CBD for Athletes – The 99% Podcast Interview

The 99% Podcast – Episode # 34 Venga Venga Venga! | Free Listening on Podbean App

[00:00:00] Mark: [00:00:00] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 99% where the real gains are made. 

Jay OHare: [00:00:10] We have a 

Mark: [00:00:10] special episode today. We have a full house with me. I have the originals 

Jay OHare: [00:00:16] Elliott, everybody and Maryland. Hey guys, 

Mark: [00:00:20] what’s up? And obviously I’m here, Jesse, and we have a very special guest. I’ll let him introduce himself.

Jay OHare: [00:00:28] Hey gang. I’m Jay O’Hare and I’m in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and I’m the CEO and founder of Vanga CBD and we help endurance athletes stay in the game when their bodies won’t let them, we have just a very simple line of CBD products that have been engineered specifically for, and during sex. And I’m just so thrilled to be here, chatting with you guys about how this is helping athletes and what’s going on in this.

And hopefully we’ll be able to dispel some myths and getting some good information about how people can incorporate in their core, incorporate this into their training. 

[00:01:00] Mark: [00:01:00] Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. Before we get into Venga and your products, tell us a little bit about yourself. Are you an athlete?

Jay OHare: [00:01:08] What’s your story, you know? Gosh, I would say that my endurance sports started in in college got into triathlons in college and that’s just been, it’s just been kind of going on ever since, and then moving to Colorado. Boy 21 years ago and you can’t help, but get into something. And so I think after I don’t know several mountains, bike crashes, I kind of felt like there’s a, there’s a safer sport out there and got into trail running.

And so for the past, I don’t know, decade plus I’ve been a trail and ultra runner and look, I’m, you know, I’m the weekend warrior, I’m the age grouper. I, you know, I’m not on podiums but I love it. And it’s something that that I’d have to do. You know, on a very consistent basis because it just helps physically, but even more importantly, mentally.

And but I’ve also been an entrepreneur and I’ve been in the technology space for a long time and have [00:02:00] done a number of things on that end. And so yeah, several years ago I had an opportunity to help out with a small CBD manufacturing company. Here in Steamboat and I got to learn the business and see what was going on there.

And you know, after working there for a while and using the products, I just saw this profound difference in my training and my recovery using this. And it just felt like, Hey, you know, I think that there’s really room for a company that focuses has its products that focus specifically on endurance athletes.

And so I left that company and I’m like looking around going like, okay, I’m going to start a CBD company, what I’m going to call it. So the name is always like, you know, an important thing. And I remember watching the tour de France and they’re going up through the mountains and the parodies and all the Spaniards were on the side of the road and they’re all yelling, Venga, Venga, Venga.

And I was like, what does that mean? So I Googled it, you know, and it’s like, means, you know, come on, let’s go. Let’s go. And so I thought Venga would be a very appropriate name [00:03:00] for the company because. That’s what we help athletes do. Like we, you know, we’re like, come on, let’s go. You can keep going. And so almost three years ago, Vegas CBD was born and we create these products again, specifically for endurance athletes.

And that’s that’s kind of kinda my story in a nutshell. 

Mark: [00:03:20] Awesome. Thanks. I was hoping we get into the name. I’m glad we just we got there right away. Cause that’s, that’s cool. It’s a super fun name. I really like it. Yeah. Elliot, you look ready to say 

Elliot: [00:03:30] something. Oh, I was going to say Jay, if, if you had a, like, what, what is kind of the foundation foundational product that you have?

I mean, obviously this is a setup question because I use it every day, but just, just throw it this way 

Jay OHare: [00:03:46] and then yeah. Well, okay. So you know, the short answer is we have a product called ultra gels, which is CBD oil. This is our CBD oil and it comes in a soft gel, [00:04:00] but we call them altar gels. One, because you know, we’d like endurance, but really they are pretty amazing and what makes our products different?

And I think this is an important thing for for, for our listeners. Your audience to understand is. There’s a bit of a secret in the CBD industry that most companies don’t want people to know about. And that is, is that CBD has pretty terrible bioavailability and it’s a big word, but basically what it means is, is it’s how much of that substance actually gets into the bloodstream to make a difference.

So that’s that’s how bioavailable is it? So is it a hundred percent bioavailable? Okay. A hundred percent of it gets into your bloodstream. Well CBD because it’s an oil and our bodies are 60% plus water. And we all know that oil and water don’t mix because to be using oil, the bioavailability is very poor and it’s somewhere around the range of about 10 to 15%.

So [00:05:00] that’s something that a lot of CBD companies don’t want people to know about because it’s very difficult to solve that problem. And we solved it using a technology that we call a nano emulsion technology, which is basically a fancy word that it says that basically means that our CBD is, is water, salt.

And in doing so it means that our bioavailability of the CBD is around 85 plus percent. So you could buy something at 10% bioavailability or use ours, which has about 85 plus percent bioavailability. And what we see over and over again, our athletes who come to us who have been using CBD. Some amount of time and they’re like, yeah, I don’t know.

I think it works. I’m not quite sure. Then they use ours and it’s like, oh my God, like this is turbo charged. Like I had no idea that this, this could do. And that’s because most athletes, when they’re taking typical CBD, they’re not getting enough of it into their body to make a difference. And [00:06:00] so so yes, our ultra gels are water-soluble that’s, that’s in part why we call them ultra the other part too, that we, that we put in there for you Elliot, that you’re taking every day.

Is water-soluble curcumin. And so curcumin is the anti-inflammatory component of the tumeric root. So a lot of people have known for a long time and it’s been studied that, that tumeric root can help. Inflammation. And that’s, and, and so it’s the curcumin it’s within the tumeric root. That’s the, this, the component that does that.

