I was bummed to find out that Extran will no longer be distributed in the U.S. for the forseeable future (according to Extran, the manufacturer).
I need to find a substitute for 100 - 150 mile rides. I tried GU2O Electrolyte replacement drink today. It tasted a bit chaulky. Based on previous threads on this board I was going to try Cytomax next. Given that these cans are about $20 each, I was wondering if this is my best next choice?
Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Bob
P.S. I know that this is pretty much a personal preference thing - worse case is I buy all four and try them. From an August 2005 insidetri magazine survey with 1,700 subscribers participating
( http://www.insidetri.com/media/2005_IT_rs.pdf):
Part VII
NUTRITION
1. What brand of sports drink do you primarily use
when training?
Gatorade ...........................34%
Accelerade/Endurox ...........18%
Hammer Nutrition ...............10%
Cytomax ..............................8%
Gatorade Endurance
Formula ...............................6%
Powerade ............................4%
PowerBar Endurance ............4%
Amino Vital ..........................3%
GU2O ..................................2%
Ultima .................................1%
Clif Shot Electrolyte ..............0%
EAS .....................................0%
Energice Sports Drink ...........0%
Enervit ................................0%
Extran .................................0%
First Endurance-E3 ...............0%
FRS Plus ..............................0%
Maxi ....................................0%
Shaklee Per formance ...........0%
Other ...................................5%
Don’t use sports drink ..........3%
Cytomax or Accelerade or Clif Shot or First Endurance....
"I don't use sports drink. But my favorite name is ""Gookinaid"", and that seems to be missing from the list. Doesn't anybody use Gookinaid anymore?"
Revenge Pro from Champion Nutrition works well for me. BTW, when looking to replenish my supplies, I came across this site: www.supplementcentral.com who had better prices than Performance and the like, even when on sale.
I've ordered cytomax and accelerade from bikenashbar.com. I was able to purchase them in small quantities. If I need to go deeper, next on my list are Hammer and Revenge....
Bob
I'm a heavy sweater and especially in the summer on long rides I always battle cramping from hypotremia. In the past I could never get past 60 miles even though I was in much better shape than other guys. What I finally discovered is that Gatorade and Powerade don't have nearly the necessary sodium to fight hypotremia for two-three hour workouts. In fact you can drink all the Gatorade in the world and you're just making it worse (i.e., increasing the ratio of water to sodium-- the cause of hypotremia) Accelerade has more sodium and it's my preferred drink on normal 2-3 hour rides. On longer rides I always fill up my bottles with straight V8. You might not like the idea of drinking warm V8, but it packs 880mg of sodium in a 12 ounce bottle vs. Gatorade/Powerade with only like 150mg. So you're replacing sweat with sweat. It amazes me that more riders don't know this. But I guess the sports drink marketing folks don't want you to know that.
Mitch,
That's great advice (would a Bloody Mary work too?!). I would rather make my own fruit and veggie blend than buy into the sports drink marketing. You are spot on with regards the hypotrmia risk of too much H2O and not enough sodium (and potassium). I'll try V8 the next time -- diluted a bit!
-Jonathan
Hey Jonathan,
I drink nothing diluted. Straight vodka or whiskey over bloody bloody mary's anyday. Hope Jack didn't kill ya today. Total head deak on the NYRC start time. Got in a solid five before it started AT 9:30!!
Cheers,
Mitch
V-8 has long been my drink of choice at lunch or snack stops. It's a great electrolite replenisher.
"It's not like I have any equity in the company or anything, but I'm surprised it's not on the table at the stops on century's like ENY. At last year's ENY, a guy in my group cramped up a mile before the lunch break. I had to share my bottle of V-8 with him and then I had nothing but the sugar juice ""sports drink"" to replenish it with. It wasn't worth battling the bees over."
