Answer:  Before we get to the answer about how to keeps your tubes from getting clogged with protein goop, we need to ask a question.  Why do you feel that you need protein to sustain you on long sessions?

If you have experimented with your nutrition and done side by side comparisons over time with some level of control and found that protein helps you with your training that is one thing.  If, however, you are relying on the marketing literature put out by the nutrition companies who tell you protein is important, maybe you should rethink this entire protein while you are training discussion.

A few years back, we started hearing that protein in your sports drink enhanced performance. As a historical note, one of the first papers that was quoted in the marketing literature as justifying the need for protein was a study in which eight cyclists drank three different beverages and researchers investigated the results on muscle glycogen synthesis.

To start, cyclists drank a drink that delivered 0.8g/kg/hr of carbohydrate. Their results were compared to a drink that gave them the same amount of carbohydrate plus 0.4g/kg/hr of protein. What the researchers found was that the addition of the protein improved performance. The marketers ran with this result and  athletes around the world started drinking protein based sports drinks.

The problem was that the marketers ignored the last part of the study. The third drink the cyclists drank delivered 1.2g/kg/hr of carbohydrate with no protein. What the researchers found was that the cyclists did the best with this drink – a drink with more carbohydrate (and calories) and no protein.

A common interpretation of this result is that the added calories associated with the added protein was why they cyclists did better than the first group. Furthermore, adding even more calories had an even better result. Stated another way, calories are what is important.  Protein may not be important at all.

We quote this study which was done in 2000 to make 2 points. First, dont believe everything that nutrition marketers tell you. Second, this study, in our experience, closely approximates the experience of athletes who tell us they need protein during this paddle training sessions. What generally happens is that they start off SUP or prone paddle race training without considering thier nutrition and find that they start bonking when they hit workouts that last 2-2.5 hours. Inevitably,  one of their friends tells them that they need to start eating during their workouts. So they dip their toe in the nutrition game and go out and buy a protein based sports drink. In nearly all cases they do better than without the sports drink and  conclude that the reason they are doing better is because of the protein. In all likelihood, however, that the result they are seeing is because they are taking in more calories during their workout than they were before and the protein may have nothing to do with their performance boost.

I am sure that we will be criticized for focusing on a study that was performed in 2000. In the last 13 years there has to be some science that definitively determined that protein in sports drinks is beneficial because there are so many companies that sell this stuff.  Right? Although we do not closely follow the literature on this subject, fortunately, the New York Times took up the issue recently . They  reviewed the literature and it seems that little has changed in the last 13 years. One of the experts they consulted concluded:

“…Which means that, for now, you can probably skip adding protein powder to your Gatorade. “I have a hard time” believing “that protein would have any effect,” Dr. Jeukendrup concluded. The topic may continue to draw attention from scientists and athletes hoping for a simple, liquid means of getting themselves to the finish line faster, but he said, “I am convinced that protein in carbohydrate drinks during exercise will soon be out of fashion.”

For those paddle athletes  using protein in their sports drink and are having good results, we recommend keeping doing what is working for you.  There are many cases where the science has not caught up to the anectodal evidence so it is possible that protein may have a positive effect. Other than GI upset which many athletes encounter with protein based sports drinks, there is no evidence that protein will hurt you in any way.

Getting back to your original question,  our main recommendation for fixing your issue with clogged tubes is to skip the protein altogether. We generally recommend a maltodextrin based carbohydrate/electrolyte solution without protein. Jenny Kalmbach, (who just finished second in this years Molokai race without protein in her sports drink) recommends products from Tailwind Nutrition.

Our second recommendation, if protein in your drink is working for you and you want to continue to go that route, is to switch products. John Ennis has been using Infinit Go Far and has not experienced GI issues or tube clogging.

Roch, Jenny, Don, John, and Matt