Not wanting to swallow another four large pills each day (I’m not very good at it,) I decided to try a liquid fish oil. I’m used to bad-tasting supplements, so I wasn’t even concerned about the taste.

I chose Carlson’s Very Finest Fish Oil in the lemon flavor, which won a “Superior Taste Award” in 2005, and typically earns a 5-star rating from user reviews, so that eased my mind. It has to taste good, right?

So I ordered some from the Vitamin Shoppe since they were having a sale (about $22 instead of $48.) The fish oil came in a dark glass bottle, wrapped neatly in bubble wrap.

I thought this might end up being my #1 fish oil choice thanks to the quality ingredients.

I mean, this is the real deal fish oil. Unlike Barlean’s Omega Swirl, there are no fancy ingredients or sweeteners – just good old Omega 3 fatty acids. Lots of them, too.

This Very Finest Fish Oil provides 800mg EPA and 500mg DHA in one single teaspoon. With 40 calories per serving, that’s a bit more than the Super Omega 3 pills, but manageable.

Unfortunately, this stuff tastes like fish oil! It’s not like it tastes like rancid fish, but it’s not good.

The texture is odd, too. It’s definitely not smooth like olive oil.

Worse still, the aftertaste. It’s not pleasant. To make things worse, the aftertaste likes to stick around. It’s like the fish oil residue sticks around in your mouth, forever coating your taste buds. It’s just plain bad.

I took this oil plain for two days and then decided that was enough!

I took three days off from it, then tried again. This time I put some fish oil in a shot glass, added some good tasting olive oil, and topped it off with some grape juice (since that was the only flavorful liquid I could find.)

It was still terrible!! I can’t describe it, but swallowing fish oil is totally different from swallowing something like olive oil. The taste and texture are way different, and unfortunately, terrible. I had a handful of peanuts as a “chaser” but that still did not get rid of the aftertaste!

Later in the day, I experienced my first ever “fish burp.” It’s like a regular burp, but then the feel of fish oil returns to your throat!

After that I said, “no more.”

I gave the bottle to a friend who had tried liquid fish oil before, but a cheaper brand. He said this Carlson oil was clearly better tasting, but still left that weird oily aftertaste in his mouth.

So I do believe this could be one of the best tasting plain fish oils around. (I say “plain” because if you include Omega Swirl in the rankings, nothing else will even come close.)

But still, fish oil is something best taken in capsule form.

My final verdict is…

This is a good quality fish oil with lots of Omega-3 fatty acids in one serving. If you want to take fish oil in liquid form, this is certainly one of the healthiest options (and supposedly one of the best tasting.)

But actual fish oil grosses me out like crazy, so I’m sticking with the gel capsules, like the Carlson Super Omega 3 and Recoup|90.

Official website: www.CarlsonLabs.com

Buy online: www.VitaCost.com | www.VitaminShoppe.com

If you’re not familiar with the Under Armour clothing line, the real core of their offerings is the compression-fit clothing. This compression fit is supposed to maximize performance since it bolsters muscle support and accelerates moisture transfer.

The brand may resonate a bit more with football players, but that doesn’t mean cyclists can’t get in on the action. I was looking for a good base layer for running and biking, so I decided to get a short sleeve t-shirt from Under Armour’s Heat Gear lineup.

The shirt in question is from mid-2008, and it has the same compression fit as the original, but was “updated with a new ergonomic fit and Anti-Odor HeatGear® fabric.”

I was actually looking at Under Armour shirts for years, but they were so expensive ($35 for a t-shirt,) I never bought one. When I finally went to get one in the store, my size was out of stock!

So I go to UnderArmour.com to find more info, and you can shop online, so I just went into the catalog. There’s my shirt for $24.99 – good thing I found this!

Worried about shipping charges? Have no fear! If you check retailmenot.com, you can probably find a coupon for free shipping. And once you’re a customer, they’ll send you current coupon codes, so you never have to pay for shipping and handling!

Let’s look at the shirt now…

Price

As mentioned, these aren’t cheap. But at $25 at their website, it’s not outrageous – most other performance base layers are the same price or more.

For someone that works out in the gym a few times per week, an old cotton t-shirt would be fine. But when you spend hours each day out in the hot sun, a $25 performance shirt is a good value.

Comfort

My first impression was that this shirt was awesome and worth every penny. It was nice and tight, and the compression felt great on my muscles. Size small seemed just about right for me, although it does take some effort to slip it on. (I wear size small bike jerseys and they fit fine.)

