Training & Nutrition - Heed!

I have tried many different energy drinks over the years and have not been overly impressed with any of them. I did not like Acelerade - I had a bad digestive reaction to it, and it left a horrible after-taste in my mouth. I am iffy about Cytomax - it's got sort of an odd flavor to it. Gatorade is OK for a little while but I cannot drink it and eat energy bars at the same time - the combination of solid food with Gatorade leaves an incredibly sour taste in my mouth. Powerade is a bit better - milder - but also has fewer calories. My own mix, a recipe I got from a very good friend, is a bit better than all the rest because I can adjust the ingredients, but it still tends to leave that sour taste behind after a while.


And then, a couple months ago, I bought some HEED to use on my long rides. I was very skeptical. I love hammergel, but I'm not so fond of some of the other Hammer Nutrition products. I can only stand Sustained Energy for about 300 kms before I can't stomach it anymore, and I've heard mixed reviews about Perpetuem.

But I've been trying HEED on my last few rides, and it's great!! It's so mild and subtly sweet that it does not leave any sort of bad after-taste ... and I can eat other solid food with it, without a bad reaction!! I lived on it during my 400K this past weekend, and didn't get sick of it the entire time!

I'm impressed!! :) :)

I use HEED and multi hour bottle of Perpeteum for all my long rides and races and I love the stuff. HEED is the best but I usually mix in a scoop of Enduralyte powder then usually bring another plain water filled bottle. Does a great job of washing down the Perpeteum. I really like the Lemon Lime and the orange is also good for a change up for the taste. I have a bottle of plain but haven't used it yet.

whered ya get it Mac?

I also recommend it. I havent used it much but get it free from the team as we are sponsored somehow by Hammergel. (not professionally hehe) Everyone absolutely lives by it. It even helps with hot weather! :)

Thanks for the tip. I have seen that stuff but never tried it; will give it a shot now. Getting tired of Cytomax (it's OK, but there's definitely an aftertaste).

Machka,

Like you, I do not like taste of Gatorade, especially on long rides. Too sweet for me. I have been using Gu2O which, like HEED!, uses maltodextrine as the main carbohydrate source. Maltodextrine is a complex carb and has little sweetness. I noticed from the hammernutrition website that HEED! uses xylitol and stevia for sweetness. I find this curious since these substances provide few calories. They are usually used as low calorie alternatives to sugar substitutes like aspertame. For a sports drink, low calorie generally isn't a concern.

Do you find HEED! hard to dissolve in cold water? Maltodextrine is usually hard to get to dissolve.

Do you find HEED! hard to dissolve in cold water? Maltodextrine is usually hard to get to dissolve.


HEED dissolves nicely in water warm or cold. For a cold ride I mixed a bottle of it warm which tasted good.

Looks like I the lone dissenter when it comes to Heed. It's the one Hammer product I don't like. I'll stick with Gatorade..

Looks like I the lone dissenter when it comes to Heed. It's the one Hammer product I don't like. I'll stick with Gatorade..

Well, it's a good thing there are different products for different taste buds ... but tell me this ... when you eat an energy bar, especially powerbars, and then try to wash them back with gatorade, doesn't your tongue go all tingly, and feel like it is swelling up, and isn't there the most awful bitter taste left in your mouth?

That only happens to me mildly when I start a ride, but by the time I'm 300K into a ride, the feeling and taste are so horrible that I just simply cannot drink gatorade anymore.

HEED dissolves nicely in water warm or cold. For a cold ride I mixed a bottle of it warm which tasted good.


Agreed ... HEED seems to dissolve just fine ... and it tastes good both warm and cold.

whered ya get it Mac?

I can't get Hammer Nutrition products very easily up here in Canada. Half of them are banned and the other half are just scarce. So it takes some effort to get ahold of them.

I got my HEED at a runner's store. Running Den or something like that. The one and only bicycle shop in town here didn't even know what Hammer Nutrition products were.

