post today. This is the question I've been wanting to ask here. I've been using UCan, but mostly for running. I read the whole thing and sounds like TailWind is the right one for me. I will buy some and try it ASAP before 70.3 in April. Thanks for all the good info guys.

I have used Tailwind for about a year now and love it. If you mix it at 2 scoops per bottle it is basically isomolaric so it will not pull fluids from your system to buffer the solution. I have tried using 3-4 scoops in the past and it didn't agree with my system. I have gone out for rides with 4 scoops in one bottle and plain water in the other and did one swig of each when using the tailwind and that worked just fine. I have also heard of people making a gel like paste out of 5-10 scoops plus a some water. I have not tried that though.

First Endurance and Pro line has been available in Canada for well over a year, with homebase in Quebec: www.firstendurance.ca

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Group Eleven – Websites for Athletes / mikael.racing / @mstaer

Another plus 1 for tailwind. Never tried infinit but never had any issues with tailwind on any distance of races. Also like the caffeinated flavors for shorter distances or when you need a spike. Its all personal though with nutrition. Go to the local shop or online and grab some samples of each of them. See what ones works the best for you.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/11645943 https://www.instagram.com/timeforicecream/

I use Tailwind up to about 350 calories per 22oz bottle with no issues. It’s pretty sweet at that concentration but I love the taste and have had absolutely no stomach problems. Great product and great company from what I can tell. They usually throw some free swag in with every order (stickers, single serve packs, etc) and always include a hand written note thanking you for the order.

I love Infinit but I had to work out a custom mix. The one that I have now works wonders for me.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I'm in Aus, so maybe it's different.
But Tailwind has twice the sodium of the standard Infinit mixes I've used. (Go Far and Jet Fuel).

I find the TW has too much sodium - leaves me even thirstier after a few hours.
Infinit - well, a custom mix with more sodium than the pre-made ones.

Interestingly, TW is more expensive than Infinit.

I prefer the mix and taste of TW - but yeah, too much sodium. Not in the taste - just the effects.

I assume this is a result of your being in Aus. TW versus the standard blends of infinit in dollars/Cal is close to a wash for me here in US with TW perhaps slightly cheaper since it's available on Amazon at MSRP with free shipping. Infinit is marked up on amazon and direct from infinit folks there's a shipping cost.

But, when considering TW versus custom Infinit, it's no contest in price.

I ordered some TW last night to try in my initial phase of IM training, thanks everyone for the feedback.