Accelerade???

[ODB]

kaiser wrote:

After bonking a few times last year, I went high tech this year and take one bottle of Accelerade and one bottle of water. I also take a Clif Shot or Powergel with me for the brutal rides...more for the caffeine than the carbs since I am getting a steady stream of carbs with the Accelerade.

I've gone from the Powergel to Clif shot because Powergel gets its carbs mainly from Maltodextrin while Clif shot gets it from brown rice syrup, which has a lower GI value. Either way, I use it for the caffeine kick.

The Accelerade's carbs come mainly from sucrose and fructose, which I believe are less GI spiking than others like glucose or dextrose. In addition, the whey protein concentrate (the mix in Accelerade is 4:1 carbs:protein) seems to really help with recovery.

Anyway, with all of this I haven't bonked at all this season and I have usually had a lot left in the tank at the end of the ride.

BTW, the stuff I mentioned is pretty cheap if you buy it on sale at Performance Bike. I just got a 24 pack of Clif Shot for less than $11.

JP, I wonder why the adventure racers think that....the guys in the TdF all use gels while racing in their stages. If it would promote spiking and a rapid drop, you would think they wouldn't use it.

this is one of Kaiser's posts from last summer.

Kaiser, are you still using the accelerade? I've been thinking about using it and know squat about nutrition. When training on bike I have just been drinking water and on longer rides will take a clif bar with me (the lemon-poppy seed is pretty good ).

When I'm racing I just eat things I like such as M&M's (not the blue ones 'cause that's wrong). The trick on an adventure race is making yourself eat at all.

For the Trail of Tears 100 I was thinking about keeping water in my hydration pack and a bottle of accelerade in my bottle rack replacing it every twenty miles or so. I'll also carry some snacks to eat when I can.

Let me know what you think.

[Kaiser]

Joe, I don't think I'm qualified to answer your question because fueling for an event as long as an adventure race may be different that fueling for a three or four hour bike ride.

Yes, I still use the stuff. I like the Accelerade because the protein in it really does seem to help my recovery and leave my muscles feeling less sluggish post-ride. But this may be my perception only - either way it works. Some people can't take in a drink with protein because they don't digest it well during a strenuous physical activity. I don't have this problem, so I take it.

In riding, you are supposed to be taking in some carbs after 45 mins, and then be eating (ideally every 15-30 mins) after an hour. If I am on a ride longer than 3 hours, I'll pack a Powerbar or two, as well as the Clif Shot.

Like I said, I don't know about adventure racing, because you are throwing sleep deprivation in the mix and I don't know how that interacts with blood sugar levels. I imagine the old 'trail mix' (or some called it gorp) worked for a reason - mix of simple and complex carbs (chocolate, raisins, and bananas) along with protein and fats (nuts) gave you everything you needed. Many of today's grain based bars are pretty much just expensive versions of gorp.

Give the Accelerade a try. I love it. The Lemon-Lime tastes much better than the Fruit Punch or the Orange (which one of my female friends described as tasting like....uhh....ummmm... seminal fluid. Scarily, I had no problem with the taste until then.)

[ODB]

Thanks again for the reply. I'll give the stuff a try. The race I have coming up will be about 10 - 12 hours long so sleep deprivation should not be a problem although I will be inserting caffine into my diet during the race to give me an extra jolt during the last thirty miles or so.

I'd love to hear from some of the other experts on the board. The question is:

What are the nutritional requirements of a 43 year old male during 12, 24 or 36 hours of racing?

[ODB]

I found this article about a test using Accelerade compared to gatorade. Let me know what you think. I used Accelerade on a recnt 40 miler (yes, the one I did with Sarah last week) and it seemed to work great.

This is not a sales pitch, I just found something that seems to be working for me. Don't know why.

Sports science update: Protein and performance
By Matt Fitzgerald
PoweringMuscles.com
5/26/2004

A remarkable new study could change the way athletes fuel their bodies during training and competition.

In the forthcoming July issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers at James Madison University report powerful evidence that consuming a modest amount of protein in a sports drink during exercise can increase endurance, reduce muscle damage, and enhance recovery.

Fifteen male cyclists completed a stationary ride to exhaustion while drinking either a conventional sports drink containing 7.3% carbohydrate (Gatorade) or a sports drink containing an equal amount of carbohydrate plus 1.8% protein (Accelerade).

The following day, the cyclists completed a second ride to exhaustion at a higher intensity, this time without drinking anything. Before they began the second ride, a blood sample was taken and its concentration of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) was measured. CPK is a biomarker of muscle damage.

Two weeks later, this whole procedure was repeated with one change. The cyclists who had been randomly assigned to drink the carbohydrate sports drink in the first trial received the carbohydrate-protein drink in the second trial, and those who received the combined drink in the first trial received the carbohydrate drink in the second.

The results will be of great interest to all athletes. On average, the subjects were able to cycle 29% longer in the first ride and 40% longer in the second ride when given the carbohydrate-protein drink during the first ride than they were when given the drink without protein.

In addition, the carbohydrate-protein drink was found to reduce CPK levels by 83%, indicating significantly less muscle damage.

While the differences are clear, the precise reasons for these differences have not yet been determined. The authors of the study noted that while the carbohydrate-protein drink had more total calories than the carbohydrate drink, the additional calories in the former could account for no more than 12% of the differences in performance.

Also, scientists have long known that simply adding more carbohydrate to a sports drink does not make it more effective. There seems to be a special synergy between carbohydrate and protein.

Researchers at a few universities are now trying to figure out exactly how the addition of protein to a sports drink increases endurance, reduces muscle damage, and accelerates recovery.

In the meantime, as an athlete, you don't need to know why it works -- it's enough just to know that it does!

Copyright 2004 by Poweringmuscles. Published with permission. For cutting-edge sports nutrition info, visit www.poweringmuscles.com.


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Matt Fitzgerald coaches runners and triathletes online through Carmichael Training Systems (www.trainright.com) and is the author of "Triathlete Magazine's Complete Triathlon Book."