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Food vs Gels - How To Optimise Your Long Run Fuelling

The Running Channel

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Join The Running Channel Club at https://club.therunningchannel.com/ to meet like-minded runners, get exclusive episodes of the podcast and access expert guidance through courses and live Q&As.

The Running Channel Podcast tackles one big topic each episode, amongst helpful tips and light-hearted chat on the latest news in the running world. Hosted by Sarah Hartley (amateur runner) and Andy Baddeley (former pro runner) alongside Rick Kelsey (recovering runner), the TRC Podcast is friendly, jargon-free, and the perfect accompaniment to your runs.

This week Sarah, Andy and Rick talk all things fuelling! They discuss regular food vs gels, how many carbs you really need during long runs as well as covering the news and community questions.
MUSIC licensed by Artlist and Epidemic Sound
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20 Comments

@benking3497 1 year ago

Andy was once very fast
But those days are long in the past
Now he's taking the mick
Out of Sarah and Rick
And his banter is regional class

@nataliamartinkova 1 year ago

My mantra now is "This is a privilege. I'm grateful for these beautiful trails. There are so many more to run on yet!" It works between the first hill and the point of 'omg, I'm dying'. Does not work at the point 'This is what a zombie feels like'.

@Jonathan-jgb101 1 year ago

Instant like for the poems alone! Haven't even got to the running content!

@eenayeah 1 year ago (edited)

I listened to this for my run today. I've been doing 10k every day this April. Trying to do the whole month. I was struggling today, especially since it's been less than 12 hours since my 10k last night and I had minimal sleep and no food since before my run yesterday. I was about 6k in and I hear Andy saying "your best is always enough" at 35:35 and I just suddenly cried. I don't know why. It just hit me so hard at the moment, I guess. Here I was all alone in this empty loop on a Sunday morning, tired, struggling, huffing, trying to achieve my goal. I couldn't run my fastest today. But I sure ran my best. Thank you, Andy.

@danievanzyl6663 1 year ago

For 70 year old my pb age grade is 62.34%. Not to shabby. Local class level.😄

@edithgruber2125 1 year ago

I discovered marshmallows as a decent gel alternative on easy long runs. Their main ingredient is glucose-fructose syrup so I get two different sugars that are absorbed via two different pathways and they are cheap. I can't chew anything when I'm running at race pace so in the marathon, it's gels, hydro gels or carbohydrate drinks with 40 g per bottle. Back in the day, when I started running marathons around 4:30 hours, I only had 2 or 3 gels and maybe a granola bar for 25-30 g/hour. Now that I'm over an hour faster, I need more carbs per hour because I'm racing at a higher intensity. I've trained my gut to handle 40-50 g this time around and I may be able to increase this further with the next training cycle.

@theboyfaz 1 year ago

Only ever gone up to 24km (so far). Anything over 10km and I always take a home brew drink with me. Juice of a whole lemon, 8th of a teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of honey per 500ml of water.

It's always worked for me so far....or maybe am not running fast enough 😂😂😂

@ulfeliasson5413 1 year ago (edited)

Gels have saved my running. When they work, my brain feels so much fresher that it can handle my body breaking down and make it possible to keep going for an extra hour or two. Fascinating. Usually takes two though, so about 70 minutes of torment before it kicks in. Have even started eating vegetables 2-3 times a day. Hell really has frozen over. :- )

@adriansmith3031 1 year ago

The mantra I use is ‘I will do whatever is required to make this run a success’. This always pushes me to hit my targets, even when I don’t feel like it.

@wertacus 1 year ago

When running, I always remind myself that moving the goal-posts is ok. If that means running faster or slower or even going home. It's all arbitrary unless you're going for a world record and getting injured for your ego is not allowed.

@jonburnell532 1 year ago

Cade Media have done a couple of great comparison videos on gels and bars. Comparing taste, value, carb content. Well worth a look 👍🏼

@christineleckey6199 1 year ago

For my half marathon with a percy pig every kilometer. I felt ace the whole way through and at the end!

@christopherbrand5360 1 year ago

The combination of ultramarathon distances and pushing high effort (high Z2, low Z3 for a very well-trained athlete) really starts to show a huge difference for high-carb fueling (over 90g/hr). You're never going to absorb enough calories of any substrate to replace all of the calories you are burning at that level of effort, and very high fat oxidation is still required for strong performance, but the additional fast-burning carbohydrate enables maintaining a much higher output for previously unthinkable durations. This is due to the fact that efficient, rapid fat oxidation in the TCA cycle depends on the presence of byproducts from carbohydrate oxidation (oxaloacetate) and this becomes the limiting factor for power output. Keeping carbohydrate oxidation as high as possible enables greater fat oxidation than is possible without carbohydrate and thus total available power is much higher for athletes who can train to absorb and use very high carbohydrate rates during events. Up to the limits of absorption more carbohydrate in an ultra endurance event equals more available power and more speed.

@RodrigoBernardoPimentel 1 year ago

I have a few mantras and I sing to myself whichever one feels better at the time. I particularly like a Dutch song my daughter used to sing when she was small: "We zijn daar bijna, we zijn daar bijna, maar nog niet helemaal" ("We're almost there, we're almost there, but not quite").

@darrellbenge9235 1 year ago

I saw Anna get her Q at Quakers Walk in Devizes one of my local parkruns. There is a 5k App which has many parkrun challenges. Its also possible to spell your name or theres others such as Pirates which is 7 C's and a R....

Fueling wise I check out the positions of the water stations on the event try and take my gels at certain ones at around the right distance/time wise, it gives me a good reminder of when to take them and also means I can dispose of the sticky rubbish and have some water to wash them down if need be. I am also happy to walk through water stations if it means I can take on water easier.
There was an interesting interview with Jack Scott the winner of the Spine race last year who constantly ate haribo on his way round to try and keep up the vast quantity carbs needed.

@mattgarner2414 1 year ago

I did my ‘Z’ in the Netherlands! Zuiderpark, in The Hague :-)

Next week, I’ll be completing my parkrun alphabet at ‘Ingrebourne Hill’, also bringing me back to ‘LonDone’ status 🤩

@DougYuen 1 year ago

Lately I've really been liking the Precision Fuel and Hydration 90g gels. I think it's easier to hold and squeeze the bigger packets, they feel less likely to slip out of my hand. And I find the resealable cap easier than tearing off gel tops. Plus you can put it back in your pocket without getting everything sticky. However, you can't measure your intake as accurately, like if you want to do 30g every 30 minutes (1/3 of a gel each time).

@paddingtonbear-uk4wh 1 year ago

I used 2 gels today on my first half marathon "race" I done one in a long run during training. My legs fell apart around 12k but got it done in 2.36

@Tuonomajstr 1 year ago

Andy is so spot on with normal people are not willing to go above red line. I was middle distance runner back in the day and difference between medalists and not medalists is willingness to suffer more.