And so we add in water-soluble curcumin, so you’re getting good bioavailability for that too. So you add in the fact that, you know, we’ve got this phenomenal CBD that’s not industrial, this is medical grade CBD. We can get into that in a minute. So what that means, and then you have the curcumin in there, and then you have the water solubility, and you’ve got what we call the ultra.

So how 

Elliot: [00:06:49] many milligrams are in each pill? 

Jay OHare: [00:06:52] Yeah. So that’s another important one too. So ours have 25 milligrams. And, you know, a lot of people will [00:07:00] go get the, you know, they call them the tinctures, right. They’ve got the little dropper with the bottle and all that kind of stuff. And it’s just, it’s funny because we don’t, we don’t do that because it’s not necessary.

And most of the, like the reason why those bottles with the droppers are even in the industry, in the first place. I mean, you don’t see, you know, other drug companies or things like that, selling stuff and put droppers, you know, it’s, it’s, they’re all pill forms. Well, In the beginning of CBD, people were making this in their case.

And so they needed, you know, okay, well, okay, I’ve got this, you know, this pot of CBD, what am I going to do with it? So how am I going to take it? So as you know, it was very easy to go and get these bottles with the droppers and put it in that and use that as the way to deliver the CBD. The problem with that is that it’s not very active.

It makes a mess. You got to hold it under your tongue. You know, it, it tastes bad. So we just have never gone that route from the very beginning and just said, soft gels are the way to go. You take it. It’s a very precise 25 milligram [00:08:00] dose and you take it. And so can we, 

Mark: [00:08:03] Sorry, can we talk about the, that 85 versus like, say 15% of availability?

Because if you’re taking, say 25 milligrams of two different products, that means you’re getting, like, let’s say around what, like 20, 22 milligrams from you guys and like five or six from like maybe another company or like six years. 

Jay OHare: [00:08:24] Or like two grams, two milligrams. I mean, so that’s Spanish and it’s astonishing.

That’s a huge difference. Huge difference. And let me just say this, this is not this is not unique to CBD, you know, our bodies just don’t absorb oils very well. We see that and we see the same thing in the topicals. So there’s a lot of companies out there that have topical CBD rubs and creams and that sort of thing.

And again, you’re putting oil on top of your skin. Well, you know, it, it could absorb some. You know, there’s a reason why, you know, when you put on sunscreen and things like that, it’s an oil. They want it to stay on top of the skin. Well, ours again is [00:09:00] water soluble. So it’s going to penetrate that skin and be absorbed by the skin much more quickly and much deeper, much more deeply than a, than a typical CBD.

And it’s super high concentrated. So it’s extremely effective that way.

Oh, so 

Elliot: [00:09:17] I was just going to jump in. So. If you know me personally, you know, I’m a bit of a curmudgeon and not exactly one to take vitamins 

Jay OHare: [00:09:23] that 

Mark: [00:09:23] is a hundred percent true. 

Elliot: [00:09:24] I spent a fair amount of time living in the same house. And anyways so when we didn’t just start talking to Jay last week it’s been three over three months now.

And I’ve, and so. I took, I believe there’s 30 pills in each bottle about one month supply. And so I took 30 pills and some people would say, I believe even you would say some, you know, you can do it kind of every other day, every third day, you can do it every day. Some people even do it twice a day.

Personally I want the everyday route, cause that seemed to be like just a [00:10:00] routine. You could keep it in. And, you know, first day, nothing second day, nothing, third day I kind of woke up and was like, huh, well, I feel a little bit better than normal. But it’s probably, you know, that’s just me thinking that.

And by the time I got to the end of 10 days, I was kind of like, oh, wow, okay. My baseline anxiety, which we haven’t mentioned. On the podcast, but let’s just say Elliot’s high strong and, and it really Elliot. Yeah, exactly. I’m not, I don’t spend all day peppering people with really my new questions to find out the perfect answer to a problem that can’t be answered.

But yeah, so let’s just say, I spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of things. And I still spend a lot of time thinking about a lot of different things. And I think what’s really nice for me personally, about this product. And really the only, I would say the only reason you’re here, Jay is because like, we like it a lot.

And I don’t think I was all that open-minded in the first place to be perfectly honest. [00:11:00] So you swayed me what, by the actual product. I just want to throw that out there. And, and so like, I. It’s just a hell of a lot easier for me to concentrate. And kind of make a decision and just not be stressed about it.

I don’t know how to exactly describe that. But if you have any amount of anxiety in your life, like me personally is just a little bit easier to relax. And I also use the, I don’t actually know what it’s called, but the yeah, yeah. Recovery ball, like, so I have a pretty funky calf and like, anecdotally, I don’t use that one every day, but.

I put it on like post run when I remember. And it always just is less annoying for whatever reason, but, so I just wanted to throw something out. So I did it every day for a month. By 10 days in, I was more or less convinced and was like texting Jesse and Maryland. Like, I was like, this stuff’s gold. And then, but like, that’s also not exactly how I think.

So I like didn’t reorder right away. [00:12:00] And I, then I finally reordered and it showed up and I actually had like six days without it, after that first wrong. And like one day post, I felt the same two days post, I felt the same three days post I more or less felt the same four days post it kind of like started phase.

And then by like the sixth day, I was almost back to normal. So I said all this, because then once I started up again, I’m two months back in and I’m back to like that feeling. And so I just wanted to say like, that’s my personal experience. Right? And then you kind of have suggested like, oh, you know, you could do this every other day.

You could do this every day. And in a lot of it depends on how much chronic pain you have and things of that nature. I sleep a little bit better, but personally it’s more just like my day to day even coolness. And I would say like, yeah, I have a few less aches and pains. But maybe that also could just be, because it’s been easier for me to stick with like a more steady baseline of activity because I have I’m more efficient at work.

So I was going to throw that out there more to just say, like, what’s your thoughts on dosing? 

