Hi,
I love the non-sweetness of the isotonics, but have also found my head stays much clearer at the end of long rides and hard mountain bike races. Something that has stood out all over again when I ran out and had to go back to a different brand, so thank you so much for bringing them in and keep up the excellent work!!!
I hope you had a great long weekend.
Kath
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www.kathbicknell.wordpress.com
Verofit training log
As a competitive cyclists and a Defence Force Employees. The Defence Cycling Team’s time to train is limited most weeks. So to help get in the most effective combination of training possible. It is very important to have a structured routine that includes, Time management, Correct nutrition and the right amount of recovery and rest between work outs.
The following is a general idea of my training schedule/ Diet on a week to week basis.
Monday Rest day. Do core work. Get a massage every fortnight. Try to get plenty of sleep to prepare for the week ahead.
Tuesday Hills ride. Up at 4.30 AM. Eat a banana and drink a Biden of Verofit Regeneration. Fill the bidens with Verofit isotonic drink and Ride to meeting point in centre of Newcastle for a 5.30 start. Then a 45 km bunch ride taking in most of the decent hills around Newcastle. Generally it is a fast pace up the hills and a re-grouping and recovery along the flats and downhills. From there it is a 30 km ride out to Williamtown RAAF Base. This is done at a solid fast paced tempo to make sure we get to work on time at 7.30 AM. As soon as I get to work. I drink a high quality Protein Shake from Australian Sports Nutrition’s Range Evolve. Called Anabolic Injection and also and a multivitamin. In the afternoon it is a nice easy 30 km Spin home. During the day I eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and have a shaker of Verofit Isotonic drink and Branch Chain Amino Acids to maintain Electrolyte balance.
Wednesday Tempo ride. Up at 5.00 AM and on the bike by 5.30. I have the same diet in the morning as yesterday. My diet remains pretty similar all week. Then out on the bike doing efforts at about 75 – 85% of my max sustainable power output. This ride gives me about 60 km before work. After work. I do a nice easy 30 km spin home.
Thursday Aerobic Threshold training. I have a late start on Thursdays so I try to get at least 100 km before work. I do 4 * 10 km efforts at 90 – 105% of my max sustainable power out put. To improve pedalling efficiency I try to keep my cadence at, at least 95 – 105 RPM. This helps raise the heart rate and also keeps your legs quick. Very easy ride home. Keeping gears very small and nice paced cadence.
Friday Is an easy ride to and from work. A total of 70 km for the day at a very easy pace.
Saturday. In the morning, track training with sprint work and motor pacing. In the afternoon in winter either Race or group ride with the team.
Sunday Long ride most weeks, with Hills and plenty of time in the Saddle. Building to 9 hours saddle time with plenty of climbing. The big goal for the year is Grafton – Inverell in October and Defence National Road Cycling Championships and Australian Master Road titles in September.
I always try to get as much sleep as possible and often take a 20 minute nap during the day to help get through the day. My wife is a great cook so I get plenty of very healthy meals with good quality Carbs and Proteins to keep mu body fuelled and ready to go.
I hope this can help you structure a program for your self and give you a bit of motivation towards achieving your own goals.
Kind regards
Mick Rand
Australian Defence Cycling Team (ADCT)
Manager/ Rider/ Coach.
The Australian Defence Force Elite Cycling team uses VEROFIT.
We are proud to help and learn from this amazing group of people, able to perform at the highest level both at work and on the saddle!
In the last months the ADFEC has been using our Isotonic Electrolyte Drinks and Regeneration recovery drinks and they are very happy with the flavours and the results:
Michael Rand- Team Manager:
G‘day Alex.
How are things?
Just a quick update on the teams progress.
Recently myself and 1 other person competed in the Masters NSW State Track titles.
I walked away with 1 silver medal and 2 Bronze medals from the Meet. Absolutely Stoked with that by the way.
Dean Benedetti got a bronze as well.
On the weekend just gone. We had our first major races as a team.
We sent two guys as a part of a 4 man squad to the Mont 24 hour Mountain bike race in Canberra.
They got 4th out right and 2nd in the 4 man teams division. Major achievement against pro mountain bikers and high quality opposition.
Our guys loved the Verofit. Also the other guys on the team used the Isotonic drink and raved about it also.
We will hopefully have some new customers on board for you there soon.
In Newcastle we had the Kooragang Kermese State Open road race.
We had a team of 4 guys in B grade. David Elliot, Chris Holbert, Martin Lewis and Myself.
We also had 2 guys in the C grade race. Michael Greck and Dean Benedetti.
Well I won the B grade race with a successful 4 lap break away with 2 other guys.
I must say mate. The more I use Verofit. The more I like it.
The taste is awesome and when combined with gels it gives me every bit of energy that I needed to be full of energy the whole race and to be able to ride away from my break away companions at the end of the race for the win.
Verofit is easily the best Isotonic drink I have ever used.
Alex,
You may not remember me, but I hit you with some questions late last
year and started using your product this year.
Previous to Verofit I was using Endura. I would often cramp on the
bike after 2 to 3 hours of hard riding.
