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GEAR PROFILE
TAILWIND Words by Laura Mills | Photos courtesy of Tailwind Nutrition
C
olorado is home to many endurance-loving
as much as they can physiologically process.
athletes who find joy in pushing themselves
Taking in too much can cause GI issues,”
— and their bodies — to the limit. When Jeff
explains Jenny Vierling.
Vierling was training for the Leadville Trail 100
As Jeff and Jenny Vierling continued to break
MTB, he was tired of dealing with multiple pills,
down the seemingly complicated concepts in a
drinks, gels and fluids that often resulted in gut-
relatively simple way, it all began to make sense.
bomb. The dreaded gut-bomb that many of us
The body needs sugar, water and sodium to fuel
know all too well is what motivated Jeff Vierling
properly for endurance. All three components
to experiment with creating his own fuel. After
complete the endurance fuel circle.
a few months of kitchen chemistry, the early stages of Tailwind Nutrition were born.
“There are transport mechanisms for glucose and fructose in the small intestine, and they act like pumps,” Jeff Vierling adds. “They
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LESSONS FROM THE HOME LAB
require sodium to function, as well as the sugars,
“I’d always been told you should eat as much as
and when you have those present with water,
you’re expending. It turns out that your body
the body will actively pump the sugars across
is always using a combination of what you’re
the intestinal wall. The sodium attracts water
eating and drinking; people should be taking in
through the pores in the small intestine. So, you
only 200-300 calories per hour, because that’s
get all three things needed for endurance in one