Jay OHare: [00:12:58] Yeah, no, [00:13:00] that’s a wonderful story, you know, and I think, and I’ll just quickly share my experience, which was very similar when I got into the business. I don’t know, four, four ish years ago. I started taking it, not because I really needed it or didn’t know why I needed it, but I was like, well, if I’m going to work for this company, I might as well eat the dog food.

Right. So so I started taking CBD and it was right around the holidays and And what I noticed was about two weeks in, right before the, I mean, the holidays can be a crazy time and you’ve got family this and all these kinds of things that are going on, and it could be a pretty stressful time. And what I noticed was that.

Wow. All this stuff that had been stressing me in years past from the holidays, like, it’s not bothering, like it’s there, but it’s like not bought, like, this is, this is really strange, you know? And then after the holidays, you know, there’s, there’s good. It could be financial pressure, you know, that, that, that credit card bill comes in and it’s a lot thicker because you got all these charges on there.

I was looking at the envelope. I’m like, oh yeah. Okay. That’s cool. I can handle that. You know, whereas, whereas before I’d be like, [00:14:00] oh wow, like it’d be a lot more stress. So. I really echo those sentiments and your experience in that because that’s been super helpful. And of course, you know, starting a company and being an entrepreneur, I don’t know.

I think this might be the hardest endurance event around. So, so any, any area where we can have. Our anxiety reduced and be calm and be able to make decisions is really good. And I think it’s, that’s especially true. And that then translates into endurance sports, because if you’re going to go do something, that’s going to be a 12 24, 36 hours long.

It’s not a question of like, if something’s going to go wrong, it’s a question of when something’s going to go wrong, whether it’s correspondence. Gear breaks down your crew. Didn’t show up at the aid station at the right time. Like whatever it is is going to be some stress in an endurance event and the calmer, you can be the better decisions you’re going to make the less energy you’re going to burn and the more successful you’re going to be about it.

So so the mental, the mental benefits of [00:15:00] CBD is really, is really great on that end. So in terms of dosage to get back to your question in terms of doses you know, we, we came out with 25 milligrams for a reason. We think that it’s a, it’s a very good place for people to start. I think it’s important to say right up front, that CBD is extremely safe.

You can’t get addicted to it. You can’t take too much. Of it. You’re not going to overdose on it. It’s not going to get you high. Like there’s like basically like no side effects with this. You know, when you take a look at like the longest list of side effects in the world with like, you know, inseds and these anti-inflammatories and CBD has none.

So starting off with 25 milligrams is a great, is a great place for people to start. You gotta, you gotta get a question. Oh, I was pointing up. Sorry, we’ll cut this out in Maryland. Yeah. So 25 milligrams is a great place to start. And what I think that you did. That so many athletes and you know, it takes time to develop a habit, but you developed a habit and you took it every day.

And that’s important for people to understand too, [00:16:00] is that this is not like taking Advil or Aleve, or you’re just going to take it once for some aches and pains and then not take it again. This is about. Building up the cannabinoids in your system, which our bodies already have. Like, we can talk about this, but our bodies already have these cannabinoids in our system.

We’re just putting more in there. These are phytocannabinoids because they come from plants Inspirato and and you’re building that up and you want to build that up. And then sometimes it takes, you know, it can take up to two weeks to, to really ramp up the the cannabinoids in our system. That helps our endocannabinoid system function much more effectively.

So taking it consistently is, is is, is a big deal. And then finally, yeah, the, the idea with like taking it every other day, some people like, you know, CBD is not an inexpensive process. And some people might want to get more out of the bottle. So, you know, if you’re in, if you’re not suffering from things or, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re good [00:17:00] you with ours because it’s water-soluble, you could go every other day and still have more CBD in your system than you would with a, with a competitor’s 

Elliot: [00:17:07] price.

And that’s almost what I was personally wondering. I was like, oh, I probably could do this every other day. And it’d be fine because I didn’t take it for five days. And I still felt like significant, like I’m talking, I don’t, I can’t really explain the percentages or whatever, cause that’s not a thing that exists, but it was significant, you know, and it was, it was very noticeable and it’s had like a, a big impact, but yeah.

Then 

Jay OHare: [00:17:31] just one 

Marilyn: [00:17:32] question for you and this, you throwing this out there. And you, you may or may not actually have an answer. I know one of the things high level endurance athletes struggle with is obviously one of the things that can help them be faster is if they can train more and they can recover better, right?

The better they can recover, the more they can train the faster they are, especially really elite athletes. And one of the things that some elite athletes run into. Is there, the cortisol levels get really high [00:18:00] when they’re training really hard. And they’re struggling, balancing that line between pushing the envelope and, and being able to, you know, sleep and recover, especially when they’re doing things like going up to high altitude, all of those things you know, pushing the boundaries on intensity, how you know that kind of stuff.

Have you done any testing with where one of those elite athletes it’s pushing the boundaries? You know, they might be sort of tipping on the edge where they’re monitoring it through, you know, nutrition and recovery, as far as cortisol levels. And then they start taking your product and it changes it at all.

And, and, and I didn’t ask you this question before, so I’m really thrown off. 

Jay OHare: [00:18:39] Yeah. So, so we, we personally haven’t done any studies regarding cortisol. You know, the, you know, the question becomes like, okay, so what are the factors involved that are causing those cortisol levels to spike? Is it things like stress?

Is it inflammation in the body? Those things CBD is extremely effective in treating. So, you know [00:19:00] like one of the things that that we recommend and Elliot I’d love for you to try this sometime is to actually take it. Like two ultra gels, at least one, but take, but you can take, take, you can take two after a long workout.

So a lot of people do like their long runs that are long rides on the weekends. So like, you know, if that’s you, if you’re gonna, if you’re going to have a long run this weekend, when you get done, you get in take two ultra gels and. Set a timer like just, you know, to be scientific about it, set a timer for like two hours and then check in with yourself after two hours and see how you feel because what we experienced over and over and over again is that athletes.