Recently I went in the Mountains to the Beach (unfortunately because
of my fitness levels, I missed 2 stages so I wasn’t an official
finisher). During the event I was exclusively using Verofit’s Lemon
Lime Isotonic drink (from my own stock and what was provided on the
course). I didn’t cramp once in nearly 27 hours of riding, including 2
days of 7 hours 50 minutes +. I was officially last on the Verofit Big
Day out and I got a lot of cheers when I thanked Verofit and Osprey
for getting through the 90 k’s.
I will be recommending it to all my friends.
Thought you might want to know.
Regards
Greg Seaegg
Is that a VEROFIT Sport Drink bottle up in the Himalaya??
re-Bottle in photo. Absolutely it’s a Verofit Bottle and a Verofit powered expedition. Using Lemon & Lime Isotonic which came into it’s own in the searing heat of the lower Himalayas, and provided the extra horse power when we needed it most as we rose gasping into the high altitude mountains. The Verofit 2+1 Gels came out of the packs regularly to provide the extra kick when we felt flat after long hard exhausting sessions going uphill.
We were the first ever mountain bike expedition to reach Pindari Glacier high up in the north Indian Himalaya at 3800m.
Team consisted of two Australians Ashley Hayden & Pat Fitzpatrick, Michael Mclean England and Rakesh Manadhar Nepal.
10 days. One porter and two donkeys to carry equipment to each of the comfortable trekking huts.
Ride Internationals Fair Trade MTB Tours to the region start Oct 09.
contact info@rideinternational.com
Jeff is a good mate and we have been in more than 1 MTB race together. Well, Jeff riding and us helping him and everybody else with any sports nutrition needs. That’s why we could help but copy and paste his testimonial after the last race. ( and yes, that a VEROFIT 2+1 Energy Gel he is having)
I had a great day, and managed to win in the Solo Male class.
This was very much assisted by the use of Verofit isotonic and gels. They work very quickly and effectively. As the word gets out and more people start using it, I’ll have a hard time winning, but I’ll take what I can get.
Jeff will take part in the Simpson Dessert Challenge pretty soon. We cant wait to see the pics and read his experiences in one of the most amazing endurance sporting events in Australia.
Hi Alex,
Here are some photographs from the Gulf2Gulf as promised.
As you can imagine, being out in the desert for 18 hours a day is pretty draining on our reserves. We had to discipline ourselves to only use the Verofit powder and energy bars for the toughest part of the ride, from Marree (the jumping off point for the Birdsville Track) to Boulia in south Rural Queensland. As well as being the most challenging part of the ride physically, it was also the most remote with no option to stop and refuel from Marree to Mungerannie and then on Birdsville. Our shortest distance between stops was 211km, riding in sand up to 3″ deep and stones the size of golf balls.
We would have a Verofit Chocolate & Hazel nut bar each for a mid morning snack at around 7:30 am just after sunrise often accompanied with fruit and nuts. We would have a cappuccino bar each in the afternoon as these didn’t met as much as the choccy ones. The bars became something of a highlight, we began to look forward to stopping and eating them. They taste great, are light and very easy to digest unlike other bars on the market (Growling Dog for example). Often with energy bars I only eat half at a time but these taste so good the whole bar goes down in one hit! Because they are so light and require a lot less chewing than other bars, the replacement of energy gets in to the system very quickly.
The Electrolyte drink really proved to be a lifeline. We would drink the diluted powder drink (we would dilute as per the container’s instructions) in the mid afternoon while resting and continue to the evening. 2-3 gulps each were rationed at 5km intervals, this was plenty to get the solution into our system and provide us with the physical and mental boost we needed. Warm water was keeping us hydrated but little else, the Verofit drink helped us replace our lost electrolytes on the move quickly. We found we were getting the most from the lemon drink when we were tired and lacking in concentration, around 7-9 pm at night.
We were rather skeptical about the use of electrolyte drinks on the trip to be begin with. However, the drinks and bars soon became an important part of our daily diet on the tracks providing much needed energy boosts at critical moments in the ride as well as giving us something to look forward too while the kilometers slipped by.
Hope you enjoy the photos and we’ll get together and out a video together in a couple of weeks,
Cheers Alex,
Dave & Tim
Verofit uses aspartame in very small quantities as a sweetener in some of our products. There is a myth linking aspartame with some illnesses and we would like to present here the official version from the authorities both in Australia and Europe:
Aspartame is an intense sweetener used to replace sugar in foods and drinks. It is a natural product that consists of two amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine), which are basic building blocks of proteins in the human body, joined together by a special chemical link. Aspartame breaks down following digestion in the human body to products that are found in many foods humans currently eat (e.g. meat, milk, fruit and vegetables) and to products, which are also produced within the cells of humans.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and other international regulatory agencies have approved aspartame for general use in a range of foods including tabletop sweeteners, carbonated soft drinks, yoghurt and confectionery.
Yes. FSANZ and other international regulatory agencies have concluded that aspartame is safe.
