6th Day of Christmas: Hammer Nutrition

I haven't tried all of the different brands of nutrition and energy, mostly because the first time I was tired and then had a shot of Hammer gel, I was AMAZED at the near-immediate shot of energy. I thought it was truly incredible. Thus, I haven't gone anywhere else since then.

On a different note about the company, I have to say that it's refreshing to see their print catalog with all the employees in it. It just seems like the people at this company are my kind of people, into fitness and love of the outdoors.  That leads to AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE....give them a call to see what I mean.

So, on your sixth day of Christmas, get six products from Hammer at http://www.hammernutrition.com/.

*** I don't make any money off the products linked below. This is stuff I have and use and like enough to recommend it to you.***

If you've never used Hammer Nutrition before, I recommend you go with the starter course, which is a way of saying "sampler." But it's all good stuff. And DEFINITELY READ THE BOOK that comes with it; sure, it's part propaganda (ie "sales pitch,") but it's an excellent starter for information on the physiology and all the things happening in your body during an event and how good nutrition plays a part. There is also long-course starter kit.

Go with six different flavors of gel. Get the individual serving packets if you're just trying it out, and then move to the bottles when you know which ones you like (I heard that Santa likes Huckleberry and Raspberry!). 

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Go with six different flavors of HEED for on the fluid replacement. I find Gatorade and many others to be too thick and sugary. I water-down the HEED a bit, too, but not much.

Personally, I'm a fan of the straweberry flavor, but there wasn't a picture of that! HEED comes in strawberry, lemon-lime (too much flavor for me!), mandarin orange (ok by me), melon (never had it) and unflavored (and untried by me). 

If you are doing distances beyond Olympic (or significantly beyond two hours), you'll need some Perpetuem.  Yes, there really is difference on the athlete's side when it comes to using different products for different race lengths. When I did the Pocatello 50 race-leg a few years ago, it took four hours of running and I could feel the difference when I had some Perpetuem. I don't use this for anything beyond 2.5 hours. There really is a cut-off point or wall or whatever you want to call it right past the two-hour mark. You can push through that if you aren't going much past the two hours, but if you plan more than 2.5 hours, then plan for some Perpetuem.

Recovery is such a critical component of the training cycle, and wouldn't you know it....Hammer has a product just for that! Recoverite (get it? Recover...Right?..as in "correctly?"  ha ha, it only two me a couple years to finally figure it out!).  Anyway, this is good stuff but a bit on the expensive side. I use it maybe three times a week during the build phase, after the really hard workouts.  I also take three servings right after a race because it simply helps the recovery process. 

Endurolytes are great for those really hot summer days. I don't use them alot because it doesn't really get scorching hot here in southeast Idaho. But I know when I'll need them, and when I do use them they definitely can prevent bonking.