My Bad Experience with Hammer Perpetuem

Perpetuem "The world's finest endurance fuel"- or is it?
In my search for optimal ultramarathon nutrition strategies I came across a product made by Hammer Nutrition called Perpetuem. On face value it seemed like the perfect supplement for ultra endurance events and could even be used as the primary fuel source. Here is some info from the website about the different ways it can be mixed up.

• The One-Hour Bottle - Mix the suggested amount of Perpetuem for your bodyweight in a 21-24 ounce (approx 520-710 ml) water bottle. Consume one bottle hourly.

• The Multi-Hour Bottle - Let's say you've determined through testing that 2 scoops of Perpetuem per hour is your ideal caloric intake. For a 4-hour workout, you'll need 8 scoops in a bottle, then filled with water and shaken well. You then nurse this bottle, taking small sips every 15-20 minutes. At this concentration, the water in the mixed bottle does not contribute much at all to your hourly fluid intake needs. To meet your fluid requirements, you carry a second and possibly even a third bottle of plain water, or use a hydration system, or know where you can refill along your route.

• Gel or Paste - Perpetuem can be made into a super-concentrated, near paste-like consistency and dispensed from a Hammer Gel flask. Using a blender or bowl and spoon, mix scoops of powder with a small amount of water, gradually adding water as necessary to create the consistency desired. Depending on how many scoops per hour you require, and how concentrated the mix is, each flask of Perpetuem can supply you with 2-4 hours of fuel. As with the multi-hour bottle, you must carry additional bottles of plain water or use a hydration system to meet your fluid requirements.

Suggested Doses by Body Weight (135 calories per scoop):

• 0 – 120 lbs (approx 54.5 kg) – up to 3/4 scoop/hr. This provides approximately 101 calories.
• 120–155 lbs (approx 54.5–70 kg) – 1 scoop/hr. This provides 135 calories.
• 155–190 lbs (approx 70–86 kg) – 1.25 to 1.5 scoops/hr. This provides approx 169 to 202.5 calories.
• 190+ lbs (86+ kg) – up to 2 scoops/hr. This provides 270 calories.

My thoughts on the different methods
I don't like any hydration strategy that stipulates we need to drink a certain volume of fluid per hour, as given what is known about hyponotremia these days it is simply bad advice. Besides that, I don't like a nutrition plan that is dependent on drinking a certain amount per hour because this would mean my energy intake would vary considerably depending on the weather conditions. If I had a race/ training run on a cold day where I don't need to drink much, then I'm going to miss out on calories unless I over drink. Out of the 3 methods I liked the idea of either the multi bottle or the gel/ paste option.

The Road Test
The night before my training run I mixed up one gel/ paste mix in a gel flask and also one multi hour bottle and refrigerated both of them over night. By following the suggested dosages I should have had enough energy requirements for over 4 hours.

To try the two different methods I was going to first consume the paste mix which would last for the first half of my run, and then the multi hour bottle which would last for the second half of the run.

I thought that the paste mix actually tasted quite good, although it did somewhat remind me of eating cake mix. It was thick but went down very easily with a splash of water. My general nutrition strategy is to take on calories every 30 min so that I have a nice steady stream of energy entering my system. At a bit over the half way mark of my run I had finished the paste mix and all seemed to be going well.

Next it was time to start using the mutli hour bottle. The mix pretty much tasted like a milk shake which is not really what I'd consider to be ideal during a run. After my first drink I realised that I had probably taken on about a third of the bottle instead of a quarter. I didn't think would be a big deal as long as I waited a bit long until I had my next drink of the mix.

It was about now when the wheels started to fall off. I was starting to feel bloated and even after 45 min I still didn't feel like taking on any more Perpetuem. I was starting to feel a bit nauseas but was still running well. 

After about 60 minutes I finally took on some more perpetuem but it wasn't sitting well in the stomach. By the time I got to the final descent of my run after 4 hours I was starting to feel quite bad. Not only did I feel like I was hitting the wall but the nauseas feeling in my stomach was getting to the point where I felt like vomiting.  I actually think this was the closest I have ever come in a training run or race to vomiting. The Perpetuem was obviously sitting in my stomach and as I hadn't absorbed many calories in the last couple of hours due to the issues I was having I was really struggling to run.

I finally got to the end of my run (4.5 hours) and had to sit down for about 20 minutes until stomach started to settle down.

Summary
The only thing that I consumed in this training run was water and Perpetuem so my problems seems to be linked to the Perpertuem. I've never felt this bad before during a run so perhaps there is something in Perpetuem that doesn't agree with me. There are lots of folks out there using Perpetuem in long ultras so I thought that I'd be onto a winner. I guess this is why we experiment during training. Maybe I might try it again on another run, but at the moment I simply can't stomach the though of drinking the stuff again.

