Over the last month or so I’ve been building up to the most important races of the running season[1].
Part of this is this weekend’s Kloofnek Classic 21Km which has one of the toughest routes in Cape Town.

I’ve for some time now been using a small selection of mineral supplements aimed at sports-type use. Some of them have worked, others not so much.
But I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I need to look into Creatine.
I don’t like Creatine, or rather, I don’t like the whole culture that comes with Creatine. Crew-cut sales assistents that pound the Dis-Chem pharmacy ailes in crazy-tight shirts that say ‘Get Hard… or go home!‘.
I particularly dislike the USN brand with its mega-tubs of power whey whatever and multi-coloured ultra-max phedra-cut tablets[2].
However, Creatine is a naturally produced by the body and is a legitimate(crucial) part of the standard muscular metabolic cycle.
So despite not really being into the whole Better Living Through Chemistry thing[3] I decided to brave the muscle-bound commission earners and get me some of the good stuff.

Here is some of what USN tried to sell me.

• Phedra-Cut XT
• Protein Plex
• Cytopower SF
• Mega Anabolic Stack
• Dynamic EnerG

Damn! Just looking through the tubs of stuff featuring bronzed muscle temple and foil-embossed labels made me feel all mega-powerful and ripped! Whoo-whee! That’s damn hot!

USN Product Bonanza!

In the end, after comparing a bunch of basic Creatine Monohydrate products with various compound formulations, I settled on a USN product – CreatineX4. Yeah!
It is an Ethyl Ester form of the acid, which makes it fat soluble, and features DRT (Dynamic Release Technology supplied by the mega-folks from Calpharm) which is, I guess, what gives it the vaunted X4-ness.
It’s somewhat more expensive than the monohydrate products (around R180 per month), but not nearly in the league of the specialised badass motherfucker Creatine supplements that can clock in at around R600 per month. You should see the rad packaging on those things – the bottle all but has airbrushed flames and 3-D holograms.

USN CreatineX4

The bottle all but promises that if I drop 4 of these a day I will be endowed with ‘lightningquick muscle recovery during workouts’.
So let’s have a look what’s in this bad boy.

Phew! That’s some nasty shit right there!
Well, not quite.
Creatine is creatine and is natural. Glycine is a simple amino acid which is present in most sports supplements. Taurine is like Glycine but with a bit more bite. Beta Alanine is another amino acid, but with less bite. Let’s not even mention Magnesium Chelate which is basically standard Magnesium in an easily absorbable form.
CalPharm Tech Dynamic Release Formula? Hmmm… now we might be on to something.

Joking aside I’ve come to realise(through personal experience) that the efficacy of supplements often has less to do with how many crazy things are crammed in there and more to do with in what form the compounds are and how they relate to one another.
Comparitive to other sports supplements that I’ve used this one’s list is relatively standard, though the milligram contents of each is significantly higher.

I’ve been using it for about a week and a half – and qualitatively I can say that so far I’ve really felt a marked improvement in muscle endurance.
I was expecting a significant amount of the benefit to be deferred to the day after a training session (i.e. muscle recovery) but it’s been my experience that the real benefit has been to my actual training sessions.
I’m actually quite impressed[4] by it.
Now I just need one of those ‘Get hard!’ t-shirts.

MegaRunner EC (Extra Cool)

[1] The Peninsula Half Marathon on 18 February and the big day at the Two Oceans Half Marathon on 7 April.
[2] Not to mention the fact that moronic Mark Pilgrim is their spokesdude.
[3] I lean more towards Having More Fun Through Chemistry
[4] Just as impressed as I was by the much less high-end glamarous Fast Fuel Lactic Buffer – a simple sodium phosphate supplement.