On The Bike Nutrition Part 1 - "Energy Drinks"

If you plan to spend more than ninety minutes on the bike you should consider taking on calories starting at the first hour.  You can eat your calories in the form of gels, bars, blocks, candy or good old fashioned food, you can drink your calories in the form of energy drinks, or you can do a combination of both.

Which one is actually an "Energy Drink?"

After three years of eating my calories and drinking only water I’ve decided to change my ways and return to my old methodology of drinking the majority of my calories and only eating enough to provide some degree of satiation.  This is because I’ve found it nearly impossible to dig food out of my jersey pocket, upwrap it and ingest it all while attempting to hold position in a fast paceline.  If I’m alone going long and slow sure I’ll eat, but if I’m hammering on a group ride I find that tend to forgo eating and end up bonking.

The first step in finding a suitable energy drink is determining what is an “energy” drink and what isn’t.  “Energy drink” or “sports drink” are kind of catch-all terms, and don’t really tell you too much about what you are buying/drinking.  More accurate terminology would be: electrolyte replacement drink, stimulation drink, and energy drink.

Gatorade, Skratch, Nuun, Powerade and similar products are electrolyte replacement drinks, they are designed to replace minerals that you sweat out during exercise, but contain few calories (i.e. energy).  These products are great if you’re getting the bulk of your calories via food, but don’t count on them to ward of bonking.

Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar and similar products are sold as “energy” drinks,but they provide little in the way of energy (once again we’re talking calories here).  A better name for this type of product would be “stimulation” drink, because they stimulate an adrenal (fight or flight) response.  A stimulation drink may be effective before a short race such as a criterium or Cyclocross event but the “energy” spike they provide isn’t going to get you through a long training session or road race.

Perpetuem - 2.5 scoops per bottle

Carbopro, Sustained Energy (Hammer), Perpetuem (Hammer) and Infinit are examples of true energy drinks, in other words they provide calories.  Some products, such as Carbopro, are calories and only calories, others, such as the Hammer products and Infinit provide both calories and electrolytes.  Some brands tout the ideal carbohydrate to protein ratio and other miscellaneous claims, I’d recommend ignoring all that and just find a product that yields somewhere north of three hundred calories per bottle (a good rule of thumb is to figure out if you can get three hundred calories out of three scoops).  Three hundred calories per hour after the first hour of exercise is a good rule of thumb, so if you’re going out for three hours plan on drinking two bottles.

The biggest problem to overcome when finding a suitable energy drink is finding something that your stomach can handle.  The bulk of the calories in all of these drinks comes in the form of carbohydrates, some examples are fructose, sucrose, glucose, dextrose and maltodextrin.  You are going to have to look at labels and figure out what works for you and what doesn’t.  If you feel bloating and GI upset then you know it didn’t work.  Buy the single serving packs, find out what works (or more importantly what doesn’t) before you invest the forty to fifty bucks on the big jug.

I find that the Hammer products to be fairly tolerable, but what you have to remember about Hammer is that they don’t use preservatives so only add water just prior to the ride/race and clean out your bottles that same day.