The dishwater/puree’d wallboard Perpetuem was made palatible for me by mixing it with Hammergel Orange flavor.
I put two scoops of Perpetuem (260 calories) in just enough water to dissolve it, and glooped it into a Hammergel flask, then added a little more than two servings of Hammergel…total of about 450 calories per flask. Set my watch for 20 minute intervals, would take a hit off of the flask every 20 minutes. Drank plain water otherwise.
It was 94 degrees, and I did a 4 hour ride at a rate of 250 calories per hour. Felt good the whole time, until I ran out of water the last 30 minutes…didn’t take the last planned 20 minute feeding due to lack of water. Drank 150 ounces of plain water. There seemed to be enough electrolyte in the Perpetuem to keep my sweat salty…I carried Endurolytes just in case, but didn’t seem to need them. Perhaps if I had more water, the Endurolytes would have been needed. I’m really surprised at the water rate useage…I drank an additional 64 ounces when I got home, weighed myself, and had still lost 3 lbs. That’s a big deficit.
Anyway, no stomach problems at all, even running my HR up into the near-LT zones on the way back in just to test this concoction’s effect on my gut at a high exertion level. I even began anticipating the next 20 minute feeding, and by drinking plain water most of the time, I feel much less repulsed by drinking something with “stuff” in it all the time.
Guess I’ve found my solution to the G-Push disappearance. Hope this helps somebody trying to find something that works for them.
As Tai said, the Hammer Nutrition site is the obvious place. I got mine from TriSports.com (nobody locally carries it and I had a coupon for TriSports). I’m in a small town, we don’t have a triathlon-related store here. Not even a high-performance bike shop, nor running store, etc.
I don’t do well with anything that has much Fructose in it. It may or may not be related, but, as a general rule, I don’t do well (gastrically) with fruit of any kind. I would like to experiment with the bulk maltodextrin (due to its low cost), but I don’t have time to do much guessing right now. I must get the nutrition part of the Ironman nailed down and well rehearsed the next two months.
I was really disappointed when G-Push pulled the rug from under my feet, I really did well (gastrically) with that, but now I like the perpetuem-paste/plain water even better…because this isn’t so sweet, and I’m always drinking plain water…much more refreshing, and easy to find! I can carry plenty of calories in the flasks, and if I have to cut a ride short, I just refridgerate the leftovers…can’t do that if it was mixed and put in my on-bike liquid delivery system…and now, I don’t have to clean my on-bike system so much, just drain the water out and I’m done.
THere are a lot of good articles on the E-caps site. And sign up for the Journal of Endurance and read the back articles. There is one on fructose and processed sugars, that will make you stay away from it forever.