The sports drink market is booming these days. With Gatorade making a 3 step drink series to prime, energize and recover, Powerade, and Powerbar Perform, who knows what they should be drinking while working out or competing in events.
GU, Hammer Nutrition and Push Endurance make powders that mix with water that supplies you with essential vitamins, electrolytes and calories to keep you going through long and hot days on the roads.
A new kid on the block is Zipfizz
From their site, “Zipfizz is an all-natural, great tasting energy drink-mix powder that delivers a powerful charge of micronutrients to the body's fuel system. It contains no ephedra or other artificial stimulants. Most people experience an immediate, revitalizing burst of energy after taking Zipfizz
Zipfizz is healthy energy in a tube! Give your body a rush of vitamins, minerals and key amino acids to protect the immune system. Zipfizz has created an advanced formula that provides a significant amount of vitamins, fewer calories, lower carbohydrates, superior taste, variety and unique packaging! Simply put, it's different because it's good for you!"
increased energy level for up to 4 - 6 hours without the sudden "crash" associated with other energy drinks.”
They have shown up at events such as Ironman Kansas 70.3 triathlon and more. Zippfizz has reached out to the Kansas City Endurance Sports Examiner for a review of their drink mix.
Using them for hydration during running and cycling, here are a few pros and cons of Zippfizz.
It’s advertised more as a stable energy drink mix more than a source of substantial hydration. True, you will get a good dose of electrolytes, but with only 10 calories, it would not be a good source of substance to replenish your reserves during long distance endurance training or racing. You would need something else to add in calories.
It’s nice that they come in small containers so you’re not wasting so much plastic. All other sports drinks and energy drinks seem to come in oversized containers that do nothing but fill up landfills when you’re left with the empty drink container.
It does have caffeine. You will need to plan around workouts in the evenings if you intend to hit the sack at a decent hour. It’s nice for morning workouts as the caffeine is at 100 mgs from green tea and guarana. It provides the caffeine alertness without the peaks and valleys and crash at the end of the ride.
When you mix it up, it does taste a little watered down if you use too big of a container. That’s one pitfall that stands out. Most drink mixes fall into this category, though. Using the recommended doses result in drinks that aren’t as tasteful as the pre-manufactured drinks. But, those pre-manufactured drinks contain a lot more junk to make them that way, so it’s a tradeoff.
There’s no measuring and pouring from an awkward scoop into a sports drink bottle. Some bottles with small openings cause issues with spilling drink mix and it’s all subject to interpretation. Add a little, the scoop could be overflowing, etc. With Zippfizz, you just open the tube and pour it in. No guessing. No thinking at 5 A.M. about how much to add.
Overall Zippfizz has its place. It may not be as suitable for a sports drink on a long distance endurance training day or race, but it’s a nice substitute for your morning pick-me-up coffee or caffeinated soda. It’s always better to drink some water than pre-manufactured pop. For those that can’t stomach your daily recommended amount of water without some flavor, Zippfizz is your answer, just watch out around bedtime.
*Writer’s note: Zipfizz donated the product for this review and in no way influenced the review for good or bad.
Ryan Falkenrath writes the blog falkeetriathlon.blogspot.com, married father of two young kids, owner of two dogs and trying to balance life, work and multisport. Ryan has participated in multisport events since 2001 from 5k's to Half Ironmans. Ryan is also the Kansas City Endurance Sports Examiner and you can read more of his triathlon thoughts HERE and he collects race reviews at www.Triathlon-Reviews.blogspot.com. Contact Ryan at: falkeetriathlon@hotmail.com or follow him on @TriJayhawkRyan.
Follow on twitter @everymantri or view latest videos onYouTube.
