http://www.genr8speed.com/endurance/vitargo.php
Vitargo is a newer product that I heard about through listening to an interview with Dave Mackey the 2011 Ultrarunner of the Year. I also heard about it after hearing about from Sunny Blende a sports nutritionist and ultrarunner herself.
I will not even make an attempt to explain the science and nutritional terms behind Vitargo. I only needed to know one thing would this product help me.
A link to the product label.
http://www.genr8speed.com/downloads/Grape_4.2lb%20label-1.pdf
I have suffered miserably with bouts of nausea and violent vomiting through the later stages of the majority of my ultra marathons. For you completely sane folks out there wondering why I continue with these events it is simply another hurdle for me to overcome and to continue to push my physical limits. I've experimented with all tried and true methods of hydrating and fueling during ultras but I still have the same issues.
The number one issue seems to be that my stomach begins to stop processing all the fluids I'm ingesting and does not make it to the elimination process. The sloshing begins and nausea sets in only to be relieved by vomiting all stomach contents. In turn this leaves me way behind in my hydration and salt intake and I try to play catch up and many times the process is repeated numerous times. It's not pretty!
So along comes a product called Vitargo that is claimed to be a "Super" carb. For an in-depth article about the science behind Vitargo please read Sunny Blende's article.
http://www.eat4fitness.com/PDFJUNE2012/SUPER%20Carbs.pdf
Is this just another gimmick muscle product aimed at gym rats for recovery and now finding its way into the rapidly growing sport of ultrarunning?
My experience tells me it is the real deal and worth testing for yourself. Do you need this stuff? Probably not but will you benefit from it? I believe so and it will be on my race menu for a long time.
So I've used this product now at three big events.
Smokey Mountain Relay
Long Cane 50K
Chattooga River 50K
I did experience my typical problems at Long Cane but I believe this was heat related and I pushed to hard on to little training.
I just finished Chattooga last week and I drank a 20 oz. prepared bottle of Vitargo at mile 17 and another at mile 21. Each of these bottles contained 280 calories and 70 carbs. Other than one gel and a few small handfuls of boiled bake potato at the aid stations I ingested no other calories the whole race. I had energy all race and never got sick and bettered my previous course PR by 1.5 hours.
The ability to drink this many calories in one bottle during a race is a great benefit to me as solid food is problematic for me. This is not an electrolyte drink so you still need your Scaps or Endurolytes.
I've had the fruit punch and the grape flavor and like the grape the best. This product is not cheap but neither are gels if you add up the total for a race. I like that you can buy this at the local GNC and it comes packaged in a 1.7 pound tub or in individual serving packages.
I recommend this product but if you want to continue to try and stomach huge handfuls of gels all race be my guest.
No comments:
Post a Comment