Anything that has to do with taste should really be tried out individually. I can tell you that I don't care how gels taste because I'm usually dying in the Texas heat anyways. Taste is the least of my concerns.

I think I had Clif chocolate gel on Sunday night's 6.5 mile run. I thought it was OK...

Sports beans or Chomps

Taste and texture are very individual things. I would try a couple different kinds and see what you like best, on that note this is what I have found out for myself.

1. I don't like the gels, something about the texture.
2. Jelly Belly sport Beans I found some of the flavors to sweet, but they are the size of a jelly bean so very easy to eat.
3. Clif shot blocs on the other hand are kind of big and I found hard to chew. They would stick in my teeth.
4. Chomps are not bad.
5. Honey Stinger I believe is all natural. That is what I am currently using. They are easy to chew and don't taste to bad.

Have fun sampling.

I run with Powerbar Vanilla and green apple gels mostly. On longer runs, my body requires salt tablets along with powerbar gels. (Powerbar has the most sodium per gel of all the major brands). I go through salt at a faster rate than most people, but after talking with my doctor and nutritionist, that's what works for me.

Fake sugars give me terrible migraines so I have to avoid them.

I eat honey stingers before a run. I adore them.

I use the unflavored GUs. All the flavors are too sweet and will make me sick when it's hot out.

I hope you're getting you're electrolytes from other sources. Regular GUs have none. Roctanes do.

I prefer the e-Gels but we got a good price on some GU gels so we are stuck with those for a while (not they are bad). I really don't like the process of eating a gel while running so I put a gel into one of my Nathan water bottles and add some water so it's premixed. I don't run far enough to need more than one gel yet.

Chocolate gu for me!

I dont like the texture of gels, so I've been sticking with the Cliff Shot Blocks, and occassionally Gu Chomps. I think I just like chewing something. But I think it's very individualized.

The only thing I actually like is peanut butter flavored GU. The texture and consistency really is like peanut butter, and it is the only one that actually tastes like the fake flavor it pretends to be.

If it's a bike ride or a long and VERY slow run, I can do Clif bars, and then I like white chocolate macadamia nut. They really do taste like a cookie. If it's anything approaching fast I have to stick to liquids and not solid food.

For sodium and fluids I drink lemon lime G2 gatorade. I hear all the time that is not the best, but it is the one that doesn't hurt my stomach.

I use the unflavored GUs. All the flavors are too sweet and will make me sick when it's hot out.

I hope you're getting you're electrolytes from other sources. Regular GUs have none. Roctanes do.

Unless you live in a deprived culture or eat nothing by grass, you are getting all the electrolytes your body could ever want or need from your regular diet.

Hear, hear.

Another eye opener — as you perspire, concentration of sodium increases*, not decreases.


*Noakes, "The Lore of Running", somewhere around page 80.

:-)

Anyone ever try Brawndo, the Thirst Mutilator? It's got electrolytes too.

I use to train occasionally with a guy who was an Olympic race walker back in the late seventies. He said he and the other athletes would let some Pepsi sit out overnight to go flat and that was their version of the gels of today.

I've switched from gels to chews over a year ago so I cant remember the GU flavors I like. I really like the Cliff shot blocs I know many of you said they are too big.. I just bite one bloc in half, chew and then eat the rest. Never seems to sticky to me. My favorite flavors are:
Chocolate Cherry, Berry, and island punch? (the light blue one)