I am on twitter kind of a lot (@jenlefforge by the way). I follow my favorite companies and bloggers and it’s a great resource and it’s a lot of fun. I’ve been doing a few chats as of late as well and although they are hard to keep up with, they are great “conversations” with runners all over the country at the same time. I recently participated in one sponsored by Energy Bits and it piqued my curiosity and so I looked them up. And then, because I’m a really pushy, frugal person, I sent them a message and said something like this:

Hello Energy Bits People. I would like to try your product but I don’t want to pay for it. But if you’ll send me a sample, I’ll review it on my blog. Keep in mind almost every thing like this I’ve ever tried has made my GI issues during long runs worse so just know what you’re getting into. I don’t do advertising but I’ll try them and I’ll tell the truth to my readers. What say you?

Shockingly, they wrote me back and said well OK than! So yesterday they came and it was perfect timing as I had a ten miler scheduled for today.

I stole this image from www.blondeponytail.com so you should go check out her blog and thank her;)

I’m not going to go into all the science behind them or why eating algae is a good idea or any of that. You can go to their website and look all that up and besides I find it colossally boring. I want to know DO THEY WORK? Will they give me sustained energy during a long run and put a pep in my step with no crash or GI issues?

So here’s the verdict. In a word: Yes. I’ll break it down into the weird, the great, and the so so.

The Weird: They are like green, rather foul smelling tic tacs and you are to swallow 30 OF THEM 10 – 15 minutes before your long run. Really?!?! 30?? Evidently some people even chew them but gag, no way. So yeah, I did that, but it’s weird.

The Great: I didn’t notice anything the first 2-3 miles and then, around 30 minutes in, something happened. I can only compare it to taking Xanax (which I’ve never actually done) but suddenly I was just in a really, really good mood. My energy was good, I felt strong, and I felt really happy. And it stayed that way. I usually walk for one minute every mile and beg for it to come on a 10 miler, but actually forgot to do it multiple times. And then (and here’s the real kicker) when I forgot to resume my Garmin for at least .25 miles, I didn’t run that much less and then say in runkeeper “even though it says 9.75 this run was really 10” but instead felt great and went ahead and did the full 10 miles (which was really 10.25 in case any one struggles as I do with new math). My energy level was the best it’s every been on a long run and although there is NO DOUBT that the gorgeous fall weather helped, there was more to it than just that.

Also great: I took no chews or food with me AT ALL and wasn’t hungry even one time. This was actually huge. No GI issues, no hunger. In fact, I didn’t even think about my stomach and for me that is HUGE.

The So-So: I was actually NOT faster. Now I was purposefully taking it easy today knowing I’m doing another 10 miler next week and not really wanting to push too hard so that was for sure part of it. I will use them again next week when I plan to push a bit more and see what happens. Also, not during the run but after, they gave me a bit of acid reflux. But keep in mind, this happens to me with LOTS of different things including red wine so it’s not a problem that will keep me from using them next week (or keep me from drinking red wine;). Also so-so: the price. They are $115 for 1000 tabs which (again with the math) is about $3.45/long run or race. Which, is actually not bad at all.

Conclusion: If you have GI issues like me and have had a hard time with other gu’s, gels, and chews, this may be the perfect solution for you. I will definitely be buying a full bottle. And because you’re reading this, you can buy one, too, with a discount that they sent along with the sample bottle.

Just enter the word BLOG into the coupon box and you’ll get 10% off your purchase. Jonathan, their Brand Manager, also said something about a giveaway so I’ll be giving you more details on that soon.

If you try them, or if you’ve used the for awhile, I’d love to know your experience!!

Until next time, Happy Running.

Jen