How Two Triathletes Built a Better Bar for Endurance Fueling with Matt Schuster

[00:00:00] All right, we are at another Metta Performance Podcast. I'm flying solo today. Michael, when he gets this, messaged me, and you'll appreciate this, Matt, that he is out riding extra long and left me hanging. So I am chaperone free with Matt Schuster today. How are you, Matt? I'm doing great. I'm jealous. I always am a big fan of an extra hour, an extra few miles.

[00:00:25] I know. He sends me the note, and of course, yeah, you're the same as me. You're like, I kind of want to be upset, but I haven't got the whole skinny. I can't decide if I want to be a bad human and hope he had a flat somewhere and is out longer, or if he actually just was like, it's super nice out and he's grabbing extra miles, which I'm kind of hoping it is. Yeah. So I appreciate you coming on.

[00:00:50] Yeah, no, I'm excited to be here. Excited to kind of share a little bit more about what we've done, what Adra is, and kind of what we're hoping to change in terms of the hearts and minds of endurance athletes and nutrition. Okay. And I know I met you, actually, this is that small world thing. I met you this year at Nationals, and then I invited you on, to be fair, after I tried some of your bars.

[00:01:14] So I didn't, you know, it was one of those, I'm going to wait and see. So that's a quality sample pack you sent me with. Okay. All right. So let's do it. Real time feedback. Give me the full. It was good. I, I've been a, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know, is it the H word? So I, I have Crohn's, so that's no secret. And so finding Crohn's friendly stuff, and we'll get into that more, is difficult. And so I have had a couple brands that I definitely lean into more in the powder, which I can mix and do other stuff and we'll kind of go with that.

[00:01:42] But no, having alternate items, and I won't lie, someone who travels a lot, actually, that's where I ended up using a bunch because they're way more portable and easy to use on the fly. So at least those, those, that part was. So no, they were good at it. And I was like, okay, these don't, you know, the high bar that I have, Matt, these don't suck. I'm going to talk to Matt about why he started a company. So, so we actually, that is the best compliment that we can get is when we go and we do sampling live.

[00:02:11] The, the number one thing we look for is people saying, hey, these actually aren't terrible. Yeah. Like that, that's a win because most protein bars don't taste good. No, they stay with you for a while. It doesn't taste bad, but they kind of, there is a spectrum because if you go to the full opposite end and say, wow, these taste amazing.

[00:02:31] Usually there's a reason and it's including all kinds of stuff that is either not helpful or, you know, potentially some other weird funky sweeteners and things like that. So. Well, give us your background. So, you know, you're, you're at Adra, but give us the, you know, your, your history and kind of how you decided to start it and what's going on now. So the, it's funny that how you opened. So my address, we started with two of us. So it's my, me and my partner, Eric, and we have the exact same dynamic.

[00:03:00] Sounds like you, is Michael's the other person, right? So you and Michael have, so we have key initiative meetings that we have every Monday. And it's always moved because one of us is either at the pool a little longer than we thought, or, you know, on the bike ride that's going a bit longer. And, and that kind of really does back into the essence of what we're doing at this stage in our life and why we built it. So my background is I actually was not an endurance athlete growing up.

[00:03:30] Didn't participate much in it until, you know, adulthood. I played team sports all through college. I played with division one lacrosse and then found my way into the corporate world in marketing. Did that for about 15 years. I had a really good career, but, you know, you had that sort of call it the cliche midlife crisis, call it what you want. But, you know, I was like, man, this is not going in the direction I thought it would be.

[00:03:56] And this is, you know, mid to late 30s and picked up sports again through running, through cycling, found triathlon and just got hooked. And, you know, went down that path pretty hard as a, as a participant. And really for me, it was, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know it has something to do with this.

[00:04:20] And I went full, like head, feet, everything, full body first into I'm going to do a full career shift and pivot. And left my job in the corporate world, started, you know, a couple of different startups just to dip my toe. I started a blog. I started a media company, a coaching platform. And each step, it was never the thing, but it was a learning or a stepping stone.

