Marathon Hot Take: Gels are incredibly overrated

Also, look at the ingredients list of most gels. You mention starch from potatoes, and it's super common to find things like this in gels. Honey stinger and clif, two of my favorites, use tapioca starch to offer more complex carbohydrates and presumably prolong the effects of taking the gel. Maurten is kind of the gold standard with the most thought put into optimizing the speed and volume of sugar absorbed, and they achieve the same prolonging affect by forming a gel which sits in your stomach.

Maurten may be considered a "gold standard" by its manufacturers, but its ability to increase gastric emptying using much higher concentrations (18%) than typical CHO does not translate to increased oxidation at the muscle. Maurten has been saying for almost 5 years they have data to show otherwise, but have not produced anything yet. I'm not holding my breath. Asker Jeukendrup showed many years ago that high-molecular weight CHO (which also allows gastric emptying at much higher concentrations) does NOT increase actual oxidation at the muscle. So, products like Maurten are fine, they just don;t do anything more than glucose or maltodextrin as far as oxidation rates. But their marketing strategies focus on the gastric emptying: "See how much more carbohydrate you can absorb!" But performance ultimately depends on oxidation, not just absorption.

A lot of carbs and calories in a peanut butter bagel. I’m not eating a bagel dry, and peanut butter is easier on my stomach than cream cheese.

Totally agree! I've run in 5 marathons and only "nailed it" once. In that particular race, I used Maurten 320 mix at 20k and 30k to help me get an OTQ. I've bonked very badly when using other products (e.g., Gu) and ironically performed worse then when I've raced a marathon on ZERO fuel.

I will say the Maurten Gel also seems to work well for me as it absorbs slower but the drinks are still more effective! My coach generally advises to wait 45 minutes in the race to take any fuel (then every 20-30 min thereafter). If you take carbs to early, you will reduce your fat usage and burn your glycogen stores too quickly (aka bonking).

Interestingly, I've tried gatorade immediately before a morning workout and suffered severe hypoglycemia to the point where I was light headed and dizzy while trying to run intervals! Not fun :)

When you say immediately before, do you mean within 5 minutes before you started, or like 30 minutes before? Because experiencing hypoglycemia ingesting simple sugars immediately before exercise doesn't make sense. Insulin will be suppressed and won't clear the glucose like it would as if you were at rest. I'm not saying I don't believe you were dizzy, I just don't know if it was actually hypoglycemia. If you took it 30 minutes before your workout, I can see that- insulin has time to clear the glucose form the blood.

glycology wrote:see if you can spot the obvious flaw?

Oh wise one - you are such a tease. You know so much more than we. Clever you are! We are we not worthy!

billbob98 wrote:

When you say immediately before, do you mean within 5 minutes before you started, or like 30 minutes before? Because experiencing hypoglycemia ingesting simple sugars immediately before exercise doesn't make sense. Insulin will be suppressed and won't clear the glucose like it would as if you were at rest. I'm not saying I don't believe you were dizzy, I just don't know if it was actually hypoglycemia. If you took it 30 minutes before your workout, I can see that- insulin has time to clear the glucose form the blood.

Psychosomatic.

These long discussions of how sugars are metabolized are too much for me to read and understand so I skipped over them. I use 2-3 gels on 20-mile training runs, and 4 gels in a marathon race. Now, I am a 61 year old male who runs marathons between 2:57 and 3:06, depending on the course, weather, etc, which is 40-50 percent longer than elite runners, but I gather that in Kipchoge's 1:59, his special nutrition formula was cited as a factor in his success.

The fact that simple sugars give you a blood sugar spike is precisely the point. Studies have shown that even the taste of sweetness in your mouth signals your brain to focus to push through fatigue. And added caffeine definitely does the same thing. I figure that when I use 4 Gu Chocolate Outrage gels with 20mg caffeine, each gel's 100 calories gives me an extra mile, the difference between 22 and 26 miles. I take them about 30 minutes apart, toward the middle to latter stages, roughly at miles 10, 14, 18 and 22. Typically I take the gel as I see the aid station ahead, drink lots of water, and refocus on running, but then, a few minutes later, realize that my pace has picked up without me noticing.

nogellsslslls wrote:

Hydration > Gels . Never needed a gel during a marathon. Properly hydrating is way more important. I never carry gels or bother with them. It’s 3 hours max, your body has enough stored up to get you through.