You can get all the Hammer products online at their web site, and it's usually cheaper than in the bike shops, even with the shipping, at http://www.e-caps.com/. They give you a price break if you order several items at once.

I swear by the Endurolytes capsules; if I get cramps after a ride, 2 capsules eliminate them immediately. It's great to take them during a long ride. Hammergel is a great pick-me-up; I often take a swig just before a big climb.

I just tried Heed for the first time, and I think I'll take it on a century with me this weekend. I've started getting a little nauseated from GatorAde. At first I was put off because Heed, even the "mandarin orange," doesn't have much flavor at all; but I think for a long endurance ride that's probably a good thing.

I'm hooked on HEED. Love it. Had trouble getting it to dissolve on my 300k when I filled my bottle with ice, but 15 minutes down the road seemed to do the trick.

I've had mixed luck with Perpetuem. Not sure I like the way it sits in my stomach.

I use Gu on the bike as my "food". So far mixing the Gu and the HEED is working. Stomached 14 hours of Gu and HEED on my last Brevet, with some solid food mixed in at the controls.

Want to find something like Perpetuem - but need it to sit a bit better in my stomach....

Off to ride the SS home, then on to the road bike for some hills!

heed + perpetuem + hammergel = good fueling for long distance.

i like it too.

.. when you eat an energy bar, especially powerbars, and then try to wash them back with gatorade, doesn't your tongue go all tingly, and feel like it is swelling up, and isn't there the most awful bitter taste left in your mouth?


Hmmm, no. Are you sure it was Gatorade and not Anti-Freeze?:D

heed + perpetuem + hammergel = good fueling for long distance.

i like it too.


Anyone using a flask for their gel? Seems like you'd never get it out... but I want to try, as I'm tired of sticky empty packets in my jersey...

Anyone using a flask for their gel? Seems like you'd never get it out... but I want to try, as I'm tired of sticky empty packets in my jersey...

Yep - the flask works very well.

Anyone using a flask for their gel? Seems like you'd never get it out... but I want to try, as I'm tired of sticky empty packets in my jersey...

I tried using honey in a flask once... that did not work too well!

when you eat an energy bar, especially powerbars, and then try to wash them back with gatorade, doesn't your tongue go all tingly, and feel like it is swelling up, and isn't there the most awful bitter taste left in your mouth?

No, but that is exactly what happened to me when I ate banana, avocado, or kiwi fruit. I was diagnosed as being allergic to them. After about 2-3 years of that, all of the above symptoms would happen plus my airway would begin to close up. Now I can't consume even a small quantity by accident without experiencing those reactions. Same things happen to my housemate who is allergic to tree nuts and shellfish.

No, but that is exactly what happened to me when I ate banana, avocado, or kiwi fruit. I was diagnosed as being allergic to them. After about 2-3 years of that, all of the above symptoms would happen plus my airway would begin to close up. Now I can't consume even a small quantity by accident without experiencing those reactions. Same things happen to my housemate who is allergic to tree nuts and shellfish.


Hmmmm ... very interesting. But the thing is ... I can drink Gatorade on its own just fine (for a while - I get sick of it pretty quickly - the flavor gets icky) ... and I can eat energy bars just fine (longer than I can drink Gatorade) ... but the combination of the two is HORRIBLE!! Very nasty experience.

But I don't have the same experience with HEED and energy bars. Maybe its an ingredient in the Gatorade.

Anyone using a flask for their gel? Seems like you'd never get it out... but I want to try, as I'm tired of sticky empty packets in my jersey...Rarely use a flask, but when I do I dilute a little with water so it's easier to drink.

+1 for Cytomax; seems to help me ride hard for longer. Can't stand more than one bottle of gatorade, anymore than that and it feels like I have a sweater growing on my tongue. Heed, never tried it. The cost seems a bit prohibitive. Cytomax is 84 servings for $29.00 from Performance. I once got it for $22.00 on their website. About the best deal out there in my opinion.