[00:04:47] And the thing I kept on coming back to was nutrition is such a, such a malleable thing that every athlete can actually touch and make decisions and choose. It's not like genetics where it's like you either have this or you don't. Nutrition is something that you can, in fact, manipulate on your own to get more out of your performance. And to me, that was just so fascinating. So I really leaned into that with the business that I had before.

[00:05:14] And then that led me to this very random, call it a matchmaking run. A friend of mine was like, Hey, you should go over for a run with this guy, Eric. He's a super cool dude. Oh, and he runs Power Bar. I was like, cool, maybe I'll get some free stuff out of it. So we went on a run and we ended up chatting for like two or three hours that day. And we were just talking about how Power Bar was going. And, you know, at the time they were doing a big rebuild.

[00:05:44] There was a, you know, through acquisition, the Power Bar sports division had gone through its ups and downs. And he was running a group that was recreating it in the U.S. And he's like, I'm an R&D guy. I know products. I don't know digital marketing. I don't know sales. That's not my thing. And I said, I just left a career in marketing and built two businesses from the ground up that are just direct to consumer. I could do this. So I joined on with him.

[00:06:12] And for me, it was like, this is it. This is going to be the thing. And it was, we did it for about two years and it was awesome. Like we were rebuilding an iconic brand, getting it back into the front of people's minds after it had been quiet for about two years. About eight years. And then quickly we learned if you're the smallest line item in a massive conglomerate, say like post serials, you're never going to get the resources that you want or you need.

[00:06:41] And it came to a point where, you know, little things that we needed just to grow the business, like access to different parts of the ecosystem, like Amazon and things like that became this massive battle. And he looked at me, he's like, look, this is not a priority for them. We haven't had an R&D budget in eight years. We have not released a new SKU in 10. He goes, what do you think about doing something on our own? There's a bunch of new research in a different field.

[00:07:10] Nobody's focused on it. There's no conflict. And I was like, great. What is it? He goes, we're going to make a protein bar. I was like, why? Yeah. I was like, they have many of those. He goes, yes. But. And then he started walking me through all the science, all the new research, all the new understanding about the role that amino acids play in the body, specifically that as it relates to endurance training.

[00:07:40] So the new recommendations around how much you should be eating and then the new guidelines for maximizing that adaptation, like what you your body actually needs. And he goes, look, the current products on the market are all trending in one direction, which is maximum total number of protein for minimal amount of calories and cost as low as it possibly can go.

[00:08:07] And that's what that's what the general market wants. But what the endurance athlete needs is almost the opposite of that. It needs a very specific amino acid profile. It doesn't need to be low calorie because they're not scared of sugar. In fact, if it's a recovery bar, you need carbs. So it actually helps. And he goes, there's this. And I was looking. I was like, there's this huge opportunity. The sports nutrition brands are not necessarily paying attention to this.

[00:08:37] Like you look at all the ones out there. It's just carbs, carbs, carbs, electrolytes. Well, and huge. I think the interesting thing is when you say huge, right? Because in your TAM, your total addressable market, right? To the business nerds, you know, what Power Bar Post might think is a huge addressable market, a big number that they're chasing, to your point, is, you know, not big to them. But to you, you're like, actually, that's a legit market. Like that's a legit niche.

[00:09:01] And that's, you know, that's a livable wage for us to be able to build something we're passionate on and point, you know, point at this small market. Absolutely. And we've done, like, all the analyses. And when you look at, you know, companies like Goo Energy, Morton, even Precision, I think, to this point, like these are 50, 70, $100 million a year revenue companies that are built exclusively on servicing the endurance community. Like nobody's sitting on the couch slurping gels watching Netflix.

[00:09:31] But what's really exciting is when you see the brands that service a market so well and then transcend it. So you look at, like, Cliff or RxBar. A lot of people don't know RxBar actually was exclusively focused on CrossFit for the first four years of its existence. It was designed for CrossFit athletes and then, you know, used that as a way to endorse it to mainstream.

