WHY TAILWIND?

All you need, all day. Really.

Tailwind was created for racing the Leadville 100. It’s designed to overcome the nutrition problems faced by endurance athletes in events like 50's, 100's, 24-hour, and multi-day epics. Tailwind combines complete fuel, hydration, and electrolytes in a tasty drink that won’t turn your stomach into a brick. Read on to learn how Tailwind helps athletes get endurance nutrition right.

Complete Energy+Electrolytes+Hydration

Ditch the gels, bars, chews, and pills and go all day with just Tailwind.

Tailwind mixes with water to meet your calorie, hydration, and electrolyte needs, no matter how big a day’s in front of you. Deliberately mild, customers describe the flavors as “clean” and “light” with a mouth feel as close to water as you can get while still meeting your nutrition needs.

Your hydration pack will love Tailwind too. Tailwind dissolves completely on contact with water and cleans up with a quick rinse. No film, no lingering aftertaste, no gooey mess.

Better Absorption

Tailwind’s glucose/sucrose fuel takes advantage of how our bodies absorb nutrients. The combination of Tailwind’s fuel, electrolytes, and water has a synergistic effect, allowing the body to absorb more of each. Once in the bloodstream, the glucose in Tailwind fuels muscles directly, allowing athletes to go longer at higher intensities.

Tailwind’s electrolyte profile mimics what you’re sweating out. Tailwind is all you need. Go ahead and donate those electrolyte pills to a good cause. You won’t need them anymore (and you won’t need to buy them!).

Easy on Your Gut

Not all stomachs can handle the sticky sweetness or hard-to-digest molecules found in most nutrition products. We’ve been there, and we’re just grateful there’s only one video. Sipping Tailwind provides steady, small doses of fuel that pass right through the stomach. The composition of Tailwind’s fuel matches what the gut is made to absorb, so Tailwind enters your system quickly, without taxing the digestive tract.

Did we mention that Tailwind is made from all natural ingredients and organic flavors? It mixes crystal clear and tastes light and clean, so you can drink it all day. Artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives are so 1992.

Value

We get it that performance matters more than price when it comes to nutrition, but why pay more than what you need to? Check out some math for a 10-hour race (2500 calories at 250/hour):

Tailwind - 2,500 calories = HK$187 with electrolytes included so total = HK$187

or G? gels - 2,500 calories = HK$350 plus Nuu? electrolytes for HK$67 so total = HK$417

or Cli? Shot Bloks - 2,500 calories = HK$650 plus Hamme? Fizz electrolytes for HK$58 so total = $708

Not needing a spreadsheet to keep track of nutrition? Priceless. 

What About Protein?

We researched it. We tested it. We asked experts about it, so you don’t have to. Protein during exercise doesn’t improve endurance, but it does correlate with GI distress.

Studies show no significant endurance difference between carb-only and carb-protein drinks. Protein is hard to digest and can shut down your digestive tract during exercise. It can also slow the absorption of carbohydrates needed to rebuild glycogen stores during the critical recovery window. For these reasons, protein’s not included in Tailwind. Want to dive deeper? Check out JoeFrielsBlog.com here and another article here.

Sources

Where did Tailwind really come from? Direct experience, testing with endurance athletes here in Durango, Colorado, and some of the best scientific minds studying endurance nutrition. Get it from the horse's mouth:

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Breen L, Tipton KD, Jeukendrup AE. 2010. No effect of carbohydrate-protein on cycling performance and indices of recovery.Med Sci Sports Exerc 42(6):1140-48.

Burini, RC. "J Int Soc Sports Nutr." Food-dependent, Exercise-induced Gastrointestinal Distress. (2010): 1. PubMed. Web. 20 May 2013.

Costill D. L. Gastric emptying of fluids during exercise.Perspectives in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. Fluid Homeostasis During ExerciseGisolfi C. V., Lamb D. R.1990BenchmarkIndianapolis, IN, chapt. 3, p. 97–127.

Ferguson-Stegall L, McCleave EL, Ding Z, Kammer LM, Wang B, Doerner PG, Liu Y, Ivy JL. 2010. The effect of a low carbohydrate beverage with added protein on cycling endurance performance in trained athletes. J Strength Cond Res24(10):2577-86.

Gisolfi, Carl V., Robert D. Summers, Harold P. Schedl, and Timothy L. Bleiler. "Effect of Sodium Concentration in a Carbohydrate-electrolyte Solution on Intestinal Absorption." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 27.10 (1995): 1414-420.

