MDW

Most likely :-), if your body fat is under 8 and your sleep patterns are excellent and your energy levels are great, and you dont get ill often, you could fit into the 1% but in all honesty people make mistakes constantly because they are fooled by the clever consumer marketing in the industry, not just around supplements, but foods especially. Diabetes is on a global climb especially in the youth and its very sad a this is not genetic they eat themselves there, not to mention cholestrol and heart disease, the other night I was at the sports trust quiz evening they had the Bryanston High cheerleaders present there, a group of around 20 kids, who train hard and have taken the champs last 4 years in a row, I was shocked to see how overweight all of them were, I get down seeing this, remember all you are what you put into your system, once its passed your lips, thats it friends no control the body will do the rest, prevention is far better than cure. There are no quick fixes, and Jaco, just be aware, 200mg of chromium each day is not a great idea, because it comes naturally in food, you could be going over your %RDA and later on this can lead to organ issues, you really got to know what you take in, its the same with any supplement, if u getting it in food, then u r most likely overdosing and putting some of your organs under stress, it will show up later on in life not where you want to go. I am trying to just give u some solid advice, I see people everyday with different issues, and they have no idea what they currently consume in the form of ingredients never mind the calories, and they just eat themselves whether food or supplements into a disaster zone. See a nutritionist please for proper advice, and make sure you get a full blood test before even deciding to see whether u r deficient in a mineral. later M

You are correct for 99% of people its both, sufficient needs to be effective as well, proper balanced meals knowing what to take in an when, is the key to energy health.

Super J Nutrition nutrition nutrition, you are not fuelling sufficiently. I do 2 sessions a day morning and evening, I eat anywhere from 9-11 meals a day, to keep me constantly fuelled, focussed and energized. The basic rule of thumb for training to keep your energy levels balanced is Fuel -Before -During -After Before meaning provide yourself the right intake for an event, during is hydration and if a long session additional carbs,after means recovery. Any stimulants that you take before, during or after, ie coffee and sugar as one , will surely see the end of u and cause a hypoglycemic reaction leaving u feeling fatigued and hungry. another thing u never mentioned which is key, is your sleeping patterns, how much sleep do u get per a night and how many nights per a week, it plays a key role. This is my profession and what I do so u r welcome to contact me for advice. all the best M

Sometimes we think our bodies recover but when we put it to the test we suffer anyway enjoy Challenge it will be great, I believe the run route might change and the climb taken out due to safety, I know the guy who is advising on the route so should make for an interesting debate once we hear.

Friend i need to be totally honest with you here. You cannot recover from the 100km in time for Ironman it wont happen. Marathon distance can take 3-6weeks for your body to properly recover and depending on your age and fitness level even longer, and you are going now into a 100km basically 2 ultra marathons in 2 days, if I was u I would seriously re-consider this and decide which is more important. Your health is also at risk with taking on this. all the best M

The apple is not a great food pre training, its a stone fruit really hard to digest and before ride aint a good idea. The toast is fine, I can eat a slice of toast and go out for 3 hours no problem. Your own glycogen stores will see u for 90-120minutes so this does not sound like a case of fuelling. There is no problem with eating a low GI meal before training in actual fact its recommended, unlike what was said above the carbohydrate digestion begins immediately just over a longer period of time so smaller amounts of glucose are released into the system, and anyway your glycogen stores are there to provide u in the mean time. It sounds as if u might actually have a bug, the dizziness is not a sign of glycogen depletion or lack of energy, usually that comes with total fatigue and absolute hunger, did u feel hungry at any point. Let me know if there were any other symptoms. Its really possible you are not well, and yet went out, your body did not like it one bit. How were u feeling within the hours after your ride? and how u feeling now? Sometimes people wake up, they are not 100% yet ignore the signs and go out on a training session only to feel terrible down the line. Keep me posted all the best M

Hey Jaco, you would be very suprised they have an incredibly solid range, broader than Powerbar, they do everything not just drinks, also their sports drinks are properly designed not like our 2 sugar drinks here ;-).

thought this might interest u all http://www.facebook.com/notes/32gi/32gi-development-testing-and-more/10150325811268058

