Alameda Runners – Get After It!

A couple of months ago, I was talking nutrition with my buddies from Clif.  They told me I could get my calories from my drinks and sent me a couple of containers of Clif Shot Electrolyte drink to prove their point.  My first taste left with the impression of “Just another sports drink”.

Upon drinking the whole bottle, I realized there was no fake sweetener taste.   As most of you know, I like to consume natural products as much as possible so a drinkable product with no sweeteners is great for me.

I took the Lemonade flavor Clif Shot to work where it worked well after my lunch time runs.  I rarely crashed in the afternoon and I always recovered enough for my next workout.  It does not taste like Kool-Aide but it is drinkable enough to sip after a workout.

I take the Cranberry Razz flavor out on bike rides and drink it 50% stronger than the label recommends.  It helps to give me enough calories to keep me fueled for a longer bike ride.  I suffer from no ill effects from drinking it concentrated and I stay fueled.

I took 3 weeks off from endurance training because of injury.  I went out for a 60-mile bike ride with my brother my first day back from injury.

I did not realize that I ran out of Clif Shot so I tried Hammer Nutrition Heed.  After our ride, I crashed hard and could not eat for about four hours after the ride.  He had no problems with the Hammer fluid and ate Mexican food as soon as we finished.

(Mike’s Note:  This is one of the reasons you should be careful experimenting with new products during longer training sessions.  It’s disappointing to miss tasty post-exercise dinner because your stomach feels iffy from the workout.)

Physiology has a lot to do with what products work for which individuals.  He has trouble keeping his weight down while I have trouble keeping my weight up. 

Clif has knocked the mighty Cytomax sports drink off the top of my list of preferred drinks.  That is saying a lot since I have been buying Cytomax for more than 10 years.  I like the drinkable taste of Clif.  Kool-Aide is good but not for a recovery drink.  I also like using the different flavors for different routines.  I am not a scientist or nutritionist.  I just know what I can drink and how painful life can be when I crash.