I have one complaint though – the seams. They don’t bother me on the sides, but the seam that goes under my armpit digs in. It’s not too uncomfortable for short time periods, and it’s fine for cycling since your arms don’t move much, but I wouldn’t want to run in it. I bet it would chafe me pretty bad.

Actually, I went running in it once to see. That seam was awful! It cuts into my skin, then scrapes back and forth, leaving my armpits sore for days!

Doing it over again, I’d get a size Medium to see if that helped. (But a loose fit Under Armour shirt in size small fits me fine.)

Durability

I’ve used this shirt for about a year and used it mainly as a cycling undershirt, but I’ve also worn it for some workouts. It still looks good as new, with no snags or any serious damage. However, across the back ( the shoulder blade area that supports the bar when I do squats,) it’s getting fuzzy from the abrasion of weight bars.

So durability should be good when not exposed to rough surfaces. If you’re just wearing it and washing it, it seems to be durable enough for years of use.

Style/Fashion

This is one of those shirts that looks good if you are big with chiseled muscles. If you’re a cyclist like me, you probably don’t want to be seen in this without something over top of it!

(But you can see me wearing it while demonstrating exercises such as the bird dog.)

Performance

The only reason to spend money on one of these shirts is for performance, so it better deliver! It does.

It does a very good job keeping me cool and wicking sweat away. It’s great for hot weather, but I also found it to be the perfect shirt to wear while indoor training on a trainer or rollers. It’s possibly cooler than going shirtless.

Also, the shirt boasts a UPF 30+ rating (stands for Ultraviolet Protection Factor,) which means it blocks 97% of the sun’s UV radiation.

My final verdict is…

Under Armour makes a very cool product; I like the compression fit. However, make sure you get the right size. (In this case, the right size is the one that doesn’t chafe due to rough seams!)

After the problem with the seams I would recommend you look at Zensah and SteelStretch compression shirts instead. I haven’t tried a Zensah yet, but I think the SteelStretch shirt is 100 times better than an UnderArmour compression shirt!

However, since I bought this one, I’ll still be wearing it as a base layer for bike rides and races on hot days.

Official website: www.UnderArmour.com (HeatGear Full T, new)

As soon as you pin down your fueling strategy, it seems like there’s a new revolution in sports drinks and/or energy bars. Ingredients and styles are always changing, or in the case of Nuun Active Hydration Tablets, you have all sorts of innovations.

Nuun is a sort of electrolyte-enhanced beverage, but instead of coming in powder form, in comes in tablets. That makes it super convenient. You just drop a tablet into your water bottle and you’re good to go.

You can find tubes of Nuun for around $6, and you get 12 tablets in each tube. Each tablet treats 16-24oz water, so that’s easy to figure out – one tablet per water bottle.

You can also get Bigger NUUN, where one tablet treats 32oz (1 liter) water. These are made for use in hydration packs. (Note: breaking these in half sucks, so don’t bother using them in anything smaller than a 32oz bottle or your hydration pack.)

Nuun is sugar-free and contains virtually no calories. This is so you can separate calorie intake from your hydration needs.

I always preferred the “get lots of calories and electrolytes from one water bottle” plan, to keep things simple. So I’m more of an Accelerade or Hammer Perpetuem kind of guy, in theory. But I understand their reasoning, and in practice, Nuun looks very promising…

Nuun Nutrition and Ingredients

Per original Nuun tablet (which treats one 16oz water bottle):

Sodium 360mg
Potassium 100mg
Calcium 12.5mg
Magnesium 24mg

That’s a good dose of electrolytes. Most sports drinks only contain sodium and potassium, and they contain less than Nuun does. Very few contain calcium and magnesium (which are less important, but potentially helpful.)

My favorite part is that they contain no artificial flavors or colors! The color actually comes from beets and B vitamins. There is no sugar (great for your teeth,) and Nuun is non-carbonated (good in all sorts of ways.)

One other ingredient (the second ingredient) is sorbitol, a sugar alcohol. It looks healthy enough. I doubt it’s any worse than sucrose.

All around, a seemingly healthy mix… Until you get to the end of the ingredients list.

Due to the sorbitol content, I figured Nuun was free of artificial sweeteners. But once I scrutinized the ingredients list, I saw that Nuun contains acesulfame potassium, which is one of many artificial sweeteners I try to avoid.

I stocked up on a year supply of Nuun before noticing that. I’ll use what I have since it tastes good, and I’ll probably buy more, but I will definitely use Nuun in moderation.

