Infinit Nutrition has built its brand around the concept of custom formulated hydration and sports drink mixes. Their online calculator and control panel are the build-a-bear workshop of the sports nutrition world, letting you scale up or down electrolyte, sugar, carb, protein and caffeine content to suit your riding style and body type. And if you’re not quite sure what you need, a consultant is just a phone call away.
Now, they’ve compiled formulas for short and long rides, recovery and their powdered ready-to-mix gel based on averages gleaned from years of mixing custom blends. The formulas use a blend of carbs and proteins to suit the intended use, and all are based on founder Michael Folan’s theory of creating the right osmolality for rapid absorption.
Retail packages will be offered for:
- Go Far (endurance sports drink)
- Go Fast (medium length sports drink)
- Speed & Jet Fuel (short duration, high intensity workouts)
- Repair recovery drink
- Napalm powdered gel mix
- Mud, their pre- and post-exercise beverage.
They’ll also offer women’s versions (lower calorie) of Go Far and Go Fast called Isis. Click through for ingredient info and more of the science…
For a sports drink to be absorbed quickly and emptied from your stomach without issue, the osmolality needs to be at or under the osmolality of your body’s fluids – generally 280-300 mosmol/kg (milliosmoles per kilogram). With their custom formulas, they know the molecular weight of each ingredient and can tinker with the mix to get the osmolality right while still offering the proper nutrition.
Infinit isn’t the first to build the products around osmolality. But unlike Skratch and Osmo’s advice to eat real food alongside their sports drink for longer efforts, Folan says their products put everything you need in the bottle. This means no gels, bars, salt pills or other foodstuffs should be necessary for rides under six to eight hours as long as you’re consuming enough calories per hour from the drinks.
Does it work?
I brought back a few samples of these pre-mixed products from Interbike and tried Go Fast and Go Far on a five hour, 79 mile solo ride and finished feeling fine on just one serving of each in a total of 50oz of fluid (plus I snuck in three Clif Bloks). Go Fast has a bit of caffeine, and Go Far mixes in a few grams of whey protein isolate to help stave off hunger, and it worked fairly well. I didn’t start craving Mexican until near the very end of the ride, and realistically I probably should have had another bottle’s worth of drink. But, not having to stop at a C-store and sneak ice and water from the fountain machine made the ride that much nicer. The flavor was a tad stronger than expected, but entirely palatable even when the day warmed up to a pleasant 70º (F).
Here’s what’s in them*:
- Go Far – dextrose, sucrose, maltodextrin, 4g whey protein isolate, BCAAs, L-Glutamine, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium
- Go Fast –
- Speed – a higher percentage of glucose, plus sucrose and maltodextrin, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium
- Jet Fuel – Speed plus 125mg caffeine
- Isis Endurance – dextrose, sucrose, maltodextrin, 2g whey protein isolate, BCAAs, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium
- Isis Hydration – dextrose, sucrose, maltodextrin, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium
- Repair – whey, Soy and Casein proteins (25/25/50%), maltodextrin, dextrose, fructose, sucrose, BCAAs, L-Glutamine, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium
- Mud – whey protein isolate, flax seed, coffee, chocolate, maltodextrin, sucrose, glucose
- Napalm – a higher percentage of glucose, plus sucrose, fructose and maltodextrin, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, with or without caffeine
Napalm seems particularly interesting because the instructions state you can fill a gel flask to the top with powder, then add water and it’ll instantly dissolve into a thin consistency “gel”, which should be consumed with water. It’s targeted more at runners that might be able to down a shot before grabbing a cup of H2O from the aid station, but if you prefer water in your hydration pack, this might be a good option.
We’ll be testing more of their products through the fall for a full review.
* Only the function ingredients are listed, not necessarily in order of quantity per serving. No artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners.
