I mentioned a few weeks ago in my season post-mortem that fueling is still a pretty big problem for me. Getting the engine what it needs has been a problem since I started riding, solved only on a handful of occasions. My biggest issue has been electrolyte intake needs, balanced against carbohydrate intake needs. I feel like I have the carbs part of the equation figured out with Powerbar products. Between bars and gels, timed appropriately, I do okay with those.
But electrolytes have been tough. I’ve been sick of Gatorade for years, and I find the taste of Gatorade + gels intolerable, right up until the point where I stop eating and I bonk like no tomorrow. Same with Hammer HEED. HEED does it all, but it’s too sweet for me to pair with gels, and it’s just not enough energy on it’s own for me. Perpetuem hasn’t worked for me either. Notice I keep saying me – everyone is different, and exercise nutrition is very much a unique brand of chemistry.
nuun is a product that I forsee bridging the gap here. All I need is a low key, tolerable electrolyte drink that doesn’t try to do anything more, and that’s exactly what this is. nuun makes electrolyte supplement tablets. They’re fairly mild in flavor. You take along a tube of tablets, drop one in a water bottle, and keep eating gels and bars as usual. The tablets have no carbohydrates in them at all, keeping you from getting carbo-overloaded on solids and liquids. I dunno, this basically sounds like exactly what I need, and I am really looking forward to getting out on some hellrides next year and putting it to the test.
So what’s better than that? I just found out that nuun accepted my sponsorship application for 2010!
My first sponsor!
Well this is a tremendous thing. Very excited to report back on how this works out.
chasing 1:20 