[00:09:59] And, you know, we think a protein bar or bar-based snack products have that opportunity. I mean, it's not our goal right now. Our goal is we're hyper-focused on endurance. But down the road, you know, we see a path where, you know, you could see, you know, Agribars, you know, in Costco and Whole Foods and things like that. But, yeah, so we took the leap. I bought into it. I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about science. But it's been – we turned two in July.

[00:10:30] And it's been a journey, man. It's been a lot of fun. Well, let's get the speed round of questions I usually ask people. It's a human, the human captcha. Are you a tea or coffee person? Coffee. Okay. No question. It's quick. Favorite race you have done? Favorite race. Jones Beach 70.3 2023? The first year they had it. It was legitimately during a named hurricane.

[00:11:00] It was great. Yeah. Windy, rainy. Yeah. Windy, rainy. I had the best race of my life. It was awesome. Mirrored or clear goggles? Depends. In the pool, it's clear. And outside, it's mirrored. Okay. Favorite race you'd like to do but haven't done? Or target race, goal race, whatever you want to call it. I... Ooh, it's a good question. I'd probably say if they could bring it back to full and Montremblant. That was a good race. I'm not going to lie.

[00:11:29] That was a pretty... I mean... Yeah. The bike, though, was a little meh. I've never done it. I just heard amazing things, but... The swim, bar not one of the prettiest and kind of challenging. The last bit of each loop on the bike up and down is beautiful in the middle of the woods. You kind of go out on the highway for a while for each loop. Okay. That was a little meh. Big highways. Super well done. The run is beautiful. You're kind of in this, you know, Quebec-ish town.

[00:11:57] And then you're by the lake and then you're back in town. Like, it's super cool. That's a super cool race if they brought that back. Yeah. Yeah. I think that it would suit me well. And it's just... I've heard amazing things about the 70.3 and the 5150. So... But, you know, my heart lives long distance. Are you a crunchy or creamy peanut butter person? Oh, my God. I'm not a psychopath. Creamy. Okay. I'm glad. I didn't know where you were going because I'm hardcore creamy.

[00:12:26] In fact, I think I have the same race morning thing. Because you guys do work with several of the teams that are out there, right? You do Top Guns. So one of the guys on Top Guns and I have the same pre-race thing. It's the fresh can. Like, I can't race. If I race, I have to have the top part of the peanut butter off the jar. So, you know, the smooth, the very smooth part, when you open up a jar, that's what I have to have. I can't have, like, a used...

[00:12:55] Yeah, it's a very weird thing. But, you know, to your point, you have one good race and you're like, now I got to lean into this. Yeah. But it's got to be creamy because it's got to have that glass look on the top. Definitely. So where did the name... So talk about two things. So give us the name, like, where Adra came from. And then talk about how you kind of started thinking about performance and the nutrition and how that works and kind of where you're different. And then we'll bend into kind of some of the mindset. Yeah.

[00:13:22] So Adra is, when we were concepting names, we knew we wanted to pay tribute to the endurance sort of ethos. And for us, that was looking for something that was more of an icon. So most of the brand names out there are very descriptive, like adjectives, whereas we wanted something that could become an emblem in itself without needing to name people to see it and know exactly what it is. So we kept on coming back to the gazelle.

[00:13:53] And the gazelle, one of the ways it survives is that it can outrun not by speed, but by duration. It's number one predator, the cheetah. So a cheetah can run up to 80 miles an hour for about 90 seconds. And a gazelle can run 65, 70 miles an hour, but do it for about three to five minutes. So it just literally outlasts. So I was like, that is, that tick captures everything, but we can't call it gazelle bars.

[00:14:21] So we started doing some deep research and we found there's all these subspecies of gazelles all over the world. And one of them is the Adra gazelle. And I was like, Adra is a really cool name. And I think it checks a lot of the boxes. So you can see our little icon is the gazelle. And then, and if you actually look, the Adra gazelle is probably not the most stoic looking of the groups, a little scrawny and a little smaller, but hey. So is Patrick.

