Nutrition Update - 1st Endurance Liquid Shot

After my last race report I decided to start taking a closer look at what I eat generally and also during workouts.

I posted a question on Twitter about nutrition and received a lot of great responses (thanks guys!) and wanted to highlight a very cool interview from the guys at Competitor Radio with Asker Jeukendrup. Lots of very interesting information on race day nutrition. It's is fun hearing Paul Huddle get all geeked out on the info.


This past weekend was my first go around with 1st Endurance EFS Liquid Shot or for short LS.
Just a little fun fact the EFS stands for Electrolyte Fuel System. It's like it's calling out to me... "I'm your answer. Just look at my name!"

The planned workout for the day: 40 miles bike with an hour warm-up, about 30 min of zone 3 work and 15 min of zone 4 work... total about 2:20 on the bike. Follow bike with 8 mile run at 8:00/mile pace. (mid z3 for me).

I had two bottles of EFS Sport Drink (my favorite grape flavor) - I mix mine at 1 scoop per bottle. Which is a little lower than recommended "scoopage" for a regular sized water bottle. No salt tabs taken at all.

I try to drink 1 bottle per hour, which I was pretty close to on Saturday. Weather was beautiful, not to hot, not cold.

After 1 hour warmup on bike, almost one bottle consumed, took what I THOUGHT was one serving of LS. Taste was sweet but since it was liquid and not gel didn't cling to the inside of my mouth. I did chase it down with some drink, but more out of habit than anything. Now, when I finished my ride and looked at the bottle, it ended up being two servings worth (holy cow 200 calories in two quick squirts). So for my future reference, one squirt = one serving. It comes out pretty quick and goes down super easy.

I felt great on the rest of the bike and didn't take anymore LS before heading out on run. did finish up my 2nd bottle of drink.

Run felt amazing. No cramps, no fatigue, usual "brick" awkwardness for first mile or so, but it worked itself out. Able to maintain 8:00 easily.

I'm excited about the successful trial of the LS. I was happy with how my tummy felt on it, none of the usual "that makes me feel like I'm going to puke". and no muscle cramps in legs during the run.

I've got another long ride this weekend, so I'll keep working with it... plan for this weekend is, one serving of LS, every hour and one bottle EFS sport drink every hour.

BTW - after my run I had an iced cappuccino recovery drink thanks to my cappuccino Ultragen. yum!! Had a bottle of ice water and it mixed up just fine. Thanks to my friend Kate for keeping my ice water in her cooler!!

Recovery wise, I felt perfectly fine... in addition to the Ultragen immediately after run, I put my compression socks on after shower. Legs were a bit stiff for first 10 min on bike next day, just spun it out. This was one of the longer workouts I've done recently.

I've not always used the 1st endurance products. I used to use a different recovery drink but I liked the Ultragen best flavor wise. I used to use a bunch of different sports drinks, but they all made my stomach upset. It's the new formula EFS that I like, the old one I didn't care for. And now I'm adding the LS over gels, because I need the electrolytes. So that's how I ended up using all 1st Endurance stuff.

another nice thing... it is all gluten free, so Alex and I can use the same stuff, not so many tubs of "stuff" in the house.