I have used heed and perpetuem for several months. They have been part of my routine for two double centuries. I like them because of the lack of simple sugars. I needed something that was simple on my stomach and wasn't just pumping sugars. I have used bottles with thick perpetuem and a camelback with Heed. I often dump the Perpetuem into my drinking waters. With the combination I do not need as many stops.
I also just tried spiz on a century. Worked well.
J

If you want to get the hammer stuff at a discount, I buy from one of there authorized sellers and if you buy more than 50.00 in product the shipping is free.. Machka, you can call them and see if they ship to Canada. They carry much of the Hammer line

Global Nutrition in Irvine, CA.. You can find there phone number through e-caps dealer locator. They have really great prices. Many times they are about $6.00 to $10.00 under the e-caps standard pricing and free shipping..

I have a sensitive stomach and have tried just about every other sports drink out. I love Heed. It never bothers my stomach, tastes relatively good, and seems to do what it's meant to do. I've yet to try the plain but the Lime is good. The orange tastes like a creamcicle(sp?) pop but I prefer the Lime. I've used it for the past 3 years and can't see any reason to switch to another brand.

I probably an odd sheep out, but I don't particularly like HEED taste. I use GU2O. My stomach doesn't rebel when I drink it during hard work outs, so thats what I use.

i guess i'm the really weird person here. i eat accelerade gels and drink their fruit punch drink. i've never tried heed, although i guess i will. to be honest, i don't find much, if any, performance differences with all these "energy" drinks and gels and foods. it just comes down to a matter of taste for me. e-gel is the only stuff that hurt my stomach. the one thing i do love is carb-boom. they have two or three flavors that are so good i would eat 'em at home if the price wasn't so high

smoke

HEED contains:
Maltodextrin, Xylitol, Natural Mandarin Flavor, White Stevia, Sodium Chloride, L-Carnosine, Clycine, Calcium Chelate, Magnesium Chelate, Potassium Chelate, L-Tyrosine, Vitamin B6, Manganese Chelate, ChromeMate® brand Chromium Polynicotinate *Mandarin Flavor

IOW, it's maltodextrin with artificial sweetener, some minerals of proven value, and other stuff of no clinically proven value. A triathlete friend of mine dropped over $1000 at e-caps last year, and she doesn't even take their pills, that's just on food.

Here's my recipe: buy a 50# bag of maltodextrin at your local homebrew supply house. Should cost about $25. Buy a 2 lb. container of strawberry flavored Optimum Nutrition soy protein from whatever online source is cheapest or from Super Supplements or such. Mix 7 malto to 1 soy. You can also leave out the soy and mix about 5 parts malto with 2 parts Hammergel. Or combine all three for your own mix. Anyway, I put about 750kcal worth of stuff in a waterbottle and drink it over 3 hours. You can use your HEED scoop to figure out how much that is. Or you can cut back on that and eat some solid stuff. I take Endurolytes for the minerals, or you could add the powder to the drink mix.

Heed tastes like baby aspirin!

Most people I know that try HEED swear by it. I just bought a big thing of it to try it out. I liked it on the one ride I've tried so far. I definitely don't like the cost though.

I may go back to cytomax if HEED isn't MUCH better than cytomax.

I like HEED too - use it for my 2-3 hour rides (carrying 2-3 water bottles). For longer rides with water refills I carry NUUN - tablets (12 per container - tape the small cannister to one water bottle) - no sugar but gives me the electrolytes. When I do this I carry a flask of Endurance Max which is about 700 calories of malodextrin. So to sum up for a 4-6 hour training ride I start with HEED which gives me 2-3 hours of energy and electrolytes, then switch to NUUN and one flask of Enduarance whiche gives me another 2-3 hours. Pretty easy to carry in pocket - no powders to carry along. No high fructose corn syrup!

Nick

HEED has a very different taste to cytomax. If I had to describe the taste of cytomax, I'd say it is "sharp", while the taste of HEED is "mellow". Mellow is much nicer. :)

And I also make my own mixture, but I don't think I've got it just right yet. I don't like it as well as I like HEED.

The price of HEED isn't that bad ... no worse than Accelerade!


