Isotonic Drinks.Yay or Nay.

[Crackle]

Agreed - caffeine definitely has a positive impact both pyschologically and physically in my experience.

As for @Crackle - succumbing to bugs is common where your energy levels have been hit and your natural defences are down. I've seen a few stories of people upping their Vit C levels to counter; I usually take a dissolvable one in a pint of water post ride; or you can try a Cit-c focussed juice thing etc.

That's what I'm currently doing. Vit C. See if it works.

 

[Crackle]

You might be barking up the wrong tree there, @Crackle. Did you know you can now get "performance coffee"? http://www.truestartcoffee.com/ No, neither did I, until Wiggle sent me a sample of it in with an order.

This "performance coffee" was developed when a husband-and-wife team of triathletes noticed that "their pre-training coffee was having a random effect on their performance". Apparently it's the only coffee in the world "designed specifically for sports performance". Apparently the developers have "an incredible vision for a global TeamTrueStart, connected by the power of team spirit, authenticity and determination" ... and all sorts of other stuff that made me go and check the date, to make sure it wasn't April 1st. One of the "consumer reviews" says, "This stuff is great, it tastes just like coffee."

What will they think of next eh! performance peppermint tea maybe......

 

[Jody]

Aaah,I do drink a good amount of coffee in the mornings and a few when I get home.
We could be narrowing it down now.
Cheers.

I suffered quite a few years with bad headaches which sometimes lasted days. Tried cutting tea and caffeine products which helped but didn't get rid of them. In the end I found it was a combination of hydration, weight and caffeine regulation. Stopped having multiple cups of tea through the day at work in favour of water, don't drink tea in the evening and dropped a couple of stone in weight. My scales at home have gone from calculating 51% water content to 58%. It's months since I last had a headache. I don't know if it's one or all three reasons but it's worked.

 

[srw]

Only because I'm sure you're all wondering whether this stuff works, I tried the free sample of this performance-enhancing coffee-like substance ... which is, in fact, coffee. It was a bit bitter, I didn't like it much, and the caffeine made slogging into a freezing cold headwind this morning not noticeably easier. I don't think I'll bother to buy any.

Flipping expensive coffee. It's £6.99 for 80g. For that price I'd expect single estate whole beans, not instant granules - a 500g tin of naffcaff is only £10 or so.

And the "guaranteed caffeine" bit is a fudge too - it's 95mg +/- 20mg. That's probably a 90% confidence interval, so all they're claiming as that 9 out of 10 packets are within 20% of the caffeine level they state. Which isn't exactly a wildly reliable stat.

If anyone falls for this nonsense I've got a helmet I can sell them - guaranteed safe - and a packet of dehydrated water.

 

[Jody]

.......... and a packet of dehydrated water.

Could save some weight on long rides.

 

[tyred]

Could save some weight on long rides.

I tried making my own dehydrated water but all that happened was that the gas ring burned a hole in the saucepan.

 

[bozmandb9]

I pretty much have had the same routine for 24 years.
1 hour before I go out,I have a bowl of oats and that gives me some slow release energy.
On the trails,when I stop off,I have some cereal bars and good old Orange barley water.
This seems to get me through my ride fine.
However,when I get in and showered,I still feel dehydrated and develop a splitting headache.
Went out today and did 24 miles of trails,so I'm sitting here taking paracetemol.Again.
Could this be(what the makers say),not replacing the right fluids and body salts ?
Or is it just marketing bullcrap ?
Thanks in advance.

If you don't have electrolytes in your water, you need around 1.7 times as much water. Personally, I used to ride with just water, now I used electrolytes, I find it better. I have made other changes alongside this, so can't 100% say it's the electrolytes, but I was at the Sports Nutrition Live seminar a couple of weeks back, and that's where I heard the 1.7 figure, from one of the top people in UK sports nutrition.

Regarding the headaches, how hard are you going at those 24 miles? I've encountered migraine like headaches at the end of really tough athletics trainings. Never thought to put it down to dehydration or the like, but that was in the days before I used electrolytes. Also I sweat a lot! I'd say if you feel dehydrated, it could be that too much caffeine is making you dehydrated.

Like others say, see your GP, to eliminate blood pressure or anything more serious, then consider cutting down caffeine, and looking more at proper hydration (with or without electrolytes). If you don't want to buy into the BS, it's perfectly easy to make your own natural electrolyte mix.

 

[ColinJ]

Regarding the headaches, how hard are you going at those 24 miles?

I think that might be the key ...

24 miles on the road should not cause too many problems, even 24 hilly miles.

24 miles of trails could be a different matter. If they are flat and well-surfaced trails then they wouldn't be much harder than the road, but if they are 'gnarly' trails like some of the very challenging bridleways round here then you could be talking > 3 times the difficulty of a road ride of that length.

I did a local 50 mile offroad ride and it was harder than all of the 130+ mile mega-hilly road rides that I have completed.

 

[bozmandb9]

I think that might be the key ...

24 miles on the road should not cause too many problems, even 24 hilly miles.

24 miles of trails could be a different matter. If they are flat and well-surfaced trails then they wouldn't be much harder than the road, but if they are 'gnarly' trails like some of the very challenging bridleways round here then you could be talking > 3 times the difficulty of a road ride of that length.

I did a local 50 mile offroad ride and it was harder than all of the 130+ mile mega-hilly road rides that I have completed.

Too right. I did a much shorter off road, and whilst I didn't get a headache, I did find it a pain in the a**e! Ended up finishing it on roads (I think I discovered that the riverside is far too boggy in March!

 

[2IT]

That's what I'm currently doing. Vit C. See if it works.

Have been using a couple of lemon slices in my bottle of water. Surprisingly it is nutritionally like Gatorade without the false sugars. And also helps rinse the kidneys better taking out uric acid. No unhealthy calories.

I'm all for drinking tonics or a beer after a long ride and coffee in the morning.

 

[Crackle]

Have been using a couple of lemon slices in my bottle of water. Surprisingly it is nutritionally like Gatorade without the false sugars. And also helps rinse the kidneys better taking out uric acid. No unhealthy calories.

I'm all for drinking tonics or a beer after a long ride and coffee in the morning.

Might be an idea to try and the beer is already on my list. The vitamin C and Zinc seem to be working for me, maybe my immune system just needed a boost or maybe it was just the crappy weather this year.

 

[e-rider]

I pretty much have had the same routine for 24 years.
1 hour before I go out,I have a bowl of oats and that gives me some slow release energy.
On the trails,when I stop off,I have some cereal bars and good old Orange barley water.
This seems to get me through my ride fine.
However,when I get in and showered,I still feel dehydrated and develop a splitting headache.
Went out today and did 24 miles of trails,so I'm sitting here taking paracetemol.Again.
Could this be(what the makers say),not replacing the right fluids and body salts ?
Or is it just marketing bullcrap ?
Thanks in advance.

well why don't you buy some isotonic drink product and see if it makes a difference - a £5 investment isn't much compared to how much money many people spend on cycling.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Years ago, when I was a runner, I remember a discussion on a running board about isotonic jelly babies. The theory was that if you drank just the right amount of water with each jelly baby you had an isotonic drink. The discussion went on for quite a while and I think the conclusion was "a couple of mouthfuls of water, and chew the jelly baby well". But I could be wrong.