Deep dive into Styrkr with Jamie Runnings & Styrkr’s Christian Sanderson

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>> Charlie: In today's episode of the Cook Eat Rum podcast with Exmars, we're doing a

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deep dive into sports nutrition brand Sturker and

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chatting with both the founder, Christian Sanderson, and runner

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and sturker fan Jamie, best known by his handle on

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Instagram, jamierunning. I first came

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across Sturker when I was taste testing gels when training for the London

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marathon in the summer of 2022. I saw the

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gel on x miles and ordered one along with a number of others.

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And I'm going to be honest, my first impression wasn't

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great and I didn't go back to the brand until I was testing

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electrolytes more recently and was really impressed with

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their, 1000 milligrammes sodium electrolyte tabs and decided to

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give the brand another go. Most

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recently, I've been testing their 90

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gramme carb drink mixes and, I

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really like that they are not really very flavoured, they're

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very sweet, but not a kind

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of sweetness associated with

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any other flavour. And I quite like that. I find it quite

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palatable when running on the treadmill or

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using them for a carb load. Now, later in the

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episode, Christian talks about their

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bar 50. So I thought it'd be quite fun to do a

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little taste test now. So if you're watching

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this, here we go. Some asmr for you.

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Hopefully not me chewing.

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So it's basically a, a 50 gramme

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rice bar kind of rice Krispie bar. Anyone who knows me

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knows I love those. This one is the chocolate one. Oh,

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my gosh. It smells incredible.

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Oh, my goodness.

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This is so good.

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If you've been struggling to figure out what to eat in the

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morning before a run, for an

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afternoon run, evening run, what to eat before it,

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this tastes amazing. This is the dark chocolate chip

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bar 50. Christian talks about this being one of his

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most proud products or kind of proudest

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designs because he made them with his daughter originally.

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Order these. You can save 10% on x

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miles with the code cook, eat, run

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ten. I will link these bars below. You need to try

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them. The other product that I'm going to quickly

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try is the, Sturkathon

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protein, which Christian also talks about. They're kind

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of like a marathon bar,

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apparently. These are for recovery. So

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let's give this a go.

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So it basically is chocolate, caramel and peanut

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doesn't have that awful protein taste. how

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much protein is in these? Let me just double cheque for you.

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That is

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22 grammes of protein per bar. these are definitely worth

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throwing one in your gym bag.

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Sturker. You can

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save on all sturker products at ah xmiles with the code

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cookeatrun ten. That is cook, eat, run

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ten to save 10% across x miles,

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including the sturker products.

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Thanks so much for joining me, Jamie. And, we both got kids

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to bed, 830 at night, and we

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are both early morning runners. So this is. I feel

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like this is past our bedtime, so thanks

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for staying up to speak to me.

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>> Jamie: I wish my bedtime was at 830. Unfortunately, it's

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closer to eleven. So those early morning

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rises are, that's why I can only run every other day. Because if

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I did it every day at 11:00 bedtime and

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00 rising time, I would soon fall apart, I

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think.

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>> Charlie: I mean, I'm literally in my pyjamas underneath this

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hoodie. I'm like ready to

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go as soon as we're done. so you

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are an early morning runner. We often see you on Instagram

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running it before the larks.

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How do you fuel those really early morning

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runs? Because I'm guessing you're not getting up 2 hours, before that to have, a

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full porridge, sit down,

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relax, coffee, etcetera, before you head out the door.

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>> Jamie: No, no. And I think if I were to take anything too heavy

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on my stomach at that time, I'd sooner run into problems,

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early in the run. So I've been an early

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morning riser for probably the best part of ten

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years, pretty much since my eldest was

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born, I switched. I used to go to the gym quite a lot, so

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long before I was a runner, I did quite a lot of weight, so

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I was always training on an evening. And then once my

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eldest was born, I switched to that early morning. It took a

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little time to adjust, but

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with sort of weightlifting stuff. I was taking on a lot of protein

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and things early in the morning. And then when I switched to,

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running, I found that protein would

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immediately give me, gi issues. So early in the

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run I would have a problem, if you know what I mean. So

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I've tried and tested basically

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everything that I possibly can. I

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tend to run predominantly like fasted,

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so I won't have anything solid,

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unless I'm doing a particular long run. So on a

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Saturday morning, for example, I'll try and do 20 miles,

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or between two and a half and 3 hours, depending on what I've got available.

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So sometimes that's just casual.

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>> Charlie: Not even when marathon training.

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>> Jamie: Yeah, that's just, it's, yeah, it's always

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marathon ready. Yeah. Just in case I get the call up, you

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know. So what I tend to do

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on those mornings, I either have maybe a banana to

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supplement or, So I'll come on to more of the sturker products

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in a moment. Or a sturker rice bar. Here's what I

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grabbed earlier, which just adds, a

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little bit of extra in terms of carbs. So there's 50 grammes of carbs

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in there. It's easy on the stomach with it being a rice

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bar. so I found that there

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settle quite well on my stomach if I'm doing that long run

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and just give me little bit

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extra than I get from purely

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water and a drink mix. so

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the other day is when I run sort of shorter bursts.

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I mean, so I tend to run Monday, Wednesday,

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Friday, Saturday is a long run. Everything else

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is a, It tends to be

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10 miles, but it'll be sort of

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either 10 miles with a fast burst or 10 miles easy, or 10

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miles with a, Or a half marathon on a Friday at a slightly

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faster pace.

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>> Charlie: So that's, that's quite a long run for a lot of, a lot of people.

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My, when I'm thinking short runs, I'm like, yeah,

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three to 5 miles easy is my like kind of

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midweek short run. So that's still a decent

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mileage you're running in the morning and that's

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only on water.

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>> Jamie: Yeah. So generally, well, it's water mixed with some. So,

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this one. So I have. So all of the products that

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I, I switched to sturker about 18 months

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ago. Having been through everything else. Like I

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said, I've tried and tested, I think pretty much all of the brands

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and I. Whether it's a taste thing or

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GI issues or a consistency

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thing, I settled on sterker just because

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I like the consistency. The taste is good

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and I found the performance is really good as well.

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what I tend to have on those days where I'm either going

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easy or kind of mixing up with it with a little bit

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of speed work, I'll start out with one of these

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mixes, which is mix 90. So there's 90

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grammes of carbs in one of those along with

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caffeine. let me see. So 150 milligrammes

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of caffeine, which is quite a, it's quite a hit.

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And what I find is. So I'll get

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up within 20 minutes of getting up. I'll have one of

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these and that's before I sort of.

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I kind of have it as I'm getting ready and stuff and I have a tendency

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to put content together whilst I'm getting ready. So I'm sort of getting ready

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for about ten or 15 minutes and then I'll do

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my dynamic stretches, warming up

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and gearing up to head outside. So

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it's probably 30 minutes before I'm

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actually putting 1ft in front of the other that I

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have this. I found

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that, that 90 grammes of carbs that will kind of carry me

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through the first hour or so of the run. so if I'm doing

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anything up to an hour, then that's

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perfect. And that caffeine hit, as I

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say, that just tends to, whether it's placebo or

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what, that just gives me a little boost. what I used to

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find, maybe a couple of years ago, is if I had any sort

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of caffeine before I headed on a run, my heart

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rate would just spike. I would

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immediately kind of overheat. So I used to

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have like a, like a,

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What's it called? Like a pre mix thing before

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I.

