I’m stepping up the IM for 2007 and am fretting about nutrition on the bike.
I’ve been using Cytomax with a little bit of Gatorade and chai green tea(believe it or not these really helps the flavor of the cytomax) and enough Salt to raise the mixture to ~22mg/oz of Sodium. I also use some gels (usually Hammer) during racing, including 2 HIMs. I sweat like a proverbial pig and I get white lines all over.
I’m wondering about using Carbo Pro in my Cytomax to raise the calorie content.
Do any of you do this? How is it for GI problems in racing?
Do you use Carbo Pro in anything else?
Should I just stick with the same plan of Cytomax mixture and gels?
I mix carbo pro in my electrolyte drink all the time with no gastric issues. I also use it to make gel. Mix it with just a little water and flavor it with a little cinnimon and some coco powder.
I usually throw in two scoops to a 20 OZ bottle. Adds about 180 calories.
I use an electrolyte replacemnt drink called Endura. It’s super high quality, contains magnesium and trace elements. Tastes Great too. I’m more a fan of the lemon-lime than the orange flavor.
Sports Quest Direct, manufacturers of Carbo Pro, are coming out with a drink called Carbo Pro Lite or something like that. Apparently it will have about 1100 calories in it so that it is roughly the equivalent of 8 gels and come in a pre-mixed bottle. 2 flavors from what I’ve been told. I’m not sure what the electrolyte content of it will be but it might be easier to mix in some extra electrolytes to that mix if you can stand the flavor.
I haven’t tried it, seen it or received any in our store yet but we will be stocking it within the next couple of weeks. When I get some in I’ll try it out and post a review of the product.
yes… it works. i have a pretty sensitive stomach, and i can handle this. although, i can’t just race with it; i have to train with it, too, in order to be ok. for racing i do 2 scoops of CP + regular old gatorade in my bottles. works fine for me, but my calorie needs are really low compared to most people. no taste, but i think it makes stuff a little stickier if you happen to spill it. that’s about the only draw-back.
For rides over 4 hours this season I mixed Carbo Pro over Accelerade. 2 scoops Accelerade and 8 or 9 scoops of Carbo Pro to make 1100-1200 calories. I also added Endurolyte powder for electrolytes. No stomach problems at all. Just make sure that you are getting plenty of plain water down to stay hydrated.
I second the Infinit idea. I use to try and do exactly what you are doing. For the price of your carbo-pro and cytomax and your sodium/potasium pills, you could have the folks at Infinit mix it all for your and make a formulation just for you. Trust me, you won’t be sorry.
Carbo-pro is a great product but the problem with it is that once you add electrolytes or anything else to it you dramatically change the osmality. This usually works fine in training but in a race environment this can be really really bad. Your stomach might shut down, tons of time on the shitter in the marathon etc. How can you really know you are getting enough water to keep the osmality at a level whiuch is friendly to your stomach?
My $.02 ois try inifinit nutrition and it’s a fail safe. The osmality is always at the right level (unless you mix it concentrated but you can still have a good idea of how much water to add). I always mix it at regular strength and I will rely heavily on special needs for IMLP 07. Inifinit has all the electrolytes and flavor already in it. You don’t need to add anything that will negatively affect your stomach’s absorbtion.
What you described you are currently drinking has “GI distress” written all over it. Just my .02.
I actually used the exact same mixture of carbo pro and cytomax for my training and racing IM FL. I even included ecaps powder from hammer nutrition and I had no stomach issues at all. I played with it a lot in training and carried two 1200 calorie bottles, if memory serves me correctly. It was either 1000 or 1200 each. I chased every gulp with lots of water.
**I have a pretty strong stomach
Since I understand my body a bit better this time around, I’m thinking about considering Infinit. It was just too expensive, but I feel that I probably only need to practice using it for a couple race rehearsals and I’m set. If you have extra dough to burn, definitely go with Infinit.
What about hot vs cold days? How do you compensate for the varied fluid and electrolyte requirements with InfiniT, since the calorie requirements don’t change by that much?
I actually have 2 infinit formulas one for training and one for racing. My race formula has a higher electrolyte content. In my experience I need a lot of electrolytes whether it’s cold or hot. Since I drink it at regualr strenght I may tend to drink a little less but at least the osmality is good. With carbo-pro concentrate on a cool day you may not drink enough water and trust me your stomach will pay the price.
I don’t really have anything to add but with my tag line had to post - and yes, I have done it. Sometimes, multitasking is required to fit all the activities of the day in. . Its a great product.
FM 2.0 turned me onto that mix back in 04 when I did CDA and I’ve used it ever since. Depending on the length of ride or race I’ll mix up to 8 scoops of CP and one scoop of Cytomax or Gatorade. The trick is to not drink too much at once if that concentrated and to not spill the shit on your bike. :)My road races are usually about 3 to 3.5 hours and usually use the 300 cal per hour rule. No GI issues at all. I’ll dump in a couple thermolytes as well if it’s a longer ride or hot out.
My IM mix was 1.25 scoops cytomax, 1.5 scoops carbo pro and some extra table salt in a 24 oz bottle. I used 4 of these bottles to get the bulk of my nutrition.