Actually Gatorade is the biggest energy provider in the US, by a long shot ;-). Jeukendrup actually has left Powerbar and moved to Gatorade, we use them ;-) for assistance, wait for our new product launch soon :-)

Dont stress I have swam that course many times, its way too cold for those babies to feed LOL

That was realy funny, SwissVan had to laugh at that pic, for 1st timers u must have scared the hell out of them. I will never forget racing and Ironman in Florida and there was a alligator scare due to rains washing them near by our swim zone, they said it was clear, but in the back of your mind u never know, I swam next to the biggest dude I could find, I figured the croc would prefer his meat and not so much bones, a little more tender LOL.

Cramping is 1st a training issue, if you are used to training in those disciplines and at that intensity you will not cramp, but if you are using muscles you normally would not use then expect cramping, and that is not necessarily muscles only but different fibers, such as fast or slow twitch depending on the intensity you train at. As for nutrition, generally over hydration which causes dilution of electrolytes can cause cramping, but you will feel it all over not really localised, you will also feel nausea and dizziness with electrolyte dilution. Train to Race ;-) later Me

Brick sessions is a must for triathlon training, I do a long brick session every week, 4 hour ride 1 hour run, and in the middle of the week I throw in a crazy 10km speed session on the bike, into a 5km run, I repeat 4 times, it works like a bomb :-). The trick with exiting the water is to in the last 100m kick a lot faster and harder, it will get the blood into the legs and take away the jelly feeling when coming out ;-), try it sometime. Anyone who swam without a wetsuite yesterday was either plane crazy or just plain stupid LOL, 16 degrees is no joke, i cant take the cold. later M

The RTD, has a combination of our stability carb and pure glucose with some other goodies, its in the upper end of the low GI scale, we made sure to provide enough fast releasing carb for recovery, but also for hydration and stability, its been tested for 7 months before we decided to go to launch, stay tuned, the proper packaging it coming out soon ;-), the bottle is also our own design and mould and we put it through the paces of running marathons with it in our hands to see how suitable it was for child, athlete, and general consumer ;-). We want to make sure everything goes well.

The RTD, has a combination of our stability carb and pure glucose with some other goodies, its in the upper end of the low GI scale, we made sure to provide enough fast releasing carb for recovery, but also for hydration and stability, its been tested for 7 months before we decided to go to launch, stay tuned, the proper packaging it coming out soon ;-), the bottle is also our own design and mould and we put it through the paces of running marathons with it in our hands to see how suitable it was for child, athlete, and general consumer ;-). We want to make sure everything goes well.

Hi Guys Just some input, agreed about the water, I am a triathlete myself and the only time I take in an energy drink or chews would be on the bike, on the run its just water to pour over my head I hardly hydrate. however with that said not everyone does 2hour triathlons and the last finishers came in at around 4 hours, so both water and the 32Gi were needed. We also had a higher GI 32Gi there for those wanting more of a boost, but I dont think this notice went out to the participants before the event, will make sure for the next event it is done. So improvements for event 2 on our part will be the following: NO CUPS - :-) We are going to look at putting both water and 32Gi in sachets so the athletes can grab either water or 32Gi and run, it is far more convenient and will be much better accepted. At the end of the race our new RTD which we launched yesterday will be the recovery drink, and hopefully more flavour variety, this was our first bottling take, by the way for those that dont know the RTD is not the same as the powder, it has 3 carbohydrates, providing recovery and stability, and can be used for both racing and recovery. Let me know if you think this will solve the issues on the run, I personally think it will work very well. all the best M

Hi Mission Man There are a few other reasons which can cause nausea, can you tell me what your pre-training meal is, before you ride, and how long before? Also how much liquid are you consuming per an hour, overhydration is a major cause of nausea, need to check this as well so if you can provide me with stats. Why peanuts? when you are riding that distance you dont need peanuts to fuel you, only carbs will be needed, protein is used for muscle synthesis and this only takes place after exercise not during, so peanuts should be eliminated. How much banana are you taking in and when? Let me see if I can assist you here, and get you a balanced and solid feeling while riding from beginning to end. all the best M

