ALERT! INFINIT Airlift Set for Take Off...

The message boards are abuzz... the rumors are flying... and our phones are ringin' off the hook... and it's all TRUE. It's now clear that due to new contractual sponsorship obligations, we will no longer be able to particate in the IM expos where we've had a chance to meet so many of you over the past few years. It's a darn shame for sure but we have every intention of ensuring that our loyal customers (that's you!) have access to the highest quality race-day nutrition on the market in all circumstances.


Starting with Kona, our Airlift DirectDelivery program will provide drop shipping of all custom Infinit orders to designated races FREE OF CHARGE. How's it work? Piece of cake: lock in your registration for FREE Airlift DirectDelivery here, then add all your critical Infinit supplies like water bottles, custom nutrition, and RUN & RIDE singles to your cart; we'll make sure our ground crew on the island delivers your full boxed order directly to your hotel in Hawaii, eliminating the hassle of traveling with powder. Fasten your seat belts, prepare for take-off, your order flies for free. It's service with a smile from the first name in first class nutrition. If you're goin' to Kona in October, lock in your order right now and we'll do the rest.

Walk Away with FREE Newtons from EleonoreRocks.org!

Here's your chance to contribute to Infinit's official charity and walk away with a free pair of Newtons. As many of you know, the Eleonore Rocks foundation -- which provides comfortable rocking chairs in hospitals for terminally ill children and their parents -- is near and dear to our hearts here at Infinit. It was founded by our good friend and Infinit team member, Dave Friedrich, who turned a heartbreaking tragedy into an amazing story of practical compassion and outreach. Over the next month, we'll be giving away three pairs of Newtons, one at the end of each week to raise awareness about the important work of this foundation; registration is absolutely free, though we're also offering the chance to make a quick $5.00 donation when you register as well. Winners will be chosen each Friday at 5:00 PM and awarded at 8:00 AM on Monday so we can start someone's week off with a bit of good news. Non-winners for that week remain in the pool for the following week. Shoes are awarded as coupons, so you'll be sure to get the right size. Moral of the story? Giving a virtual high-5 to a great organization is as simple as partipating in this contest and keeping an eye out for the ER team next season at a race near you. Don't delay, a pair of shiny new Newtons might be in your future, register now.

Walsh Crushes 239 Miles in 12 Hours

Ultracyclist and Infinit-Athlete Bryce Walsh of Chicago continues a season of stunning accomplishment having won the Fireweed 400, the Metamora 4x50, and most recently the UltraMidwest 12 Hour. Bryce completed 239 miles in the 12 hour race and averaged (!) a mighty, mighty 19.99/MPH. Many Infinit loyalists will also recognize Bryce from his placement on Infinit Nutrition packaging in celebration of his 2009 1000KM Outdoor Velodrome World Record set at the Ed Rudolph Velodrome outside of Chicago. For more about Bryce, check out his blog or click here to see his Infinit formula. Special thanks and photo credit to John Foote @ www.UltraRacePics.com for the image of Bryce in this post; stop by and check out all of John's work.

INFINIT Welcomes Coach Jeff Devlin:

I have 24 years of triathlon and endurance sport experience. I competed in my first triathlon in 1986 and my first Hawaii Ironman in 1988. From 1989 through 1997 I competed at a world class level, including 5 top ten finishes and twice placing 3rd in Hawaii. In 1993, while still competing, I started coaching a few athletes and by 1996 realized that was my real passion. I liked to compete, but what I really loved was the science and art of the training process. In 1997 I began focusing more on coaching and competed only a few times. By 1998, I was coaching full time, transforming my passion into a career and I have been coaching athletes of all ages, abilities and experience level ever since.

My history with nutrition and hydration, as it relates to endurance sports, triathlon in particular, goes back as far as 1986. My first "long distance" triathlon (and second triathlon ever) was the Liberty-to-Liberty Triathlon. This was a swim-bike-run journey from the Statue of Liberty to the Liberty Bell. After six plus hours drinking nothing but water - and likely not nearly enough of that! - the whole race was one long blurr. I don't remember exactly how I finished or how I did in that event, but even as a neophyte triathlete, with no expectations, whatsoever, I know it was not remotely close to what I was capable. I stuck with shorter races for a while and didn't give much thought to hydration or nutrition and seemed to do ok.

