Carrying Perpetuem on a Ride

[JimP]

I have a long mountain coming up (Assault on Mt. Mitchell), probably a 7 hour ride. I can easily carry my Hammer Gel with me using my Hammer Flasks. What is a good way to carry my Perpetuem powder with me? It is a supported ride so I have access to plenty of water. I could use baggies but wondered if there was a 'greener' alternative.

Thanks for great products!!!

[steve-born]

Hi Jim -

It's not the most "green" way of going about it I suppose, but what I've always done on long rides is to carry a large, heavier duty, freezer bag with a bulk supply of Perpetuem AND the scoop inside. I personally find this to be more convenient (and quicker) than having "X" number of individual hourly baggies of the product. And unless I totally trash the bag, I can reuse it over and over again.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely -

Steve

[steve-born]

The other possibility - and I think this would work just fine if the weather isn't going to be hot - is to make a 5-hour, concentrated bottle of Perpetuem. That'll be your main fuel, covering (of course) 5 hours of fueling needs. The other two hours of fueling needs should easily be fulfilled from a flask of Hammer Gel.

Going this route will save you time (you'd only have to stop to fill up your water bottle or Camelback), and it'll be less cumbersome because you won't have to carry extra fuel with you... you'll have 7 hours worth of fuel in one water bottle and one Hammer flask.

Sincerely -

Steve

[JimP]

Steve,

Thanks! I think I will go with the large freezer bag. Come to think of it, I saw someone do that once on a different ride and forgot about it until your post.

If I do decide to go with the concentrated bottle, would I simply multiply my normal one bottle amount of Perpetuem (let's say 1.5 scoops) by 5 (so 7.5 scoops) into my bottle and sip over the 5 hours? That is intriguing as it would be less cumbersome.

[steve-born]

Hello Jim -

You're exactly right. If your normal hourly dose of Perpetuem is 1.5 scoops an hour and you want to have enough for 5 hours, you mix 7.5 scoops into your bottle. You'll want to start with a little water in the bottle first, then add a couple of scoops, put the top on, and shake vigorously. You repeat the process until you have 7.5 scoops in the bottle. It takes a bit of work and you may find a few bits of not-completely-mixed Perpetuem "pellets" still in your bottle, but those things are not problematic, in my opinion.

The main thing is remember that you have 5 hours of fuel in one bottle so you need to drink only 1/5 of that bottle every hour, augmenting that with plain water (to cover your hydration needs) from a different source (another water bottle, hydration pack, etc). The only time athletes run into problems when consuming multi-hour bottles of fuel is when they either drink too much at one time (if you've got a 5-hour bottle, make it last 5 hours!) and/or when they don't consume adequate amounts of water to augment that concentrated fuel.

Doing multi-hour bottles of Sustained Energy or Perpetuem is the only way to go, for me anyway... I just think it makes things so much easier and saves a ton of time. Plus, I don't have to drink as much volume of flavored liquid every hour, I get to enjoy plain water to cleanse the palate and take care of hydration needs, and I don't need to stop and make more bottles of fuel every hour.

We discuss this more in the article "The Hammer Nutrition Fuels - What they are and how to use them" at http://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledg ... ge-section

There's a section near the end of the article entitled "Sustained Energy/Perpetuem Mixing Options" which is where you'll find this information.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions!

Sincerely -

Steve

[astroross]

I personally use the multi-hour bottle method as I find it make it simple and in a race simple is good. In a triathlon 1 bottle for 5-7 hours of the bike with water in the front and heed in the other rear bottle, is a good place to start.

For a mountain bike event, if you can have a bottle on the down tube then you should be sorted with water in a backpack and gel for back up.

In a trail run with drop bags, I had a single bottle with 4 hours of fuel (Perpetuem), at the bag drop I had a new bottle with 4 hours of fuel. I arrived at the first drop point under 4 hours so there was some left in the bottle. I dropped it and took the fresh one, ran off ready for another 4 hours of climbing trails.

Best of luck,
Ross

[bikeirguy]

To the question about "green" (works if you have three bottle cages):

Cage one (up front for me): Water
Cage two (behind the seat, right side as I am right handed): Perpetuem mixed for 2/3rds of my anticipated ride time (ie. four hour bottle if I plan to be out for six hours).
Cage three (behind the seat, left side): dry Perpetuem (not mixed) in a water bottle with the number of scoops I need for the last 1/3 of my ride. I simply add water when the time is right and move the new bottle of mixed Perpetuem to the right hand cage.

This avoids plastic baggys (and the risk of an explosion, etc.).

[IRide29]

I only typically use a multi-hour bottle on the long MTB races NUE's and 50's (other times Perpet filled Flasks) I've found that the "blender ball" will fit in my Camelback insulated Podium bottle and makes mixing a no brainer. Especially key in the quick stops at an aid station.

[JimP]

Folks,

Thanks for all the tips. It was not a mountain bike event, it was a road bike event but climbing up a mountain (Mt. Mitchell, highest peak east of Mississippi).

Regardless, I tried the multi-hour bottle of Perpetuem and it worked great! A sip every 20 minutes, some Hammer Gel every hour, one or two Enduralytes per hour and some sports drink and I was fine for the entire 6 1/2 hours as well as saving a lot of time at the SAGs.

Well, nutritionally I was fine. Stupid gravity