All:
Have seen some advertisments for the new First Endurance 400 Calorie, 1500mg of Electrolytes Liquid Shot and wondering if anyone has tried it yet. Anyone have thoughts on the product?
Bob
I have- I love their other stuff to an unhealthy extent, but the shot is a bit too sweet for me. Although I run my EFS at 50% so I may be a giant wuss when it comes to thw “sweet” sort of flavors.
It’s definitely worth trying for the free gel flask that’s included!
I thought it was above average. Didn’t mind the taste at all, consistency was interesting (I’m ok with gels but this was nice). Didn’t feel any magical boost more than nearly all the other nutrition products available. It wasn’t more calorie dense than regular gels, which is what I was hoping for. It does have really high electrolytes which I like, but I was deep into training with enduralytes at the time so didn’t want to try and upset my formula that late in the season. Others may find that a problem. Make sure you check the actual contents per serving vs. your regular gels and tablets though cuz it’s a little confusing. I also wanted to strategically add caffeine, which they don’t offer (yet?).
The big refill bottle wasn’t available last year. I guess it is now.
I bought this stuff after reading Rappstar/Personal Best Nutrition’s race report. I’ve been looking for something that doesnt cause as much GI stress when running. I seem to require about 4-500 calories/hr to feel strong for long workouts or races beit running or cycling and I was having trouble with Powergels making my stomach upset and the consistency of Hammer and GU was just too thick to deal with even when cycling. I’ve always used Carbo Pro but I can’t drink that much liquid when I am running and it’s a pain to carry all those bottles during long races. The consistency of Liquid Shots is much thinner than even Powergels so I havent had any trouble and I can still get in my calories. I can drink a whole flask in an hour, which is almost like 4-5 Powergels without any issues. When I was using Powergels, I could eat about 1 an hour and that was only giving me 100 calories.
Head over to PBN and at least try a flask of it. It’s less than 6 bucks to try one and you can’t go wrong with 5oz of gel and a flask for that. There is also a video on there from First Endurance that talks more about.
The consistency is really nice. It is made without any gelling agents, which I gather is unique, and the consistency comes only from the concentration of sugars. I’ve found it certainly is much easier to swallow (none of that stickiness in the mouth), even without water, as a result. The big canister is good from an environmental standpoint as well. I like the idea of filling a gel flask with 3 servings or so for a long ride, rather than carrying three gels - and throwing away three gel wrappers - at the end of the ride. The liquid shot was the first gel I’ve been able to stomach well during an Ironman marathon. Being able to get 400cal in from gel over the course of the whole run instead of maybe getting one or at the most two gels in during only the first half of the run was really nice change.