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>> Charlie: Like a pre workout.

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>> Jamie: Almost like a pre workout, yeah. Before I did like park run

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or whatever and I would get 500 metres

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into park run and my chest felt like it was going

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to explode and my heart was going to burst out. So,

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but I haven't had that with this and I held off

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from having the caffeine one. There is a non caffeine

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version here that, up until

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recently, when I decided to try the caffeine one,

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I would have one of these, again, 90 grammes of carbs in that

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one. but the caffeine has been sort of fine, but it's

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just given me that little extra

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wake up boost. and,

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also caffeine's known or proven to

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have an impact on your perceived effort as well. So I

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found that, it perhaps helps with that, particularly

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on days. If I'm going to try and run hard,

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I'll find that perceived effort, whether it's a

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fitness going up at the same time, but it's just

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helped in that regard.

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So, yeah, really long way of saying, that

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I tend to run fasted on one of these

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drink mixers.

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>> Charlie: So I. Yeah, I would say that they're not fasted

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because you're having the carbs. So yes, you're having a

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drink. But for me, fasted is

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literally like get up, maybe have a few sips of water and

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go. And that's what I used to be like yeah but I think

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that that sounds like a really good way of getting around the idea

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that you don't have a lot of time. You maybe doesn't sit well having

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something solid when you're doing quite an early

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morning run. Yeah but still getting the carbs and

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caffeine in to boost that performance.

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>> Jamie: Yeah and that's it. That's exactly it. I suppose I only call

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it fasted because I'm not actually like

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chewing and swallowing. It's not like I'll go out and have breakfast. So

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yeah I am taking on those those carbs and that little bit

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of caffeine as well. But then I'll take stuff

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out. depending on what type of run I'll take

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stuff on the run with me too.

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>> Charlie: Okay. So you take stuff on those midweek, the ten mile,

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the. I guess yeah. The half marathon on your Friday.

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>> Jamie: Yeah. So and this sort of all came about

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I used to carry gels with me and there are a few different

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gels again depending on their own. So I've got some

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here again all stircus stuff.

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So there's kind of the regular 30 grammes carb

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gel. there's one that's then got a bit of a

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nitro boost which is got some. Yeah.

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>> Charlie: What's that one like? I just went to try and order

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it and it's out of stock so I put it on my. Let me know when it's

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back in on XML's middle list.

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>> Jamie: Okay. Well no it's, it's good. I mean the taste is

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slightly different and I don't,

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I probably can't say what I can

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compare like for like in terms of what extra

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do I get out of the nitro plus than

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I get out of the gel? 30. So I tend

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to just go for it because it's got a little something extra. And

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those marginal gains if I can squeeze one more rep out

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because it tells me that the nitro plus is going to give me that

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then yeah.

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>> Charlie: It's psychosomatic. And it's in your head that you can do it.

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>> Jamie: Yeah. And I think actually. So

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obviously fueling is really personal to

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everybody and what works for one person might not work for

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another. I think if you, if you break it down in terms of like

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the actual carb content I don't think the body can

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utilise and break down more than 60 or 90

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carbs, than 90 grammes of carbs per hour.

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Anyway. So whether some of this is

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placebo I know, some people just

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wash the gels around their mouth and spit them out because even just

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that taste tricks the brain into thinking, right, I'm

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taking on more fuel and the body is then able to push a little

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harder. so yeah, part of it might be that

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placement effect, but on some of those longer runs or if

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I'm, if I'm going really hard, like midway through a run,

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just before I hit that harder effort, I'll

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either shoot a gel or What I also do is I'll

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take a little flask with some water in. So one of these little

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150 mil flasks with not

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a lot, but just some, some sturker mixing. So

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there's a 60 gramme of carb version of the

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the drink mix as well. So I'll just put a

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couple of tips of it in there because not a lot will

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dissolve in 150 millilitres of water. But

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even just that little taste just

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seems to like carry me.

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And something that I learned

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in London and Berlin last year

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is that I struggle when I don't take

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water on board. So in both of those races I kind of blew

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up at the Having

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not stopped at any of the water stations, I just thought I'd

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power through purely on

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gels. And it became

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apparent very quickly that I was probably sweating out

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more than I was taking in, purely

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through the gels. So I try and carry on

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longer runs. A couple of these flasks, at least 300

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mils of water with just a bit of carbs and

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the mix has electrolytes and stuff in as

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well, so that helps to replenish a little. So. So

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yeah, on those on my runs, I'm trying to get used to

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taking water on whilst I'm running. So

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I'll carry one or two of these depending on the type of run. along

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with longer harder runs, I'll do a

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gel. They also have a 50 gramme one, which is

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fairly new to the market for them. So I

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haven't got through many of these, maybe two or three

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on some longer runs recently because I

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feel 50 grammes is probably too much for

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kind of training runs to be having like multiple

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times through the runs. So So

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yeah, I'm just sort of trialling and testing a few things

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just to get that strategy right, really in the hope that by the time

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I'm doing Chicago in October, so by the time I

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get there and I'll have my. I don't know, I have

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it locked in in terms of what works

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specifically and over what

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duration, and what intervals throughout that longer

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distance that I'm going to need to be taking things

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on.

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>> Charlie: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you're getting it nailed down now, which is

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really good for training your gut to be able to

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take on multiple gels, plenty of carbs

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during the race. and then also you've got kind of the

: 00:14:42

summer to tweak those fluid

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electrolyte intake

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testing because I think Chicago's often quite

: 00:14:51

warm one, I think so. Definitely need

: 00:14:54

to consider the sodium, but that's great that

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they've got the electrolytes in the carbon.

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>> Jamie: Yes. Yeah. And electrolytes is probably

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something that I didn't really used to take all

: 00:15:04

that seriously, even post run. so I would have like,

: 00:15:07

a protein shake or something like that to try and replace, replenish the muscles.

: 00:15:10

But I perhaps wasn't getting the electrolyte side of

: 00:15:13

things right either. So, I've got. There's these tabs, which

: 00:15:16

are their slt zero, seven tabs, which has

: 00:15:19

got, Well, this has got a thousand.

: 00:15:22

So they've got the hypertonic thousand, they've got

: 00:15:25

the hypertonic 500s. So the

: 00:15:28

thousands are, better for warmer weather, which we're sort of edging

: 00:15:31

in towards now. So I'll tend to have either a full one

: 00:15:34

or if it's. If it's a shorter, less sweaty

: 00:15:37

run, I'll have, a half one. But that's a

: 00:15:40

thousand milligrammes of sodium in these. Or you've got the

: 00:15:42

500 milligrammes version as well. So I'm trying to

: 00:15:45

get better at the post run replenishment as

: 00:15:48

well. In terms of taking, what do you.

