To be honest, the best sports drink is the one you can drink the longest without getting ill. My take on the whole thing is the following:

1. There are generally two types of drinks: Complex drinks with lots of extra stuff like vitamins, minerals, protein etc. and Simple drinks with little more than Maltodextrin, Fructose and some Sodium and Potassium. Which is better? Hard to say. There has been some good science done with mixed conclusions. Me, I prefer simple drinks. I seem to tolerate them better.

2. Any that tastes good to you. You are more likely to keep drinking if you like the taste.

3. All the popular drinks deliver about the same punch in terms of carbs, etc. but watch out for the extras, like protein. That can be trouble for the GI.

4. Avoid sour stomach. I also prefer drinks that don't have much flavor to them. This rules things like gatorade out for me. Way too concentrated flavor. Drinks like Gu2o and GPush have mild flavoring.

5. Extran Professional is a good drink if you are looking for 600 calories in one bottle. That's tough to find in most drinks and can be really beneficial down the stretch.

6. Expermiment. It's the only way. Give a drink a chance as well. First impressions can be deceiving. Make your evaluation over race like distances and conditions if possible. You'll get a better sense of how the drink will treat your GI when it counts.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

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Adam Duncan
New York, NY

I've tried them all; Cytomax, Revenge, Accelerade, etc with no discernable difference in taste or performance. I actually now use Gels exclusively on the bike (Hammer Gel) as it is much easier to take to races and can carry it in a gel pack. I begin using whatever the race is serving on the run (Gatorade at IM Florida), chicken soup and start into the coke at mile 13.
My sense is that it's more important to drink something as opposed to what brand you're drinking.Dan wrote a great article on fueling for an IM on slowtwitch. Hope this helps.

I agree with the previous posters... I personally like cytomax (the orange flavor)

I tried endurox recovery drink... I have never tasted something so vile... at least it was a free sample...

It's funny you mention Endurox. It's something I started using this off season for after workouts. Maybe it's an acquired taste, but I really like it. I use the Fruit Punch flavor.

I am starting to be a believer in the post workout recovery drink. (other than just a rehydrating drink)

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Adam Duncan
New York, NY

personally, I like to use accelerade while training and endurox afterwards.

I really like the lemon lime endurox and find it really refreshing after a long workout. I recently bought the orange and hated it.

I like Gpush G1 with cliff shots on the run. I tried G2 and G3 but found they sloshed in my stomach.

Acknowledging that they are pretty much all the same I personally like lemon/lime Cytomax and Enervit G. We sell a lot of each also since the guys here use it too. We do have customers ask for and frequently buy Accelerade and Endurox. I am not a big fan of those personally, but they are strong sellers. I would like to try G-Push. Realistically, a lot of the sports drink market is driven by fashion or what is trendy or currently perceived as "New and better".

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Hi Tom

I would like to try enervitene but reeally don't see it sold here very much.

I think of energy drinks like energy bars... switch around before you get sick of something...

you know what they say variety is the spice of life...

I never seem to get tired of Cytomax Tropical Fruit and Cytomax Cool Citrus (Lemon/Lime). Lately though I've also been using Gatorade Riptide Rush.

I agree that you can have "too much stuff" in a drink or gel taken during exercise. For example Cytomax Orange, Grape , and Peachy Keen flavors have added "herbal lift" ingredients, which translates as guarana and ginseng. The guarana is a caffeine containing herb. They are both a little hard on my stomach.

Same for gels sometimes less is more. I like Hammer gel (vanilla and raspberry) or Carb boom and the noncaffeinated Power Gels. So far Hammer gel seems the easiest on the stomach.

For recovery, lately I've been using Advant Edge (shakes in a box) by EAS along with some Cytomax, a banana or other carbs.

Richard

I like to focus on the post-event drink. I prefer Widmer Heifeweizen or MacTarnhan's Ale, but Foster's Lager will do in a pinch.

I researched through them all last summer and then tried the ones that I thought looked interesting (g-push, gu2o, endurox, gatorade, and hammer sustained energy). I'm back to gatorade.

• you can buy it at the grocery store, not the bike shop or whatever
• it's way cheaper than anything else
• there are tons of flavors to switch through so you don't burn out on any one
• but most importantly it's the only one I found that I didn't have to fight to keep drinking.

different sugars cause different responses, so if you're going to look into it, pay attention to where the carb comes from. fortunately none seem to upset my stomach.

gels - again, I go by flavor, except for powergel. they taste fine (or at least as fine as any do) but that skinny neck on their individual packages is just to difficult to get the gel out of. I have this trick I do to help eat (drink?) a gel, I pretend it's pudding. This may be why I don't like Hammergel, it's too runny for me to believe that it's pudding.

my favorites are gu vanilla or banana, and clif strawberry or chocolate.

