This is my next instalment on product reviews about some of my equipment and bits of kit that I use for own personal training and racing. This may also include some recipe books, bikes, accessories, clothing, or anything else that I wish to rave about. These items will be 100% genuine reviews on my purchases, or I will state otherwise if they are sponsored or gifted. I will also try to keep them to a 5 minute read, or as my friend says, long enough to read on his phone whilst he attends to nature.
Today's product is mountain Fuel Peak performance nutrition.
First of all I will highlight that I am an ambassador for this brand. However, this is not going to be a biased product review based on that fact, the reason I am an ambassador is quite simply because I believe in the product, because I perform well on the products, and more importantly, the products agree with my body, hence why I turned down turn free products, and chose to pay for these.
For those people that have not followed my triathlon career, you will not know that I have been fortunate enough to have been sponsored by other sports nutrition companies. Also, the reason I got into triathlon was to combat an underlying gastroenteritis condition called Barratts disease. Barrett's oesophagus is a complication of chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and if not treated, it can lead to oesophageal cancer, so you can understand why specific nutrition is important to me.
Historically, most sports nutrition does not agree with my condition. I have found that the synthetic bars, drinks and gels cause acid reflux which resulted in chest pains and shortness of breath due to me wanting to bring up wind. I especially had to be really carful with sports gels, in particular the non-water based products.
Over the last few years I was sponsored by a company who supplied British cycling with their nutrition. One Olympian in particular had gastrointestinal issues so a hydro based product was designed purposefully for him, and I also got on really well with that product. However, this branch of the business was closed so I needed to find something to replace it. Without naming any brands, we all know some of the market leaders, and I quite simply cannot get on with their products.
Straight away I started researching on different products to try, based on product reviews and social media. I am also an avid listener to podcasts and one show hosted one of the Mountain Fuel Directors and straight away I knew this was a product worth trying as everything he said hit home so I ordered some sample bundles from Mountain Fuel that very day. The bundles come with a selection of the full fuelling system which includes pre, during, and post drink powders, and also bars, and gels.
My first impression of the products was that they mixed really well, and to me this needs to be just as important as my stomach accepting the product itself. We all in some form or another pre mix the drinks before training or racing, and there is nothing worse than the product not dissolving properly and settling in the bottom of the bottle or hydration sack. My triathlon bike in particular has an out front integrated aero bottle, so once the fluid goes into it, it cannot be taken off and shaken up again. So if you were to imagine a triathlon situation where I set up my bike in transition, depending on the distance of the event, I could be up to 2 hours before I return to my bike. Then lets imagine I get on that bike, I get settled into my aero position, I take a sip of drink and all the split nutrition comes up the straw in a thick sludge. I then end up consuming all of it in the first 10 minutes, and end up drinking water for the remainder of the ride. Before you know it, your nutrition strategy is ruined because the calories have not been distributed across the time on the bike, not to mention the mouth full of nasty sludge.
Next, the gels are not actually gels, they are actually called sports jellies.
These are not jelly blocks, they are like a liquid jelly. Our unique formula encapsulates the carbohydrate in a natural hydrogel enabling it to pass smoothly through your stomach to deliver sustained energy without the gut bombs that can be associated with traditional sports gels.
To explain the gels more, they do come in a traditional gel style packaging. They are more viscous than a gel, but they are not all sticky and sweet. In fact, they are really subtle in taste, and they don't make you gag when they go down, or make you feel sick when they hit the gut.
One thing I started to do a few years ago was to actually squeeze out my gels into a small down-tube aero bottle. This actually serves a few purposes and I will explain why:
If I am in a long distance triathlon I will need quite a number of gels, this takes up valuable storage on the bike or on the body where I also need bars and emergency puncture equipment.
It allows me to stay in the aero position on the bike where I can just reach down, grab the bottle, fill my mouth with what I believe to be one servings worth, then put the bottle back.
This saves me from thumbing around a top-tube bento box, taping on the gels, or having to rummage around in my back pocket.
This also saves me the risk of carrying out potential litter on the course that can easily be dropped that will not only give triathletes a bad name, but also save me from an accidental disqualification.
This also saves me the risk of ripping open a gel wrapper with my teeth and the gel spraying all over my hands and face whilst travelling at high speeds then having to spend the remainder of the bike glued to my handlebars.
The energy bars are my favourite product up to now. They are a flapjack based energy bar and they are so easy to consume on the go. Unfortunately I broke my nose a few years ago and I could do with a septoplasty operation but until then you can imagine its difficult to breath through my nose at the best of times, let alone whilst chewing on things whilst under exertion. But without sounding like a hypochondriac with all my ailments, these bars are so easily to chew and swallow unlike other more synthetic bars that seem to exercise the jaw. The double ginger in particular is my favourite, and if I am honest, I even eat them as a snack with a brew in the afternoon.
This is not your usual bar or flapjack, this bar you can actually eat on the go, it’s light but energy dense and very easy on the stomach and delivers hours of energy. These are what that elite racers actually buy to train and race with. No fancy claims, just proven results.
Although there are other fantastic products, I wanted to make this a five minute read so I will close with the recovery shake. Unlike body builders taking protein for muscle synthesis, endurance athletes require carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores. Personally, I really like the chocolate shake, and again it mixes really well and I can tell if I haven't had it if I am doing back to back heavy days.
Finally, my confidence in these products was finally cemented when one of my lockdown goals was to try and get a sub 5 hour, 180km Ironman bike split. For the session, I consumed three bottles of the energy drink and one bottle of water, two energy bars, and four gels. I completed the challenge in 4:47 and then even had the energy to push on to make up to 200km just for the hell of it.
If you wish to check out more information on Mountain Fuel products, then please click on the logo at the bottom,
Also, the director has also allowed me to share a cheeky product code HUMBERS15 for a 15% discount.
yours in health,
Coach Craig.
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