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>> Charlie: Normally have in terms of, like, you get back

: 00:15:54

from your run, do you try and have something immediately

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or do you then have to kind of shower, get kids ready, do that

: 00:16:00

sort of thing? And then you eat later or drink later. How does

: 00:16:03

that look for you?

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>> Jamie: So by morning, it's literally down

: 00:16:06

to the, like the minute in terms of clockwork

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precision. So I'm up at sort of

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514. My alarm tends to be set for.

: 00:16:15

So that I'm, in the kitchen by 516,

: 00:16:18

make my drink mix. I do all of the stuff

: 00:16:21

that I do. Bit of catching up on social media, a bit of just

: 00:16:24

stuff. Whilst I'm warming up and gearing up and letting everything

: 00:16:27

kind of digest. I'm usually out the

: 00:16:30

door, depending on the type of room, between 550 and

: 00:16:32

six to be back in the door, depending on what

: 00:16:35

day of the week it is and where I'm working and where my wife's

: 00:16:38

working between 715 and

: 00:16:41

725 ready for the kids. Alarm

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clocks going off at 730.

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So I've got that five minute window. I'll

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walk through the door and immediately. Well all my stuff's

: 00:16:52

usually laid out so the protein shaker bottle and

: 00:16:54

the bag of protein is sitting on the sides so I

: 00:16:57

don't have to waste 15 seconds opening the

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cupboard to get the thing out. So it's just there.

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Bang. Scoop it in, water in, drop an

: 00:17:06

electrolyte tab into a glass of water.

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Upstairs in the shower, dry 730

: 00:17:12

I can hear the alarm clocks going off and then the chaos of

: 00:17:14

family life ensues and, and that's what keeps me busy

: 00:17:17

until sort of 1010 o'clock at

: 00:17:20

night and then that's when I start thinking about winding down.

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>> Charlie: That's when you lay all the kit out for the next day.

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>> Jamie: That's where. Yeah. So I'll be kind of

: 00:17:28

planning what I'm going to be wearing or thinking about content

: 00:17:31

or doing a bit of editing or whatever.

: 00:17:34

Yeah not a lot of time for relaxation but

: 00:17:38

to answer your question it's generally I'll try and

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just immediately after getting through the

: 00:17:43

door take that protein on because if

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I, if I miss that window it's then

: 00:17:49

another 40 minutes before. Once all the kids

: 00:17:51

are ready another 40 minutes before I'm then

: 00:17:55

kind of in a position just before I leave the house

: 00:17:57

for the school run, nursery run and work.

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I met Alistair

: 00:18:05

Brownlee of all people, kind of lasts summer and he

: 00:18:07

always spoke then about kind of

: 00:18:10

taking protein and recovery shakes on

: 00:18:13

within 30 minutes of exercise. So if it's

: 00:18:16

good enough for Brownlee then for the

: 00:18:19

Olympics.

: 00:18:22

>> Charlie: So is there a particular protein that you use

: 00:18:25

that you like or is it sort of is there a

: 00:18:28

sturker brand that they've got? I don't think I've seen

: 00:18:31

them.

: 00:18:31

>> Jamie: No, no it's not, it's so, so I use a protein works.

: 00:18:34

It's called all in one recovery shake, I think. And it's kind

: 00:18:37

of got everything I need in there. And they also do

: 00:18:40

a I don't have a bag near me. It's down in the kitchen. I should

: 00:18:43

have brought that up for the post run chat.

: 00:18:45

But they've got like all

: 00:18:49

extreme greens or something as well so I tend

: 00:18:52

to put a couple of scoops of all in one recovery

: 00:18:55

and a scoop of greens in and just have that

: 00:18:58

as a shake. So I have

: 00:19:01

that as I'm kind of getting showered and ready. And then as the kids are

: 00:19:03

having breakfast, I'll have some breakfast as

: 00:19:06

well, just to keep me going. But

: 00:19:09

then, because I've exerted

: 00:19:11

generally between 1000

: 00:19:14

and 1500 calories, kind of,

: 00:19:17

before having taken on any solid foods,

: 00:19:20

I find I'm then sort of snacking

: 00:19:22

all day at work. So I'll have like

: 00:19:25

a huge snack bag, which to be honest,

: 00:19:28

I'll usually have finished by about 10:30 and,

: 00:19:31

I'll then just be down at the canteen or the shop

: 00:19:34

downstairs just picking up other things to

: 00:19:37

eat.

: 00:19:38

>> Charlie: Yeah, I have been known to have my

: 00:19:41

lunch at, eleven at work. Just

: 00:19:44

can't, can't wait.

: 00:19:45

>> Jamie: Yeah, I really like food and I

: 00:19:48

particularly like snacks. And my diet's not

: 00:19:51

very good, to be honest. A lot of it is

: 00:19:54

just kind of stuff to

: 00:19:57

eat. So I might take, yeah, like I might

: 00:19:59

take another rice bar, for example, and then

: 00:20:02

I might have a couple of protein bars, but there might be a bag of crisps and a bar

: 00:20:05

of chocolate in there. And I always say that if

: 00:20:08

I properly cleaned up my diet, I wonder what impact that

: 00:20:11

would have on my performance, whether I'd see like big

: 00:20:14

gains.

: 00:20:15

>> Charlie: yeah, well, it sounds like you've made huge

: 00:20:18

changes in terms of your like, fueling for your performance, in

: 00:20:21

terms of like that morning, the

: 00:20:23

morning carbs, what you're taking on the run. And then thinking about that

: 00:20:26

post recovery, what went

: 00:20:29

wrong? You've mentioned the electrolytes, but how did you

: 00:20:31

feel when you ran London and Berlin?

: 00:20:34

>> Jamie: So, for London, it was my, it was my

: 00:20:37

first attempt at a marathon and I only signed

: 00:20:40

up with a matter of weeks to go. so

: 00:20:43

I think I had six weeks between signing up and the actual

: 00:20:46

race. And, two weeks into

: 00:20:49

training. Half marathon was kind of

: 00:20:52

my distance. I was doing that sort of distance day like

: 00:20:55

a couple of times a week anyway. But then

: 00:20:58

I made the jump into the 2020 miler.

: 00:21:00

>> Christian: Ah.

: 00:21:01

>> Jamie: And then the following week I took 23 miler. And during

: 00:21:04

that 23 miler I injured my foot in the shoes that

: 00:21:07

I was wearing. and that put me out for three

: 00:21:09

weeks. So I had like two weeks of ramping up to

: 00:21:12

the marathon without really practising any fueling over

: 00:21:15

that distance. Then I had three weeks of

: 00:21:18

not being able to run because my cuboid was all

: 00:21:21

out of whack. And then that

: 00:21:23

left me with quick maths one and a half or

: 00:21:26

two weeks before the actual run. And so, I didn't

: 00:21:29

really know what I was doing. So I went in, I had

: 00:21:32

I think porridge, granola. I think. Did I not have

: 00:21:35

breakfast with you on the morning of the London marathon?