Hi Ageteros, we are not trying to pull the cover over anyone's eyes at all, and no arguments on that for very high intensity training or racing a gastric emptying rate of higher proportion for some could be required. You say dietitians and sports scientists argue with us, but we have a very large number of dietitians that actually support us. As for our sponsored athletes, you need to understand one thing and I will make it clear, I dont go and pay athletes to use our product to gain exposure. If I get approached by an athlete then I will ask them do they use it, for how long, why do they use it, how do they feel on it, can they perform on it, I would never take an athlete on as a nutrition sponsored athlete unless they felt they benefited from the product,and truly believed in it, and we have over 100 professional athletes using the product to date,and not just locally in South Africa, and its not because of paying them to be a brand ambassador, it actually works for them. In the cycling space I will share something with you, an email send directly to me, and not to the public from one of the Team Matlosana cyclists who we sponsor as of last month, but they approached us because 7 of the 9 riders in the team already used our product. Drop me your email address, I can forward you the info and you are welcome to contact them to discuss performance. As for Alae the reason she uses our product is not because of sponsorship, she suffered with blood sugar problems getting bad dips on everything she had tried, going hypoglycemic, she is a doctor and you can speak to her directly she wont mind, she finds with 32Gi she her blood glucose levels are very stable and she is able to perform. Carla van Huysteen actually does recommend our product, and its based purely on her own experiences on it, and as a well respect sports physio and athlete she would be very happy to discuss this with you. As for me being experienced in nutrition, I am qualified if you want to put it that way, so the word true experts is debatable. I have attached an article to this post which was written by me for a triathlon magazine a while back bringing the scientific research into place and its referenced so you can see exactly where to get the information from. Drop me a email if u want clarification on anything, no problem discussing. Just so you are aware our new product being launched shortly which is for the more serious athlete, will address your issues with release, our problem is not release its the dip after, we have spent many many months together with a renowned sports scientist in the US to help with development and you will see it on the shelves shortly. We dont just release a product without proper principles, proper testing, and months of proper conditioning it needs to do what it says it does. Would be great to meet u sometime and chat in person, i dont think we are going against the grain of scientific principles, I think that scientific testing and principles are very legacy and more and more in the future newer discoveries will continue to test the boundaries of sport science. 32GI ARTICLE.pdf

Just as a matter of interest what are you IM and 70.3 finishing times, because remember race intensity and fitness level in every human are different, and no one recipe will suit everyone. all the best M

I agree with a lot of the comments made but most of our top athletes are actually performers for events of really long distances and we have seen performance testing benefits on the product. Even though yes its a low GI carb it release immediately though, but smaller doses over a longer period of time. Yesterday just as a matter of interest Lindsay van Aswegen and Kerry Koen raced at World 100km championships on our product and placed 3rd and 9th overall, and unbelievable achievement. The problem with high GI is that lets look at a mountain biking event, its technical and you cannot always leave go the handle bars to reach down to feed yourself as u will come off for sure. So feed are very infrequent. But if you are using a slower release carb that releases constantly but over a longer period of time, then the feeding is less frequent but you are getting your sustainability, it makes it a lot easier. We dont just target the athletes and say use our product, they try it, test, and then come to us and say we like it, there is no emotional roller coaster ride, no up and down a good level of stability. Just as an example, I raced 94.7 a few years ago on water alone, 2h21 finished with the VA bunch, actually tried to break away at heart break hill for the win, and they caught me 400m before the line, but my point is i was only using water and that was very high intensity racing. I just had an excellent pre-race meal. Dr Asker Jeukendrup a leading sportscientist did some testing on athletes over a 3hour period giving some energy drink to swallow and the other part of the group he only let them swig it in their mouth and then they had to spit it out without swallowing. Both groups reached the same performance level there was no advantage to the group that drank the drink and swallowed. Food for thought, that the brain plays an extremely crucial role in performance. I still believe sports science is 20 years behind in nutrition, we only know of replacing lost calories and taking in a certain amount of carbs an hour etc, but we have not even scratched the surface of where exactly we should be, the biggest problem with us humans is the need to use sugar ;-). We are releasing a new product into the market very soon, In think this will be the answer to high intensity requirements, its a very different take, but so far testing with over 30 professional athletes has shown this to be an extremely functional drink for high intensity racing, will keep u posted. all the best M

