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What’s Your Favorite Drink Mix?

09.16.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 20 Comments

I was riding out in the country recently, and noticed one of the riders in my group take a drink from his bottle.  The bottle was clear, and the liquid inside was an unappealing yellow (yes, that color of yellow).

I asked him what he was drinking.

“It’s Accelerade,” he said, “with one scoop of lemon lime R4, and one Nuun lemon lime tablet.  It’s the best drink mix I’ve come across.”

Wow.  I carry two water bottles.  One is plain water, and one is water with one Nuun tablet.  Nothing fancy.  But it turns out I’ve heard from lots of people who have their own ideas of what kind of drink mix to concoct for their rides.  Here’s a sample:

As a certified Cheap Bastard, I put the following into a 28 ounce water bottle on rides that will last two hours or more:

  • enough Gatorade powder to reconstitute a quart of Gatorade
  • 1 tbsp unflavored whey powder
  • 4-6 ice cubes

Works for me, and it leaves me feeling much stronger at the end of a ride than Gatorade alone.  It costs a metric buttload less than Endurox, Cytomax, etc., too.

When I used to race on the pro duathalon circuit, my water bottle was always filled with defizzed Coke for shorter bike stages (say, 40K or less).  If longer than 40K, I’d carry two bottles – one with Coke, one with water.

Hammer Perpetuem works for me…along with Thermolyte buffered sodium supplements (capsule).

From Bicycling magazine: “Sipping a sports drink with carbohydrate, rather than plain water, from the start of a long ride can help spare your precious muscle glycogen stores by about 50 percent in the first hour alone, according to a study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. This means you’ll have more energy for the long haul.”

I’ve used Accelerade before — by itself, not mixed with anything else.  It seems to work.  That is, I’ve never had any issues while using it.  But the taste takes some getting used to.  After my first jar of Accelerade was gone, I didn’t go back for another.

I did try Hammer Heed, on the advice of a friend.  I thought it worked about as well as Accelerade, with its own funky taste.  I haven’t gone back for a second container of that stuff, either.

The guy in the first example here said he thought the Accelerade was fine, until it warmed up.  “Then the flavor is enough to make you sick,” he said.  He used lots of ice in his bottle, but in the Texas summertime heat, it doesn’t last long.  “I drink it pretty quick,” he said.

I have bought bottles of G2 — the low-sugar Gatorade — from convenience stores when out on a ride.  That stuff seems to help, too, without the crazy taste.  However, some serious athletes don’t use bottled energy drinks of that ilk.

If I can keep hydrated, and take the occasional food, I’m good on rides up to 100 miles.  I’ve never felt the need to develop a personal energy mix of my own.

How about you?  We’re nearing the end of the warm weather riding season, so a discussion along these lines might be superfluous, but it’s fun to hear different ideas kicked around. Do you have a special drink mix that you rely on?

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Categories // food Tags // sports drink

Downgrading: A Tough Decision

09.14.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 14 Comments

I’ve written about my recent efforts to upgrade my bike.  So have my guest posters, Don Blount and Jeff Hemmel.  So after my problems Saturday, I faced a difficult decision.

As you’ll recall, I broke my right shifter — the one that controls the rear derailleur.

I took the bike into the LBS, and the guy looked over the shifter.  He had bad news: The shift cable had broken off inside the shifter, and he couldn’t get it out.  “These things aren’t really made to be serviced,” he said.  “You’ll have to replace it.”

Ouch. I didn’t want to hear that.  Shifters are expensive.

The Sora shifter, with its characteristic thumb trigger for upshifts.

“Lemme see what’s in stock,” he said.  He came back with a Shimano Sora shifter.  My bike has Tiagra shifters — one level up in the Shimano hierarchy.  The Sora is at the low end of Shimano’s lineup.

I asked about getting another Tiagra.  He said it would have to be ordered.  On top of that, it would cost 50 percent more than the Sora.  Another ouch.

I hemmed and hawed.  If I ordered the Tiagra, it would be several days before I had a bike.  If I had him put on the Sora, I would be downgrading my bike.

On the other hand, I recalled my only previous experience with Sora equipment: On a rental bike two summers ago.  It worked fine.  I thought about the price.  I thought about making the ride the next day that I had been wanting to do.