I mean, you know it used to be. Like I would do my long runs on a Saturday and I’d be out at like six 30 in the morning and I’d be done by like 10 30 or 11. And then like, I’m done the rest of the day. Okay. Like, don’t, don’t ask me to do anything cause I am done for the rest of the day. But but now I’ll take two ultra gels after a long workout.

And [00:20:00] within two hours, you know, by, by one or two in the afternoon, I’m like, I’m good to go. I’m not mowing the lawn, you know, fixing stuff up, like whatever it is. So so Maryland tip to get back to your, to your question, you know, it’d be interesting to have some of your athletes, lead athletes are really pushing that to try to take this like right after their their long workouts, because you know, it’s going to be one of the biggest things it’s going to help with is inflammation.

And that’s where so much of. Of the, of the recovery is, is an issue because our bodies become so inflamed from that, you know, very long workout. And so if we can, if we can tamp down that inflammation much more quickly than the body can all by itself, then you’re back at it. And you’ve got your, you know, you’ve got your, your, your back to back to back to back training sessions and you’re, and you’re staying on top of that.

And you’re feeling good when you’re going. Yeah. 

Marilyn: [00:20:50] That’s great. I’m going to springboard a little bit off that sorta throw more curve balls at you, but these are just genuine questions that I’m curious of for, for my athletes [00:21:00] is. A lot of athletes and really long races. And I encourage them not to, because there’s so many complications, you know, with taking any kind of antiinflammatories late in the day.

Obviously there’s all kinds of issues with that with hyponatremia. And you’ve seen some really severe things happen to athletes who play around with that. But whether we like it or not, there are athletes out there that during their. Long events. They’re taking things like Tylenol, Advil, those kinds of things.

And as much as we can, I’m not too, they do. So if they’re going to, it’s kind of like if the kid’s going to do it anyways and sneak out the window, how can we best prepare them? Right. And so I know you’ve got some products that people can also use out on the course and, you know, things that have, and late in a, in a marathon or in some of these ultra events in the back half of an iron man, Coping with discomfort and pain.

Can you tell us a little bit about the on-road stuff and how that helps and how all that works? Yeah. 

Jay OHare: [00:21:56] Yeah. I love that. That’s a great question. So our products focus [00:22:00] on three areas, training, racing, and recovery. And so racing is really like, and that’s also like on the go. So, you know, you could put that into training category too, because sometimes trading hurts quite, quite a bit as well.

Right. But in an inner race what we, what we’ve got our CBD gummies. So these, these are kind of like you know, like, you know, there’s, this, they’re just, they’re just like gummies, but they’re very easy to chew. They’re not, they’re not super difficult to I think that the, you know, we’ve worked with the sweetness, so it’s not super sweet.

They’re like, Which is kind of nice if your mouth dry and that sort of thing. And this is a great way to to do, to be that ibuprofen replacement. You know, this is sort of nature’s ibuprofen, if you will look I’m guilty. Yeah. I’ve been in races and known that there’s, you know, I’ve got some Aleve in my pack and boy windows has given you, I’ve got, I’ve got a long way to go and this really freaking hurts.

I promise I will never do this again. [00:23:00] Okay. This is one time and I’ll never do it again. Right. So I think a lot of us have been there. And so that was why we came out with the gummies, because it’s a way it’s a convenient way to take CBD on the go. We tried with the ultra gels but. Man, they get smashed and they make a mess and they melt cause it gets hot and all that.

So, so gummies are a great way to go. And and our. Again, all THC free. So there’s no, there’s no THC in this. So in terms of that, like, you know, she might’ve 

Elliot: [00:23:28] had to interrupt you just like the other thing, if you know me, I’m beyond anti-doping I more or less verbally assault dopers. I mean, Jessie’s also seen me do that.

But Can you like, cause we kind of grilled you when we, when, when it was three months or whatever, four months ago, but you’re do you mind going through your assembly line, like from the field to the bottle and then all of your testing, like the condensed version, just so we know, because like, if you’re listening to this, like there is no THC it’s tested on every single batch.

Right. [00:24:00] And you guys are in control of all aspects from. Seed in the ground to the bottle to delivery at your door. That’s all correct. 

Jay OHare: [00:24:08] Right? This is vertical integration, meaning that, you know, the, that the, that, that, that the manufacturing that the farms are owned, the manufacturing, the product, or the, excuse me, the extraction and manufacturing.

Like that’s all one continuous. Process through one, one company. And then so that’s all owned there. And then from there the products get tested internally and then they get tested by a third party lab. And the third-party lab is testing for things like pesticides, metals. You know, obviously all the different cannabinoids including my THC and we actually, so we do a couple of things in the manufacturing that, that make our product pretty special.

One, we take out, we extract all the THC, but we leave in all the rest of the components from the hemp plant. And so we use a what’s called a liquid chromatography [00:25:00] process in order to do that. So it targets just the THC, but leaves everything else. Not that makes our product, we call it, we call it a broad spectrum product.

So it has everything else in there, just not the THC. And then of course we talked about how we do the, through the nano emotion of the CBD to make it water-soluble. So then we send it off to third party. They, they batch, they take test all the, all the batches and then issue a report on that. All the reports are available on our website.

So on all the products, there’s a, there’ll be a a lot, there’s a code at the bottom of 

Elliot: [00:25:34] the bottle, right? Yeah. 

Jay OHare: [00:25:36] Go on. You can go to the product page. You can look up that lot. You can see the PDF right there. If you want, you can call the lab, you can say, Hey, I’ve got this lab report number. They’ll verify that it’s correct.

Like all that sort of thing. And, and that is, that’s been intentional since day one, like none like our products, none of our products have THC. They’ve never had THC in them. We will never have THC in them. Because that’s. Know, [00:26:00] we don’t athletes get tested and that’s a big thing. And so we’re just, we’re just not going to do that.

