SportsFuel 101 Endurance Sports Nutrition

The Best Supplements for Endurance Athletes

If you compete in endurance events or undertake gruelling training, SportsFuel 101 is going to be your best sidekick. It's designed to help endurance athletes get the most out of their sport... boosting performance and fast-tracking recovery.

This exciting endurance sport supplement was developed in-house by our very own elite athlete, Nicole Frain. Nicole performs as a top-level cyclist and knows all about fuelling for endurance and kickstarting recovery.

Hear all about this new product and the benefits it could have for you from the very person who formulated SportsFuel 101.

SportsFuel 101 Q&A with Nicole

Why did you develop SportsFuel 101?

SportsFuel 101 was developed for endurance athletes like me. For those of us who compete in aerobic and endurance-based sports and are looking to boost performance, maintain energy levels and assist with recovery.

SportsFuel 101 was developed off the back of Recuper8, which was Bulk Nutrients’ previous endurance supplement.

SportsFuel 101 uses similar concepts to Recuper8 to fuel endurance athletes but is more effective and better tasting.

How is a product like this developed? Can you explain the testing process of SportsFuel 101?

Whenever we start any new development process, we start by looking at our current product range and asking ourselves a few questions, including:

In the case of SportsFuel 101, we took away some common themes from customer feedback that we wanted to improve. We also saw this as an opportunity to retain some of the key concepts of Recuper8 that worked well, and to build on those that didn’t work well.

We took to the lab to work on these before producing our initial prototypes for testing. We then engaged our current customer base of Recuper8 to seek their feedback on these samples. We did this a couple of times until we were happy with the final product. First and foremost, we focused on the function of the product, as this is a key component. Then we followed that by selecting great flavours.

We engaged Recuper8 users as they knew first hand what they wanted from an endurance-specific supplement and were able to give us valuable feedback during testing. While we often use our Bulk Nutrients staff as testers for developing the base of products and ensuring they are on the right track, we try and engage real users of our products wherever possible. We also see it as a wonderful way to include our customers in the development process and we truly do value their feedback and input in this process.

Tell us about the SportsFuel 101 formulation. What is the function of each ingredient?

SportsFuel 101 provides sustained energy during your activity, thanks to a blend of carbohydrates including isomaltose, maltodextrin and dextrose.

This blend contains both rapid release and medium length release carbohydrates. Unlike other products that use sugars for quick release carbs, this combination helps to prevent rapid spikes in blood glucose to maintain a consistent energy release.

Hydrolysed Collagen is also included in SportsFuel 101 to encourage muscle recovery due to its high protein content. We chose collagen as the protein source as it mixes better than whey protein and is dairy-free, which is great when you’re sipping on this over a longer period.

Also included are Branched Chain Amino Acids and Citrulline Malate for additional muscle endurance and recovery support.

How can an intra-workout supplement like SportsFuel 101 be beneficial to endurance athletes?

Over an extended period of exercise, such as endurance events, fuel levels start to drop. Muscle glycogen gets low, electrolytes are lost through sweat and the ability to maintain performance reduces as fatigue sets in.

An intra-workout product like SportsFuel 101 helps to maintain and replace glycogen levels and electrolytes so you can continue to perform at optimal capacity, while also kick-starting the recovery process.

Tell us more about nutrition for endurance athletes around training.

Endurance athletes will often consume more carbohydrates than the average athlete. This is due to the long nature of training efforts and blocks.

Because of the length of required training/events, it is not enough to just fuel up before then wait until after to eat. In these scenarios, fuelling during training and events is needed to sustain the required effort.

SportsFuel 101 is perfect to help meet this need by including carbohydrates in the blend, while also being easy to absorb and reasonably gentle on the stomach, which is also ideal for digesting while exercising.

Who else should consider SportsFuel 101 as a go-to supplement?

SportsFuel 101 is a great option for non-endurance athletes too. If you find it difficult to eat after training or need an energy hit during training, SportsFuel 101 is a great solution to ensure you're getting the energy and nutrients you need for performance and recovery.

SportsFuel 101 is not only great for runners, cyclists and swimmers but any activity that is strenuous over a period of time such as ball sports, Motocross and CrossFit.

More about Nicole

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I have been working with Bulk Nutrients for 7 years now, and in the R&D Team for about 4 years. This meant I’ve been able to work directly on products that have interested me and have first hand experience of what I would use and benefit from in my sport that I can then apply in developing products. Being an athlete and working in Product Development means I can test products myself and have a real personal stake in the results, usability, and quality.

My sports over the years have varied from fitness modelling, soccer, gym and now cycling. This has meant that over the years my needs for supplements have changed and I have a broad understanding of what different demographics might be after and how they use sports supplements.

For me now, cycling is endurance and I understand what it is that I need for performance. The longer I spend in certain sports the more I understand the needs for myself and for others which I have found very helpful to apply to my work.

Tell us about your cycling career - your most recent results and future goals.

I took up cycling just three years ago, and every year the ‘summer of racing’ is held. This includes the Nationals Road Titles and often races such as Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

This year (2021) I raced in the Tour Down Under and took out third place on two of the four stages while coming 4th overall on General Classification.

While at Road Nationals I finished 3rd in the Elite Women’s Individual Time Trial and 8th in the Elite Women’s 105km Road Race.

In the future, I would love the opportunity to head back to Europe to race, as well as continue to chase a podium at nationals in the road race, make World’s selection for the Australian Team and sign to a Pro Conti team.