Home Made Energy Gels

I came across the idea of making my own energy gels after looking at the Home Made Gels, Gu's and Bars thread on Coolrunning. It seems that the primary ingredient in energy gels is Maltodextrin, which is readily available from most chemists and also home brew shops.

The maltodextrin that I bought is comes in a 900 gram tin and is called Polyjoule. It costs around $14. Some guys get their maltodextrin from home brew shops in the form of powdered corn starch, but I'm not 100% certain about the validity of this comment saying that it's not wise to use the home brew stuff. $14 for a tin of Polyjoule still makes a lot of gels at minimal cost so I'll stick with it for the time being.

As for the recipe, well there's not really much to it all all. Throw some maltodextrin into a mixing jug and add some hot water to make plain gels. In my opinion the unflavoured stuff actually tastes surprisingly quite good. It will initially look quite milky but overnight it will turn into a clear gel so just be a bit patient. Some guys nuke their mix in the microwave but I don't really like doing that.

As for flavours, well try anything that you think might sound like a good idea. I've personally used quite a few cooking essences, with my favourite so far being chocolate and coconut. Go easy on the flavourings as they are quite concentrated and you won't need much at all. I've also used citric acid to give a tangy lemon flavour, but citric acid is very potent and I've found it hard to get a consistent flavour. You could also try adding in some Gatorade powder or any drink flavourings that you like.

The benefits of caffeine for endurance sports are well know and I briefly touched on some advice from a leading sports nutritionists in one of my other posts. Here it was recommended that 3-5mg per kg of body weight every 5 hours is all that is needed. I personally use Nodoz tablets and simply crush them up a bit, dissolve in some hot water and mix it into the gel mix.

I have also experimented with trying to add some healthy fats into the mix as this is something that we supposedly need during long endurance events. So far I have just added a dash of flaxseed oil. It does separate over time but a quick shake of the gel flask mixes it up fine.

My longest training runs to date where I have solely used energy gels has been 4.5 hours and I must say that they worked fantastic. I took some gel every 30 min with water and I didn't have any energy crashes at all. I actually think that my performance during my training runs using gels only has probably been better than anything else I've used so far.

How long it would take me before I get tired of my home made gels I'm not sure but the results are definitely encouraging.  They will most certainly be a part of my overall ultramarathon nutrition strategy.

Making your own gels is a fun, cheap and effective way of supplying your gel requirements. Give it a go!

Ultramarathon Nutrition - Part 2

Optimal Carbohydrate, Protein, & Caffeine intake during endurance events

A few days ago I posted a blog on my nutrition issues, and today when I listened to this pod cast with Asker Juekendrup on competitorradio.com, I was surprised to find out that it was all about nutrition.

So who is Asker Juekendrup? Well he is is one of the leading sports nutritionists of the Human Performance lab at the University of Birmingham. He has previously worked with the Rabobank professional cycling team, and is currently working with high profiled athletes such as Chrissie Wellington (Ironman winner) and Haile Gebrselassie (marathon world record holder). He has also personally completed 17 Ironman Triathlons.

The pod cast runs for 50mins but I think that it's well worth a listen. Here is a quick summary of the findings of his recent studies:

1. The optimal carbohydrate fuel source is made up of 2:1 ratio of glucose & fructose. Glucose alone can only provide around 60 grams/hour, but because glucose and fructose are absorbed differently in the intestines, it allows for a higher amount of carbohydrate to be absorbed. The approximate ratio of 2:1 allows us to consume approximately an extra 30 grams of carbohydrate per hour. An interesting comment that Asker made, was that because the digestive limitations are due to the nature of our intestines, and because both large and small people have similar sized intestines, then the amount of carbohydrate that is able to be absorbed is very similar for both large and small people. Also, whilst the absorption of the 2:1 mix is slightly impaired, it closely matches that of water alone.
2. According to his studies he doesn't believe that protein is necessary during endurance events such as the Ironman. Firstly, protein will impair the rate at which carbohydrate can be absorbed, and for events of Ironman distances he doesn't believe that the mechanisms claimed by many studies can work in that time period. From what he said in the pod cast, it's not clear if protein would be useful for events lasting over 24 hours or so.
3. Caffeine clearly has a performance enhancing effect. The recommended dosage is 3-5mg per kg of body weight. As caffeine has a half life of around 5 hours we only need to top up every 5 hours or so. Studies also show that more is not better, and it's a good idea to stick to the recommendation of 3-5mg per kg of body weight.

So there you have it. The findings of Askers studies are different to Hammers philosophy, but who is correct? As with a lot of this stuff, I think we need to test it out during training and figure out what works best for us. We are all different!