Yeah. So it’s a 

Elliot: [00:26:04] non-issue if you’re, if you’re an athlete and you’re like, how do I do this? Oh, I see. It’s actually allowed cause THC currently for almost all sports is allowed out of competition, but there’s still a lot of sports. It’s not allowed in competition. Right. That’s not an issue. You could be doing the Olympics and take your time.

And get tested afterwards and you’re going to be fine. It is not a pork burrito if you’re following along. And you really can like, like, this is a real thing. It’s been on every single bottle. It was literally the first thing I looked at when I first got. And anyways, I just think it’s cool because it’s like, I really like how you guys are in control from, from beginning to end.

And I like how it’s thought out for it’s like, Hey, you might be doing this in a competition where like, integrity is a really big thing and you guys are in control of that. And you only briefly mentioned, but like there’s, there’s not pesticides. You used in the process either. [00:27:00] So like also from the integrity standpoint of the health of the earth, you guys are kind of like you’re doing right by future generations as well.

I mean, it seems like it was, it’s all intentional. Right? And I mean, we’re not going to do the whole grilling here, but when we first talked to you, I had a long line of questions and I was like, there’s no way he’s going to pass. You know? And, and by the end of it all, I was like, all right, give me the pills.

I can’t believe he passed. But good on you. I just, I just kind of wanted to throw that out there because I mean, yeah. That’s, 

Jay OHare: [00:27:30] I think part of it is that, look, we’re a small company, you know, it’s not like we’re a big corporation that said, Hey, there’s this trend. How do we jump in there? And what do we do?

And where can we find this stuff and put a label on it and, you know, get it out to people and who cares? What’s in it? We’re all athletes. We, we, we, you know, we want to like our, our tagline is endurance. You know, and, and, and, you know, it’s, it’s a bit of a double entendre, but you know, the sentiment of that is that, you know, we want to [00:28:00] be able to do this sport forever.

And I, you know, I hope to beat trail running, you know, until the, till the last day, for sure. And so we want to take care of our bodies. And so when we went, when I started the company and looked at like, what are the products that we’re going to have and why all of these pieces were part of it and what I saw.

Well, and I think, I think this is important to what I saw working in for a CBD manufacturing company is that there was a lot of confusion out there. People don’t know they did, they did, there were just too many products for them to choose from. They had, they had no idea, you know, and then they ended up buying with their wallet, which is basically means that they’re buying a cheaper price.

And then you add the bioavailability problem in there. And so now it’s not working for them. And so I said, look, we’re going to have a super tight set of products and it’s going to be specifically engineered for endurance. And here’s why, and here’s all the components that we think are important because the environment’s important to me.

I mean, every every purchase plants, a tree when [00:29:00] you, when you buy those Oregon, Okay. Okay. Yeah, you got to, we need more here in Colorado, but yeah. That’s okay. But when you, when you, when you make a purchase, you get to choose, you know, do you want to plant a tree in Florida, California, Colorado, Oregon, and British Columbia.

And BC. Yeah. Yeah. 

Elliot: [00:29:16] Well, I’m putting it back to BC. Sorry. I’ve got a long-term 

Jay OHare: [00:29:19] plans to move back, you know, so we, so we try to give back that way. I mean, it’s, and it’s not super expensive for us to do it, but it’s like, you know, over time, Wow. We’ve planted a lot of trees. Like this is pretty cool. Because you know, we’re, we’re out there in the forest, out on the roads, doing all that kind of stuff in nature.

And we wanna, we want to protect that too. So, so just real quick too, just to wrap up Marilyn’s question because I think that’s a good one is people can take CBD on the, go with the gummies as the ibuprofen. You know, I think it’s a good idea to experiment beforehand, you know, to make sure it’s cool with your stomach.

And, you know, you’re not going to get, you know, upset stomach and that sort of thing. And then and 

then 

Marilyn: [00:29:56] recommended dosage with that, like break that down a little bit for people in [00:30:00] simple, 

Jay OHare: [00:30:00] simple.

A lot of times, people kind of know like where they’re sort of when the, when the cave is going to come for them. You know, they know that, Hey, look, our, for my ankles are really going to start, you know, hammering me. And so we recommend get ahead of it, you know, is kind of like like the doctor tells you, you know, after surgery, whatever, like don’t get behind on your pain meds, like stay ahead of it.

Similarly. If you know that, like our Ford’s going to be tough, start taking one to two of these gummies and hour each one’s 25 milligrams. You can take one to two an hour. So you’re taking 25 to 50 milligrams an hour and, you know, you can see a substantial difference. In fact, we’ve got a a very, I can’t, I can’t say the name just yet, but a very, very internationally known athlete who was in a big race, not too long ago.

And this actually. And, and what this athlete told me, he was like, look, I wasn’t expecting anything. I I’ve tried this stuff I’ve done. And, and they said, [00:31:00] I was astonished at how much this helped me get through this ultra. Like, it was incredible. So so give it a try and you know what, here’s the thing gang, we offer a 60 day money back guarantee.

No questions. Ask if people try it doesn’t work out for them. Cool. We’ll give you money back. It’s no problem. Not a problem at all. And I am astonished at the amount of refunds that I do not process it’s. It is it’s, it’s pretty, it’s pretty incredible. So in other words, we just don’t get people saying, I want my money back.

It just doesn’t happen because it really worked for them. And I think the other piece that we try to do too, is really educated. So when someone makes a purchase from us, they’re going to get informational emails about how to use it, why to use it, dosage, all that sort of thing. And one thing too, and you can get this free on our site.

We did write this 60 page endurance athletes guide to CBD. That’s a free download on our site. Everybody tells me it’s too long because it’s 60 pages, but I don’t, I don’t care. People can go in and find the information that they need and [00:32:00] has everything about what it is, how it works in the body, why it helps endurance athletes, how to get started, what to look out for all those kinds of things, because education is just a huge, is a huge piece.