The next long distance attempts, including one marathon and one Ironman distance event, were all completed consuming mostly water and a couple of figs and bananas. How old school is that? It wasn't until the Oxford Triathlon in 1988, where I tried a "Powerbar" between the run and bike legs, that I felt like I was actually "racing" from start to finish rather than "surviving". I remember thinking to myself - dang, I wonder if this is legal? I ended up winning that race and qualifying for Kona. Yes, 4.5 hours on 1 Powerbar and water - oh to be young.... In my first Kona attempt, my plan was to eat several Powerbars (about 1 every hour) and drink water. This had worked well in all of my long training efforts. Unfortunately, I failed to factor in the heat and humidity and the fact that I slowed down and took my time to open the wrappers and eat during training. Chewing and swallow isn't as easy at 150-160 bpm. Ultimately, I finished the bike course with one Powerbar half eaten and four others in a melted, gooey mess on my top tube. Try as I might, to get something solid down during the run, the best I could do was drink the Gatorade and water at the aid stations. Fortunately, going into it, I had decided to "cruise" rather than "race". I wanted to see what the event was all about and didn't want to relive my previous Ironman experience. I stayed very much at a "fat burning" effort level so I didn't suffer too badly for my lack of fuel, and finished in a little over 9 hours.

I came to realize, the best way to fuel during a race was liquid nutrition - solids and chewing did not work - at least not for me. Over the next two years, in my Ironman races, I attempted to consume and replace the same amount of calories I was burning - all liquid. Yeah, think Carnation Instant Breakfast and Ensure meal replacement drinks. Seriously? Well, at least I was able to get it down. Unfortunately, most of it didn't stay down. I can laugh about it now but.... It's kind of hard to believe it took that long to get wise to the fact that one could never replace what one burned while exercising, at least not in real-time and on an hourly basis. Even then, in 1991, I still didn't get it quite right and was somewhat under fueled - I drank only Gatorade from the start of the bike to about mile 16 in the run. At that point, I ran out of gas. Between miles 16 and 18 my 6 minute mile pace was reduced to a walk while I ate lots of cookies, pretzels, bananas and drank several cups of de-fizzed coca-cola. Once it all "kicked in", I was able to run well over the last 7-8 miles to finish 3rd overall. (Of course, my wife's response to that was something along the lines of "What!?! You were in 2nd place and gaining on 1st and you finished in 3rd?!? How did you screw that up?")

It was at that point that I truly began to study the science behind endurance sports nutrition. Water, Gatorade - not enough. Solid food, 800+ calories per hour - too much, insane really. Carbohydrates, mostly complex, in the form of glucose or "maltodextrin", electrolytes, protein, branch-chain amino acids, etc. all became an integral part of training for and competing in longer distance events. It took the better part of 6 years to figure out exactly what worked for me, and what didn't, right down to the grams of carbohydrate and protein, ounces of fluid and amounts of electrolytes per hour. Mixing up my workout "potion" required no less than 3 different products in various portions depending on the intended training session and weather forecast.

I used many different products, successfully, during my last several years as a professional triathlete, as well as during the past 14 years, as an endurance sports coach. Advanced Sports Nutrition, Twinlab, Champion Nutrition and Hammer Nutrition have all been great to work with. All, I believe, make very good products that work well and I thank them. That said, I have experienced problems with them all - both in my personal use and in use by the athlete's I coach. Most of the products can be used "as suggested" for most athletes, but they often require some "tweaking" to make them more palatable or to get just the right amount of carbohydrate, protein and electrolytes for individual needs. In other cases, athletes are just more finicky than others when it comes to taste, flavor and consistency and won't drink the product whether it works or not. I've lost count of the number of times I have received a call the night before an athlete's race asking about what should be mixed in each of their bottles and how many scoops of this and how many scoops of that, etc. Worse is the call after the race with the tale of how "I stopped drinking because the drinks just didn't appeal to me or taste good...." If you don't drink it, it's not going to work.