: 00:21:37

>> Charlie: Yeah, I think you did. Yeah. That sounds a bit judgy.

: 00:21:40

>> Jamie: We were in the west.

: 00:21:42

>> Charlie: We had breakfast together.

: 00:21:43

>> Jamie: So I had I think I had some like some

: 00:21:46

porridge and stuff like that. But then I'm sure I had one of

: 00:21:49

those on waking up.

: 00:21:51

>> Charlie: So yeah for those just listening it was. It's one of the

: 00:21:54

stirca carbohydrate drinks.

: 00:21:55

>> Jamie: So a 90 gramme. Before.

: 00:21:59

Before I went down for breakfast. Then I think I had

: 00:22:02

another 130 minutes carrying it to the start

: 00:22:05

line. So when you're in the pen With all the others. I

: 00:22:08

think I had another one in a bottle then. And then

: 00:22:11

I carried just a maybe six gels. I

: 00:22:14

can't remember. And I thought I would have.

: 00:22:16

>> Charlie: Which is actually quite a lot because you run

: 00:22:19

pretty fast. Like that's a sub, sub

: 00:22:23

330. Did you run that? I can't remember.

: 00:22:25

>> Jamie: So I'd gone out at 259

: 00:22:28

pace. And I held that until thirty five

: 00:22:30

k. And then I just cramped up

: 00:22:33

my right hamstring. Just completely went

: 00:22:36

into spasm. And that was me. That was me. On and

: 00:22:39

off for the remainder. So I ran. I finished up in

: 00:22:42

321. So I lost 20 minutes over those

: 00:22:45

final kind of five or 6 miles.

: 00:22:48

>> Jamie: But yeah I was trying to take on. Let me

: 00:22:51

break that down. So there's 33 hours divided by six. I think I was

: 00:22:54

trying to take them on between every 25

: 00:22:57

to 30 minutes. And I was going to take on a

: 00:22:59

gel which is. Yeah it's perhaps it's

: 00:23:02

about right.

: 00:23:03

>> Charlie: Yeah. Yeah that's about what I do as well.

: 00:23:04

>> Jamie: So. But I wasn't taking on any.

: 00:23:07

Any water or any. Anything like that. And I think

: 00:23:10

it was. It was a fairly. It was a wet but it was

: 00:23:13

warm. And to be honest the exact

: 00:23:16

same thing happened at Berlin.

: 00:23:18

So yeah I started

: 00:23:21

quite far back in Berlin and there was just congestion.

: 00:23:24

>> Charlie: Because that was a hot day that day.

: 00:23:26

>> Jamie: And the course was beautiful. It was beautifully flat.

: 00:23:29

It was the perfect opportunity. I'd gone out again targeting

: 00:23:32

259.

: 00:23:34

Executed absolutely perfectly

: 00:23:36

until 35k. I'd avoided

: 00:23:39

every single water station because there was so much

: 00:23:42

congestion. There was loads of plastic.

: 00:23:45

Plastic cups. I mean trying to drink from a plastic cup

: 00:23:48

when you're running a little over four minutes a kilometre

: 00:23:51

is not all that easy. So I was

: 00:23:53

tripping over plastic cups and I just thought I'll Just power

: 00:23:56

through. And then inevitably

: 00:23:59

35k once again, you can see

: 00:24:02

the pace charts on Strava. Just goes, boop.

: 00:24:05

right hamstring.

: 00:24:06

>> Charlie: The exact same spot photos, literally, of

: 00:24:09

you grabbing your hamstrings, aren't there?

: 00:24:12

Yeah, right at the end where it was just

: 00:24:15

like, grew to heartbreaking at that point.

: 00:24:18

>> Jamie: It was frustrating. I did manage to

: 00:24:21

get going again. This pace stripped right back.

: 00:24:24

I got through in 309, I think. Yeah,

: 00:24:26

309, but my watch said

: 00:24:29

307 because obviously I'd

: 00:24:32

weaved in and out, added an extra few metres on

: 00:24:36

and I got to the end. So the red carpet at the

: 00:24:39

end of Berlin with 200 metres to go

: 00:24:42

or something like that, felt, great. Went for the sprint

: 00:24:44

finish. My watch beeped to say that, ah, I

: 00:24:47

completed, I was like, great, 150 metres and everything. I just

: 00:24:50

went, I just locked up entirely.

: 00:24:53

And it took me another two and a half minutes to go

: 00:24:56

150 metres because I just was like dragging

: 00:24:59

these lifeless limbs, trying to, like.

: 00:25:02

That's the photos, I think, where

: 00:25:06

all of the support on that final straight were kind

: 00:25:09

of urging me to

: 00:25:11

shuffle along and just sort of looking at me a bit

: 00:25:14

dumbfounded because I was just sort of screaming in their

: 00:25:17

face, holding onto the barrier and I could not get

: 00:25:20

my leg to move. and you never really, you

: 00:25:22

see these images and you think people must be putting it on,

: 00:25:25

but honestly, even just to try and get that

: 00:25:28

final 60, 70 metres, I could

: 00:25:31

not get my legs to move because they're just completely

: 00:25:34

locked up. so, yeah, one of the things

: 00:25:37

that I didn't do in the build up to both of those runs was

: 00:25:40

lots of longer distance. So that's

: 00:25:43

been a big focus throughout the winter. I've incorporated this sort

: 00:25:45

of weekly 20 to 23 miles run

: 00:25:49

that's just building up that strength, endurance, but also letting

: 00:25:52

me practise the fueling side of things. and that's where

: 00:25:55

I really want to. I've got a half marathon in a week and a

: 00:25:58

half where I'll sort of practise that fast

: 00:26:00

pace, with the shorter burst of

: 00:26:03

fueling and then I'll

: 00:26:06

kind of focus. There's a couple of interim races between then

: 00:26:09

and October when the Chicago marathon is. But

: 00:26:12

yeah, I really want to dial it in and make sure that I've got

: 00:26:15

it absolutely locked down in terms of what's going to

: 00:26:18

work, make sure that I'm taking water

: 00:26:21

on as well as.

: 00:26:24

>> Charlie: Yeah, well, good luck in your race

: 00:26:27

in a week and a half. Good luck in Chicago. And we'll have to get

: 00:26:30

you back on the podcast after Chicago to see

: 00:26:33

how it went, see whether it all worked together, all that,

: 00:26:35

training in terms of both the legs and the stomach

: 00:26:38

and getting that electrolyte balance right.

: 00:26:41

Hopefully.

: 00:26:41

>> Jamie: Yeah, no, no. and thank you.

: 00:26:45

It's exciting to tick off another major. I'm really, really looking

: 00:26:48

forward to it.

: 00:26:49

>> Charlie: Yeah. Good luck. Where can people find you?

