Some of the basics: 45 year old male, 187 pounds this morning, 6’7â€. Living on the Alabama Gulf Coast, what most people call really hot and humid we call perfectly normal .
September 9 will be my two year anniversary racing triathlons, started with a mini sprint, doing the olympic distance this year. Two sprints to follow, ending with 70.3 New Orleans in October.
Summer here is pretty much our off-season, too hot to race or even train hard, Everyone takes it down a few notches, taking breaks during longer runs.
I was eager to get to try this. I’ve been trying a few different drink products, but have not found one that worked for me. A lot of the ‘fancier’ products are really expensive while they taste gross. I’ve also tried to combination of saltchews with water and gel (essentially the three ingredients of a sports drink separated) but it’s a pain when you simply want to go for a run.
Flavors:
Gatorade sent me single-use packets in lemon-lime, and a container each of cherry and orange.
The lemon-lime still tastes like what they have on course at Ironman and I don’t like it. It reminds me of puke, and that’s the last thing I want to do while running.
The orange has a great taste, almost like water with an slice of orange squeezed out.
Now the cherry is fantastic. I don’t know if it actually tastes like cherry, but it has just the composition for me, so much that I don’t even notice it when I drink it. It is 100% neutral to me. Which is also great because it doesn’t mess with the Huma gel, or the saltstick chews I add on extra sweaty days. The cherry is by far the best drink I’ve ever tried for this purpose.
All three go down without trouble, no issue keeping it down, no side effects at all.
Also without trouble is the mixing. Scoop it in a bottle, add water, shake, done. No residue, can easily mix the day before and keep it in the fridge. Also stays fine when it gets hot, no noticeable changes.
Didn’t use it during any races (that will be this Saturday for an Olympic). But during plenty of longer rides, hard runs, many at dewpoint above 75, heat index of 100+, actual temps at 90+, it worked great.
I usually didn’t bother with gels under 2 hours, felt that the Gatorade provided plenty energy. And only on the hot runs I’d bring a couple saltchews.
Some random things I noticed during the past month:
I feel like it’s a lot less sticky than the old product
It stains my bottles a bit, the lemonlime and orange
I agree with the earlier posters: cherry is awesome, and it would be great to have this available at least at the bike / run shops.
I’ll keep using this, it’s a great product.
(it’s past my bedtime, apologies for the slightly incoherent rambling)