I eat clif bars on the bike but wouldn't dream of trying to eat one while running.

Nothing compares to a nice cold soda after about 3 hrs in the saddle. Otherwise its cytomax. Actually I pretty much drink soda right before (less than 5 min) starting long rides and then again after 2-3 hrs. Side benefit - loud belches!

I've tried lots of drinks over the years, but I like GPush the best. I find it easier to digest and I like the mild flavour.

I wrote an article about how I've been using it here:

http://www.competitionzone.com/...ation-strategies.htm

Natasha

coca-cola and water mixed half-and-half is isotonic, has plenty of simple carbs, caffeine, sodium, and potassium. Easy to find, easy to drink, works great for me. Been using it since the 70's. I've tried others, Gatorade is OK but doesn't have the caffeine rush; the others taste foul and make me gag..

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

Does anyone have any experience with a product called Spiz?



www.spiz.net

Reason I ask is a friend of mine used it when he was on the winning RAAM team back in the 90's. He recommended it highly but since it was an ultra-endurance race he used it in I never really tried it.

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"A man must love a thing very much if he not only
practices it without any hope of fame and money,
but even practices it without any hope of doing it well."

(G. K. Chesterton)

I have had excellent success with a refreshing new product called H2O. To get me hooked, the local H2O company has thoughtfully installed a round the clock free supply coming out of various taps in my house. A classic bait and switch technique to be sure but for now I am taking full advantage.

But seriously folks - I do not use a sports drink unless my continuous effort is going well beyond two hours, and even then I water down Gatorade so it's two thirds water. If I am going over four hours I will bump the Gatorade percentage up, and if it's REALLY long then I will take a salt tablet.

Am I alone in being a miser with the sports drink people? (On the other hand the Cliff bar/gel people are making a killing off of me)

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TonyG

What is Enoch Root?

Here's my take on some of these questions.

1. IMHO-the "extras" like vitamins and antioxidants in sports drinks are useless. I think it's important to consume these supplements, just not in the lower quantities the companies put in their drinks, and not in the middle of a 4 hour workout. Take them with your post workout meal.

2. Some people do well with the protein in their shakes, some don't. I usually add some protein to my shakes because I workout first thing in the morning, so I physically get hungry during my workouts. This extra protein seems to stick with me more than just carbs. On the other hand, if I'm going to be on my bike for 5 hours and it's going to be hot, this protein doesn't seem to sit as well. So what's my point? Experiment in training.

3. A big difference between different drinks is the concentration of carbs. Some drinks are less than 100 calories per water bottle, some are up to or more than 300 calories. It only makes sense to me that on longer workouts you should consume a higher concentration of calories. (Within reason) So if your drink doesn't have enough carbs, add pure maltodextrin to it. Maltodextrin has virtually no flavor, and it's pretty cheap. But if your drink is too concentrated, just mix less in your water bottle to dilute it down.

4. Experiment, experiment, experiment. I read some well researched articles about "exactly" how much calories someone should consume during training and racing. I tried it and almost threw up. Through experimentation, I found out I need a little less calories.

Hope this helps.

nutrition is like most fields in science, you can find reports and studies to support anything and there generally isn't consensus on much. However, I've read nearly every book on sports nutrition I can find, and not a single one suggests that there are not incredible benefits from consuming a 6-8% carb beverage for endurance athletes.

I've been trying to use just water during the early season to reduce my caloric intake so I can drop a few pounds, and find that it just isn't worth it. I feel better during and after, and am able to workout better by using it.

Hi Brad,

I certainly do not starve myself of carbs - but I tend to get them from planned meals beforehand, or from bars and gels.

I do use sports drinks on my long workouts and on race day, but I also feel they are over-used and over-sold.

Best,

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TonyG

What is Enoch Root?

We continue to see tremendous interest in G-Push but don't have any in the store yet. Looks like we'll have to try it.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

This is a good idea to get it--Its great but good dealing with the rep. I had a lot of trouble getting it for my sport supplement store for all my local tri guys. I buy it by the pallet and still have problems. They are a very small company. Oh well still have it and love it.

Sustained Energy spiked with Hammer Gel............................the only way to go