: 00:26:52

>> Jamie: So, yeah, predominantly, I tried to

: 00:26:55

share, everything to do with my running, whether it's kind of

: 00:26:58

the actual training or whether it's the kit. I'm

: 00:27:00

using a bit of a review on shoes and fueling and

: 00:27:03

all of that sort of stuff on Instagram. Amies

: 00:27:06

running.

: 00:27:07

>> Charlie: Well, thank you so much, and m. Yes, I'm sure I'll

: 00:27:10

hopefully see you and speak to you soon.

: 00:27:12

>> Jamie: Yes, it's great to see Charlie. Thank you.

: 00:27:19

>> Charlie: Joining me today. It's great to. To kind of meet the

: 00:27:22

face behind the brand.

: 00:27:24

>> Christian: My pleasure. thanks for having me. Number one, I

: 00:27:27

guess. yeah, yeah, I'm really looking forward to

: 00:27:30

this, so, yeah, thanks for having me.

: 00:27:32

>> Charlie: Well, first things first. Can you help clear something up?

: 00:27:35

How do you pronounce the name Sterka?

: 00:27:38

I feel like. Is that right? Have we been saying it

: 00:27:40

wrong?

: 00:27:42

>> Christian: Yes, it's stoker.

: 00:27:45

it's actually an old norse word,

: 00:27:48

which translates to the meaning of strength.

: 00:27:52

So sterka means strength in all nose.

: 00:27:54

It's quite funny, because quite a few years

: 00:27:57

ago, my dad sort of traced a bit of the family

: 00:28:00

tree back, I think it was, to a little town in Norway. And I think

: 00:28:03

I remember seeing or doing some research on it. I don't know if it was

: 00:28:06

the coat of arms as such, or me just doing some

: 00:28:09

research a while back. And I can remember the little bind room.

: 00:28:12

Sorry, I might have some here. That little symbol there,

: 00:28:15

which you can't see, it's like little asterisks,

: 00:28:18

which, is, again,

: 00:28:21

it's the old right wing, old note. And that little asterisk, or

: 00:28:24

the little star, is a bain rune. And that is,

: 00:28:28

I guess, the word translated onto a symbol,

: 00:28:31

and that means sterka. That means strength. So we

: 00:28:34

assumed, or I assumed, that

: 00:28:36

that symbolised the sort of, the

: 00:28:39

people's strength, I guess, in the local town. So

: 00:28:42

I've always had it in the back of my mind that we do

: 00:28:45

something with sort of, ah, I guess, nordic

: 00:28:48

roots. so, yeah, that's where the word comes from.

: 00:28:50

And, yeah, sterker means

: 00:28:53

strength.

: 00:28:54

>> Charlie: Love that.

: 00:28:54

>> Christian: And what we like to say is that we give our athletes the

: 00:28:57

strength to go further.

: 00:28:59

>> Charlie: I mean, what a tagline. That's perfect, isn't? It?

: 00:29:02

>> Christian: Yes, it works pretty well, but yeah,

: 00:29:05

it's what we embodies, our core values,

: 00:29:08

essentially.

: 00:29:08

>> Charlie: Amazing. So sterc is a relatively new brand to the

: 00:29:11

market. What made you start the brand,

: 00:29:14

bring out the first kind of products? I think there's a gap here for

: 00:29:17

something new.

: 00:29:20

>> Christian: Well, the long story is I essentially made

: 00:29:23

quite a drastic lifestyle change probably

: 00:29:25

seven years ago now. I sort of knocked

: 00:29:29

drink on the head and so

: 00:29:31

went on this sort of sobriety, ah, journey.

: 00:29:34

And it sort of led me getting back

: 00:29:37

into sort of endurance baseball, largely cycling,

: 00:29:40

running. I grew up racing bmx bikes and it

: 00:29:43

was. I spent many years in

: 00:29:46

London, not really, just forgot about my

: 00:29:49

bike. So essentially when I made, that sort

: 00:29:51

of quite a drastic and sort of

: 00:29:54

conscious, lifestyle change, it sort of led me to

: 00:29:57

picking up sports again, you know, cycling, running and,

: 00:30:01

it went from probably, I guess, one sort of unhealthy

: 00:30:04

habit to one quite healthier habit, which sort of,

: 00:30:07

was me riding my bike. And it started off as,

: 00:30:10

you know, local rides, then that sort of progressed into

: 00:30:13

sort of longer distance stuff and essentially

: 00:30:15

ended up in, sort of ultra endurance

: 00:30:18

distances. And, I'm lucky enough to, have.

: 00:30:21

My main company is called the simple company and we're sort of, specialists

: 00:30:24

in large scale manufacturing, for a lot of

: 00:30:27

other companies. So I've got an infrastructure and I've got an R and

: 00:30:30

D team. So when I was,

: 00:30:32

generally sort of getting back on the bike probably a

: 00:30:35

year or two, and I went down and saw my R and D team and said, look,

: 00:30:38

I, tried pretty much every sports nutrition on the market. There was nothing

: 00:30:41

that really sort of worked that well

: 00:30:44

on my stomach or nothing that

: 00:30:47

was. I wanted, that was

: 00:30:50

performance related, but didn't really go over

: 00:30:53

on the taste or didn't give me GI discomfort. So I went down,

: 00:30:55

spoke with Leon, I said, look, I've got a big ride coming up, a big

: 00:30:58

training block. Can you do me some,

: 00:31:01

some products that are essentially high

: 00:31:04

carb, with nothing else in there, no preservatives, no

: 00:31:07

flavourings. And they essentially made

: 00:31:10

the first round of the original Sturga

: 00:31:13

products, which was the mix 90, the

: 00:31:15

gel Ferdy and the solt zero five. And they were

: 00:31:18

just for me, essentially for the first, probably for the first

: 00:31:21

twelve months I was just training on them and then I was doing a

: 00:31:24

big training ride around

: 00:31:27

the, King Alfred way down in the Surrey Plains.

: 00:31:31

And I think it was just pre Covid,

: 00:31:34

I think it was 2019. And there was a big ultra

: 00:31:36

endurance running. Ah, race called race to the stones.

: 00:31:39

That was taking part and I was on, I was the only cyclist and I was

: 00:31:42

pedalling into this, this barrage

: 00:31:45

of runners that were taking part

: 00:31:48

in race to the stones. And they were

: 00:31:50

hurling so much, I

: 00:31:53

guess, humorous abuse at me because I was like a salmon

: 00:31:56

swimming up the river and the river being this sort of

: 00:31:59

barrage of runners going towards me. I was dodging

: 00:32:02

them and I couldn't believe how much nutrition they were

: 00:32:05

carrying. And it was most of the nutrition that I'd actually

: 00:32:07

tried or used prior to sort

: 00:32:10

of making the original staker formulations.

: 00:32:14

And I think that's the moment when the penny really dropped. I was like, look,

: 00:32:17

I've got in my hands what I thought was the best product on the

: 00:32:20

market. It worked amazingly for me.

: 00:32:23

It was predominantly designed,

: 00:32:26

for my style of, I guess, riding or

: 00:32:29

running, and it worked absolutely amazing.

