Clyde, I just generally have nailed the water/glucose thing pretty well, but it's not enough--feeling whacked out after 3 hours or so no matter how well hydrated or glucosed. 2.5-3 hours seems to be the turning point for me. The protein is absolutely critical for the longer haul, at least that's my personal experience. Electrolytes are essential of course, but I just cover those with Endurolytes, or Accelerade.
The annoying thing is that most organized century rides supply crap for food--peanut butter, bagels, bulky fruit--it just gives me gastric distress, and the farts don't push me up the hill any faster. So I now usually skip most rest stops and just keep sucking on Accelerade, a few Gus, and sometimes (!) beef jerkey or Tres Tacos from Baja Fresh! (Seriously).
I rode the White Rim Trail in Moab Utah one day in May (a 4 day trip for novices). The absolute best thing for lunch is bread (white bread works well) with chicken or turkey, some avocado, and some water...recharges the system really well.
Accelerade seems to have everything I need for all-day rides. It has the glucose, the electrolytes and protein. I realize I can put together those things piecemeal, but it seems to nail the combo so well that it's just not worth the trouble. There are probably other sports drinks that work just as well, but some have caused me distress, so I'm reluctant to fix what isn't broken. I did try the Hammer Yuk on a Hard Man ride once, but I think Accelerade would have been better. Lloyd
MY ANSWER: Years ago (before I looked into finding pure maltodextrin) I tried many sports drinks, and it seemed that my performance changed so dramatically from one product to the other for sometimes no obvious reason (based on the ingredients) that when I finally found a product that worked (in my case it was Sustained Energy) I stuck to it like a new best friend, telling everyone how great this product was. Several months later I realized it was just maltodextrin at five times the cost of what I could get it for at any home brew supply shop and threw fairly random amounts of protein powder in with the malto that I started purchasing. Since then, I have turned the process into something completely geeky, putting my training fluids together like the chemist that I am, using exact ratios based on the latest research. Does my performance benefit from detail like that? No. It makes me feel better in my mind. What my body needs is water, glucose (preferably malto), a bit of protein and if I am on top of my water intake I can push the caloric intake to higher levels and need to start including electrolytes. That's it. Everything else beyond that is psychological. I had found my 'Holy Grail' in Sustained Energy, and you have found yours in Accelerade, and in both our cases (me then, you now) were wrong to assume that these products were either perfect or even worth buying. Throwing our ingredients together is in fact quite simple, whether or not you have a PhD in chemistry. It is faster than making a peanut butter sandwich with sliced banana on it, which I make at the same time for my recovery window.
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