“Go ahead and put on the Sora,” I told him.  “And while you’re at it, the headset needs adjusting, and I need a new chain.”

An hour later, it was all ready.  I made my ride the next day.

The shifter performed well.  Not flawlessly.  It’s less precise than the Tiagra, which is not in itself the most precise shifter.  I learned on the ride that it helped  to plan my shifts more than I’d been used to, and to click the little thumb trigger very definitely — no flicking the thumb at it and expecting a clean shift.

This evening, I took the bike out to our local time trial.  I had to turn the barrel adjusters to tighten the derailleur cable, because it was jumping cogs, popping off the cog when I applied force, and being generally cranky.  I went out on the eight-mile course, and it appears from my unofficial time that I set a personal best, beating my old mark by at least 30 seconds.  I was very careful and deliberate with my shifts out there.

I think it will take several more rides before I’m used to it.  There will be lots more time spent adjusting the cables in the coming week.  But after my experience with it over the past couple of days, I intend to make it work.

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Categories // Components Tags // downgrades, shifters, Sora, Tiagra, upgrades

The Good Ride

09.12.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

After my bad ride yesterday, I was anxious to get out on the road again.  This week, the Mamma Jamma training ride was in San Marcos, Texas, 30 miles south of Austin.  The distances were a little longer than they’ve been, and since my wife was playing in a golf tournament today, I was determined to get up really early to drive down there for the ride.

I had gotten the bike serviced after my mishap yesterday, and had a new shifter installed (more on that in the next post). The shop also adjusted my headset and put on a new chain.  I patched two tubes and was ready to go.

The ride had options of 68 and 41 miles. I began to top off my front tire, and the gauge read 60 pounds.  I pumped up the tire to 100 pounds when I put in the patched tube last night, so this wasn’t a good sign.  I opted for the 41-miler even though I had hoped to do the 68.

Once you’re east of I-35 in San Marcos, you’re pretty much out in the country.  Even though I work in San Marcos, I’m not familiar with much of the surrounding area.  We were on two-lane country roads with almost no motor traffic.  The ride was organized this week by a women’s cycling/triathlon club, the “Tough Cookies,” and they provided us with detailed cue sheets and maps.

Still, people got confused about directions.  Early in the ride, our ride leader stopped at an intersection to wait for riders to catch up.  He told me to go another three miles, then turn left.  I headed out, but something didn’t seem right.  I stopped and turned back to him.

“We don’t go straight here,” I said.  “We turn left on this road.”

He double-checked his cue sheet against the map.  “You’re right,” he said.  Like a cowboy turning a stampeding herd of cattle, he rode into the cyclists coming up behind us and sent them in the right direction.

Another ten miles on, the cue sheet said to turn right onto Friedens Church Road.  A young lady stopped at the intersection, right under the street sign for the road.  “We go straight here, don’t we?” she asked.  Oh, well.

One reason I enjoyed the ride was that it took us on roads most of us had never ridden — and they turned out to be great for cycling.  Good condition, mostly — some bad chip seal, but not too much — and the hills were not killers.

At about the halfway point in the ride, we arrived at the hamlet of Geronimo, where a stop was designated.  It was at a convenience store, but we also found a pickup truck packed with cold water, fruit, energy bars — everything you would need and more.  Not only did this ride have sag support — volunteers had stocked their truck with goodies.  We loitered at the stop a little longer than we might have under other circumstances.

This old gas station in Geronimo now appears to be a residence. Maybe.

I was glad to pick the 41-mile distance, because the day heated up quickly.  The humidity was ferocious, and sapped a body’s energy.  But little things kept us moving along, like the shetland ponies in the front yard of a house.  When one saw us riding up the road, it ran like a dog to greet us.  (The ponies were fenced in.  The only dog that got into road just wanted to say hi, and stood wagging his tail at us as we rode by him.)

Back at the starting point, volunteers again pressed food and drink on us.  Bagels with a shmear, energy bars, more cold apple slices, cold water.  As I sat at a curb eating, a young woman dropped a cold towel over the back of my neck.

“I’m giving free massages,” she said.  I signed up immediately.

This would have been a great ride anytime.  After yesterday, it was as good as it gets.

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Categories // Rides Tags // Rides

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