Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Product Review: energybits

A while back, I participated in TheTriChat on Twitter. [Note, TheTriChat was co-founded by Jen over at OneLovelyRun .If you haven't checked our her blog, you should. For some reason, Blogger doesn't link nicely to it so I don't have it listed on the side but she's great and her blog is worth following.] Anyhoo... this particular TriChat was sponsored by energybits who were gracious enough to give away some energybits samples to several lucky tweeps, including me. Yay! Love winning stuff. I've done pretty well in recent years, but that's a post for another day.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and my prize arrived in the mail. I eagerly tore into the package, read through the materials and thought Hmmmm.


Now... I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but I have to say... I was a little skeptical. These promise to do pretty much anything and everything you need them to. All for one calorie per bit. Eat them instead of a meal! Or with a meal! Before bed! When you wake up! Put them in the fridge to maintain freshness... Or don't, because they never go bad! Swallow because they taste awful or chew them, and watch your teeth turn green! I feel like the marketing team lacked direction. And consequently, I wasn't sure of the best way to put these to the test. I put them in the fridge and decided to give it some thought. I wasn't sure I wanted to "risk" a workout with trial fuel. But... I will say, the tin is very cute.

Energybits are made from 100% spirulina algae. And coincidentally, or maybe I'm just noticing because I have a tin of it in my fridge, lately I've been seeing spirulina crop up here and there, named as a superfood. Yesterday it was while watching the documentary Food Matters. Today, it was in my Facebook news feed in a photo shared by my chiropractor - which I'm sharing here...




So perhaps that's why, as I was getting ready for a long run that was supposed to happen on Sunday but didn't as a result of a migraine, I found myself contemplating that cute little tin. Although I was facing a gorgeous sunny day, warm for this time of year, I just wasn't feeling the love for my long run. Not looking forward to this 32 km run (20 miles for you US-folk). Bored with my route. Grumpy about over-mileage shoes. Knees bugging me. I hadn't been eating as well as I should have been in the previous few days. The long run was feeling like a chore rather than an opportunity to bliss out for a few hours. And my Garmin was acting up. I loaded up my water belt with standard long-run fuel (Chocolate Raspberry GU Roctanes) and on impulse, tucked in the cute little tin of energybits. 

So. I'm out the door. I'm running. 45 minutes or so in, I think I ought to have a GU but I don't want to. Typically I try to follow the recommended fueling time frames rather than waiting until I feel like I need something but this morning I decided to wait. At an hour and 15 minutes, I had a GU. It used to be that I looked forward to these little pouches of yumminess but I think I may have reached my saturation point with chocolate raspberry GUs. So at the 2 hour mark, when I should have been downing GU number 2, it didn't surprise me too much that I decided not to have one. Some time later, about 19.5 km in, my Garmin died and I no longer had any idea what the exact timing of my run was - just a rough idea based on the mileage left between me and home. With about 10 km to go, I figured I should do something. I have a psychological issue with 10Ks. Too short to be a long run. Too long to be a short run. I just don't like them. I'd probably been out for somewhere between 2:30 and 2:45. My knees and hips were bugging me. I was tired. I wanted to be done. I didn't want another GU and I was already [for me] underfueled. So I stopped to take a walk, pulled out my little tin and shook 30 energybits into my hand. Swallowed them in 2 or 3 gulps, with what was left of my water ...and dusted my now green hand off on my leg. Resumed the run.

So what's the verdict? Well, I'm not sure. It doesn't help that so much was out of the "norm" for today or that the Garmin was dead. I will say that though there was a slightly grassy taste as I swallowed them, they didn't "repeat" on me, resulting in 10 kms worth of lawn clipping burps. They didn't result in any gastrointestinal distress that would cause me to question trying them on a rural route far from any pit stops. They also didn't result in a noticeable energy surge the way I noticed when I tried Roctanes for the first time. But they did get me through the dreaded final 10K, without feeling weak or like I was fading in the final kms. So, long story short (I recognize it's a bit late for that), the jury is still out. I still have some left and I will certainly try them again. Just have to figure out when's the best test... before a workout I don't want to do? A double or triple? Hills? Early morning? Late in the day? 

Would I buy them if I saw them in the store? I don't know yet. As a woman who has lost a huge amount of weight and is trying to balance fueling my workouts with keeping the weight off, I am certainly keen to find a good workout fuel that doesn't break the calorie bank, but I don't have enough evidence to know if these are them...  yet. If energybits is interested in sending me more to continue my trial and error, that's cool. I've always wondered why companies aren't interested in sponsoring the "every woman" or "every man" athlete...  I'll gladly take more samples & some branded wear to Nascar myself up through the Vancouver Marathon in May! LOL. Otherwise, I'll be figuring out how best to test the handful left in my cute little tin. And thanks energybits for sending me a sample that lets me try before I buy.

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