Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up out of a dead sleep suddenly aware of something that you were supposed to do but didn’t? Well, today was one of those days for me. I received some Amino Vital product that I was supposed to review months ago, and I never actually reviewed it. Oops! If I was going to make excuses for myself I would point out that last year was my worst running year ever. I was plagued by multiple illnesses, I experienced my first DNF (due to illness), and I got a job that required me to commute several hours everyday, which naturally cut into my running time. However, it’s not like I wasn’t running at all, and I was using the product, so I’m just going to admit that this was “my bad” and write the review now.
I always find it hard to compare supplements. After all, if I take a supplement, and then go out and have a terrible run, is it fair to blame the supplement? How do you assess the claims these products make, such as faster muscle recovery, or quick absorption? Also, not all supplements work the same for everyone. For example, I know many runners who swear by Creatine, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the product works. However, when I take Creatine, I get killer headaches. I have no idea why this happens, but I’ve tried it a few times, just to make sure that it wasn’t a coincidence, and every time the result was the same. In the end, all I can do is use the product and report on how it worked for me, and since I used the Amino Vital Endurance drink for all of the 2011 running season, I feel like I have enough experience with it to do that. So on with the review!
I should probably start by pointing out that my default sports drink has always been Gatoraide, due entirely to it’s availability and not because I think that it is the best product out there. I have used other products, most notably HEED which is often supplied during the 100 Milers I’ve run. But Gatoraide is my base line for sports drinks, so that’s what I’ll mostly be comparing the Amino Vital Endurance drink to.
To get right to the most important aspect of any sports drink, I will start off by saying that the product works. I used it during countless training runs as well as one marathon, two half-marathons, and a few random smaller races that I ran this year, and I never experienced the effects of hyponatremia (low saline levels). The real question for me though is if it worked better than its cheaper competitors. For me, I would have to say that the answer is no. I have been blessed with a body that naturally recovers quickly from the insane things that I do to it, so someone who tends to recover more slowly might get more benefit out of the product. But I didn’t notice any improvement in race performance or recovery time over simply using Gatoraide.
For me, where the product really fell flat was taste. Realistically, sports drinks don’t tend to taste terribly good at the best of times. I have heard many runners say that they can’t stand the taste of Gatoraide, usually because it is too sweet. I personally find HEED to be a little bit gross, especially after drinking large quantities of it for 24 hours during a 100 miler. I picked up the Mandarin Orange flavour of the Amino Vital product, largely because I find that orange is a pretty safe flavour for sports drinks. I actually found the flavour of the drink to be pleasant and not too sweet, but it leaves a strong chalky after-taste that is pretty unpleasant. I was able to minimize the after-taste by diluting the product, but I can only assume that this reduces the effectiveness of the product as well. Even diluted, the product still worked for me, but some of the chalky after-taste remained as well.
So, in the end, I might recommend the product for hardcore racers who need something stronger than Gatoraide and don’t mind the after-taste. For myself, I will continue to use the product until my supply of it is gone, but then I will switch back to Gatoraide, which is cheaper and, in my opinion, tastes batter.