: 00:32:32

And I think that's when the light bulb moment came on. I was like, look,

: 00:32:35

I've got to do something in this space. I've got to get these products that

: 00:32:38

we've, we've accidentally made amazing, for

: 00:32:41

myself, out to the wider market and I think that was

: 00:32:44

in 2019. So then the pandemic

: 00:32:47

hit, and that give us a lot of focus, time. You know, we were

: 00:32:49

essentially out riding our bikes while we were allowed and, you know, it

: 00:32:52

drove a lot more people to the outdoors and

: 00:32:55

being quite conscious about their lifestyle and, health

: 00:32:58

decisions, right, or their, I guess their activities they were

: 00:33:01

doing. And throughout that period, I think of,

: 00:33:03

2020, we were just sort of

: 00:33:05

tinkering around and really trying to,

: 00:33:09

perfect the formulations ready for market. And I think it

: 00:33:11

was 21, I think it

: 00:33:14

was September 21. I was riding badlands and there was ten other

: 00:33:17

athletes, that we knew that we'd give our

: 00:33:20

products to. And we were saying, look, let's use

: 00:33:23

these on the ride, let's get the final market validation.

: 00:33:26

And one thing that stood out is all ten of us that were using

: 00:33:29

the stoker products at the time, Finnish Badlands. And I think it was

: 00:33:32

a, it was a September when there

: 00:33:35

was a huge heat wave and I think 30% of the field

: 00:33:38

dropped off within the first sort of first

: 00:33:41

day. I believe it was just from heat exhaustion or

: 00:33:44

dehydration. So the unsung hero for us

: 00:33:46

then were the original salt zero five s, which are a quad

: 00:33:49

blend, ah, which mimic the profile of,

: 00:33:52

human sweat that you lose while

: 00:33:55

you're exercising. They've really kept us going.

: 00:33:58

So once we finished badlands, that was like. Right.

: 00:34:01

Got everyone's feedback, essentially. The product was ready to

: 00:34:04

go and then we spent the next couple months getting it

: 00:34:06

ready for market. And I believe we launched in January

: 00:34:09

2022. so we're just over two years old

: 00:34:12

now, so yeah, relatively new. And that's the sort of

: 00:34:15

background on, where the original, the

: 00:34:18

original idea stem from, really.

: 00:34:19

>> Charlie: So those, the salt, did you call them salt I five? Is that a

: 00:34:22

gel with salt in it or is that a salt, like salt?

: 00:34:25

>> Christian: Yeah, it's a little single serve sachet. I

: 00:34:28

don't actually have it in front of me, but it's a sort

: 00:34:31

of quad, blend electrolyte. So

: 00:34:34

sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium. And

: 00:34:37

they were designed for the, I guess the type of sort

: 00:34:40

of the

: 00:34:43

endurance sports that we were doing at the time. We knew they needed to be

: 00:34:46

portable, small, to fit in your bag, and essentially

: 00:34:49

replenish the, the electrolytes that you're going to be losing while

: 00:34:51

you're sort of competing or training in sort of long

: 00:34:54

distance events.

: 00:34:56

>> Charlie: So there's kind of a separate product. So I've tried

: 00:34:58

the effervescent sort of

: 00:35:01

tabs. They're higher sodium and really like those.

: 00:35:04

Is there a reason why, as far as I can tell, none

: 00:35:07

of your gels contain sodium or

: 00:35:10

electrolytes?

: 00:35:11

>> Christian: Yes, I guess so. I think

: 00:35:14

so. Lots of sort of people take

: 00:35:17

multiple products. and

: 00:35:20

our mix drinks do have electrolytes in there. The gels

: 00:35:23

don't have electrolytes in there. And I guess it's mainly,

: 00:35:27

I think it's being able to track your electrolyte

: 00:35:30

consumption as well, or your electrolyte intake when

: 00:35:33

you're so during or participating in endurance

: 00:35:36

sports. So I guess endurance actually generally

: 00:35:39

want a high intake of electrolyte. So we've designed

: 00:35:42

the products to work synergistically.

: 00:35:45

For example, like the gels, the gel fertile.

: 00:35:48

We've got the gel fertile, the gel fertile nitrate,

: 00:35:51

and the gel fertile caffeine. And they, are

: 00:35:53

designed to be taken synergistically while you're on

: 00:35:56

longer endurance events. Or you can

: 00:35:59

take them on their own. Like the gel fertile

: 00:36:02

nitrate is a great example. It's a fantastic sort of product on

: 00:36:05

its own, with a large amount of

: 00:36:07

natural nitrates in there. But we didn't specifically

: 00:36:10

put them in the gels because of the other products that we have

: 00:36:13

and to use them as. Ah, so I guess

: 00:36:16

an ego system to make sure you know what you're actually, putting

: 00:36:19

into the body. when you're sort of training or exercising.

: 00:36:22

>> Charlie: Interesting, because I think that's something that a lot of runners struggle

: 00:36:25

with, is getting that balance right. And especially for kind

: 00:36:28

of the three, four, five hour

: 00:36:30

marathoners being able to

: 00:36:33

carry, you know, electrolytes or

: 00:36:36

use them on the course carry gels. I personally

: 00:36:39

took like a pack of salt tabs with me on my

: 00:36:42

latest, marathon to try and kind of keep on top of

: 00:36:45

things. so it'd be interesting to see if

: 00:36:47

you come out with anything in the future combining them. This

: 00:36:50

is a little plea.

: 00:36:52

>> Christian: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I

: 00:36:55

think for us, we always look at it sort of pre, during and

: 00:36:58

post. Right. So depending on the distance,

: 00:37:00

the, I guess the tempo, and

: 00:37:03

the climate as well. You know, we always say trying to get

: 00:37:06

electrolytes in the night before, the morning off, and, So,

: 00:37:09

during. But it depends. It really does depend on

: 00:37:12

the length or the type of

: 00:37:15

competition, or the type of event that you're actually doing. Right. If

: 00:37:18

you're doing a marathon distance, I guess you're looking at sort of

: 00:37:21

four and a half to 5 hours or depending how fast or

: 00:37:24

slower that you do take them. And I think you do need to

: 00:37:27

keep the electrolyte contents topped

: 00:37:30

up during. But I think getting them in, in before

: 00:37:33

and after is what we like to sort

: 00:37:36

of, I guess sort of suggest when taking them and

: 00:37:39

then when you're doing it throughout, it's when. It

: 00:37:41

depends again, if you're carrying the bottles or if you've got somewhere

: 00:37:44

you're picking up bottles or you're picking up water or along the

: 00:37:47

route. So I think it's about looking at it and sort

: 00:37:50

of trying to aim for a sort of an hourly goal

: 00:37:53

across the sector, if it carbs or electrolytes and trying to

: 00:37:56

sort of hit what them sort of steady goals are that you set in your sort

: 00:37:59

of race or your training plan.

: 00:38:00

>> Charlie: Yeah. And all about practise and getting that balance

: 00:38:03

right, isn't it?