I still like Nuun, and my positive recommendation for Nuun comes from relative danger. See, it’s possible that artificial sweeteners could cause cancer someday in the future if you ingest large amounts (but what isn’t linked to cancer these days?)*

But… if you run low on electrolytes and end up with hyponatremia, you could die instantly. The point here is, if you need Nuun rather than plain water, take it.

*Acesulfame potassium has been around a while, and I’ve never seen it garner the negative press that aspartame does. However, I haven’t found any evidence that it’s safe, either.

Mixing Nuun

The instructions say “drop into water bottle, wait 2 minutes, viola.”

And they’re right. The good news is, not only is there no manual labor, you don’t even have to wait for anything. Just drop it in and go. By the time you’re on your bike and ready for a sip, it will have mixed up already.

This is definitely the easiest drink to mix. It’s even easier than Emergen-C since there’s no powder dust to pour.

Also, Nuun leaves no residue. It cleans up just like water. And it’s even supposed to be hydration pack friendly. So far, I’ve had no problems with it causing any mold build-up in my Deuter hydration pack.

Nuun is just so easy to mix, I can’t help but use it all the time.

[If you look at the picture to the right, you can see the actual Nuun tablet. It's the dark pink spot at the bottom of the glass, and it's fizzing away.]

Nuun Taste Test

Nuun comes in many different flavors, and I have tried a few of them…

Tri-Berry: I chose Tri-Berry to start with because I love Tri-Berry GU gel.

The Tri-Berry Nuun turned out to be very good. It’s a natural berry flavor, so it’s sort of tart, but plenty sweet enough to drink. It’s just plain good.

Lemon+Lime: This lemon lime flavor is similar to a lemon lime soda pop, but not as strong nor as sweet. It’s a very light flavor, which was almost too light for my tastes when I’m not exercising. However, the taste is perfect during intense exercise in hot weather. It’s plenty strong then, but not too strong.

Banana: BananaNuun is a relatively new flavor, and it got me excited.

But it turned out to be “alright.” It’s a light banana flavor, but sort of artificial. It just didn’t hit me as banana. It wasn’t too artificial, but it wasn’t realistic like the banana GU gel used to be.

It got better each time I tried it, but I was hoping for something stronger or more realistic. Something more like banana Runts candy would have been good, too!

It certainly wasn’t a bad flavor, but it wasn’t good enough to get me to buy any more.

After trying these three flavors, I got the feeling that Tri-Berry was the only one I’d really like. And since Tri-Berry is awesome, that was fine with me.

But luckily, my friend on a Nuun-sponsored race team gave me a sample of Orange Ginger…

Orange Ginger: I was not too enthused about a ginger-flavored drink while riding, but the label says it’s “just a hint” of ginger. (I had had an orange ginger drink in the past, and it was way too strong in the ginger department.)

This turned out to be awesome! It has a great orange taste, like orange Gatorade but less sweet. And the hint of ginger is kind of like a hint of ginger ale. It’s a pleasant taste overall, with the majority of the flavor coming from the orange, but just enough ginger to make it special.

Other NUUN flavors include Citrus Fruit and Kona Cola.

Nuun’s texture is a bit odd because it starts out like a carbonated drink. It’s just slightly fizzy, but fizzy enough that you notice it. After an hour of riding, the fizz settled down to a nice level where it was just barely noticeable, which I liked.

And while the fizz was a bit odd the first couple rides, I got to liking it. I actually missed the fizz when I switched back to my regular Powerbar Endurance drink!

When To Use Nuun

Nuun could actually be the best option out there for one hour workouts. In that short time, you don’t really need calories, but I prefer the flavor of Nuun plus the electrolyte content in place of plain water. Sure, a single short workout shouldn’t get you dehydrated or cause hyponatremia, but one workout amongst many longer days is no time to slack off.

I will also use this as a tasty Endurolyte replacement. Not necessarily drinking Nuun during rides, but in the evening before or after a super hot ride or race. That would be one way to replenish electrolytes without taking in needless calories.

On another topic…

Nuun’s tubes are recyclable, so Nuun recommends you do just that. It’s good to see their commitment to environment.

My final verdict is…

Nuun is awesome. It has a great taste, it gives me electrolytes, and it’s easy to use. Other sports drinks still have their place in my diet (like Hammer Perpetuem for long rides,) but Nuun is something I’ll stick with.

Nuun is now very close to the top of my favorite in-ride drinks. If they could somehow ditch the artificial sweetener acesulfame K or replace it with something better, I’d be even happier.

