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On a Fueling Mission

For the record, the winner of the Fresh 20 cookbook was notified via email. Thanks to everyone who entered!!

Now, as for things running, I am on a mission. I am trying to find the perfect running fuel. For me.

I have tried it all. Gu, chews, waffles, candy, beans...you name it. Everything either bothered my stomach or was too sweet to get down. Literally. I could hardly swallow them. So I gave up.

I did all my training runs for my last marathon and ran the race on just water and electrolyte tablets. But I'm starting to wonder if a little fuel, at least toward the end of a marathon, wouldn't be such a bad idea. So I'm on that mission I mentioned earlier. I got five kinds of gels I haven't tried before, hoping to find one that is both kind to my stomach and doesn't make me want to immediately spit it out and wipe off my tongue.

I am going with gels because I want something that is in my mouth the least amount of time. And that I could basically swallow with water if necessary. Here's what I'm going to try:



So tell me...what do you fuel with on long runs?

Comments

  1. I'm a fan of GU, but haven't tried Salted Caramel (which sounds heavenly, by the way). I do love the PB GU! Good luck!

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  2. I like Hammer Gels. They are made with more natural ingredients. Raspberry is my favorite. I also like Cliff chocolate covered cherry and Gu chocolate mint and peanut butter. You can mix them with water and carry them on a belt or in a camelback.

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  3. I read on fastcory.com about tailwind nutrition (under his gear section), it is calories in drink form and is supposedly easy on the stomach. It might be a good alternative to only water, without using gross gels all the time - I can't handle gels that often, the texture is what gets me.

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  4. In my little pea brain opinion, for what it's worth, you can train the body to get used to almost anything if you practice enough. Gels are gross and kind of a necessary evil...they take forever to open, taste like crap, and get your hands sticky. But they do really help....so I'd say the more you can practice with them the better. I like the GU brand with like a million shots of caffiene. ha! The beans, chomps, ect take a lot longer to digest and are not as effective in my opinion. Plus I chocked on one once and thought I might die...

    Again I'm an idiot and am just throwing down my 2 cents here.

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  5. I gag on gels, but love Honey Stinger chews. Will sometimes take GU chews but Honey Stinger is really the only thing I fuel on. I also started taking salt tabs on my long trail runs as I was starting to bonk and knew it wasn't calories so tried salt and voila! Felt better. My son doesn't like any type of gels/chews so eats a power bar on long runs. Good luck finding something!

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  6. I'm a BIG fan of GU tri-berry, vanilla and mandarin orange.

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