Mark: [00:32:11] So people could go ahead and download that even before they buy a product so they can learn more 

Jay OHare: [00:32:16] about it. Yeah, totally free. We have, yeah, we’ve got two. We got, we have a couple of free downloads. We’ve got the endurance athletes guide to CBD. We have the five mistakes that athletes make when taking CBD.

And then we also have the endurance training calendar that you can download. So you’d be able to get that printed or you can use it like on your iPad and it’s a really cool way to look at your year for your, for your trip. 

Mark: [00:32:38] Awesome. I, I did, I want to circle back to one thing really quickly that you kind of mentioned, but I don’t know if people understand how rare it is to have third-party testing done on every single batch of your products.

Like most products, give you a batch number so that you can go do that on your own, but to actually have that done for every batch. Where you’re fronting the cost for that is, is [00:33:00] extremely rare. And that’s, I mean, that’s the only way to really guarantee right. Having someone else do the testing for you. So, yeah, I think that’s, if, if people don’t feel.

Save role having that done should make everyone feel extremely comfortable. And that’s that’s awesome that you guys are really taking that extra step 

Jay OHare: [00:33:16] there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think it’s important. I mean, again, we’re, we’re a small company. We get it as athletes. I think especially endurance athletes are very conscious about what they’re putting in their body and why.

And. The more that we can show people that look, this stuff is safe and it’s not us saying it. It’s other people saying it, the more we can highlight, like our reviews, like, of course, we’re going to say our stuff’s great, but boy you, you can go to our review page and we don’t. Like we don’t edit or filter out reviews and it’s insane.

How many, five star reviews are on there? Like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s almost like people look at that and go like, come on, man. Like, like, you know, you’re filtering out the bad ones. Like, and it’s like, no, like this is it. Like, this is what we put out. If someone doesn’t like it, we’re gonna [00:34:00] put it up there. And you people I saw four-star.

I just want you to know. You said you thought, okay, good. I’m glad 

Elliot: [00:34:07] I remember went through and I was like, oh, okay. And then you can read it. And you’re like, that’s a pretty darn good review. But you know, like not everybody likes giving five stars. First thing 

Jay OHare: [00:34:17] I thought it was kind of funny. Yeah. My mom gave it a four star and I’m like, yeah.

And I was like, mom, four stars. Like what? He’s like, I don’t give anybody five stars. I’m like, oh, okay. That’s what I mean. I get it. Okay.

Elliot: [00:34:34] That’s frigging. Good. I still have to give you a review. Well I guess, I guess we’re doing this podcast, but anyways, I’ll, I’ll hop on. I obviously I’m I’m a big fan and I do think like what Maryland was saying is, is important and why you didn’t really mention it, but like ibuprofen. Is a really bad long-term, it’s a bad short-term solution, right?

And there’s a ton of drawbacks from ibuprofen or Aleve, [00:35:00] especially when you’re going super hard. And the effects on your liver are just terrible. And it’s quite the opposite here. It’s not that it’s, it’s, it’s actually like it. Good for you. It’s not. Not bad, if that makes sense 

Jay OHare: [00:35:13] helps you and helps you in a number in a number of ways.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. 

Elliot: [00:35:16] And it’s like, it’s helping the inflammation, but it’s also, it’s it’s doing like other positive things as well. And so it’s just like, if you ha, if you’re in the S even if you’re like, well, I don’t want to do daily whatever. And you’re like, well, what are my op you know, like in your thinking about taking ibuprofen, This isn’t just a little bit better option.

It’s just like, yeah, your, your options are just, don’t take the ibuprofen or gore or go this route. And it is hard to find a product that’s I guess what’s the right word. As like clean, if you will. And and easy to use. And I know Jesse in Maryland, you guys like both, I think in the first week or two, you’re like, I really liked those gummies.

Like Jesse, I think you specifically said you were like, they’re just easy to eat. Right. And you’re like, I like the flavor, but maybe I’m putting [00:36:00] words in your mouth, but that stuck out to me. 

Mark: [00:36:02] Yeah, no, I do have this thing where some sometimes donate like like any sort of like gummy chew like that while I’m wow.

In motion. They basically go up my nose and I have to like snot, rocket them out. Cause like the consistency is off. Sorry if this is too much, but yeah, your, your gummy chews are like a little bit softer than most and they don’t go up my nose. So that’s a, that’s a win for me. 

Jay OHare: [00:36:25] Good, good. Yeah. 

Marilyn: [00:36:26] Yeah. It’s sports drink as well, right?

That has some caffeine in it. So you have a couple of different options there for on the road. So if you’re, if you’re not into the gun the one that I tried and liked was, was the drink mix. And I like, I liked specifically that it had the caffeine in it as 

Jay OHare: [00:36:41] well. So that was a fun. Yeah. So the, so our, so our energy drink our energy drink is they come in these packs.

His little saturates that you can take with you, like one, one per water bottle. So that like, you know, you don’t have to mix it ahead of time. You can do it on the go if you want, or whatever. They’re very convenient to take. [00:37:00] And yeah, they’ve got about 75 milligrams of caffeine, which is, you know, like a Starbucks coffee has like, I think around nine.

90 milligrams of caffeine. So, you know, it’s a little bit, three quarters of a, of a, of a Starbucks coffee, if you will, of caffeine and oftentimes for, you know, endurance stuff that could be, that could be just the boost you need. And then it’s got 12 and a half milligrams of CBD. Plus it’s got amino acids and some Tarin in there as well.

And what we find is like, we have it here around the office and you know, so instead of the, you know, afternoon coffee, it can be the afternoon, you know, enter the CBD energy drink, which is great. What I noticed. And a lot of others people notice too, is that they’re getting the energy without the, without the jittery kind of thing.

