Discussion: Carbo Shotz or Gu?

Carbo Shotz or Gu??? What are your thoughts and do they really help on long runs...I'm aiming for 21km so would be good to have some feedback on all things running i guess

I think gels provide a caffeine boost (some of them), some psychological advantage, and some carbs of varying levels of complexity for absorption over a longer period than a simple sugar. I use gels for long runs of about 10M or more, starting 45' to 1hr in. For a half marathon, I'd probably only use 1 gel.

Remember to stay hydrated, and, perhaps more important than supplemental carbs is to make sure you are up on your electrolytes (potassium, magnesium, etc).

Make sure you try them out before the race. Often you'll need to have a gulp or two of water otherwise they can give you a pretty sore stomach! I'd say 1 gel too, but possibly two!

I think you are supposed to drink 8 ounces of water with every GU.

Cato, Cato, Cato - what would Tooms say if he could hear such heresy! CarboShotz or bust.

Yes gels of any sort rip all the water from your system so you have to drink with them. Not just one sip.

whether they help or not depends on how long (timewise) you run for and the intensity. Anything less than a hard 80-90 minutes and the advantage should be purely psychological, as glycogen depletion shouldn't be a limiting factor to performance. (as long as your diet is OK and you start with full muscle glycogen stores)

I've never had Gu. I like CarboShotz (and not just coz I got them for free). I even liked the last cola-vanilla one I had - I must have been desperate.

Shotz for the shorter high intensity stuff, they seem to go down better. There is only a couple of flavours that I can handle though.

Gu's are great for longer races as they taste maltier and the sweetness of the Shotz starts to get to me. The caffeine Gu is much better than the Cola Shotz

Thanks for that. Always good to see what you guys think.

Was this really cleverly disguised market research?

hahah no we sell both at work, but i haven't had the need to use them and seeing that everyone that runs (no matter the distance) cycles, climbs, all say how great they are...and a customer told me i need to wear a fuel belt for the run because it will be needed..... hence why i ask proper athletes :-)

You'd better not take any notice of what Wally said then...

Funny this has turned into a Sandgr0per blog.

I like that Gu has chocolate flavour, or is that Hammer gels I'm thinking of?

Gosh I have missed you Tooms. Any chance of you going further away?

A few thoughts on these things. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence as well as the opinions of some very good coaches to support, but no hard evidence.

Carb stores are only an issue if you are a) running hard enough that most of the energy is coming from carbs and b) running long enough that your liver glycogen levels could be depleted. (There is some hard data to support that it is ONLY liver levels that contribute to bonk - muscle and blood levels don't matter much as they can be replenished from the liver quickly). For most people, satisfying both a and b means a hard effort in the 2-4 hour range. For such efforts, shots and gu are invaluable.

Bonking (as opposed to muscle fatigue, which is a whole different problem) in longer events is usually a result of not training the body to burn fat. If you carb up for all your long training runs, you're reducing the adaptive value of those runs. On easy training runs in the 3-hour range, I typically won't eat anything. If it's a long, hard run (e.g., split tempo or increasing pace), then I'll fuel as I would in a race. Gu and water every 45 minutes or so.

Nobody bonks in under 2 hours. If you fall apart in a race that short, you just misjudged your pace. Take gu or shots if it makes you feel better, but it's not helping (except maybe the caffine).

I will use gu's in ultras for the caffine, but be careful in such cases. Dumping sugar into an empty system can lead to other problems. Eating something more substantial, especially after the first 8 hours is safer.

Nobody bonks in under 2 hours.

So much to say with this comment.

So what are the best ways to train your body to burn fat? And in particular is there a way to train your body to burn fat at higher intensities? For a 12hr event it's not possible to use just carbs, fat is required to be burnt as well, it would seem if you can train the body to burn fat at a higher intensity it would be possible to go faster.

ebuckley said do 3hr easy runs without eating, any other suggestions or articles supporting this or other ideas?

i've had glucose tablets a few times and they seem to do the trick.

...So what are the best ways to train your body to burn fat?...

Long, low intensity training on an empty stomach with caffeine in the system seems to be what I remember from my uni studies, but I'm not gonna go and look it up to confirm...

I never really made it to 3hr long runs, but 2-2hrs 30 with no food was very rarely a problem (unless you didn't east dinner the night before)

I'm a big fan of the gels, but only really use them when I'm going to be on the go for over 3 hours (usually ARs)