[00:14:49] As a joke with people, as a heavier triathlete, even when I'm leaned down, that's usually the cat that's passing me on the run is a little scrawny dude. So like, I'm good at going forever. So like, I'll lean into that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was fun. The neat creating a name is one of the hardest things to do when you're starting a business. It is, you know, most of the time, most of the good ones are taken. You have to go through the whole copywriting thing.

[00:15:14] And it's hard to get someone that lands, but this was one I was like, oh, wow, that hits pretty well. So I think we got lucky. So talk, talk about how you got, you know, the addressable market and what you, you talked about how it's a little bit different, but talk about what makes Adra different and how you decided to kind of get into that space when you're talking about in theory, enhancing, you know, enhancing an athlete's performance.

[00:15:39] So I don't know if it's the right or wrong or different, but our approach to any development, any product development or, or even starting the company, you know, I'll, I'll give tribute to my partner, Eric. So his background, he's a sports nutrition scientist. He, he ran the R and D department of Power Bar for about 20 plus years.

[00:16:01] And his, his sort of approach and recipe has always been stay fund or be connected to all of the labs across the world that are pushing the envelope on sports nutrition research. So whether it's the, you know, Australian Institute of Sport and the folks out there, Dr. Luke Van Loon over in Europe is a ton of incredible and, and, you know, exciting science coming out

[00:16:30] of Toronto and university of Toronto and McMaster, but it's always been, we're not just going to invent a product and then try and prove that it works. It's going to be, let's go see what the scientists are actually researching and what makes it material difference. And then we'll come back and see, is that something worthwhile? So the, the concept for the bar really came about because there was the world of protein research had been what they thought was exhausted.

[00:16:58] So they've been digging into this for decades. The difference was, is that most of the research, especially around athletes was based off of strength athletes, strength and then sedentary populations where most of it was focused. But there was a scientist out of university Toronto, Dr. Dan Moore that to make a name for himself, stretched it a bit and said, you know what? I'm going to go and dig in on a different subset and look at endurance athletes. Because I think there's some interesting stuff happening there.

[00:17:28] And he, he looked through essentially a few different variations, but predominantly what he wanted to find out was how is protein being utilized in the body? How much protein should they be eating? And then, you know, what is the, the right composition of amino acids they should have as part of their meals? And the, the big kind of three aha moments were the first, which was when a human being does

[00:17:55] endurance exercise, it's not just using one fuel source. So some of us have heard the term substrate utilization. So you're burning carbs for fuel. That's the body's easiest path. We know we burn fat, you know, depending on the intensity that ratio changes. But consistently we also use protein as fuel. And it's not like they turn on and off, kind of all three burn at the same time, just at different rates.

[00:18:22] But what was interesting was he found that the protein burned or oxidation was happening pretty consistently. And it was estimated anywhere between five and 10 grams an hour, closer to 10 grams for most of us. Now, when you're a strength athlete, your working set is 10 seconds, 30 seconds, couple minutes, right? It's an, it's a rounding error. But if you're going out and doing a five hour ride and then a, you know, one hour run

[00:18:51] off of it, or you're doing 30 hour training weeks like the pros are, you're burning a substantial amount of protein. And that is compounds because when you look at the other fuel sources, you have storage, right? You store glycogen, you store fat, you don't store protein. There is no protein storage. So you effectively have one place to get it, which is by pulling it out of body proteins, usually muscle.

[00:19:21] So your body will actually break down amino acids from the body to get the one it can use to make energy. And then, so when you finish your workout, it's not only that you need protein to, you know, fuel the adaptation, you also need to replenish all the amino acids that you burned as fuel. So what that led to is kind of number two, which is there was this very landmark study

[00:19:47] done that measured how much protein can you eat before, you know, it doesn't make a difference. And effectively what they do is they take athletes and they feed them increasing levels of protein per day on a grams per kilogram body weight basis. And what they look to find is as they add more, the body makes more proteins, muscle protein synthesis. At a certain point, no matter how much more protein you eat, your body can't make any more. You kind of top out.

