I am up
early on Saturday morning and I feel good.
I sense the conditions are ripe for me to achieve a new personal best
when I race my bike to the top of Elk Mountain.
I load myself with a healthy breakfast of cereal topped with fruit and a
glass of orange juice. An hour later I
am raring to go. I pop open an 8 ounce
can of Red Bull and quickly down the whole thing. It is my first Red Bull. I am surprised that it has the color and
consistency of ginger ale. It has bit of carbonation and a slightly fruity
taste. Not bad. I expected it to be a dark, more akin to Coke
or possibly Jolt cola, which was popular when I was in college. I remember my classmates drinking Jolt cola to
fuel late night drinking binges and also to stay awake during the inevitable
all night study sessions which followed.
I have always perceived Red Bull to be the Jolt cola of the 21st
century. I suppose I have been unfair.
Twenty minutes later I am on my
bike rolling down the road toward the Elk Mountain Time Trial start. It is an easy 2-3 miles of mostly downhill. It is a nice cool morning with the
temperature in the sixties. Conditions
are favorable. The Red Bull should be
kicking in. Time to tame the mountain.
I turn
on to Elk Mountain road and start the long inexorable climb. I have chosen not to wear a watch. I plan on pushing myself as hard as I can go
each time and when I get home my STRAVA app will let me know how I did. After about five minutes I feel pretty good.
I am pushing a good steady pace. There
are no turkeys or other wildlife along the road today to distract me. The pavement churns below me. I am a well-oiled machine. Aside from an occasional burp, undoubtedly
due to the carbonation in Red Bull, I am doing fine. I cruise into the open glade which holds my
dream house, but which also signals a short reprieve before the final steep
climb. I push through my pain on the
final ascent and keep pumping until I reach the finish line. I then leisurely complete the rest of the
ride home while basking in my accomplishment.
Surely, I have crushed the time from my baseline ride, and in doing so
set a new personal record.
When I
arrive home I check my time for the Elk Mountain TT segment on STRAVA. I am flabbergasted to discover my time is
33:54. I actually went 7 seconds slower
than the week prior. It appears I was bucked off the Red Bull rather than
having road it to victory. My ride had
felt so good. It is hard to conceive
that not only was my time over a 4.8 mile course within seven seconds of my
prior ride, but that it was seven seconds slower. Ouch.
Next week… A repeat of the Elk Mountain Time trial, but this
time juiced up on Unbeetable.
I used to take Red Bull almost everyday about two years ago when I was combining two jobs and school. It really helped. I almost got addicted to it. From my opinion, it works effectively after you use it for sometime but not one can. I read an article about the enhancing performance effect of coconut water and pineapple juice. I will send you a copy of that article published by a student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
ReplyDeleteIn this project a sports drink product was developed from coconut water and
ReplyDeletepineapple juice. In the formulations three different pineapples varieties grown locally
were used in different combination with the coconut water. The pineapple varieties
were smooth cayenne, MD2 and sugar loaf variety. Proximate, chemical and sensory
properties of the product were analysed. From the sensory analysis there were no
significant differences in all the formulations that were made so the sample that
contained a high energy value, brix and a percentage carbohydrate that allows for easy
gastric emptying was selected. With these criteria the formulation with the pineapple
variety known as MD2 (55% coconut water: 45% pineapple juice) which is available
throughout the year was selected. The final selected sports drink product contained a
brix of 6.8, a percentage carbohydrate of 5.61%, and vitamin C content of 161.67
mg/100 ml. Statsgraphics software was used to model and predict the shelf life of the
final product. The shelf life of the sports drink was 12 months with a pH of 3.80. The
electrolytes contained in the sports drink was similar to that lost through sweating and
these were potassium (837.67 mg/L), sodium (273.94 mg/L), phosphate (186.66
mg/L), magnesium (55.51 mg/L), bicarbonate (46.33 mg/L) chlorine (45 mg/L),
calcium (28.00 mg/L) and carbonate (6.00 mg/L).
Edmund- I appreciate you comments. I am aware of coconut water being touted as a great recovery drink. The pineapple juice is new to me. I will have to research it. Alot of the drinks focus on recovery and rehydration during performance. I have tried to pick pre-performance drinks that claim to enhance performance. -Scott
Delete