It’s, it’s kind of a very balanced energy and it ramps itself up fairly quickly, but it’s balanced and you know, it has, and it has an ethic has a good a good duration as well. Tastes, you know, tastes great. You can dial in, you know, the sweetness, however you like. I like it with about 22 ounces of water is about, is about my sweet spot.

So you can [00:38:00] experiment with that. And yeah. And so that’s so, so there’s that too. 

Elliot: [00:38:04] Yeah, 

Mark: [00:38:04] I’ve had pretty good success with that, like third in the Jersey pocket for the second half of rides. And and not having that feeling of like, like if I, if I slam a car. Partway through a ride or something, then it’s like an hour later.

I’m like, okay, I need another gas station. Cause I need to get another can of Coke or else I’m not going to make it home. I felt like it was as a little more like. Steady release or, or I don’t know. It just didn’t give me that, that super big spike 

Jay OHare: [00:38:30] and then crash. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s great to hear. That’s great to hear.

Yeah, for sure. You know, I think let me just say that, you know, a lot of, a lot of people out there who may be thinking about CBD and looking at, you know, like, you know, why would I, why would I start taking this? And, you know, you guys talk about how great it is, all that, but like, what’s the thing. And, you know, we’re all getting older.

Well, I’m 54 and I can’t think of a big admitting that, but and as such. I don’t know about you guys, but like on a lot of my runs, I mean, like, I know that, you know, if I [00:39:00] hit this certain tree in 35 minutes, I’m going slow. And if I hit it in 33 minutes, like, okay, that’s a good time. You know, we all have our little checkpoints, you know, and, and as the years tick by those checkpoints kind of tend to get little more and more difficult to get to.

And so so one of the things that, you know, that we can do is like, what are, what are ways in which we can aid our bodies? In our recovery and ate our body in in tamping down that inflammation and pain and those kinds of things. And, and CBD is certainly one, one of them as, as we get older. The other thing that can help out with athletes is we all have things like sore backs, sore, shoulders, sore wrists, where it’s like, you know, you, you develop, you do a long ride and you’re back Superstore.

You don’t want to ride the next day, but you put this recovery bomb on it. Tanisha how well it works for people. So it’s really about like, how do we take this all natural plant-based remedy, if you will, and apply it in a way that helps us do the sports that we love and and, and feel good about it and feel like, Hey, we’re not compromising something.

[00:40:00] We’re not saying, Hey, I fixed this, but I broke that. Or I might break that or I’m taking the risk of breaking that. And and so it’s, it’s really been, it’s really been pretty amazing. I think one of the things. Hard for athletes is, you know, when I got into the business or five years ago there was this whole mystique around it.

Like nobody knew what it was. They thought it was pot. I thought it was illegal. You know, all these kinds of things. It was just a lot of like underground, like, oh, you’re taking that. You’re going to get in trouble. You can’t travel with it, all this kind of stuff. And now it’s exploded and it’s like everywhere.

And I think that we’ve gone from people not knowing. Things because of the mystique around it to now being totally confused because they’re seeing it in everything. They’re seeing CBD shampoo and they’re seeing it in the coffee shop and all this kind of stuff. They’re confused. And that’s where you know, the where we try to come in and say, we focus on you.

We build these, we make these products for you and we educate, we’ll give you as much education as you want. And so you can make an informed decision. And so that’s that’s a piece that we’re, we’re trying to do to help us stand [00:41:00] out in this, you know, try to be the calm and the CEO of the CEO CBD or the, the, the storm of CBD.

We’re like the calmness in that. What’s 

Elliot: [00:41:08] your website, cause you guys have some videos with your water solubility, right? Or is that on you? 

Jay OHare: [00:41:13] We’ve got, I think we have it on our website in a couple of places. It is on YouTube, but our, you know, our website, you just go to Vegas cbd.com it’s of CBD or Banca endurance both the same Venga cbd.com, V E N G a cbd.com.

And we’ve got live chat. We’ve got, you know, email, you can call us 800 number. You know, 

Elliot: [00:41:31] I was going to say, even if, if you’re like, I don’t want to talk to somebody from the county. You, you on your website have a lot of information. You’re just like, this is what the product is. Yeah. And you can just look at that and then you can go hop online and do some research and look at some other products.

You’re going to be pleasantly surprised and you’re going to be like, Jay wasn’t full of shit on like, in this talk, like you’re gonna be like, oh, that makes sense. And you’re like, here’s the different kinds. Oh, and you’ll, you might [00:42:00] find a couple other companies that do some things like you, but you’re not going to find another company that does everything like you.

And you’re going to find a ton of companies that do everything, the opposite of you. And then you can look into those, like those research papers that are starting to come out as more and more people are doing research on this. And you’ll be like, Okay, I get it. That’s why those guys kind of like took the time to align, align with him.

And it makes sense. Yeah, and like, yeah, it was, you know, I’ve spent enough time in a lab, like you’re not going to fool me with shitty science. But anyways, I just wanted to throw that out there. It, and I think like hopping on the website, if you don’t want to listen to another person. Right. Or if you’re listening to this podcast because you’re using to listen, listen to us, talk about training and you’re like, why the heck do they have somebody on?

I think like, that’s going to answer your question. Yeah, yeah. With your own research. 

Jay OHare: [00:42:47] Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, I think read the reviews too, you know? I mean, I’m really proud of that because you just. Reading the same things over and over and over again about how it’s helping people, but in various ways, whether it’s plantar fasciitis or [00:43:00] whether it’s sleep you know, different things like that, people are, people are like really stoked about it.

And then you can go like on Instagram and you just see like all the stuff that we have of people posting like unboxings and all that. I got my thing that a day they’re posting this stuff on Instagram. Cause they’re so excited about it. And it’s it’s because it’s really helping them. It’s really helping them.

