SIS drinks - what's the difference?

[Broadside]

I've been cycling 40+ miles at weekends regularly for the last 6 months and have been experimenting with what to eat before I go out and what to eat/drink while out.

For long rides I usually have a big bowl of porridge and then home made flapjack on the road with plain water to drink but I am still finding that I have energy issues after about 40 miles. I feel alright but the power in my legs seems to fade which makes me think I am running out of energy in my muscles.

It may be that I am not loading up enough in the evening before I ride the next morning but I have been thinking about using some of the SIS stuff to see if it helps.

Question is what is the difference between the Go/PSP22/Rego/Electrolyte etc. Go & PSP22 seem to be for while you're out and Rego for afterwards. Is there much of a difference to them all?

 

[ttcycle]

Hiya dmoran

eat big carb meal at night prior to big ride out. but if this is your first attempt at longer rides it may take your body a bit more time to adjust to use energy efficiently - this can take some years to adapt some people are lucky and adapt quickly.

SIS drinks difference are:
PSP22 is the standard energy drink
Rego is recovery drink high in protein and some carbs for when you come back from a ride- guzzle it down in the first 20 mins off the bike
Nocte is rego that helps you sleep - got a sachet haven't had a chance to try it yet my competitive swimmer friend says it tastes disgusting
GO electrolyte - is that the right name? that will be the drink to use on the go in hot temps or where you think you will be losing a lot of fluids - PSP22 should be alright for normal use.

Give one of them trial run as people sometimes have dodgy tummies with some drinks SIS works well with me but try it out first

If you wanted to get really techy the difference between PSP22 and Go- it's about isotonic/hypotonic - related to the concentration of salts, electrolytes and carbs to help you rehydrate properly hence dependent on how hot it is and how much you will sweat.

Hope that makes sense

 

[kyuss]

I used to use SIS Go almost exclusively. Winter or summer. I ended up getting cramp, particularly in my calves a lot of the time, and the hydration benefits of Go certainly helped, winter or summer (though obviously more of a benefit in the hotter months).

But I found that the extra calories/carbs in Go (and PSP22) were just not really needed for the kind of miles I do. I'm a bit of a porker and taking on those extra calories seemed a bit silly when my aim was to lose weight and get fitter. I already had the body fat to sustain longer rides, I just had to learn to use it up. I guess if you're already a racing snake, or are doing silly mileage, then the benefits of an energy drink are obvious.

These days on rides under 100 miles I prefer to either eat well before a ride or take a few flapjacks/bag of jelly babies with me (which are tastier than a chemical drink) and use Nuun for hydration. I will admit that the SIS GO gels are pretty good though. They've got me out of trouble a couple of times.

As for Rego etc, I've only used them once, and they are pretty tasty, but I don't think there's anything special about them. All you need is a bit of protein intake within the first hour after exercise to aid muscle recovery and that can be had much cheaper/tastier by just making your own milkshake or smoothy with a pint of milk, a banana and some frozen fruit. Or some Friij chocolate milkshake if you're lazy.

 

[davidg]

flap jacks on the road is going to do very little immediately...

it is a good slow release food but you need instant energy...

 

[ttcycle]

I'd agree with Kyuss on the gels - after a relatively short ride of about 25 miles I had to cycle from the middle of nowhere to get hold of a gel as I was about to get a fit of the shakes due to lack of energy and thankfully the gel is a quick way to get a burst of energy to save you from the dreaded 'bonk'. They taste absolutely disgusting though!

I do think that the SIS stuff can be expensive - A ride of over an hour may mean you need to take some form of food/drink with you but hopefully over time your body gets more efficent at burning fat and using your energy stores- a cheaper alternative is getting squash or glucose powder with a bit of salt- I'll look up what the ratio is of making up your own iso/hypotonic drink and post it later

 

[Broadside]

Thanks for the comprehensive replies, they are all very helpful.

