Review : Enduroforce

• Type : Nutrition / hydration
• Use : Running fuel / tonic
• Price : 2,29$ ea. / 22.99$ box

Introduction
When you’re an endurance athlete, it’s really hard to carry your healthy eating habits into your running fuel and hydration needs. A vast majority of foods, drinks and supplements use highly-refined sugars, such as maltodextrin or glucose-fructose, to trick your body into high gear. For health-conscious endurance enthusiasts, this is less than optimal, to say the least.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of endurance fuels which use only natural ingredients, starting of course with Mas Korima, a collaborative enterprise I’m very proud to be a part of. There are also other new and innovative products out there, and Enduroforce is definitely one of them.

Enduroforce uses maple syrup and spirulina, mixed with sea buckthorn and ginseng. That’s it. Four natural ingredients, nothing else. I like that a lot and, after sampling the product, got enthusiastic about its effects, too.

Testing
The idea behind Enduroforce is to be a tonic, a natural stimulant that forgoes the use of caffeine and taurine and that helps maximize endurance. The ingredient mix is rich in antioxydants, vitamins and minerals, comes in a tiny dose of 15ml and still packs 40 calories and a gram of protein.

Upon trying it the first time, I was expecting a boost comparable to the use of a gel, or maybe like a shot of espresso. This is not at all the effect of the product. It didn’t change much in my intensity; what it did is to increase my awareness and focus, and mostly to rid me of the impression of fatigue while I’m running. It’s a subtle effect, but an important one when going on multiple-hour endurance runs.

Compared to a straight shot of maple syrup (which is what I now use as a gel replacement as well as the sweetener for my pinole mix), Enduroforce doesn’t pack a big punch, and I don’t think it’s its intended purpose either. As a tonic, it brings a balanced shot of stimulation, nutrition and supplementation that really starts to shine in the long run.

Taken 45 minutes before effort, then subsequently about every 2 hours, Enduroforce maintains my energy and focus and decreases my perceived effort without playing yo-yo with my sugar levels.

Analysis
Taste-wise, Enduroforce takes a bit of getting used to. Personally, I don’t mind an “exotic” taste, as long as it’s not too strong or pungent. I won’t go as far as saying Enduroforce tastes good, but I got used to it pretty quickly and the fact that it’s fully natural weights a lot in my personal balance.

My biggest qualm about it is the strange little package it comes in. It’s a small plastic tube with a break-off tip which isn’t easy to manipulate at first. Furthermore, when you’ve used the tubes, they often drip into running vest’s pockets and leave a sticky little mess. Lastly, I’m not a big fan of single-use plastic and would love an option of a large container and reusable screw-top type “shots” to save on trash and skip the mess all at once.

Conclusion
In my opinion, Enduroforce is a good element in an endurance nutrition mix for the health-conscious athlete who wants to steer clear from the chemicals and highly-processed compounds that make up most fuels out there. Used side-by-side with your liquid and solid nutrition of choice (Andale! pinole and Korimalitas energy bites in my case), it can help you perform well without a nagging feeling of constant effort.

High points

• Fully natural
• 4 ingredients. Period.
• A tonic that keeps you going
• Mitigates fatigue and perceived effort

Low points

• Break-tip containers are finicky
• Empty tubes are messy
• Single-use plastic

The material for this personal review was supplied by Leo Desilets / Enduroforce free of charge. Disclosure: I am part of Enduroforce’s ambassador team.

A New Partnership

You all know that I’m involved in Mas Korima, as a means to support our Raramuri friends in facing the advance of the modern world onto their remote wilderness home, but also with the aim of bettering my endurance nutrition using natural ingredients.

I’ve been extensively using Korimalitas as my running fuel of choice, and I make liquid nutrition out of Andale! pinole powder and maple syrup. So when my friend Jack introduced me to a new type of endurance tonic based on maple syrup, using only natural ingredients and free from caffeine and taurine, it was an instant natural fit.

I started using Enduroforce last year, and quickly became a fan of its energy-boosting effects. It only uses 4 ingredients; ginseng, maple syrup, sea buckthorn and spirulina. No head rush, no buzz, no crash. Just a nice cocktail of superfoods I start my long days with and use about every 4-5 hours along the way.

Well, it seems Enduroforce liked me back and has offered to make me a brand ambassador :)

So whenever you meet me in running events and on the trails, don’t hesitate to snatch a vial or two from me and to give Enduroforce a try. I think it’s an excellent, natural endurance supplement well worth checking out!




I’ll be writing some more in-depth analysis of the product itself and its ingredients as I keep using it this season. In the meantime, you can access full product info right here.

The First Day of Mas Korima

Today is a very important day.

First of all, I woke up in one of my favorite houses in one of my favorite places in the world. I went for a quick run around the neighborhood, surrounded with desert mountains. I also exchanged funny, quirky, lovely little messages with The Dragonfly, which reminded me the incredible luck I have that she's in my life.

I am a grateful man, for all the beauty that's in my life.

Today is already excellent, but it's also about to get downright exceptional. We are gathering our things and getting prepared to head to Fountain Hills, Arizona, at the Javelina Jundred site to officially launch Mas Korima, a dream we've been working on for over a year now.

We're starting something new., something good. We will use the workings of consumer marketing to bring excellent heritage nutrition products to the endurance world, which in turn will directly benefit our Raramuri partners and their communities, who provide the heirloom corn, ancient knowledge and labor that make the products so unique, wholesome and healthy.

Athletes and supporters will not only get access to the best natural endurance food from the Running People of the Copper Canyons, they will contribute to their livelihood, well-being and empowerment at the same time. Good food, good deeds, good will. The perfect circle.

By turning to a profit-based business model, we work with our friends as equal partners and we help them deal with the unavoidable modernity that's closing in to their homes. They get to decide how the crops are produced and handled and they are responsible to build the local network of people involved in the operations. They get to use their values, heritage and culture to guide the way of a real-world business, on their own terms. They face the same issues, questions and challenges that every starting company has to deal with, and we are here to support them and learn from this incredible adventure as a working group, a community.

And this is where I get so incredibly excited about Mas Korima. It's a new model, an idea based on equality. It's an opportunity to support and be taught, to face adversity and meet success, to make decisions and influence everyone's future in a respectful, humble and positive way. This is a chance to make a real difference.

You, me, Mas Korima, our Raramuri friends. Our way to live by the value of sharing, to create a powerful circle for positive change.