Absolutely true. Gels is a big business, making runners believe that they can't even leave the house for a 5k w/o a gel ;-). Simple rule: avoid gels in training, especially during long runs. Focus on appropriate hydration during races (avoid plain water!). A gel at 25k will not hurt, but don't expect miracles....in the end there is no easy way to a fast marathon....Cheers

Nothing to see here wrote:

glycology wrote:see if you can spot the obvious flaw?

Oh wise one - you are such a tease. You know so much more than we. Clever you are! We are we not worthy!

You have to put some work into it. It's called testing a hypothesis, not trying to prove it. Which means challenging your own beliefs. Try it some time.

Secret Sauce,. Red Bull and water 50/50 mix.

should be studying 102 wrote:

Instead of gels, you are better off taking in starch such as potato starch or cornstarch, because these molecules will be digested slowly and they won't result in a blood sugar spike.

A carbohydrate that is digested slowly is just an osmotic agent sitting in the lumen of your gut. Doesn't sound like a great idea.

Interesting, I haven't looked into Maurten too closely, or even used it myself, but after the whole super shoe phenomenon I have been a little less skeptical of some of these hyped products used by Kipchoge and everyone.

What is most interesting to me about Maurten is the ingredients are just what you say, maltodextrin and fructose. Their not claiming any improved oxidation, just that the "hydrogel technology" (aka pectin) improves absorption, which to me seems reasonable, and it appears to work for a lot of people. Certainly a lot of marketing hype behind it but fundamentally they are not reinventing the wheel, just providing the right ratios of different simple sugars in a gel consistency to maximize absorption. Seems like more thought was put into that than throwing random complex carbs and amino acids and crap with cool names like most gel companies do.

The problem with eating potatoes as race fuel is the resulting gastrointestinal distress, which I believe the authors noted in their study. The big advantage of ingesting gels instead of potatoes at marathon pace is that you don't immediately feel the need to vomit, which most competitive marathoners try to avoid.

Ha!!! As I said I've tried both camps, and have ended up on Team Gels. I should add that as a results of finding out what works for me, I have ended up spacing out the interval timing of eating gels (during ultras and the occasional marathon) to much longer than the 45 minute 'advice' they put on the packages (which I see as their way of selling more product).

pretzel man wrote:

Secret Sauce,. Red Bull and water 50/50 mix.

When I ran the Portland Marathon they were handing out Red Bulls on course... didn't get wings, but it was a noticeable "pick me up".

nogellsslslls wrote:

Hydration > Gels . Never needed a gel during a marathon. Properly hydrating is way more important. I never carry gels or bother with them. It’s 3 hours max, your body has enough stored up to get you through.

I always thought it was agreed upon that most non-elites use approximately 100 calories of carbs per mile and the body can store 1800-2200 total. Hence, the bonk at mile 22.

Is that old science?

Besides Kipchoge, Maurten is used by at least 7 of the top pro cycling teams. They note its ability to deliver higher concentrations of glucose.

Well said.

And it’s great to see you on here and still going so well.

DC Doctor wrote:

Besides Kipchoge, Maurten is used by at least 7 of the top pro cycling teams. They note its ability to deliver higher concentrations of glucose.

Deliver higher concentrations to the small intestine. But there's no evidence that there is actually more glucose oxidation at the muscle occurring. It seems that the intestinal glucose transporters are getting saturated and reach transport rates into the blood similar to just glucoe or maltodextrin ingestion, despite more glucose present in the intestinal lumen. So, Maurten (hydrogel) is as good as good ol' glucose or maltrodextrin in the sense of delivering glucose to the MUSCLE. We need to see some data showing actual performance enhancement with Maurten over traditional CHO. Are these cycling teams observing better performances? Anecdotal evidence helps, but we also need to some some empirical stuff. There are, however, data showing no difference in performance between the two CHO types.