Official website: www.nuun.com

Buy online: www.REI.com | www.JensonUSA.com

When I’m looking at supplements, I try to find the purest ones, because vitamins and supplements are actually the most artificial, processed foods in my diet. So I’d normally look at pure fish oils, but when I saw the Barlean’s Omega Swirl on sale, I couldn’t resist.

(Retail price is $26.35 or a 16oz bottle, which is 47 servings. I think I paid about $18.)

What this is, is like a fish oil smoothie. It has a good dose of fish oil, but with some additives to make it actually taste good. (If you’ve ever taken straight fish oil liquid, you know that “good taste” and “fish oil” don’t usually go together.)

I just had to try it out of curiosity…

Barlean’s Omega Swirl Health and Nutrition

Omega Swirl is a combination of cod liver oil and other stuff mixed in to give it a “smoothie” texture and the “lemon zest” flavor.

Per serving values are as follows:

Omega-3: 985mg (365mg EPA and 365mg DHA, 255mg other)
Omega-6: 320mg
Omega-9: 970mg

That’s a pretty good amount of Omega-3 per serving, considering most regular pills and liquids are about 200-600mg Omega-3 per serving.

Unfortunately, you’re also consuming some Omega-6 fatty acids (which are usually considering pro-inflammatory, so you don’t want to go overboard with them.) But that’s really not that bad because you’re still getting a net of 665mg Omega-3.

I’m neutral on the Omega-9 because I have no problem with them, but probably don’t need more than I already get.

Note: You probably have plenty of Omega-6 in your diet already. It’s found in healthy foods like nuts and seeds, as well as virtually all processed foods and fast food. Omega-9 is also found in nuts, and is plentiful in olive oil, which you should be getting every day. In contrast, Omega-3 is harder to come by, typically found only in cold-water fish and the foods in their diet. Hence the importance of supplementing just Omega-3.

Other ingredients include Vitamin A and Vitamin C. One thing to mention is that this is sweetened with xylitol, a low-calorie sugar substitute. Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol, so it’s not risky like artificial sweeteners; some studies even show dental health benefits from xylitol.

This adds up to 45 calories per serving, which is more than you’d get with pills, but it’s a small price to pay for the Omega-3 health benefits.

Since I mentioned faster recovery times in my other fish oil reviews, I should mention it here: I’ve been taking fish oil for a while and I didn’t notice better recovery when using this specific product. Likewise, I didn’t notice a huge drop in recovery ability.

So if you don’t regularly take fish oil, you might feel better in an overall healthy sense, as well as notice that you recover from exercise quicker than usual. But you never know.

Barlean’s Omega Swirl Taste Test

If cheaper brands of fish oil have scared you off, you’ll really have to trust me here – this stuff tastes great!! The lemon-flavored fish oil actually tastes like lemon meringue pie.

It does leave a light aftertaste, but it’s a lemon aftertaste, rather than a fishy aftertaste. And there is no weird oily residue left in your mouth and throat.

The texture is thick, like an oily smoothie. It doesn’t just dump out onto the your teaspoon; you squeeze it out, so you don’t have to worry about spilling it.

Again, it’s WAY WAY better tasting than other fish oils that are plain. I normally take the pills, but I did try the liquid before, and I was not pleased! Even the Carlson Very Finest Fish Oil, which is supposed to be the best-tasting fish oil, tastes putrid compared to Barlean’s Omega Swirl.

My final verdict is…

While Recoup|90 is the most pure form of Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil (it’s pharmaceutical grade) and what I’d recommend for elite athletes, and any brand of softgel pills are typically healthier than a flavored, sweetened liquid, this Barlean’s Omega Swirl seems pretty good.

It should provide enough Omega-3 for recreational athletes (or elite athletes, if you double the serving size,) so if you don’t swallow pills and can’t stand the taste of plain fish oil, Omega Swirl is a tasty way to take fish oil.

Official website: www.Barleans.com

Buy online: www.VitaminShoppe.com | www.VitaCost.com

I started out mountain bike racing in west/central PA around July 2002, but it has taken me many years to actually find the little local races in the area. One of them, the Dash for Cash in Sarver, PA (northeast of Pittsburgh,) has been around for years, but I never did this race till June 6, 2009.

I was talking to local racer Shane Gouldthread the week before the race, and he mentioned how cool it was – unreal climbs, bomb singletrack, etc. Plus a huge pig roast and party afterward. So I signed-up.

The race description said something about “lung busting climbs” and “gnarly descents,” but virtually all races make those claims in order to attract riders, so I took it with a grain of salt (even after my 18-month layoff from mountain biking.)

