Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Clif SHOT recovery drink “Protein – Enhanced” French Vanilla

Ted’s thoughts on the CLIF shot. We have a lot of recovery and electrolyte stuff on hand. Most of the products were purchased but we received a fair amount of stuff to review. I grabbed a random handful of different samples to take to work for my workouts during lunch.  I am still in base training so my workouts vary as to how I feel at any given time. Today I did a mile run near race pace145-155 HR. When I finished my run I drank the recovery drink while my heart rate was still a high 115-120. My normal HR is something like 41-resting, 120-130 for long slow runs, 140-150 for tempo runs and 163 max at a sprint.

I selected the CLIF shot because the number one ingredient is “Organic Evaporated Cane Juice.”   I am not a nutritionist but that sounds a lot like sugar to me. I am not usually fond of anything that is vanilla flavored mixed with water and that was the case today.

The first sip went down just fine but I had to choke down the second and final shot. The flavor was what I expected but I did a hard work out and I have no cramps or muscle pains five hours later. The stuff seems to work and that is the bottom line for me.  Good taste is a bonus but I am not sure what the cost of the good taste is when it comes to chemical additives.

You can learn more about Clif’s recovery products here.

Mike’s Note:  As someone who has tried a number of recovery drinks (ranging from Whey protein and 4:1:1 recovery drinks to CLIF recovery products) I agree that vanilla doesn’t mix well with water.  I typically drink my Whey protein mix (usually chocolate or rocky road flavors) with water and chug them down, but almost always prefer my vanilla drinks with milk.