Enter Infinit Nutrition. Infinit Nutrition came onto the scene 7 years ago and, at the time, I thought it was a great concept. Several athletes I coach began using it, loved it and use it to this day. I knew then, it was not just a great concept, but a great product. However, having used Hammer Nutrition products for so many years, I was reluctant to make any changes. As they say, if it's not broke, don't fix it. I would only go so far as recommending Infinit to athletes when they found, after many trials, that Hammer products simply did not work for them. Over these past few years, the number of those athletes has gradually increased, particularly when training for and competing at the Ironman distance events. In some cases, it is a taste or flavor issue, in others it stems from problems with soy protein and what happens to the mix after it gets warm. Other athletes find it too cumbersome and confusing to know which product to use when, which to mix with another or how many pills of this or that to take and how often, etc. The bottom line, IMHO, comes down to OSMOLALITY. It's a big, hoy-floy word and I know just about everyone starts to glaze over when it's mentioned, let alone explained. The best way to think of it is this - everything that gets mixed into an energy drink affects how well it can be absorbed and emptied from your stomach. Mix in too much stuff and it becomes more difficult and, potentially, impossible to absorb. Some nutrition experts would have you believe that simple sugars are the "devil incarnate" and should be avoided like the plague. Make no mistake, excessive sugar in your diet or your energy drink will cause problems. However, used judiciously and in appropriate amounts that maintain optimal OSMOLALITY (yes, it can be done) they can make for a better tasting drink AND can actually enable higher absorption and oxidation rates of carbohydrates than a single complex carbohydrate mix.

Infinit Nutrition addresses all of this with truly custom blended mixes, enabling athletes to custom design a drink mix to fit their exact individual needs. The flavor, amount and type of carbohydrate, amount of protein, electrolytes, caffeine, anti-oxidants and amino acids can all be adjusted. And they guarantee optimal osmolality of your blend. Once your ideal blend is determined, it becomes as simple as 2 scoops in a water bottle and be on your way. I like simple.

So, this past summer, I decided to try Infinit products for myself. I think I was "sold" when drinking their "preset" Ride Formula. The taste and consistency made me think it was their version of other basic carbohydrate/electrolyte drinks. It was not "heavy" like other mixes that include protein and it actually tasted good - warm or cold. I was very surprised when I saw that it did, in fact, contain protein in the blend. I have always found that I, personally, perform better with some protein during exercise - really, regardless of the length of the workout or race - a little less for shorter and more for longer. Unfortunately, most of the carbohydrate/protein products available - both premixed and more often for me, custom mixed - are too "thick" to easily get down, especially if they are not ice cold.

I am proud to come on board with the Infinit Nutrition team and call Infinit the Official Drink of Devlin Coaching. I am currently working with Infinit to develop my own custom blended mixes that will be available soon. Use them as designed or use them as a starting point when developing your own ideal drink.

Jimi "Tri Jimi" Young journey to the Ironman World Championships!

On August 29, 2010, Infinit coaching affiliate Jimi Young of Laingsburg Michigan beats the heat and qualifies for the Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii.

I have been using Infinit since 2007 as my training and racing fuel. In 2009, I started to experiment with custom blending as well as running on a concentrated formula. The secret for me has been to train at race intensity in different types of weather conditions to see how my body would react. As we all know, Ironman events are generally not held on days when the weather is perfect. It is funny how that happens.

The 2010 Ironman Louisville was no exception to the above rule. We had a sunny, humid, 96 degree day that did not disappoint. With this being my fourth race in Louisville, I was familiar with the conditions and decided to come up with my own custom formula for this year's event. With a stroke of luck, we had near record temps for Michigan and I was able to train with it for about two weeks before the race and it seemed to work well during training.

Prior to the swim I drank a bottle of stock Infinit run mix. During the swim, I drank a lot of the Ohio River.

For the bike I used two concentrated bottles of mix. One bottle went in the seat tube cage and one went in bike special needs. This was all I had in special needs so I was able to grab it without losing much speed. I went with water only in the downtube cage and just kept drinking water and replacing it at every aid station. I am not a huge aerobar bottle fan. Other than a half of a banana and a special treat, I ate no solid foods. Each concentrated bottle was designed to last for half of the bike.

The key to a successful marathon this year and the part that solidified a Kona slot was taking in a good balance of fluids during the run. I mixed a concentrated solution into some gel flasks and carried them with me to mix with water and ice at aid stations. While most people had a tough time just trying to run out there in the heat, I was concentrating on earning my first trip to Hawaii.

I finished with a PR of 10:06 and earned a fourth place finish in my age group. I enjoy working with Infinit and am stoked to have them be a part of accomplishing my dream. This is a work in progress and I still have some things to dial in to break the 10 hour mark. I am certain that I wouldn't have been able to earm my spot to Kona without Infinit.

Cheers,

Jimi

"Train and race because you love it"
"I'm there with you every step of the way"
www.trijimi.com