[00:20:16] So this number exists for strength. It's been around forever. It's around 1.6 grams for every kilogram of body weight. And there's, there are numbers on the internet that will just dwarf that. They're like, oh, you need to eat, you know, two grams per pound or 300 grams a day. It's like, okay, the science says 1.6 and it's, it's customized to you because it's based off your body weight. Like 1.6 is the most, like maybe a little bit up, but you don't need much more than that.

[00:20:47] For endurance, that number came in at 1.8. So it's substantially higher. And one of the reasons being was, are they, they assume is because of the, this protein burn that's happening because of the type of training that we're doing. So you've got this. And you say that though, because I agree, like the protein revolution has gone bananas. Right. And so, you know, at two, I mean, everyone's like, we got to get hundreds of grams of protein

[00:21:16] in and like, I'm 75 kilos and like one, like I like one 50s. Like the top, like I've been, I, you know, it's funny. I haven't been chasing one six, but I haven't chased one five. Like, you know, like that's a guide with the premise they can have it. And I guess I hadn't seen the science, but it's interesting because the phenomenon out in the marketplace right now is, you know, everyone's like, you got to have more and more and more protein. And it's kind of two things. One, the 1.6 is like the max.

[00:21:42] 1.8 is for those of us that are, you know, burning over a long period of time. And then what do you think the average person actually needs then who's, you know, a little more sedentary? It's probably like one and a quarter on, you know, and, and they're chasing, you know, Starbucks protein drinks, sorry, Starbucks and others, right. That are like, you know, here's all these grams. And you're like, it's so much. So at 1.8, is that then how you then started to back into, you know, the bars and the science behind it and what you needed?

[00:22:11] Because I think the other thing I'd like you to talk about is the sugars, because it is interesting how we got these low sugars, high protein. And of course, you know, yeah, you bounce off of a ride or run and you're always like, you know, sugar and protein. And, you know, there's better sugars, but, you know, I won't lie. Yeah. You know, chocolate sauce has calories too, as long as you can get the rest of it. The sauce has calories, man. I mean, I think we like to overcomplicate it. But at the end of the day, it's like carbs, protein, a little bit of fat, you're in a good place, right.

[00:22:42] But the, the, the, the 1.8 number for us was more of a validation of we're going in the right direction of this is, this is new science. And in the, in the scientific world, typically there's anywhere between a seven and 10 year lag. So for example, we had carbohydrate boom in the last five years. That science is 20 years old.

[00:23:05] Eric actually spearheaded that research out of the, through PowerBar and in, go full circle. So the, one of the scientists that he was working with was Oscar Yukindrop, who's the lead scientist over at NeverSecond. Before he was in NeverSecond, he was actually, his research was being funded by PowerBar and dual source carbohydrates. So two to one ratios of glucose to fructose.

[00:23:31] That was something that they were digging into in the late 2000s. And here we are, it's 2026. And we're only just into the carb boom. Though research timeline scale, the, the protein research is very new. So this is within the last three to five years of, oh wow, we need to really start focusing on it. And when I say this research, it's specifically around endurance athlete.

[00:23:56] So we knew that this sort of protein boom within recovery nutrition was happening. And then the, the third kind of final piece came when they started looking into, all right, it's important to have protein, but is it just total protein or is it specific amino acids that are doing the work? And what the, what it came to was you need the full spectrum of 20 amino acids taken in,

[00:24:26] right? You know, there's some essential, there's some non-essential, but you want to have a full background of amino acids. And the easiest way to think about it is if you eat a piece of chicken, you know, have a protein shake, anything that's got protein in the food, it's not a single entity. It's a, it's think about like letters of the alphabet are the 20 amino acids that exist within each protein. And then your body, when you eat it, breaks them apart into the letters.

