High-Calorie Energy Drinks For Long Rides and Endurance Races

Energy bars are no good for a mountain bike race. Riding no-hands is a luxury that mountain bikers rarely enjoy, especially during a typical race. That leaves gels and sports drinks. I’ve been using gels, and they’re nice, but I mean, you’re paying $1 for a sugar packet!

I’ve stuck with Gatorade as far as drinks go, nothing else has appealed to me (especially the PowerBar drink…) Anyway, Gatorade is good, but 100 calories per bottle won’t get me through a 3 hour race…

So here’s what I need: a sports drink that will give me about 200-300 calories per bottle. I’ll be using this for typical 2-3 hour races, along with a few 6, 8, and 12 hour events.

My choices right now:

Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem

It’s 260 calories per serving. That’s quite a bit!

Also, Hammer Sustained Energy may be good, as I have heard good things about it. I think it comes flavorless, so I don’t have to worry about about a crappy taste.

Accelerade is like 200 calories per bottle… maybe just right! I could skip the GUs. And get some protein.

Or, what is probably most economical, just buy tubs of maltodextrin powder. This is what I really want to test. I can mix it into Gatorade and have a good tasting, high calorie energy drink.

This might be best for the normal races, and I’ll try the protein-containing drinks for the 6+ hour events.

One place you can get this is:

http://www.herbalremedies.com/carpowenspor.html

If you have any suggestions, please comment below. I’d love to know what works for you!

Stay tuned for my test results…