Changing fueling standards have contributed to a wave of performance breakthroughs. Speaking of breakthroughs, let David Roche tell you about the performance revolution and how Tailwind High Carb is playing a part in it.
I feel sorry for athletes of the previous generation. Heck, I feel sorry for my previous self, too! We spent all of those years working our butts off in training, but with fueling tech that was about to be blown out of the water with breakthroughs in carb delivery. The next breakthrough for modern athletes is Tailwind High Carb Drink Mix.
I wasn’t an immediate adopter of the new tech when they sent it to us. A benefit of our openness with high-carb is that we get sent a lot of carbs! But I like what I like, and I never want to risk a run trying something new.
So the sachets of Tailwind sat in our pantry for a few weeks until a random Wednesday, when Megan came upstairs from an indoor bike workout in our Pain Cave. “That Tailwind is rocket fuel!” We ran out of gels that morning, so she filled 2 x 24 ounce bottles with Tailwind High Carb, 90 grams of carbs in each. She said that she felt like it had caffeine given how great she felt during and after her 2-hour bike.
The next day, I tried it on a bike workout. Holy crap it was good – the lemonade flavor was so smooth, great tasting, and my 2 x 24 ounce bottles could get me through a 2-hour workout. Before heading down to the bike, I thought “I’m going to be drinking anyway, so why not add more carbs to the mix?” After breakthrough power numbers, I thought “That stuff is magic.”
Next, we experimented with long runs. I even tested it on my hardest training effort of the season, where I set the record on the infamous Gold Hill loop in Boulder in 2:04 fueling exclusively with Tailwind, with 60 grams of carbs in each of my 3 x 16 ounce bottles.
I love Tailwind High Carb because it has a delicate taste that seems to optimize gastric emptying rates, while being fun to drink and replacing some of my gels. I won’t use it to replace all of my gels and hydration, since I think it’s still important to have standalone hydration mixes for runners in some bottles, and gels to be precise with carb needs. But it’s breakthrough tech for enhancing the ease and joy of high-carb fueling, helping athletes perform better, recover faster, and adapt more rapidly.
Adequate carbohydrate intake in training and racing makes the process of working hard so much more sustainable for athletes of all levels. There is less muscle breakdown, less physical and emotional stress, and for most athletes – better biomarkers in bloodwork. Tailwind High Carb doesn’t just make us better athletes, it also makes us better parents the rest of the day. And this type of fueling is going to add a few years of peak performance to the end of our professional running careers because our bodies aren’t eating themselves trying to keep pushing through depletion.
Or to put it another way: the performance revolution is ongoing. With Tailwind High Carb, the weapons just got upgraded.
– David
Photo Credits: Cody Bare
