While competing in Vail, I was staying with a friend of mine Walter Wong. We were discussing different concepts of recovery while climbing and what I ate and drank. He started talking about his friend Allen Lim who had created a sports drink that was “perfect” for athletes that needed to recovery quickly.
Allen Lim went to school locally by going to school at the University of Boulder. He got his masters in Kinesiology and a Ph.D in Integrative Physiology. He worked closely with Lance Armstrong while doing Tour De France training. There’s a great article here about his work with Armstrong.
Allen created a powdered drink called Skratch that refuelled the body with sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium while at the same time delivering a small dose of sugar. I had always enjoyed drinking gatorade/powerade at competitions but found that with all the sugar in them, it was just too much, especially when drinking 2-3 litres a day.
The problem with drinking just water is sodium; while doing exercise and sweating, you secrete sodium and without replenishing those levels, the water you’re drinking will end up making you pee and overall dehydrating you.
As you can see on the bottom of their website, many Tour De France athletes were putting this drink into their bottles while being sponsored by other companies, so it became known as the “secret drink“. It’s not so much a secret anymore as many pro cyclist now use the brand.
If you now see me with this new logo, it doesn’t stand for “Sean” as I’m sure many of you thought but rather “Skratch”.
I’ve now stocked up on Skratch product which will last me the season. After drinking it in Vail and placing my best result in World Cup, I felt like I was on top of my game. Even in Vail, at 8000 feet, I could breathe relatively easy. I had asthma as a kid and I find altitude hard on my system. Of course you can say that maybe I just having a good couple of days, but I thought this stuff was great, and I’m going to start drinking it everyday!
If you want to try out some of their product for your gym, training group or personal use, I get a small discount so get in contact with me and I’ll get you a code! You can post a comment below with any email address and I’ll get in contact with you!