Gisolfi, C. V., Summers, R. W., Lambert, G. P., & Xia, T. (1998). Effect of beverage osmolality on intestinal fluid absorption during exercise. J Appl Physiol, 85(5), 1941-1948.

Ivy JL, Res PT, Sprague RC, Widzer MO. 2003. Effect of a carbohydrate-protein supplement on endurance performance during exercise of varying intensity. Int J Sport Nutr exerc Metab 13(3):382-95.

Jentjens RL, Achten J, Jeukendrup AE. 2004. High oxidation rates from combined carbohydrates ingested during exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 36(9):1551-8.

Jeukendrup, A. E., & Moseley, L. (2010). Multiple transportable carbohydrates enhance gastric emptying and fluid delivery. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 20(1), 112-121.

Jeukendrup, Asker, and Michael Gleeson. Sport Nutrition : An Introduction to Energy Production and Performance. 2nd ed. New York: Human Kinetics, 2010.

Kirkendall, Donald Ph.D. T. "Creatine, Carbs, and Fluids: How Important in Soccer Nutrition." Sports Science Exchange 94 17 (2004): n. pag. GSSI. Gatorade Sports Science Institute, 2004. Web. 20 May 2013.

Lambert, G. P., Chang, R. T., Xia, T., Summers, R. W., & Gisolfi, C. V. (1997). Absorption from different intestinal segments during exercise. J Appl Physiol, 83(1), 204-212.

Martínez-Lagunas V, Ding Z, Bernard JR, Wang B, Ivy JL. 2010 Added protein maintains efficacy of a low-carbohydrate sports drink.J Strength Cond Res 24(1):48-59.

McCleave EL, Ferguson-Stegall L, Ding Z, Doerner PG 3rd, Wang B, Kammer LM, Ivy JL. 2011. A low carbohydrate-protein supplement improves endurance performance in female athletes. J Strength Cond Res 25(4):879-88.

Mitchell J. B., Costill D. L., Houmard J. A., Flynn M. G., Fink W. J.,Beltz J. D. (1988) Effects of carbohydrate ingestion on gastric emptying and exercise performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 20:110–115.

Murray, Robert. "The Effects of Consuming Carbohydrate-Electrolyte Beverages on Gastric Emptying and Fluid Absorption During and Following Exercise." Sports Medicine 4.5 (1987): 322-51.

Murray, PhD, FACSM, Bob. "Preventing Dehydration: Sports Drinks or Water."GSSI.com. Gatorade Sports Science Institute, 20 May 2005. Web. 20 May 2013.

Noakes, T. D., Goodwin, N., Rayner, B. L., Branken, T., & Taylor, R. K. (1985). Water intoxication: a possible complication during endurance exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc,17(3), 370-375.

Romano-Ely BC, Todd MK, Saunders MJ, Laurent TS. 2006. Effect of an isocaloric carbohydrate-protein-antioxidant drink on cycling performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc 38(9):1608-16.

Saunders MJ, Kane MD, Todd MK. 2004. Effects of a carbohydrate-protein beverage on cycling endurance and muscle damage. Med Sci Sports Exerc 36(7):1233-38.

Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner ER, Maughan RJ, Montain SJ, Stachenfeld NS. 2007. Exercise and fluid replacement. Med Sci Sports Exerc 39(2):377-90.

Shi, Xiacoai, Robert W. Summers, Harold P. Schedl, Shawn W. Flanagan, Raytai Chang, and Carl V. Gisolfi. "Effects of Carbohydrate Type and Concentration and Solution Osmolality on Water Absorption." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 27.12 (1995): 1607-615.

Sichel, William. “Gastro Problems in Endurance Athletes.” Planet Ultramarathon (blog). Web. 1 April 2008.

Stearns RL, Emmanuel H, Volek JS, Casa DJ. 2010. Effects of ingesting protein in combination with carbohydrate during exercise on endurance performance: A systematic review with meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 24(8):2191-202.

Valentine RJ, Saunders MJ, Todd MK, St Laurent TG. 2008. Influence of carbohydrate-protein beverage on cycling endurance and indices of muscle disruption. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 18(4):363-78.

Wright, E. M., & Loo, D. D. (2000). Coupling between Na+, sugar, and water transport across the intestine. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 915, 54-66.

Zeuthen, T., Belhage, B., & Zeuthen, E. (2006). Water transport by Na+-coupled cotransporters of glucose (SGLT1) and of iodide (NIS). The dependence of substrate size studied at high resolution. J Physiol, 570(Pt 3), 485-499.

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