I figured the ITT format (i.e. mountain bike time trial) would make for an awesome race without worrying about huge bottlenecks going into the singletrack, plus it would give me a chance to have a little more fun on the obstacles without pressure.

[[Fast forward to the race >>]]

This is one wicked race! I don’t have much in the way of a race report, but after that race, I had to write a little something about the course itself. The course description is actually putting it lightly! This is unreal singletrack!

The course starts with a quick ride down the pavement, down a dirt road, into a hay field, then into the singletrack. It starts out with fairly fun, technical singletrack. It’s real twisty with plenty of rock gardens and logs. Then you head through another hay field, then the real technical stuff starts.

It’s hard to believe you could find this stuff on an XC race course. I’ve raced the Michaux races (Carlisle, PA) multiple times, and there is serious rough stuff there, but this Dash for Cash course is way more technical than that!

As the promoter says, it’s “100% rideable,” but that’s easier said than done. Especially in a race situation where you’re going too fast at obstacles you’ve never seen, and possibly delirious from the monster climb you just completed.

The toughest part is that there’s not much space between obstacles, you if you dab on one obstacle, you probably have to walk/run through another 3-5 obstacles before you can get back on your bike. It’s tough stuff!

Example: You’ll come through a tight corner with very little momentum, then you’re faced with a rock the height of your front wheel. Next corner, a pile of big, loose rocks that requires both muscle and finesse to conquer.

Get through that and you get to a super-steep downhill with lots of mud and loose rock, with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. (That was one of the scariest downhills I’ve done in an XC race.)

Somewhere in there you also have a section of rocky trail cut into the side of a hill, which is probably 18″ wide, with a nice drop off on your right side!

If you make it through that, eventually you hit the stream crossing. Spoiler alert: It’s not rideable! The moving water is at least knee-deep, and the stream bed is big, loose rock. Just walking through it was dangerous – I almost twisted my ankle twice where my foot slipped and wedged between big rocks.

After trudging through the stream, you get the joy of a huge dirt road climb. After that, things went a little hazy.

But I do remember a few more hill climbs, which are probably half a mile or a mile long and pretty steep.

Plus, a couple more descents that were quite steep, but much more fun than the first one. These descents let you keep some good speed because they’re slightly smoother and are more open at the bottom. The danger comes from the width of the trail. It has to be under 12″ wide, and the sides are higher than the trail; it’s easy to catch your pedals on trailside rocks and roots if you’re not careful.

Then there’s fun stuff like smaller creek crossings that are rideable, some more cool singletrack, as well as a jaunt across a golf course. You actually ride on the golf course, but watch out – there are golf carts everywhere trying to take you down!

Somewhere in there, there’s a really long tunnel. Hopefully you’re not claustrophobic, because it’s narrow, and pitch black. Plus the cement bottom is slippery due to the moss and other slime. (At least it’s not rocky like the tunnel in the Peanut Butter Festival race that’s just down the road from here.)

Throw in some more rocky singletrack, blind corners, big log pyramids, narrow wood bridges, and other obstacles I can’t really describe, and you have a beautiful 14 mile course. (The 19 mile expert course takes you back over 5 more miles of technical singletrack before heading up a big paved climb to the finish.)

Did that scare you off? Or get you even more excited?

Don’t get me wrong – this is probably the most fun course you could ask for in a joy ride. So much cool stuff. Trying to actually “race” the course takes the fun out of it though (at least when it’s the first time you’ve ridden it.)

So definitely check it out if you can. I don’t think you get much for winning (it’s more of a charity thing,) so just go and have fun!

Speaking of fun, did I mention it’s at a farm and has a great atmosphere? Live music and a HUGE post-race barbecue. Tons of meat, tables full of fruit and snacks, kegs of beer, a Red Bull tent, live music, etc.

It’s actually like a shorter version of the VisitPA.com Marysville Stage Race and Festival Weekend.

Find out more at the Dash for Cash page at the American Adventure Sports website.

P.S. There is also a 14 mile trail run on the course that starts about an hour before the bike race. If you have a buddy who runs, bring them too. But I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to run on a course like this!

P.P.S. I wish I had pictures of the obstacles, but I don’t. Luckily a blogger named David took some pics and video and has more useful info in a blog post about the Dash for Cash pre-ride. Those are the only published pictures I’ve seen of the course, so study them.

P.P.P.S. Shout out to the Steelers and Penguins, making Pittsburgh the Super Bowl and Stanley Cup champs this season!!