: 00:38:05

>> Christian: Yeah. yeah.

: 00:38:05

>> Charlie: So you mentioned the nitrogel. As

: 00:38:08

far as I can tell, that's the first product like

: 00:38:11

that on the market. So combining the dietary

: 00:38:14

nitrates with carbs, what are the benefits

: 00:38:17

above just using carbohydrates? And how would you

: 00:38:20

suggest somebody incorporate the

: 00:38:22

nitrogels into a, kind of fueling

: 00:38:25

strategy?

: 00:38:25

>> Christian: Yeah, it's a very good question. You

: 00:38:28

know, like when we look at natural nitrates

: 00:38:31

and, sort of performance products, it's the good thing about natural

: 00:38:34

nitrates, actually lowers the ammonia in the

: 00:38:37

blood, which lessens fatigue. Right. So if you're looking for that,

: 00:38:40

if you're looking for that extra boost. I think when you look

: 00:38:43

at the difference between, I

: 00:38:46

guess runners and cyclings

: 00:38:49

for example, is generally what we find is runners like to get

: 00:38:52

nitrates in before the event where when you cycle, it's

: 00:38:55

generally later on in the event, right. So,

: 00:38:58

but the good thing about our natural nitrates

: 00:39:00

is derived from

: 00:39:03

beetroot, right? which

: 00:39:06

converts into nitrates in the body, which

: 00:39:08

can be stored, and circulated into the blood. So

: 00:39:11

when you have, ah, low oxygen

: 00:39:14

availability, when you're doing sort of rigorous

: 00:39:17

exercise, nitrates can actually convert into sort of

: 00:39:19

nitric oxide, which will result

: 00:39:22

in sort of great power

: 00:39:25

output without affecting the vo two.

: 00:39:28

So it's a great product to have. It's a great product to have in

: 00:39:31

your sort of armoury. and it's like I

: 00:39:34

said at the start, it's really good to get in before if you're running,

: 00:39:37

really good to get in before the racer on the start

: 00:39:39

line. So in summary, the JL 30

: 00:39:42

nitro increases performance at a lower

: 00:39:45

oxygen cost, allowing everyday

: 00:39:47

athletes to essentially go

: 00:39:50

that little bit harder over longer distances.

: 00:39:53

>> Charlie: So would you use them as all of your gels that

: 00:39:56

replace all of your gels in a

: 00:39:59

marathon for the nitro? Or would

: 00:40:02

you kind of front load them to make sure that

: 00:40:04

you've got the

: 00:40:07

performance benefits for later on? Or how would

: 00:40:10

you kind of suggest that works?

: 00:40:12

>> Christian: Yeah, I think it's what I was suggesting before. So if we

: 00:40:15

just talk about length of time,

: 00:40:18

I think if we think of a marathon as

: 00:40:21

just say 5 hours for argument's sake. Right. I think what

: 00:40:24

you want to be going, thinking about is getting the sort of

: 00:40:27

nitros in or the nitrates in, early on, either

: 00:40:30

at the start line or probably sort of 45 an hour

: 00:40:33

in. Then midway through you're

: 00:40:36

probably looking at gel ferties with the l

: 00:40:38

theanine in there. And then

: 00:40:41

depending on how you're feeling, how your body's feeling, you

: 00:40:44

either want to use nitrates

: 00:40:47

midwim and then probably the gel fertile caffeine

: 00:40:49

towards the end. Caffeine's also really

: 00:40:52

good, at dampening perceived pain.

: 00:40:55

So it helps you when your body's struggling and you want that little

: 00:40:58

extra boost and you want to take the edge off a little bit. That's when the caffeine

: 00:41:01

comes in. So we've got a really good tool on our website, which is

: 00:41:04

the fuel tool. So you can put in what type of event you're

: 00:41:07

doing, the distances, the length what type of

: 00:41:10

pace you'd be running at. And essentially it'll give you,

: 00:41:13

our recommended sort of fuel card. Ah, or

: 00:41:15

our fueling guide of how to use them per, the type

: 00:41:18

of event that you're doing.

: 00:41:20

>> Charlie: Oh, perfect. Okay, well, we'll make sure to leave a link directly

: 00:41:23

to that in the show notes. so your

: 00:41:25

products use something called plasma tech. Can you

: 00:41:28

explain what that is and why it's beneficial for

: 00:41:31

the everyday cyclist or runner?

: 00:41:34

>> Christian: Yeah, yeah, 100%. So plasma tech

: 00:41:36

uses the blue plasma to

: 00:41:39

sort of quickly and I guess, effectively distribute specific

: 00:41:42

components around your body, which helps improve

: 00:41:45

performance during exercise or enduring

: 00:41:48

sports, I guess, during intense

: 00:41:51

exercise. Carbohydrates are generally our body's

: 00:41:53

main sort of primary energy source.

: 00:41:56

And more, I, guess more can be observed per hour

: 00:41:59

when they come from dual sources. So it's

: 00:42:02

specifically about how that interaction of these active

: 00:42:04

ingredients are used,

: 00:42:08

within the blood plasma stream, hence why we call the plasma

: 00:42:11

tech. So, for example, our, drink mixes and gels,

: 00:42:14

they contain two transposable carbohydrates,

: 00:42:17

multidection and fructose, in a ratio of one

: 00:42:20

to 0.8, which improves

: 00:42:23

carbohydrate oxidisation

: 00:42:26

rate and causes the least amount of

: 00:42:28

gut discomfort compared to sort of ratios

: 00:42:31

like one to, one to five or two to one. So

: 00:42:34

it's our little, I

: 00:42:37

guess, our take on

: 00:42:40

the type of carbohydrates

: 00:42:43

that we use in our products, hence why we branded it

: 00:42:46

plasma tech. So it's all about how the active

: 00:42:49

ingredients, act, within the

: 00:42:52

bloodstream, in our bodies.

: 00:42:53

>> Charlie: Interesting. I've never kind of looked really deep into the

: 00:42:56

ratios that other products use, but now I'm going to.

: 00:43:01

What products in the sterca range are

: 00:43:04

you most excited about or most kind of

: 00:43:07

proud of in terms of your releases over the last

: 00:43:10

two years?

: 00:43:11

>> Christian: Oh, wow. I think the one that's

: 00:43:14

probably the closest to my heart, which my personal

: 00:43:17

favourite is probably bar 50, because me and my

: 00:43:20

daughter Astrid, we just started making them in our kitchen. We

: 00:43:23

used to call them Astrid's power jacks or Astrid's

: 00:43:26

rice bars, right? And we just started making. We

: 00:43:29

actually made them for one of her friend's

: 00:43:32

birthday parties. Who's gluten

: 00:43:34

intolerant, dairy intolerant, vegan,

: 00:43:37

etcetera. So we made these little

: 00:43:40

asterisk power jacks and they were essentially a date

: 00:43:43

flapjack, but we did one with vegan

: 00:43:46

organic oats and then we did one with, the same in puffed

: 00:43:48

rice. But at the same time, I was

: 00:43:51

making sort of wet rice cakes

: 00:43:54

that the soigners make for the pro

: 00:43:57

pelotons. You might see them in little silver rack tins.