Jaco, my personal opinion on how many grams of carbs is the following: Its impossible to replace lost calories in an edurance event, but just be replacing a little bit your body can still be very efficient and perform. I dont agree with taking in 100grams of carbs that would bloat me terribly before and event, and it depends on how u r taking the carbs in and what type of carbs, for example a serving of 32Gi in a 750ml bottle of water, would bloat me too much. I go with 25grams in 230ml's of water instead, and 2 slices of low GI toast for breakfast with a bit of jam, if the race is soon after my morning intake then its ok to just sip on a little drink and or maybe nibble on something light. If its many hours afterwards well then you will need to snack on some more carbs to keep your levels topped up. BUT, lets look at South African reality. I am on the hub, so cycling is the focus, lets take it as we see it. Whats the average time of a cycle race in this country, 2.5 - 4hrs, most of the decent athletes are doing around 3 or so hours for events. So first off, what are your glycogen levels for an event. They should be full, and that all comes down to natural daily eating, ensuring frequent healthy meals, plenty of fruit and veg, and recovery meals after training session to restore glycogen. At top up your body can store around 500grams of glycogen which is existent in water of course, so a little more weight, but this should give you 90min - 2hours of energy, and just hydrating yourself and assist in good usage. So now take in a pre race meal, 2 slices of toast add another 60minutes of energy, plus and energy drink? So I think overloading on carbs leads more to discomfort than necessity. I have raced 94.7 on 2 bottles of water, finished in 2h21 and felt strong to the finish. My method, decent pre race meal, and the week before decent eating. I did it to prove to some colleagues that if your body is efficient at utilising its own natural stores ie: fat, glycogen, protein, then you dont need to go mad on carb feeding. If I go 3 hours, then YES, additional carbs required and I take in calorie not carb weight as a measurement so I will look to around 200-250calories per an hour in an ironman event, I use chews to keep my topped up, of course I am burning more than 250 an hour but direct replacement is not possible, fat store tapping is, and its an amazing fuel if you tap into it consistently. Bottom line, how many grams of carbs you require I think is not necessary, look more at the type of event you are doing, stick to the basics, and look at calories you are taking in per an hour to assist with energy balance. later ME

Jaco, stay tuned for our new product on the verge of launch its going to be big :-)

You don't want to stop lactic acid buildup, its a myth actually, latest research shows it improves performance ;-)

Just to be clear here all: Build up of course is important for an endurance event, but there are some really key factors you need to understand: 1. What kind of training have you done for the City to City, whats your longest runs, if you tell me 21 then I will say why are you bothering to run it, you are definitely not prepared for a distance like this. So hopefully your training has been on track. 2. The week before an event like this, coffee, sugars etc should be avoided, stick to healthy fruits and vegetables, complex carbs, lean proteins, such as egg, chicken and fish. Hydrate daily 3. Carbo loading can be started 2-3 days before with taking in a carbo drink such as 32Gi but only 2 bottles a day 2 days before should be sufficient. 4. DO NOT over eat, its not necessary, eat small meals, digestive comfort is critical. Your carbo meal should be lunch time the day before the race, not so much at dinner, at dinner you have a light mixed meal so you can get a good nights sleep, over eating will cause u discomfort a bad sleep and really u dont want that. 5. Morning of the race, eat a good low GI meal, such as 2 slices of low GI toast with jam, oats, future life, pronutro etc. Avoid milk products, avoid caffeine and stick to easily digisitible stuff. 6. On the way to the race yes u can sip on 32Gi, but I dont like to fill my bladder everyone is unique, so I eat the 32Gi chews well nibble on them to keep my energy levels topped up. 7. Relax and enjoy the race, and start off slow, dont get caught up in out pacing yourself, run like you train. later M

Whatever you do, please do not increase the sodium intake the day before, excess sodium can lead to organ failure, u need to be really careful. Cramping is not caused from nutrition very rarely is it, cramping is caused by not training sufficiently for the event at the desired pace. all the best M