In our continued effort to give endurance athletes the best possible support, we’ve developed an incredible new Carb/Protein drink called; Race Pro. In this podcast, Mark Wolff tells you all you need to know about this fantastic product.
Transcription:
It’s a great pleasure to welcome the latest product in the 32Gi range, it’s called Race Pro. I think this one really is going to be fantastic, especially for people who do tend to go further with their endurance activities. Mark Wolff joins myself, Mr Active, David Katz. Mark, just give us a brief history on the development behind Race Pro, and why you felt that you needed to add it to the product range?
Mark Wolff: I think firstly for long distance events, we at 32Gi and myself, we’re big advocates of protein consumption. At some of the ultra-distance events that we’ve been supporting over the last couple of years, we’ve been feeding the athletes our Recover product; which made for a phenomenal product to take en route at certain distances to get in the carbohydrates and the protein required to help delay the onset of muscle fatigue, prevent your own muscle cannibalisation as well.
The perfect Carb/Protein endurance feed
The thing is it worked very well. The feedback was absolutely incredible. At Comrades Marathon, which we know is a 90km ultra, over the last couple of years when I’ve been feeding athletes, the demand for the protein shake has gone up more and more each year.
I realised that this is a phenomenal product to look at because there’s a big demand for it. They’re obviously feeling and seeing the benefits of what the drink is doing, but we needed to change the ratios of the carbohydrates and the proteins.
I went back to the drawing board and spent a long time trying to figure out how we can turn this particular drink into a proper race drink for ultra-distance events; whether it’s an ultra-distance triathlon, even for stage racing it’s absolutely awesome, or ultra-distance running. We found an amazing formula which works incredibly well. We finished testing, we did testing over a three month period.
I tested myself on very long sessions, anywhere from four to five and a half hours, consistently testing the product over and over again. Eventually found the flavour, the texture, the taste and also the functionality that worked very, very well. The athletes that tested it gave it a big thumbs up as well.
What makes #RacePro so special!
DK: Mark, I know at Comrades Marathon you’ve tested, you’ve done the research, as you do in all the products. Comrades Marathon is about as good as an endurance test gets, especially when you’ve got athletes competing at that top level. This is a product really for anyone. Just talk to me now about some of the special aspects of it.
MW: Firstly, when taking a look at the carbohydrates, we want it to be very unique in the kind of carbohydrates that we utilise. One of the things that I know specifically about endurance sport is the stomach is very, very sensitive. A lot of athletes are also looking at taking a high amount of carbohydrates per hour, and generally that comes to how is the stomach going to be able to break down, absorb and process that carb that they’re consuming.
You might want to consume a large amount of carbohydrates, but your body might not necessarily cope with that. What we found was a super carbohydrate, which is actually a HBCD, a Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin. It’s called a ‘super carb.’ It has one of the highest gastric emptying rates of any carbohydrate in the world. It is super expensive, excuse the pun, but we do not compromise on quality.
#RacePro super carb absorbs quicker than a gel
We decided to put this into the product because it absorbs quicker than a gel. It’s absolutely amazing. I must say, I’ve got a very sensitive stomach, been testing this on so many different training sessions to see, is it going to affect me?
I’ve super-sized the servings, I’ve made concentrates with the servings to increase the amount of carbs and protein intake during exercise. Every single time I felt amazingly stable and the best thing was that after a training session I didn’t feel that same hunger. I felt very stable, post-exercise; even if I was out there for five and a half hours it was really incredible. The functionality works very, very well.
We obviously used specific ratios of carbohydrate to protein to make sure that the ratios for delaying the onset of muscle fatigue were pretty effective in that the amount of protein, we didn’t want to be too excessive, so we toned it down a fair amount. We did bring up the carbohydrates. We do use some other carbohydrates for stability as well.
We started off testing with a fruit flavour and we tried a few different ones, but it just didn’t work. Eventually I went back to the drawing board and I said, you know what, the coffee or the mocha, the chocolate, whatever it was that we were giving en route at say Comrades Marathon or anyone else that was using it in other races, the feedback came back; this is absolutely amazing.
Natural coffee added to #RacePro Mocha
It’s not overly sweet, it tastes good and I actually crave it. What we did was we went and we started off with a chocolate coffee mix. I absolutely love that mix. It really goes down well, so we’re launching it in a mocha flavour. We’re also launching it in a chocolate flavour.
The reason we’re bringing out the mocha and the chocolate is because obviously the mocha flavour contains caffeine in the form of natural coffee, and the chocolate flavour is caffeine free. For those people that are caffeine intolerant and don’t want caffeine when they’re racing or training, that is an option. For those people that do want caffeine, it’s imbedded into the product, which is absolutely awesome. Real coffee, real chocolate and it tastes very, very good.
DK: Mark, lastly, you talked about your new super carb, your HBCD, which you’ve put in there. When doing any supplement, and people ask about supplements and why are supplements more expensive, you’ve just explained that and people need to realise; yes, certain products might be a little bit more expensive, but the benefits you get from those can be hugely more beneficial than say a cheaper product.
This product aside, it’s very important for people to understand and realise and I’m not just talking about how it affects them during their endurance activity. They have to think about their general health as well when consuming different products.
Health comes first (we’ve done it again with #RacePro)
MW: One thing we pride ourselves on is that put health before performance. Without a doubt, whatever an athlete consumes, I’m responsible for what goes down their mouth, and we take a lot of pride in making sure that they are the cleanest product. Everybody knows that we do not use animal derivatives in our products as well. We like to keep it available to everyone.
One of the other things that you touched on which I think is very important; is that we don’t go and use cheap fillers or cheap or inexpensive carbohydrates just for the sake of using it to bring the cost of the product down. I feel that you’re doing your customer base a very big disservice by doing that and you’re not being 100% honest in putting out a product that is really suited to their needs.
If I put a product out on the market, it has to work for me. It has to be healthy for me because I need to consume exactly what my consumers are going to consume and that’s very important. We stick to our guns. Yes, we’re looking at a slightly higher price point for a drink like this, but we absorb quite a bit of that price point to make sure that it’s very competitive for what the consumer is getting when it comes to market.
DK: Mark, it sounds brilliant. I can’t wait to try Race Pro, and for more information, if you do want to read up about it, do log onto our website, 32gi.com.