[00:24:54] And then depending on what your body wants to do or, or address or adapt to sends everything around and then rebuilds it into the words, right? So your body proteins are the word. So you go, you know, lift a bunch of weight and you need a bunch of contractile proteins in the bicep. You have that protein bar, it sends the amino acids in the order and rebuilds them to make contractile proteins in your bicep. Or if you need, you have a cut, you need skin rebuilt, body proteins.

[00:25:24] So what they were looking at was, all right, that's great. The thing for endurance is really around muscle protein synthesis and mitochondrial protein synthesis. And what are the things that activate those pathways most? And they kept coming back to the amino acid leucine. So leucine is a, it's an interesting one. So it's one of the essential amino acids. It's also one of the, they call them the branch chain or BCAA amino acids.

[00:25:53] And it has a few different roles. So it's one of the alphabet letters, obviously. So you need it in order to build body proteins. Funny enough, it's also the one that gets burned the most as fuel. So when your body pulls protein out as fuel, it's predominantly burning branch chain amino acid or leucine. But the third and the most important one for us is leucine has a role as a signaler to the body.

[00:26:17] So the body actually uses the blood leucine level to recognize when to activate all the pathways for muscle protein synthesis or recovery. So you take in, you eat some protein, you digest it. You know, leucine goes into the bloodstream. The body senses that and says, oh, we've got leucine. Start the process. Start rebuilding. Start remodeling. And the amount of leucine that you eat dictates how strong that signal is and effectively how

[00:26:47] much body protein you make through the system. And what they found was the optimal ratio, what you really want to get to is around three grams of leucine per serving. That is enough to fully, you know, turn, it's not an on-off switch. It's more like a dimmer switch, but it's enough to turn that dimmer switch all the way up to 10. For us, what we want is we just rode our bike for five hours.

[00:27:14] We want to get 100% of the adaptation from that bike ride. So we want that switch all the way up to 10. So it was, we need to eat protein. We need to eat more protein. And we need to make sure we're getting enough leucine in our eating serving. Where's the product? Well, the product was, what bars out there give you three grams of leucine? One. There's one bar on the market today that gives you three grams of leucine. And it's the Metrix Big 100.

[00:27:42] And it's almost 500 calories. Okay. So it's actually, it's a meal replacement bar. Yeah. So it's 30 grams of whey protein with a ton of carbs and a ton of stuff in it. But most of the bars on the market are 30 grams, or sorry, they're 20 grams of protein. And even when you're using something as high quality, say like whey, which is rich in leucine, the serving size is too small. So for us, it's like, great.

[00:28:11] How do we make a snack, and we define it as around 250 or less calories, in a bar that gives you the three grams of leucine and enough background of the rest, which is around 20 grams of total protein. And that did not exist. So we made it. And thus, the Adra bar was born. Okay. I love all the, you know, the science behind it that you go.

[00:28:38] Have you, I'd be curious as you talk about people that are high performers, what percentage do you think of high performers actually have thought all that through? Because you've done the work. Because I mean, that's kind of the, yeah, it's interesting you say, I mean, I would have said most of us probably have a goal of protein, the why less so. And I won't lie, like I knew leucine kind of what it had, but not the numbers that are there. So how have you been communicating that to people?

[00:29:06] I'm kind of curious with the marketing side of like, yeah, is that real? Or is that like just, that's address spin on this? Yeah. So we, there's actually a peer reviewed study out there that went and tested the theory. And what it did was it took three, sorry, four different protein servings. It took like no protein, 20 grams of plant, 20 grams of plant boosted. So the Azure bar and then the equivalent of way. Okay.

[00:29:37] And it said, all right, what creates the most muscle recovery? And sure enough, it was, you know, some protein created more than zero and 20 grams of plant with our, with the Algebra mix outperformed way. So the equivalent of 30 grams away. So we actually have data that shows, hey, if you, it doesn't have to be our bar, but if you get three grams of leucine in and with the right amount of protein, you're going to get more adaptation. We've just made it really easy to do that with this product.