Studies have been conducted that have assessed the potential for aspartame to produce both short-term (acute) and long-term adverse effects in animals and humans. In particular, the ability of aspartame in the diet to produce structural changes or genetic mutations in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of cells (genotoxicity) and/or cancer causing abilities in animals has been studied in rats and mice. Genotoxicity tests and long-term cancer causing studies have showed no evidence of a genotoxic or cancer causing potential when administered at very high doses in the diets of rats and mice. A number of studies in human volunteers, including individuals with diabetes, have demonstrated that aspartame is a safe food additive.
In 1994, FSANZ (when it was the National Food Authority) commissioned research to investigate consumption patterns in the general Australian population of eight food groups containing intense sweeteners. For a selected subgroup of consumers of these products, estimated intakes of the four most commonly available intense sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate and acesulphame-K) were compared with the relevant acceptable daily intake (ADI). For average consumers of aspartame, intakes were low compared to its ADI (7% of the ADI). At a higher range of intakes (90th percentile intake for high consumer subgroup), reported aspartame intakes were less than 30% of the ADI.
A more recent survey in September 2003 was undertaken which looked in detail at current intake levels of aspartame for average and high consumers. The survey found that for average consumers of aspartame the intakes were low (6% of the ADI) as per the previous survey; however, for high consumers the exposure had decreased to 15% of the ADI.
In summary, FSANZ has concluded that, in Australia, aspartame levels are well below those at which adverse health effects might be observed.
Yes. Aspartame has been a very extensively studied food additive. International regulatory bodies charged with reviewing safety data on food additives have evaluated numerous studies performed with aspartame in both experimental animals and humans and concluded that it was a safe food additive.
The Joint (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives evaluated aspartame in 1980, establishing an ADI for aspartame. The ADI is the amount of a food additive that can be consumed over an entire lifetime without any appreciable health risks. The ADI for aspartame is 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day (40 mg/kg bw/day) based on the highest level causing no effect in a long-term rat study.
The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) published an updated opinion on the safety of the sweetener aspartame in December 2002. After an extensive review of more than 500 pieces of research, the Committee concluded on the basis of its review of all the data available that there was no need to revise its earlier risk assessment, which concluded that aspartame is safe. The SCF also concluded that there is no need to revise the previously established ADI calculation for aspartame of 40 mg/kg bw/day, which is consistent with the ADI established by JECFA.
A study in the USA in 2006 by the National Cancer Institute involving 340,045 men and 226, 945 women (aged 50 to 69) found no statistically significant link between aspartame consumption and cancer.
A recent review carried out by a panel of internationally recognised scientists evaluated more than 500 studies, articles and reports conducted over the last 25 years on aspartame, including unpublished works submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval of aspartame [1] . It was concluded that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption. No credible evidence was found that aspartame could cause cancer, affect the nervous system function, learning or behaviour or has any adverse effect on health when consumed at quantities many times the established ADI.
Yes. Food additives are required to be identified by their class name (e.g. sweetener) and by an individual name or code number. Aspartame’s additive number is 951.
While aspartame is safe for the general population, people with the rare genetic disorder phenylketonuria need to avoid consuming food that contains phenylalanine which is in aspartame. This is why any food containing aspartame must state on the label ‘contains phenylalanine’.
September 2007
[1] Magnuson BA, Burdock GA, Doull J et al (2007) Aspartame: A safety evaluation based on current use levels, regulations, and toxicological and epidemiological studies. Critical Reviews in Toxicology , Volume 37 , Issue 8 September 2007 , pages 629 – 727
Tried your product on Saturday. Brilliant stuff!!! Did 2 classes back to back at the gym which should have left me sore and aching for a couple of days (I know this because it happens every time I haven’t done these classes in a while - and I haven’t done them in a couple of months) and I feel great!!!! No aches or pains whatsoever. What is in that stuff?! Must admit, I was a sceptic but now I’ve decided I’m going to use it after I do those classes from now on!
Chris Rosete
I nearly always use some type of sports drink during training or racing events, no matter how long or short, either before, during, or afterwards.
This time I was asked to try out Verofit Isotonic Electrolyte drink.
The packaging is an approximately 10cm barrel tin, where you pop and remove the top seal with ease and then have a standard plastic lid that re-seals the tin. This is a nice and easy to use storage option with a wide open top that easily fits your hand to reach the mix, even when it will be running low. A small pre-measured scope is supplied.
Labeling on the package is extensive with all nutritional values, ingredients, directions of use, vitamin listing, and the usual advertising slogans.
I used the drink on a 100km MTB training ride in Mogo on the NSW South Coast, and after initial pre-ride testing of the mix, I found the recommended preparation mix to be a little too strong in flavour or sweetness, so I dropped the mix down a little (roughly 1.5 scoops per 500ml, instead of the recommended 2 scoops).
Once I tuned the mix to my liking it was very easy to drink and felt like it was doing its job in keeping me riding for the the full 100km and 2800m climbing. I can see myself using Verofit again, even after I finish this test batch
Robert Bleeker