real purpose of a recovery drink? (Page 2)

Element, I checked google and found this article: http://www.dirtragmag.com/web/article.php?ID=422&category=web_only and pasted the more important info about homemade gels below. I might have to go home and try this!

Home-brew power goop:

7 and 1/3 Tablespoons of Honey
3/4 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
1/10 teaspoons (just shy of 1/8 tsp) of table salt

Be sure to mix everything together well, and it should make enough to fill a 5 serving GU flask.

This recipe works nicely. You may see some bubbles on the surface of this stuff, but that is just a natural occurrence of the molasses. One thing really nice is that neither honey nor molasses needs to be refrigerated, so you can keep it in your pocket all day, and even use it the following week. I probably wouldn’t go much past a week, but it should still be good.

The nutritional content approximates 25g carbs, 45mg sodium, 35mg potassium, with plenty of vitamins and minerals that you wouldn’t get with the store bought stuff. Another nice thing about the honey recipe is that it is all natural. Honey comes from bees that get nectar from flowers. Maybe you’ve passed a honeybee hive on a trail, and just maybe there was a bee in there making the honey that you are going to use on your next ride! Ok, that’s a stretch. Molasses is not actually any part of the four-legged mammal, but is refined from sugar cane. As Homer Simpson would say: “Mmmmm, suuuugggarrrrrr.” Salt comes usually from salt mines, but you could always buy “sea-salt” and use that. I suppose “sea salt” comes from the sea, but with truth in advertising at the current lows, who really knows.

My experiment did not end at just the plain ol’ goop. It was still raining out, so I thought back to something I read somewhere about a 4 to 1 carb to protein ratio. I guess that is supposed to be a good thing (Thanks Martha Stewart), so I made a recipe for that too.

Honey goop with a protein kick:

6 Tablespoons of Honey
5/8 teaspoons of Blackstrap Molasses
6 and 3/8 teaspoons of Soy Protein Isolate
1/16 teaspoons of salt
1-3 Tablespoons of water

Mix everything together in a cup, add water as needed to develop a nice ‘goopable’ consistency. Makes 5 servings.

I tried out some of this at the DINO 12-hour race, and it worked pretty well. The Soy protein gives it a nice kick. I wouldn’t leave this one in the sun for too long though. Not that I’ve had any moss growing in it, but I would probably try to keep this one fresh.

Well now that my work is done, and I’ve freed the masses from cookie cutter carb-gels I would like to say that this in not the end, but merely the beginning. Yes, because these are just my recipes, and like the open source code of Linux, they are open for improvement and personalization. I haven’t even started on anything with caffeine, but I imagine that you could substitute some espresso in for the water, or get wild with some ground up ginseng supplements.

There is also the issue of flavoring. Could normal coffee flavoring work, perhaps mix in some flavored Jell-O, or Kool-Aid mix. Or stay all natural and mix in some lemon or orange zest. How about a jalapeno or two? The possibilities are endless. For now I’m going to step aside and let the great mountain bike forum come up with improvements. Until then I’ll be dissecting that recovery powder stuff. Hmmmm, I wonder how that stuff compares to Cheez-its and Miller High-Life?

–Derek Nolek

I think most people use drinks because it is easy... I go to the pool early, swim a Hr, get out, shower, change for work, pull my cup with powder alredy in it out of gym bag, fill it up at the fountain and drink on the way to work... quick easy and better than the "other" crap I could slam down in a hurry.