[00:30:08] So let me spin a little bit. You've got the product. I know by default, you're around a lot of high, high performers. And one of the things we talk about at Met all the time is, you know, I mean, nutrition is the fourth part of triathlon, of course, but what have you consistently seen from high performers, both from their kind of mental attitude, but also kind of one step further where their mental attitude about the things outside of the three disciplines. So in particular, do they address, you know, their mental wellbeing, other stuff, but also

[00:30:36] nutrition or not? Like, have you seen that be consistent? But what have you seen amongst high performers and hopefully happy high performers too, as opposed to high performers? Yeah. We've had the privilege of working with quite a few at the top end of our sport. So we work with a number of the elite long course pros. And then we also, one of our advisors we brought on is Ryan Bolton, who he was obviously an

[00:31:02] accomplished athlete himself for many reasons, but he also is a main coaching presence within the USA triathlon elite teams. So, so I, I can, I can summarize protein awareness into essentially there's around 80% of the population are just blissfully unaware. They've heard the word protein and they're like, yeah, I probably should eat it. And they think they're getting enough, but they just kind of eyeball it. They add another piece of chicken at dinner.

[00:31:32] 20% are aware, meaning they know they're probably looking to hit a certain number. And of that 20, I'd say three to 5% are actually dialed where they know exactly what they need to get, why they need to get it, how to get it, where and when. When you move up to the pointier end of the sport, obviously those numbers grow a bit, but

[00:31:56] I would say there's still more than half of the pro field is still kind of living in that blissful unawareness bucket of just, you know, they're, they're in a different world because they're eating so much that they're probably getting by. Yeah. It's a, you know, for, it's a tricky one where the bar can be a tool for different reasons.

[00:32:22] At the elite, it's about how do I get the hit right when I need it? Like, you know, you're training 30 hours a week and you're eating probably like five or 6,000 calories a day. But right after your session, you get your carbs in and then you want to get that 20 and three. So it's like, how do I pinpoint it for the, those of us that are not training 30 hours, you know, maybe from, you know, seven to 10 to 12, it's a different balancing act.

[00:32:51] It's like, okay, I don't have 6,000 calories to eat in a day. I've got like 3,000 or 2,500. So now it's like, oh, how do I fit in all the protein I need and not go over? So it's piecing it in. So the bar becomes a tool. It's not a replacement. You still need to eat real food, but you know, how to get a hit of very rich amino acid, but without tipping the caloric scale.

[00:33:21] So I'd say it, depending on your, your level of, of activity, you know, it really does change and shift, you know, where the bar fits. Yeah. And I think for those of us that can't have way, I mean, that's also another, which is kind of how you and I started talking. Like for me, I just can't. Someone with Crohn's way, way is not my friend. And finding, you know, finding suitable sources that are then also as someone who travels portable,

[00:33:50] you know, and you don't have to mix and whatever is always a boat. That's, that's a side house. You know, that's a side bonus when you can just pop it out wherever you are, you know, when you're done as opposed to have to, you know, cart all your stuff around. So that's a huge bonus. Let me spin one more, one more degree. So you get to look at a lot of high end athletes. And so from a mental aspect, what do you see as their top two or three qualities in being successful and happy? You know, let's assume they have nutrition and all that stuff done.

[00:34:19] You know, what do you see amongst them, both that makes them successful and kind of keeps a smile on their face? Well, it's a good one. I'd say there's a couple of traits. It's one is the ones that are at, that are the most well-rounded and the strongest foundationally from a mental perspective are the ones that just absolutely love training. Like they, it's not, training is not a chore. Like it is their reason for getting up in the morning.

[00:34:48] They love it. And they enjoy that almost as much, if not more than the actual racing itself. And if you're going to do it at the volumes that they are, you have to love it. Right. But funny enough, the kind of counterpoint is on top of that, the ones that are the strongest are the ones that triathlon or training or endurance sport is not a hundred percent of their identity. They are diversified elite humans as opposed to just elite athletes.