And for me, the main difference between drinking HEED and drinking any of Gatorade/Powerade/Cytomax/Accelerade is this one thing: on rides over 600 kms, I used to get terrible mouth sores and my teeth always felt like they had a thick film on them. Then I switched to HEED about a year and a half ago. I haven't had mouth sores or fuzzy teeth on long rides since!! It's wonderful!! I'd pay a small fortune for that, but fortunately I just need to stock up on HEED. :) :) :)

And for me, the main difference between drinking HEED and drinking any of Gatorade/Powerade/Cytomax/Accelerade is this one thing: on rides over 600 kms, I used to get terrible mouth sores and my teeth always felt like they had a thick film on them.And that's very important! I was riding a double century with a buddy one time and he bonked with 30 to go, because he was drinking straight Hammergel dissolved in his water bottle and just couldn't handle drinking any more of it, so he stopped drinking. Wrong. I tasted it and immediately saw the problem.

Straight malto tastes kind of like rice water. Very mild, hardly any taste at all. And that's a good thing. People ask me how it tastes, and I always say, "Haven't barfed it up yet!" :)

In my group most of the rando guys and gals drink (eat) Ensure Plus. A container every hour or two. They keep cans of it in their bar bags. Lots of calories and protein and you can find it in any grocery store. Heavy, though. I haven't tried it. How does it compare to HEED on a long ride, consumabilitywise?

HEED contains:
Maltodextrin, Xylitol, Natural Mandarin Flavor, White Stevia, Sodium Chloride, L-Carnosine, Clycine, Calcium Chelate, Magnesium Chelate, Potassium Chelate, L-Tyrosine, Vitamin B6, Manganese Chelate, ChromeMate® brand Chromium Polynicotinate *Mandarin Flavor

IOW, it's maltodextrin with artificial sweetener, some minerals of proven value, and other stuff of no clinically proven value. A triathlete friend of mine dropped over $1000 at e-caps last year, and she doesn't even take their pills, that's just on food.

Here's my recipe: buy a 50# bag of maltodextrin at your local homebrew supply house. Should cost about $25. Buy a 2 lb. container of strawberry flavored Optimum Nutrition soy protein from whatever online source is cheapest or from Super Supplements or such. Mix 7 malto to 1 soy. You can also leave out the soy and mix about 5 parts malto with 2 parts Hammergel. Or combine all three for your own mix. Anyway, I put about 750kcal worth of stuff in a waterbottle and drink it over 3 hours. You can use your HEED scoop to figure out how much that is. Or you can cut back on that and eat some solid stuff. I take Endurolytes for the minerals, or you could add the powder to the drink mix.

i really like the heed (use perpetuem mostly), but i'd like to try this formula ...

one thing I do to spice the HEED up from time to time is to add some dextrose (bought 5 pounds on line cheap) - maybe 1/8 of a cup (about another 100 calories) to a water bottle - it is not as sweet as sugar, dissolves easily, and is highly digestible. I LOATH the perpetuem - tried it in all concentrations and it gives a thick viscous coating to the mouth that is hard to get rid of on long rides.

Does Heed have protein?

Does Heed have protein?
don't think so.
you would probably need to use perpetuem to get that... or find it from another source.

I'll probably just stick with Accelerade. Works for me.

HEED does not have protein - I usually have 1-2 bars with protein that I consume at the 2 and 4 hour marks - works well and is portable.

To through another name into the mix... I use an Infinit Nutrition custom mix with protein. I used to use Perpetuem. It was great... until it got warm, then it was undrinkable. I've been very happy with the Infinit at all temps.

I like Heed, too. (and so does my stomach!) Been trying out Cytomax this winter with good results, too. The lemon-lime Heed actually has more of a vanilla taste to me. Definitely not tart or tangy like others. Mix in a little Sustained Energy for longer rides. Did a hilly century last fall relying exclusively on Heed/SE, and didn't get any leg cramps (they'd usually hit me after 50-60 miles).

Perpetuem tastes like vomit