Energy gels

lporter229

Misiolinka wrote: »

Thank you everyone, I'm reading and taking notes. Getting ready for my first ever marathon in August (coastal/trail)... so any advise of this kind welcome here too

Fueling for a marathon is quite different than fueling for a half. Unless you are super fast and can complete a full marathon in under 3 hours, you are likely going to need to have a fueling plan in place or you risk depleting all of your glycogen stores and "hitting the wall" as they say. Most people choose to have a gel or equivalent (~100 calories) every 45 minutes to an hour to avoid glycogen depletion. It is important to do this from the onset of the race and not wait until you feel like you are running out of energy. It's also a good idea to have some trial runs with your fueling strategy to see what types of fuel work best for you. Good luck with your marathon!

WickAndArtoo

Cliff does have organic blocks, and they are delicious if you like gummy things!! They can be purchased both as caffeinated (my go-to) or uncaffinated (my husbands go-to).

Personally my favorite energy supplement for running are the GUs with caffeine, even though they aren’t organic. The best flavors are the chocolate, salted caramel, and the espresso love. If I’m feeling something fruity I always go for a cliff block instead bc the fruity GUs are not good in my opinion.

DX2JX2

acpgee wrote: »

Wondering if you will even need energy gels (assuming this is to combat glycogen depletion) for a half marathon. I am a woman so am more efficient at burning fat during endurance events. I would have only benefitted from gels close to 7 hours of exertion.

I hit the wall once at a long distance inline skating event (140 km skating) after 6.5 hours of continuous exertion. Someone from the organization saw me struggling gave me a hotel satchet of jam to suck on that cleared my mind almost immediately, so yeah having a packet of jam works too.

If you snack on dried apricots during the race, you can probably keep the gels on hand only if you have an emergency situation. Glycogen depeletion (your brain can only run on glycogen) means you suddenly get totally confused and are unable to coordinate your movements.

The science suggests that fueling helps to improve performance for activities that will last longer than 45 minutes or so. I can find the source study if needed but it's easily findable on the internet. Radiolab also did a great episode on this.

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest benefits of fueling is to 'trick' your brain into allowing the body to continue to deplete your glycogen stores. Around the 45 minute mark the brain will start asking the body to stop moving in order to save energy even though the body still has plenty of energy left in reserve. The brain is trying to prevent the body from reaching a critical situation. This is what many recreational athletes perceive as 'bonking'...it's all mental.

True bonking won't happen until much later (I think the body can store 90-120 minutes of glycogen on average) and when it does happen it's ugly. I'm sure that youtube has some videos of marathoners, triathletes, etc. experiencing that nightmare.

Fueling during even shorter races may not be technically critical but it lets your brain know that more calories are coming and as such, it will not send a signal to the body encouraging it to stop moving. The great thing is anything will work...gels, dried fruit, bananas, or even sips of sports drink (assuming you drink one that contains calories).

BrianSharpe

lporter229 wrote: »

If you prefer to have something solid, you may also like dried fruits like apricot, pineapple, etc.

Personally I would be hesitant to go the solid food route (I do like to snack on dates but hate running with food in my stomach) but no matter what you decide to try train with it before race day....nothing like a gastrointestinal surprise to ruin your day.

Duck_Puddle

I use honey stinger gels because that’s just about the only thing my stomach can handle without some sort of revolt. I believe they are organic. But I get awfully tired of chewing after 14-15 miles, so I’m experimenting with Tailwind (I’m going to take a wild stab and guess that it’s not organic-but I have no idea).

fitoverfortymom

The ultra runner / trail groups I'm on swear by salty potatoes. Think baby potatoes roasted w/ a little oil and sea salt.

ETA: I definitely like the idea of "real food" while running. I've done GU and Sport Beans for caffeine. Also, PB&Honey sammies.

ETA: My next race is a road HM. I'm going to eat a big breakfast and run with sport beans and that will probably be it in terms of race fuel. My Sept HM is on trail and I will not only have the big breakfast, but bring actual snacks for the run. The exertion on trail, even at the same distance, far outweighs the road. I'm bringing a whole extra sandwich for that and maybe some potato chips + electrolyte drink.

firef1y72

Not organic but vegan, I like tailwind in my water when doing anything above 14km, it tastes quite nice and has all the salts you need which if you sweat like I do need replacing a lot quicker than actual energy (although each sachet also has 200 calories). I also use shot bloks (again vegan) which are like cubes of concentrated jelly (English version of jelly). Both of these could also have caffeine in depending on the flavour.
The important thing though is to incorporate these in to your training. Some people can't stomach gels, drinks etc and it's better to find out on a training run. In fact it took me several long training runs to find out exactly how brat for me personally to fuel.

janejellyroll

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

I use honey stinger gels because that’s just about the only thing my stomach can handle without some sort of revolt. I believe they are organic. But I get awfully tired of chewing after 14-15 miles, so I’m experimenting with Tailwind (I’m going to take a wild stab and guess that it’s not organic-but I have no idea).

Pretty sure that Tailwind is organic, at least some of the ingredients. My sister uses it and she's passionate about things like that.

apullum

WickAndArtoo wrote: »

Cliff does have organic blocks, and they are delicious if you like gummy things!! They can be purchased both as caffeinated (my go-to) or uncaffinated (my husbands go-to).

Personally my favorite energy supplement for running are the GUs with caffeine, even though they aren’t organic. The best flavors are the chocolate, salted caramel, and the espresso love. If I’m feeling something fruity I always go for a cliff block instead bc the fruity GUs are not good in my opinion.

Cliff blocks are good, though I like the Pro Bar blocks a little better if you’re into gummies.

My current favorites are chocolate gels, though. I like the Clif chocolate and Gu s’mores. Haven’t tried the Gu plain chocolate yet, but I’ll eat just about anything chocolate.

I’m totally with you on fruity Gu tasting gross.

WickAndArtoo

apullum wrote: »

WickAndArtoo wrote: »

Cliff does have organic blocks, and they are delicious if you like gummy things!! They can be purchased both as caffeinated (my go-to) or uncaffinated (my husbands go-to).

Personally my favorite energy supplement for running are the GUs with caffeine, even though they aren’t organic. The best flavors are the chocolate, salted caramel, and the espresso love. If I’m feeling something fruity I always go for a cliff block instead bc the fruity GUs are not good in my opinion.

Cliff blocks are good, though I like the Pro Bar blocks a little better if you’re into gummies.

My current favorites are chocolate gels, though. I like the Clif chocolate and Gu s’mores. Haven’t tried the Gu plain chocolate yet, but I’ll eat just about anything chocolate.

I’m totally with you on fruity Gu tasting gross.

Glad I’m not the only one! I bought every flavor just to mix it up, and have been choking the fruit ones down. I haven’t tried the s’mores yet but I do have that flavor! I’m waiting to try it for when I start training for a full marathon since it’s a non caffeinated one (I am going to try doing every other so I’m not investing too much caffeine).