And you know, to me, this is one of the few times. In, you know, in, I mean, in my lifetime where, you know, a company like this has been able to get started, that’s basically in the painkiller business. And if you think about it, you know, it’s, that’s a, that’s a hard business to get into there. There are, you know, giants in that business and it turns out that the most prescribed drug on the planet are, are anti-inflammatories.

Well, you know, that’s exactly what this is, is an anti-inflammatory, but it’s all natural. So we’re really focused. To be doing this. And we love hearing about, you know people who, the races they’re doing, the ways it’s helped them. We have, we have a number of athletes. There’s one athlete crystal comes to [00:44:00] mind.

She was a runner on the sidelines. Hadn’t run for a couple of years. Decided to try our stuff and now she’s running ultras, she’s back in it and it helps. And she’s buys it every month. Like, I’m like, Hey, we have subscriptions. Like you don’t have to come in here every time and buy it. Like, let’s get a subscription and we’ll it up.

I know. I just want them to, you know, so any rate yeah. Yeah. We, we, we love hearing that and love seeing athletes succeed. 

Mark: [00:44:26] Awesome. And just for everyone listening, I will definitely put the website links and everything in the show notes. You can just check there so you can find you guys that way.

Elliot: [00:44:34] Yeah. And I know next week’s podcast, we’re going to be talking about ultra distance races of all kinds. So as long as we’re talking about ultra gels keep it on topic on brand and and go from there. And I know that’s what we’ll be chatting about next week, and I know we’re kind of excited to on that topic 

Jay OHare: [00:44:50] as well.

No, that’s great. That’s great. And you know, one last thing I’ll mention is we just released a sleep. Is it, a lot of people struggled with sleep [00:45:00] and you know, and I’m one of them for sure. I can fall asleep fast than I wake up at two in the morning on a monkey mind and all that. But you know, recovery is such a big deal.

And so we said, Hey, you know let’s. Come out with a really strong sleep product. And so so it’s got basically it hits sleep from three different angles. So it’s got a CBD, that’s going to calm the mind. It’s got melatonin, that’s going to activate the sleep. And then it’s got CBN, which is another cannabinoid.

The CBN helps you stay asleep. So that’s been out for now just a couple. It’s a brand new product and it’s just flying off the shelves. People are so stoked about it. Like it’s really helping them with their sleep. And we all know that sleep is super, super helpful with recovery. And so we’re getting like screenshots from people’s like apps and stuff like that of like, Hey, look how my sleep changed, all that kind of thing.

So that’s been, that’s been really, really, really great. 

Mark: [00:45:51] Yeah, I’m pretty excited for that one. I actually just disordered that. Haven’t gotten able to try it yet, but that’s yeah, I’m excited for them because I’m just like you, I wake up two or three in the morning and I’m like, [00:46:00] oh, the wheels are turning and I can’t stop them.

Jay OHare: [00:46:02] Yeah. Yeah. You know what, I’ll just, I’ll just say that. Look, I really appreciate you guys having me on to be able to talk about this product. And yes, we are a business and all that, but at the end of the day, we just want athletes to make an informed choice. And if an athlete finds a product, that’s better suited for them.

Like, Hey, that’s fine. That’s cool. Go get it. But at least, at least you’re informed about it. And I, I think that’s the, that’s the big thing that we’re after. And I think that when you, when you do all the research and you look into it, it with what you’re putting in your body, we’ve got to, we’ve got a pretty compelling case and and a really great product and a great track record, and it helps athletes stay in the game.

And if we can all be doing endurance sports for life, like that’s the goal. 

Elliot: [00:46:42] Yeah, 

Mark: [00:46:42] totally. I think that that aligns really well with us. Cause that’s kind of our goal. This podcast is to kind of educate athletes and coaches on how to reach their best. 

Elliot: [00:46:52] So yeah. Make sure people get their real gains. 

Jay OHare: [00:46:56] Exactly.

Right. I love that. I definitely 

Marilyn: [00:46:59] appreciate it, [00:47:00] Jay. You know, a lot of the people that I work with they’re, they’re really busy people. They have, you know, they have big goals, they train hard, they have families they’re, you know, busy work. And, and they also want to do the, all of these ultra events and, and their stress level is high.

Their anxiety for some of them is a little bit high and they’re pushing their bodies to the absolute max. And a lot of them are, you know, getting on, like we talked about getting on an age, some of them aren’t, you know, it doesn’t matter, but they You know, I’m always looking for something to help them continue.

Like we say, w if we wake up every morning, we’re able to do what we love. Our whole life is better. And if we can do that forever. And so these people, instead of saying, Hey, maybe you’re doing too much, you should relax. I always try and give them other things that they can continue the life that they love.

And that is going to keep them healthy and connected to the things and people they love. And so, yeah. They’ve got, if you’ve got a little anxiety, you’re having a little bit of trouble sleeping, you’re struggling with injury. That kind of thing. If there’s one thing you can do every day to help, [00:48:00] help ease that and keep you in the game, then we’re certainly going to put that in front of them.

So I appreciate you guys reaching out to us and yeah. 

Jay OHare: [00:48:07] Yeah. And you know, what might be helpful for them is we just, we just launched a quiz on our site, a CBD finder, if you will. And it’s just, you answered some questions about your training, racing, and recovery, and kind of some things that are going on with you physically.

And then we recommend like what the best products are for that. And we don’t have a lot of products. We try to keep it as simple, but you know, if someone’s looking for like, Hey, what’s the priority in this? It gives them an idea of, of how they can prioritize. I appreciate it. Awesome. That’s super cool.

Mark: [00:48:37] Thank you so much for spending the hour with us. It’s been great and I’m sure everyone listening is we’ll learn a lot and we’ll check out 

Jay OHare: [00:48:44] Venga. All right guys. Yeah, stay safe out there. Okay. 

Elliot: [00:48:47] Take care. Thanks for 

Jay OHare: [00:48:48] coming on. All right, bye.