I have actually just recently started adding some orange juice and a quarter tea spoon of salt to my water - this has sorted out cramps in my calves and other post ride cramps in my feet that I was previously prone to.

Thanks for the pointers and opinions on SIS and branded energy drinks and gels in general. I'm aware that they're not the cheap option but I am getting fed up of losing energy on long rides and am looking to see if the energy supplements will help.

I'm sure in time I will adapt better to the distances and work out how to fuel up for them but for now I want to concentrate on getting to 60/70 miles reliably without bonking so I am ready for my first Sportive in March.

 

[zacklaws]

Do a search on the net and you will find plenty of recipes for making various energy drinks and save a fortune. I buy my ingredients from "myprotein" but as I am at work I cannot rememember the full web address. My main energy drink is a 2-1 mix of Maltotdextrin and fructose plus caffeine and electolytes. Maltotdextrin for instant energy and fructose which takes a little bit longer to get into the system.

Energy bars I make myself, also in the forums somewhere is my recipe which I also found on the net. As mentioned previously you do not get the instant energy from them, but I have found with my own make I do within a minute or two of eating one which I do not get with commercial bars or flap jacks, why? I do not know, whether its because theres more carbs in them than a commercial one or its in the mind I cannot work out. or maybe theres something in the ingredients.

Always test out before a big ride though anything you make or buy just to make sure it agrees with you.

 

[ttcycle]

dmoran the squash and salt combo is pretty much the way to DIY. You could top it up with some powdered glucose as well for the burst in energy. zacklaws useful post and good recommendations but careful with using fructose as it can be harder to digest and a few people get the runs on it

 

[Mista Preston]

I am in a very similar position "stamina & energy" wise to you. Once I go past 30 miles i slow and if I dont eat i start to get even slower. On a 45 minute ride i go through a Lucazade hydration bottle, 1/5 bottle of water, normally a banana and I am partial to a Mars bar when I am really feeling it but am trying to stop this habit !. I didnt like the taste of the SIS myself but always have a REGO when I get back to stop the munchies. The key as has been alluded to above for me but maybe not you is stamina. I ride weekends mainly and maybe once or twice in the week. My engine just need to get bigger and better. I find that if i go over the 45 mile mark i tend to need a a couple of gels every couple of hours to even keep my legs moving.

I think you you can get a trail pack of SIS at Evans/Wiggle for a tenner which maybe worth a try to experiment.

 

[zacklaws]

Link to "Myprotein":-

http://www.myprotein.co.uk/

and a link to home made energy drinks to get you started, including recipe for SIS PSP 22:-

http://www.jibbering.com/sports/drinks.html

As a rule I only take energy drinks and bars if I am going over thirty miles and once I get to 25 miles I will eat half a home made bar and thence on half a bar every 10 miles and have regular drinks before you start feeling thirsty as its too late then as you have become dehydrated. In summer I find that I start to get thirsty about every 20 minutes, so I set my Edge 305 time alert to warn me every 15 minutes which is my cue to drink, regardless whether I think I want one or not, in winter I find the time period is a lot longer, about 30 minutes, but there is still a requirement to drink often as your body needs carbs to keep warm as well as to cycle. I aim to make my energy drinks up to approx 60grm carbs in a 750 mil bottle, I forget the actual percentage but I think its between 7% to 9% carbs which is recomended for it to be absorbed into your system quickly, any stronger and its absorbed slower.

 

[ASC1951]

flap jacks on the road is going to do very little immediately...

it is a good slow release food but you need instant energy...

No he doesn't, he just needs to eat it ten miles earlier i.e before he runs out.

 

[zacklaws]

A couple of flyers from the SIS website for more info:-

http://www.scienceinsport.com/documents/SISCyclingW.pdf

http://www.scienceinsport.com/documents/your_energy_system.pdf

 

[Broadside]

Hi guys, thanks for the recipes and other links, all great stuff much appreciated.