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A Secret (Drink Mix) Worth Sharing?

11.20.2011 by Jeff Hemmel // 8 Comments

Have trouble staying hydrated on rides? Guest poster Jeff Hemmel may have a solution.

Like I suspect most of you, I rely a lot on sports drinks. I may start my ride with a bottle of water but ultimately, especially in my Florida climate, I’m reaching for something more potent. And I don’t like any of them. The tablet-style mixes may be convenient but their fizzy “texture” makes me gag. I find other mixes weak and watery, with a strange artificial flavor. I’ve settled on cheap, Gatorade powder, although I find its syrupy sweetness gets old fast on anything but a short ride. It’s also packed with sugar and calories.

That’s why my curiosity was piqued last summer when the rumors started swirling about pros using a new, not-for-sale drink mix. Like many of us, pro riders were getting sick — literally — of their sports drinks, resulting in upset stomachs and dehydration. The riders in question happened to be working with Dr. Allen Lim, the renowned sports physiologist who worked with Garmin and later Radio Shack. Lim tried just about every drink on the market; none proved a winner. Cut a syrupy drink with water? It doesn’t work. The sugar might be right, but the electrolyte content gets too diminished. Lim called in a friend, Stanford professor Dr. Stacy Sims, and the two began to develop their own home-brew that had less calories, more salt, and featured absolutely no artificial colors or flavors.

All this wasn’t for resale — this was to hydrate pro riders, many of whom had drink-related sponsors. That’s how the drink ultimately got its tongue-in-cheek name: Secret Drink Mix. Only after more and more people heard of the mix and wanted to buy it did the pair ultimately offer it up for sale through a website so low-key you almost had to be a cycling insider to find it.

Apparently there are no anti-caking agents or preservatives, so they sell these tins to keep the stuff dry and from turning into concrete.

Interesting story, but what matters to the recreational rider is how it tastes…and works. The first thing I noticed about SDM was that it actually has a clean, almost refreshing taste. It’s not watered down, but light, with no syrupy sweetness that will haunt you after the first bottle. It tastes like fruit because, well, that’s what it is. Flavoring is provided by freeze-dried fruit powder. While the weather was still hot, I noticed a drank a lot more of SDM simply because I wanted refreshment, not because I knew I had to force myself to hydrate.

I also noticed I felt a little fresher after my longest rides. At first I chalked it up to my imagination, but then I noted those empty bottles. I think I was simply staying more hydrated. As Lim recommends, I was using my drink for hydration. Serious calories came from Clif Bars or the like. (There’s some interesting science to back up that assertion if you want to do a little searching on the Internet.)

The ultimate test is what happened after I used up my free sample. As it’s not cranked out by a sports drink behemoth, SDM is expensive, about $1 per bottle. I went back to Gatorade, but now knew what I was missing. So yup, I actually bought a pound of mix. As a family man with other things to pay for, I plan to ration it for bigger rides or the occasional race. It’s that good. The only other minor downside is the mix’s ratio. It’s 500ml per 16 ounces of water. Most water bottles hold 21-24.

SDM also comes in these single-serve packs. They’re pretty generous…threw in a handful of other flavors with my order.

For those of you not satisfied by your drinks, I’d suggest you give it a shot. There are codes on the Internet (SDMFACEBOOK) good for about 15% off. Reviews have been quite positive.

 

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Categories // food Tags // hydration

How to Drink From a Water Bottle

06.06.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

Boy, today’s ride was uncomfortably humid. Not terribly hot, just humid. The kind of day where you start sweating when you open the door and step outside. The kind of day where your cycling gloves are soaked through before you’ve ridden five miles. And when the group takes a short break, you can take the gloves off and wring them out — and they drip moisture all over the road. Ditto your sweat band.

I found myself reaching for my water bottle more than usual today. That’s a good thing, because I tend to drink too little when I’m on the road. But both of my slightly-larger-than-normal water bottles were almost drained when I finished the 33 miles — about all I felt like doing. I had plenty of trouble keeping the group in sight today.

I also noticed the way other riders took their water. It seems there’s not just one way to drink from a bottle, but three distinctly different ways. I couldn’t get shots of all the different ways as we were riding, but when the ride was over I had young Alexander, who rode with us today (and who left me well behind), demonstrate.

The first way is pretty normal. You grab your bottle, and drink from it like you drink from a glass. Or a beer bottle.  Most people seem to use this method.

The way most of us drink.

But there’s a variation I often see, usually from riders with many years of experience. Saw a lot of pros in the Philly International Championship on TV today drink that way, too. They reach down for their bottle, but instead of keeping their thumb at the top, they turn their hand over so the thumb points down. That brings the water bottle to the mouth already pointing down.

The upside down method.

But there’s a third way, that I’ve seen associated with European racing teams. You hold the bottle normally, but then turn it so your hand is on top of the bottle.

Hand on top. You don't see this very often.

I once read about a team of French cyclists using the hand on top method, and figured what the hey, I’ll give it a try. It seemed that the water flowed more freely. Of course, that could be just my imagination.  But I use this way from time to time, if I think about it while on a ride.

Personally, I’ve never liked the upside down method, but in my experience, cyclists who use it won’t drink any other way.

Ultimately, the important thing is to get the water in the mouth. So I suppose whatever works for you is the way to go.

Do you have a preferred method of drinking during rides? And if so, what’s good about it?

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Categories // food, Technique Tags // hydration, water

V8 Fusion — a sports drink?

07.10.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

I’ve had a couple of incidents this year caused by inadequate hydration. There was a bonk in April and a difficult hot weather ride last month. So I’m paying more attention to hydrating these days, and replacing lost electrolytes. I usually drink lots of water and one glass of electrolyte replacement before starting a ride, and am getting better about taking a drink every 10 minutes or so during a ride (It used to be 20-30 minutes).

Currently, I’m using Hammer Nutrition’s HEED, on the recommendation of a friend. The jury is still out, but it seems to do the job. I have also used Accelerade, with good results. On rides of more than one hour, I have discovered that plain water simply isn’t enough for me.

A man who recently completed a hilly 100-mile ride said his job was made easier by hydrating with V8 Fusion the day before the ride. He drank most of a 46-ounce bottle, and says it left him with “limited” cramping on the ride. V8 Fusion is a mix of fruit juice and V8’s traditional vegetable juice. There is lots of potassium in the mix, and no added sugar or frutose, but the Fusion, with its fruit juice, is sweeter than all vegetable V8.

The downside? Cost. V8 Fusion runs about $4.50 per 46-oz. bottle. However, a minimal amount of online searching will locate wholesale prices of about half that amount, and a case of eight bottles for about $22.00.

I’ve had the Fusion, just to sample it, and had never thought of it as a sports-type drink. My sweet tooth likes its flavor, so gulping down a big bottle the day before a long ride would not be a problem. I think I’ll pick some up on my next run to the supermarket — just for experimental purposes, of course.

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Categories // Rides, training Tags // electrolytes, hydration, sports drink, V8 Fusion

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