Advice

WCUP offers a wide range of products for all lengths of efforts, from 60 minute spins to 6 hour epic rides through the mountains.  One of the goals of WCUP is to provide enough energy for your efforts without creating the need to carry too much in your pockets or bag.  Experts say cycling or running will burn anywhere from 200 to 700 calories an hour (depending on intensity and your bodies needs), all coming from your bodies storage of “fuel”.  So sports nutrition for 60 to 90 minutes efforts is more a basis of eating healthy, drinking enough water and having a good recovery post-work out.  For efforts over 90 minutes, you will need to “fuel” your body while exercising to get the most out of it and that’s where WCUP comes in.

A general rule is 100 calories of energy per hour of exercise, which is fine for 2 or 3 hours.  For over 6 hours – you will need a lot more than that (assuming you are burning the 200-700 cal/hour previously mentioned) or you risk the dreaded bonk or cramps.  Most gels (one of the most common used sports nutrition product in the US) are around 100 cal, so you would need 5 gels to attempt to stay EVEN for a low intensity 5 hour ride.  If you are riding harder (say a super hilly ride or it’s cold or you are trying to set a new PR and are going fast) your energy needs are much higher.  Suddenly you need to be carrying more gel, maybe closer to 10.  While cycling jersey pockets are large, that’s a lot to carry around (not to mention – 5 hours of that many gels in not all that exciting of a prospect, is it? Nor will you have the half bottle of water recommended to drink with each gel.)

So, what are you to do?

At WCUP, we feel the best way isto eat various things to give your body a mix of energy sources that also keep you, the athlete, from getting bored and risking not fueling properly.  For the example ride of 5 hours – we’d recommend 1 Sports Cake (290 cal), 1 Energy Drink (160 cal) and 1 packet of Sports Fruit (243 cal).  This is just under 700 calories and a lot easier to carry than 5 gels.  Going hard?  Add in an Energy Bar (114 cal) and an Energy Booster (53 cal) and you are set for a long and hard day in the saddle!  And this doesn’t count any calories you would get from the drink in your bottle.

WHAT IS pH NEUTRAL?

At WCUP we strive to make sure that the athlete experiences no stomach distress from any of our products.  To accomplish this – we make sure all of our products are pH neutral – meaning that our products are not too acidic and can be mixed together and not counter react.  We see it all the time – Bar B from one brand and Drink G from another mix in the athletes stomach and bad things happen – resulting in a less than stellar day.  All of our products (even if you over mix or over use them) will stay neutral in your stomach and not create any issues for your day.