Clif Shot Bloks

So in the theme of writing shorter quicker read posts, here's another short one today talking about something that's great for taking while exercising.  A friend of mine asked a little while back and this is someone we'll talk about on friday, was wondering where I found all the little things that I use during training like body glide, gels etc.  So today's post is going to cover what my thoughts have been so far on using Shot Bloks

So that's what they look like, and I guess I should say what these are for people that don't know what they are (I'm talking about you Alan).  They're essentially little blocks of sugar and electrolytes that you can chew while exercising to continue giving you energy and replacing lost electrolytes.  There's even a nice little drawing and a schematic of  packaging that fits very nicely into a jersey pocket.  They've got some that have caffeine (25 and 50 mg) and one that has extra sodium (3x) to help you replenish what you lost.

I guess the biggest thing like with all sports nutrition is, does it go down alright?  For me yes it does, and I've found for the most part Clif stuff goes down easily (tastes good) and stays down (doesn't cause funny feelings in the stomach).  The biggest thing that makes it up is Brown rice syrup, so if that doesn't sit well with you, these will probably not work so well.  One thing I do appreciate is the way they've packaged it, there's not really any extra bulk at all.  They say that they're "Fastpak" system allows for easy opening, but I've found that if you just cut the top off with a pair of scissors, you can just squeeze off one by one easily while in motion which is always good.  They're never too sweet, and they've got a ton of flavors.

Nutritionally, a few things, it is vegan, it's gluten free, but NOT KOSHER.  They've got a few different flavors:
Black cherry (50mg caffeine)
Cran-Razz
Lemon Lime
Margarita (3x sodium)
Mountain Berry
Orange (25mg caffeine)
Strawberry
Tropical punch (25 mg caffeine)

Here's a nutritional info for their lime one, I don't think it changes a whole lot between bars:

Personally my favorite one is lemon lime, but I'll probably go and try some more of these new flavors that they have for this year, it used to only be like 3 or 4 flavors.  It will set you back about a buck 50 and you get 6 bloks for that.  So next time you want to take something solid, or try it out, pop 1 or 2 20-30 minutes before you start, and then every 30 minutes after you start exercising, and you should be full of energy.

~Cheers