Forums >Health and Nutrition>Mid-Run Fueling with Real Food
Rick
My vote is for liquid calories in this scenario. What are the aid stations going to have? If they have any real food you could nibble. No need to carry anything.
12-22 Last One Standing - dnf 37 miles
1-23 Sun Marathon - 3:53
3-4-23 Red Mountain 55k - 7:02
4-15-23 Zion 100 - 27:59
Overweight per CDC BMI
Has anyone tried adding granular sugar or honey/agave to Gatorade or another sports drink? Several people have commented about liquid fuel/calories. My favorite flavor of Gatorade is G2 raspberry lemonade but it has half the sugar of normal Gatorade. I experimented last night by putting in a tablespoon of sugar at a time and tasting it. In 32oz, it took 6 tablespoons of sugar before the taste became thick and not appealing. 6 tablespoons comes to 106 grams of extra sugar. I always run long races with a Camelbak since I get dry mouth and like to sip on demand so I could just put that Gatorade into that. I will also still take a few packs of jelly beans. Let me know if this sugar idea is crazy.
Memphis / 38 male
5k - 20:39 / 10k - 43:48 / Half - 1:34:47 / Full - 3:38:10
Sounds like a receipe for puking. Most sports drinks have plenty of sugar. You can't absorb what you are consuming, the excess is going somewhere. I recommend reading Feedzone Portables.
Also, bladders are hard to clean. You are going to get a funk adding anything but water. Even then, that can get slimy. However, glad you are experimenting, everyone needs to find out what works for them.
Has anyone tried adding granular sugar or honey/agave to Gatorade or another sports drink?
Don't do this.
yes, i have added sugar to gatorade.
When i believed in gels, (which i no longer feel a need for, btw), i used to make my own. I experimented with a lot of different ingredients.
Garorade was amongst those, mostly for the flavor. Other ingredients included maltodextrine, fructose, dextrose, blackstrap molasses, lemon juice concentrate, sea salt, caffeine, protein powder, BCAA amino acids, and maybe some other stuff i can't recall.
Basically, the idea was to find a few gels i liked (commercially available), read the labels, find out what each ingredient does, and get them and add them into the mix. I even found a source for small ziplock bags the same size as a gel pack.
I don't really like to use the sugars anymore, but i do use the other ingredients in a post workout recovery drink.
Waltons ThreadLord
I have used gels and still do. The two items that were available during races that I felt had the best impact were bananas (offered in halves) and M&Ms, the latter eaten late in a marathon where they may have been as much a psychological boost as anything else.
5k 23:48.45 (3/22); 4M 31:26 (2/22); 5M 38:55 (11/23); 10k 49:24 (10/22); 10M 1:29:33 (2/24); Half 1:48:32 (10/22); Marathon 4:29:58 (11/23)Upcoming races: Clinton Country Run 15k, 4/27; Running is Back 10k, 5/12
Thanks again everyone for the advice.
I changed my mind about race day plan about a million times. Was going to fill my water backpack with gatorade but was put off by the cleaning issue. In the end I never really decided but race day morning didn't feel right without bringing something along.
I ended up grabbing some mini assorted swedish fish in my pantry on race day morning to tuck into my water backpack pocket in case I decided to eat them -- or if not it's not as if it adds any significant weight to my bag. Had a feeling my stomach would be fine given past apparent relative resilience against food poisoning and other stomach issues.
I'm not really sure whether the swedish fish were make-or-break to the race, but I do think it probably helped and luckily (since I took a risk by not testing prior to race day), definitely didn't hurt my performance. I ate only a very small amount (only 3 or 4 mini fish) every 15 minutes beginning at 45 minutes into the race and finishing at 2:15 into the race and drank some water with them each time. Had no issues chewing (did acidentally inhale once and coughed a little but was OK), and no stomach issues.
Race was warm (75-81 degrees over the course of it) but beautiful conditions. Ended up exceeding my stretch goal of 2:40 running 2:37. Success!
In future might prefer something else, but the swedish fish were great in terms of chewability, portability, ability to just eat a little or eat more, and of course an excuse to eat pure sugar.
Congrats on your well run race, BetsyG. Chasing the Swedish fish with water was a good idea, i would imagine.
Races in those kinds of temperatures just kill me. Nice that you handled it so well!
nice! im going to try swedish fish, i have stomach issues too. stomach doesnt like fast. currently tried sport jelly beans..which worked fine.
congrats!