: 00:44:00

I sort of brend them both together and we made quite

: 00:44:03

a lot of them and I found them so amazing

: 00:44:06

in terms of transport, piloty. They work

: 00:44:09

really well. And what you find with rice cakes especially

: 00:44:12

when you're doing sort of gravel riding or trail running is that they get

: 00:44:14

beaten around and they just disintegrate. And so

: 00:44:17

we've used them sort of puff rice. It just makes them a bit

: 00:44:20

more durable. But the fact is that when

: 00:44:23

we took them from a kitchen sort

: 00:44:26

of cake or any

: 00:44:28

jabal I made and I don't into more of a

: 00:44:32

mass produced sort of commercial product

: 00:44:35

that was fit for purpose.

: 00:44:37

The brief was to make them as tasty as possible, as much

: 00:44:40

carbs in as possible. And I think we've ticked both boxes

: 00:44:43

there and so because of where they

: 00:44:46

started in my kitchen with my daughter then and where we've

: 00:44:49

got them now, you know we've won some great awards over the last

: 00:44:52

twelve months of bar fifties, you know runners world,

: 00:44:55

men's health, women's health whole host of other awards because of

: 00:44:58

the I guess the success that we've seen with Bar 50.

: 00:45:01

So that's probably the closest, the product

: 00:45:03

that's closest to my heart, the one I love the most in terms

: 00:45:06

of probably the best performance product. I would say the salt

: 00:45:09

zero five and the Gel 30 Nitro is probably the

: 00:45:12

best two performance products that we've actually got. which again are

: 00:45:15

I guess maybe underrated in terms

: 00:45:18

of hydration. People know that they want to take

: 00:45:21

it on. They maybe don't understand how to take taken on properly or what

: 00:45:24

these products you know necessarily entail or

: 00:45:27

incorporate. So they're probably the best two performance

: 00:45:30

products. But I guess the product that we've had the most fun with

: 00:45:33

this year was stercophone, our 100%

: 00:45:36

vegan, 100% gluten plant based ah

: 00:45:38

protein recovery bar. And I think we had a lot of fun with that one because there's

: 00:45:41

a really interesting backstory to why we

: 00:45:44

went with that flavour which I'll give you

: 00:45:47

a little hint. I've done another challenge. I think it was like

: 00:45:50

a 27 hours ride and I wanted to

: 00:45:53

see if I could fuel specifically on one type of

: 00:45:56

fuel source which was a very famous

: 00:45:58

caramel, chocolate and nut bar. Yeah and I ended up doing

: 00:46:01

quite a lot of them and I've not eaten one since. So we then

: 00:46:04

went back to the draw board and doing something that was quite similar

: 00:46:07

but on a recovery scale that, I could enjoy

: 00:46:10

again. And I think we got there.

: 00:46:12

>> Charlie: So, yeah, I've actually. Yeah, I've got one of those in my cupboard

: 00:46:14

ready to try. I did a big order,

: 00:46:17

so, yeah, threw one in because they looked fun

: 00:46:20

and also not like an embarrassing, like, oh, I'm eating a

: 00:46:23

protein bar in the wild kind of thing. Something that you

: 00:46:26

can, have with you or have in your bag at all times.

: 00:46:29

>> Christian: But our sort of

: 00:46:31

recovery range has been something that we've been

: 00:46:34

working on quite a while and that was the start

: 00:46:37

of, new mpds that we got

: 00:46:40

launching throughout this year. We have got a

: 00:46:43

take on a similar bar to

: 00:46:46

that, which is more of a. I think it's a four to

: 00:46:49

one carb to protein recovery, which come out, which I'm very

: 00:46:52

excited for. And we've got a,

: 00:46:54

fantastic recovery drink that we've been working on for almost

: 00:46:57

two years now. So, yeah, there's lots of new,

: 00:47:00

exciting products in the pipeline in that sort of recovery space.

: 00:47:03

>> Charlie: Oh, well, I can't wait to try them. And, yeah, good for

: 00:47:06

our listeners to keep an eye out for. So we'll definitely share when those are

: 00:47:09

released.

: 00:47:10

>> Christian: Excellent. Yeah.

: 00:47:12

>> Charlie: Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you

: 00:47:14

think the listeners need to know about in terms of you

: 00:47:17

sturker products?

: 00:47:20

Anything you want to shout about?

: 00:47:22

>> Christian: Well, look, I think, you know, number one is

: 00:47:25

when it comes to fueling, what we always see

: 00:47:27

is real food is always the best source.

: 00:47:30

However, it's sometimes hard to get

: 00:47:33

them products either on board to find them or to sort of

: 00:47:36

carry them and use them successfully when you're training,

: 00:47:39

especially in the sort of endurance space. So our products

: 00:47:42

have been sort of, specifically designed to sort of, to fill the

: 00:47:45

void when that's not possible. So I think it's

: 00:47:47

just about going out there, trying all these amazing products

: 00:47:50

that are on the market and find something that works for you.

: 00:47:53

Because, you know, I guess our fueling

: 00:47:56

plans and taste is, you know, it's quite subjective and quite

: 00:47:59

personal. So wherever you are on your endurance

: 00:48:01

story, yeah, just give them a try. And,

: 00:48:04

you know, we'd love to hear any feedback from

: 00:48:07

all our amazing customers. So if there's anything

: 00:48:10

you'd like to discuss with us, then please hit us up.

: 00:48:13

And, you know, we thrive off hearing

: 00:48:16

feedback and how do we. How we can make these products,

: 00:48:20

better or what the market is missing,

: 00:48:23

essentially.

: 00:48:24

>> Charlie: Great, well, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. Where

: 00:48:26

can people find your products other obviously

: 00:48:29

than xmls where listeners everything's

: 00:48:32

available.

: 00:48:33

>> Christian: On xmls and also our our

: 00:48:36

website as well stoker.com so yeah give them both a

: 00:48:39

try and hope you

: 00:48:41

enjoy and we help you fuel

: 00:48:44

your endurance ambitions.

: 00:48:46

>> Charlie: Thank you so much.

: 00:48:49

Thanks again to Sturker for sponsoring this

: 00:48:52

episode of the Cook Eat Run podcast and thanks

: 00:48:55

for Christian and Jamie for coming to talk about their favourite

: 00:48:58

products. I know my favourite stir product is

: 00:49:01

now definitely the bar 50 rice bar

: 00:49:04

as well as those electrolyte 1000 milligrammes

: 00:49:06

sodium tabs that you can get.

: 00:49:09

I'll link both of those below in the description as

: 00:49:12

well as anywhere you can find out

: 00:49:14

more. I'll

: 00:49:17

link both of those products below as some of my as well as some

: 00:49:20

of I'll

: 00:49:23

link both of those products below as well as Jamie Amy's favourites and

: 00:49:26

their website where you can find all of the circa

: 00:49:29

products at xmls.