Gel alternative???

[Deleted User]

Anyone got any decent alternatives to gels?

They have started giving me very painful stitches and cramps on my longer stuff.

Any Magic real fuels out there?

Cheers CP

Nick L

No real magic fuels.

Depends on what you want.....'proper' food - things like flapjacks, mini mars bars, cereal bars, jelly babies, dried fruit

or if you can stomach it.....sweetened condensed milk in a tube YUMMY!

LS21

Malt Loaf, Jaffa Cakes, Fig Rolls, Haribo Star Mix, Jelly Beans, or my favourite of homemade Gingerbread Men.

All tried and tested by me and work a treat if you can stomach them.

[Deleted User]

Jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies..............even when not on a run....

LIVERBIRD

Shades uses dates for long runs.

I would need a trip to the loo every five minutes if I ate dates....

And not for a wee

[Deleted User]

Gels also give me stomach cramp's, the past couple of years I have been using Honey stinger gels I find they work very well for me. My training partner also started using them on my recommendation and he's been getting on with them to.

[Deleted User]

Nice one folks, I was the slimist person in the Naughty isle at sainsburys at lunchtime....

Im now tooled up with Mini mars , jelly babies & jelly beans.

Will probably give those Honey stingers a try as well.

Dates huh, might give figs a try too.....

[Deleted User]

Jus - do you need water with the honey stingers or are they like sis gels?

[Deleted User]

Pavey, no you don't need water. I buy them In the bottles and then fill up a little gel flask (you can buy them on the Honey stinger website) my training partner mixes a little warm water to his as he likes It more watery, why I don't know he just likes It like that. 

But you don't get the wall paper sticky mouth affect  like you can with some gels

candy ollier

How much do you pay for it?? You can make exactly the same stuff for about 8p a shot by mixing honey with water and a pinch of Lo-Salt.

[Deleted User]

Your right Candy you can and I have, but the Honey stinger has added ingredients like caffeine, kola nut and ginseng they do seem to give It a little extra kick.   

Fido2Dogs

Took a squeezy bottle of maple-flavoured golden syrup on a long run couple of weeks ago. Squeeze of syrup - slurp of water - magic! No trots (and I am susceptible).

[Deleted User]

Engery gels taste disgusting  I don't understand how anyone can take those things. I really rate those Lucozade energy tablet things that they sell in chemists.

Johnny2323

Mind if I reopen this debate. Really would like to find an alternative to gels for my marathon training. would flapjacks give me the same as gels? can't really imagine necking one while on a run but need to get away from gels as they cost too much and last time out caused cramps.

Anyone found any good alternatives.

Alternatively can you make your own. What's the magic ingredient in these things anyway?

FerrousFerret

Any of the above suggestions- unfortunately we're all different and what works for me may not work for you. 

Most gels are chock full of carbohydrates, normally sugary and some will contain fructose as well as maltodextrin as this can be metabolised at the same time.  You may also find electrolytes (sodium, potassium etc) to replace what you lose in sweat.  As Mr Ollier points out above, honey + water + lo-salt will give you most of this for pennies, but will be useless if you throw it up seconds after eating it.

Johnny2323

i think i'd find honey a bit too sweet on its own. i'll experiment.

Rivera

Honey can be a good a natural energy booster. But to be fair it doesn't provide the quick burst, but it offer much more sustained energy over time. Also Maple syrup but both are only energy boosters. I prefer more SIS Gels but when I was on vacation in Andorra used their local acacia honey (https://ahoney.com) during my morning training as alternative. Can't complain. It worked for me.