Re: keepin it alive: Bikefanclub.com

Just to add my two cents on hydration and eating.

I've had glycogen bonks in bigtime races I trained over 9 months for and lemme tell ya it aint pretty.

I've also gone the other way and overhydrated causing the same end result, my body shutting down.

Finding what your body can handle is essential as it varies with every person and can be the difference between a good race and not even finishing.

One tidbit about Gatorade that it took me a long time to figure out. If you have any issues with digesting what you take in during a race Gatorade is absolutely the worst thing you can ingest. This happens a lot more frequently than you would think but folks like me can't disgest all of the sugar(Gatorade has simple sugars no other sports drink has) and the drink just sits and swills around in my stomach making me ill and cramped zapping my energy and keeping me from refueling, same with Powergel. Plus Powergel is so thick and sticky going down that if you're breathing hard it can interfere and even gag you. Nothing like bicking bile on the bike right after you shove down a sticky swab of Powergel and now can't swallow right.

Every time I have used Gatorade either before or during a race or Powergel, I hit the wall from hell and end up emptying my stomach on the sidelines. My body just can't hydrate or draw energy from Gatorade, it sucks a ton to go all the way to California to race before you finally find that out.

I ditched Gatorade, switched to Powerade which is more of a real sports drink and HammerGel and voila! no more bonking from lack of hydration and no more yawning technicolor from nothing getting digested. I tell ya figuring that out with the help of my Coach was the biggest thing to happen to me as an athlete.

Last thing....you guys will probably laugh but my coach insists on me chugging Chocolate milk after a workout, he says it's pretty much the best recovery drink I can find and it tastes great! Not too bad on the refreshing part either. It works for me!

Ok that's it for my thoughts!

OH FYI I'm an Olympic distance duathlete

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