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Hi,
I put together some great stories from this past week, from the wild fueling stories behind Cam Wurf and Taylor Knibb’s record-breaking IRONMAN bike splits, to my take on how high-carb drink mixes can actually be your most economical fueling strategy and we did it, the Mango secret gel made for Tadej is back in stock.
🔥 Breaking News: 200g of Carbs Per Hour
Last weekend at IRONMAN Texas- Cam Wurf and Taylor Knibb both set the fastest bike times ever in a full IRONMAN race.
Cam revealed he consumed over 200g of carbs per hour during the race. Not a typo—TWO HUNDRED grams. He was adamant this made all the difference on the bike. I'm not suggesting you should jump to 200g per hour, but the correlation between fuel and speed is undeniable.
🚴 Cam's Insider Strategy (He Said I Could Share This)
"The first thing is finding the gels and fuel that works for YOU," Cam told me. "Every gel works a bit different and the only science that matters is which one works best for your body."
After ordering a huge box of with over 25 gels from different brands , Cam landed primarily on Amacx gels and the Powerbar original gel, as they worked best for him. While this sounds like a sound bite that I wrote to talk about why we sell single servings, it swear these were his exact words.
His race-day approach was a bit of genius and frankly a bit crazy:
- Kept hydration in most bottles (using Mortal for extra sodium)
- Filled his aero bottle with 21 Amacx gels (that's 630g of carbs in one bottle), more Powerbar gels in his pocket.
- Had zero stomach issues (actually felt hungry on the run)
- Maintained 180g per hour during the run using another bottle of gels and Amacx Turbo drink mix in Watermelon
I you want to try out fueling with the same products as Cam, but not the same quantity, I put together his fueling pack of exactly the products he used for only $28.
💰 The Economics of Carbs (Smart Fueling = Big Savings)
Since we are talking about a massive amount of carbs, that can be expensive for us mere mortals not getting free gels. I've been adding up the cost of different workouts and the biggest economic saving is to make a high-carb drink mixes as your foundation, then add gels strategically, maybe only one or two per hour. Try this, start your workout off with a quick pre-workout gel and then switch to high-carb drink mixes for most your workout, maybe adding another gel every 60 minutes. The cost per gram of carb is about half as much.
My current high-carb drink rotation:
- Victus During: Hydration-like experience with 40g of carbs that's incredibly easy to drink. I used this on my ride yesterday and always think to myself how much I love it (It's also 40% off right now)
- Amacx Turbo: The watermelon flavor is legitimately amazing (also 40g carbs) and what Cam used during his Ironman last weekend. He said he loved it.
- Maurten Drink: The neutral flavor many pros prefer. I use 160 for shorter workouts and 320 for longer ones. We now have the new 2.0 mix that dissolves way better especially with the 320, but since we are talking cost savings, I have an little secret, you can still get the original at 33% off on our Hot Deals page (but only from Hot Deals).
🔄 Recovery Game-Changer: Post-Workout Carbs in a Bar.
Confession: I've been terrible at taking carbs for recovery. After finishing a workout drenched in sweat, I might grab a protein shake, but I'd be so saturated with carbs I couldn't stomach anymore.
Huge mistake. This leads to me binge eating later and consuming way more than I should. These past couple weeks, I've been using two high-carb recovery "bars" post-workout, and the difference is remarkable. First a bar is really convenient versus having to make a shake. Second I just snack on them over say 30 minutes to an hour at my desk and they are delicious.
My go-tos:
- Styrkr Bar50 (all carbs) and Bar+ (carbs + 15g protein): Delicious rice krispy style treats
- Maurten Solid: More of an oat bar if rice krispies aren't your thing
🧪 More Stuff I'm Using This Week
- NAD+: Last week's featured supplement was a huge hit and we had tons of our over 40 Athletes (myself included) getting the Quicksilver NAD+ Gold (liquid) to start increasing their NAD+ levels. As background your natural NAD+ levels decline by almost 50% by the time you are 40, and NAD+ is critical for producing energy.
- Tadej's Secret Gel: If you missed the story about my last trip to Enervit and I saw they had this silver packaging unbranded Gel and when asked what it was all about, I was told it was just for Tadej. After persistent begging I got some for us, well we sold out of 20K gels in just two weeks. But I was able to get more of his Mango gel that everyone is loving. They're now in the traditional Enervit wrapper but contain the same magical Mango gel that evidently will make you a World Champion. I've been using it, and it is really good.
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Hydration Try out Pack: Looking for your next favorite hydration? One of the top selling products this past week was the new Hydration Try out Pack that saves you 20% (in Feed Credit), comes with a free bottle, and 12 servings of hydration from brands like SIS, Tailwind, Skratch, Rejoy, Magna, and Ucan for your to find your next favorite.
And don't forget—thanks to you all supporting the team at The Feed, I'm able to keep shipping Free all month of May!
- Matt
Founder
The Feed.
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