[00:35:18] And, you know, they, it's not to say they have to have full-time jobs on the side, but they have other things they are pursuing to complete their full self that goes and stretches beyond just triathlon. And funny enough, that's, that's a big thing, a big parallel for me because it wasn't in sport, but I had that mindset for work in my previous life where I was just a hundred percent that job.

[00:35:48] It's all who I was. And then didn't realize the concept of balance until afterwards. And now it's like, no, you, you have to be a multifunctional human to get the most out of life. Because if you just one thing and that one thing is going great, it's great. But if that one thing is not going great, you're screwed. Yeah. No, a hundred percent. I know it is interesting.

[00:36:14] And I've seen it both on the athletic side where that's their identity in life. And we've probably know tons of people who it's their corporate identity is their life, you know, and it's always an interesting thing for me to ask someone, you know, tell me about yourself, Matt. And, you know, where do they start that conversation? You know, well, I'm the, this at this company and, and, you know, and that's the angle they go down or do they kind of talk about, well, I'm this outside of work or do they mix and match them?

[00:36:43] It's an interesting thing to kind of figure out, you know, who they are and what's really important to them. But I think that's great. That's really a great, it's great insights actually for, cause you get, you do get to look at some of the elite athletes to see that it's actually what makes them great is their ability to disconnect from the thing that they're really focused on and give themselves a mental as well as physical break. Yeah. Yeah. And it could be something as simple as a hobby, but it's, I guess it's more of like something that you can feel passionate about.

[00:37:13] That's not just the one thing. And it actually benefits if it's like a little bit disconnected, whether, you know, you're a pro triathlete and you really enjoy baking or, you know, we have some athletes that, you know, they had previous lives in different careers and they are using some of those skills to, you know, either do consulting work or philanthropic work or stuff like that. So there's, there's more to them than just the results on the race course. This has been great.

[00:37:42] Like, I appreciate you sharing Adra. I appreciate you sharing the insights. I am always so stoked to see people who, and have the most admiration for people who like pulled the ripcord out of a job that was paying, had a stat check and did everything. And we're like, this is what I want to do. And they just kind of got out there and are making it happen. And so I'm stoked to see you guys being so successful. You will have to ask Eric though. The only thing I wish they'd bring back from Power Bar is if he was there for a long time,

[00:38:10] the bar that we could cut up and put on the top tube and that bad boy would stay up there all day. You can even put it on the night before. Now it took me like an hour. You know, you could just eat a Power Bar over an hour and continually be chewing. That was all part of it. But like the vanilla caramel hardcore old Power Bar, that's what I want to run back from the early 2000s, late 90s. I'll show my age. And that thing was indestructible. I don't even want to know what's in it.

[00:38:39] Like now I've gotten older and I care. I don't even want to know what was in it. Yeah. I thought you were going to say the malt nut. That was, that was. Yeah. Malt nut. That's the old, that's the standby. Yeah. Yeah. The thing is with that is that it's, it stays on the top tube, sure, but it also rips out your fillings. So it's like. No, for sure. It's like people who don't know, you would cut them into these like inch long segments, literally have to cut them and you just press them onto your top tube and they would stay under there.

[00:39:06] Any conditions didn't matter until you peeled it off. Yeah. And then that's what I mean. You would take and just eat. You perpetually chew one. There might be something to do that though, because you always, you knew you were fueling if you were eating, you were literally always eating. You couldn't stop. I mean, don't get me wrong. The texture was like, no one ate those for fun. And after about 20 minutes in your mouth, it softened up. Yeah. That's what I mean though. But you knew like you always had to have one going. Well, I appreciate it. We will tag you. People check out Adra.

[00:39:36] I will attest, especially someone crones, the plant-based stuff is usually hard to find something that doesn't suck. And so I appreciate you guys coming to market, both from that aspect and also just as an athlete that travels. So thanks again for coming on. Really appreciate it. Yeah. No worries. It's great. Thanks for having me.