At long last I’m back riding my bike and what’s even better than the fact that I’m less grumpy already. It’s also great that after only a few rides back I have the opportunity to give a first look post on a couple of packages that MyProtein sent me back around the time I hurt myself.
To be honest, I haven’t known about MyProtein for too long. It wasn’t really until their parent company the Hut Group bought Probikekit earlier this year that I spent a bit of time surfing their website. One of my colleagues spends a lot of his spare time at the gym and mentioned the brand name as one of the big ones in the gym scene and he tells me it’s very good stuff. The company was setup in 2004 and grew quickly into the UK largest online sports nutrition brand. In addition to being a bodybuilders favourite, MyProtein also sponsors Rugby League teams and a range of other elite athletes and bodybuilders.
The good people at MyProtein coincidentally got in touch around the time I’d noticed the company (you might have noticed some of their products popping up on the Probikekit site) and asked if I’d be interested in testing some of their products that they felt would be perfect for cycling.
With that in mind, I’ve been sent two products: A box of 24 ENER:GELs for taking whilst out on the bike and a pouch (their term) of Re:Charge for taking as a recovery drink as soon as you get off the bike (or as close to that as you can manage).
On Saturday, I headed out on my first long-ish ride for nearly two months with my fastest riding buddy so I knew I’d need some “help” and rustled around in my cupboard for gels. I found the last of my High5 stock and put one of the new ENER:GELs in my pocket too. The first difference I noticed is the size of the gel. If you’ve used High5 ones before they’re 30mls each and always feel to me like there isn’t much in the gel packet. The ENER:GELs however, are 70ml each or over twice the volume and they feel more substantial in the flesh, so to speak and this for me is a good thing even before I’ve tried one. You can feel it in the weight of the box of 24 too – bar far the heaviest boxes of energy gels I’ve had arrive to date.
On Saturday we stopped after a chunky climb (largely so I could take a short breather) and I tried the ENER:GEL which includes 25gms of carbohydrates, 101kcals, Electrolytes and B vitamins to support energy production. The 70ml volume feels much more like you’ve had a proper sized gel/snack/drink and whilst I was worried about what the Orange flavour would taste like – it wasn’t bad at all. I have a sweet tooth and it seemed pretty sweet and definitely orange, so a thumbs up on taste at the first use.
It’s too early to say how I found them from an energy point of view and this is simply a first look but I’m definitely out there trying them now. The box comes as a 24 pack and whilst MyProtein recommend 3x gels per hour during exercise, I’d typically take any gel at a lower rate than that unless it’s really hot and I’m working really hard. That’s just me though and I will try the full 3 per hour rate at some point to see how that feels.
You can find out more on the ENER:GEL here: http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/ener-gel/10530821.html
As yet, I’ve not tried the Re:Charge recovery drink but hopefully that will change in the next day or so. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s designed to be taken just after exercise and contains a blend of fast releasing carbohydrates to replenish muscle glycogen and protein to aid recovery. Sounds good. Again it’s an orange flavour (rather than my usually favoured chocolate) but if tastes as pleasant as the gels, it’ll be just fine. Again, I’m looking forward to seeing how I find them over the next few weeks.
For more information on the Re:Charge you can click here: http://www.probikekit.co.uk/sports-nutrition/myprotein-re-charge/10657951.html or here: http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/re-charge/10657951.html
So as you can tell from the links, they’re available either directly from MyProtein or at Probikekit.
I have a longer ride planned (70+km) as part of my search for my lost fitness and I’ll definitely be fuelling via MyProtein including both during and after the rides. I’ll continue to do this on most of my rides in the next few weeks and will report back before too long.
Thanks for reading…
