Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hornet Juice Trial

One morning I noticed that @hornetjuice was following me on twitter and I remember hearing something about it on a couple of podcasts I listen to but kept forgetting to follow up on it. I went to their website and while I was sceptically it did peak my interest and the $9 (free shipping) 4 pack trial offer was in my price range so I ordered it. The people at hornet juice have their twitter stuff together. When I started following them, I got a DM from them fairly quickly and they said if I had any questions to DM them back. I did and they were very responsive. So far I haven't even tried the product but already really like the company.
The package arrived Monday morning and I formulated my plan to try it out. The first test was my Thursday morning run. I had an 8 miler at comfortable pace and I planned a hilly route. The package said take 30 minutes before on an empty stomach or with light carbs. I got up at 5 and ate my normal breakfast ( minus the protein ) at 5:30. Headed to work at 6:30 and drank the juice on the way for a 7:10 start. I have a notoriously picky stomach in the morning so I didn't want to wait for the weekend to see what it would do to me, but I had no issues what so ever with it. I had even forgotten I had taken it until I got to mile 6 and noticed how good I was feeling. Two miles and some rolling hills later I was done and happy. Test number one passed with flying colors.
next up was the weekend. DM'd HJ and told them I had a 30/3 brick on Saturday and a 40 mile bike on Sunday and asked if it would be better to take 1 Saturday and 1 recovery after the brick then 1 Sunday, or 1 Saturday and 2 Sunday. They answered quickly that 1 Saturday and 2 Sunday would be better and so that was the plan. Unfortunately we got snow again on Friday night so riding on the roads was out. The new plan was 1:30 on the bike trainer, followed by a 3 mile hilly and hard run out in the snow. Didn't really notice anything on the bike, but really on the trainer I wouldn't expect it. When my time was done I jumped off and changed into some warmer clothes and headed out. I had to leave in 30 minutes to take the girl to ballet with the 4wd in the snow so I really needed to go fast. I love running in the snow, and started after being all warmed up just made it so much better. I decided early on I would do the loop the hard way and really push it to see how it went. When I got to the top of the long ass hill at the end of mile two I thought I must be dreaming. I was running a quicker pace then I do when running it the easy way and I felt like it was easy. Day 3 was supposed to be 40 miles on the bike outside, but it was valentines day so I had to get it done early or risk the wrath of my wife and daughter and since it was in the 20's with snow from yesterday on the ground, going outside was not an option. I had planned to do 2 hours on the trainer. This time I took the juice 5 minutes before starting to see if I could handle the transition. One thing I noticed this time was I started feeling the effects at close to an hour into it after my first gel pack. When I got to the 1:45 mark I was feeling strong so i through in some standing climb efforts till the 2 hour mark. I was very happy with the results and rode an extra 15 minutes to boot.
I am very happy with the results of my hornet juice test and am going to order a bigger lot this time and try it out in my two upcoming races in March. From what I have seen on the internet, it doesn't work for everyone, so don't blame me if it doesn't for you, but I think it's worth the money to try it out and they will refund your unused portions if you don't like it. What do you have to lose?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

never heard of it...will have to give it a looksy! Sounds like it's working for you, which is great, knowing how picky your tummy is...

Unknown said...

This is really cool Bill and reeeaally funny :) I already put a link on our facebook and twitter for others to read. I hope you don't mind. Keep on buzzin'!!! -Lori (HornetJuice.com)

YankeeGirlInAustralia said...

Hey Bill,

I am hoping to do a marathon this July. I am going to give this a try! I'll let you know how it works for me. Can't believe they have FREE shipping to Australia! How 'bout that!

Cheers,
Renee