Energy Gels

Who uses them? Do they work? How well?
I was thinking about eatting them before every hard practice and before meets but want to know if they work.
I narrowed it down to GU and CarbBoom.

i used to use Gu, now i just try and avoid them. i think they're gross.although i had split an energy thing with my friend when we were doing a really long run.

carbboom. haha i think that name is neat.

I don't use them regularly but once I got a free sample of Gu and used it about 2/3 through my long run. i thought it helped. I thought it tasted pretty good though. And at the 1/2 marathon I did one of the water stops had gu, so I took one, and it helped then tool.

Idk, but I personally don't think you need them before practices or meets, as long as you are well fueled with other stuff... but if you haven't eaten anything else then it would be fine.

i like the energy jelly bellys. but i only eat them because they taste good.

i use GU, they get me really hyper and stuff, and i run best when im like that, so i use them for shorter races and harder workouts, never tried them for a long race yet
but i would say they work
and powerbar is awesome too, and it tastes better.

yea i use them all the time and they work really good. some people dont like the taste of them so i tell them to use carboom and they like that. it takes about 10-15 minutes for them to kick in for me so for short races i take the ones with caffeine in them and they hit me right away and get me really hyper.

they dont really taste that good...i use Gu sometimes in xc. it seems to work pretty well

(if you get Gu, i recomend chocolate...the vanilla one is gross, and i dont know what the other flavors are like.)

eternally_running wrote:they dont really taste that good...i use Gu sometimes in xc. it seems to work pretty well

(if you get Gu, i recomend chocolate...the vanilla one is gross, and i dont know what the other flavors are like.)

agreed i ate the vanilla one first and almost puked because of the texture and the flavor. chocolate is wayy better.

I have a GU Roctane Vanilla Orange sample one from a race that I plan on using for a 10 mile race on Saturday. I plan on taking it really easy because it's part of a running series that I am so far ahead in that all I need to do is finish the last to races to win.

Spark Notes: I have GU and plan to use it in a race but I am taking it like a practice run.


If it works I'll buy a 24 pack of some kind of gel (probably GU because you all seem to agree thats the best)

they taste nasty buut if you choke it down I think it helps a tiny bit.

^ lol, agreed

They're meant for races >10k. Your normal diet is enough to handle anything lower than that just fine. There is no difference between eating a Gu right before your race and carb-loading the night before. The only difference is that the carb-loading gives you FAR more energy output.

The only difference is caffiene which helps a little bit, but it isn't magical energy. The energy has to come from somewhere (read: glycogen stores). Caffiene will however make you more alert. That's about it.

I tried it on saturday for a 5k and I didn't feel a difference but I ate one the day of my ten mile and it felt great.

futureNIKErunner wrote:i use GU, they get me really hyper and stuff, and i run best when im like that, so i use them for shorter races and harder workouts, never tried them for a long race yet
but i would say they work
and powerbar is awesome too, and it tastes better.

yeah powerbar tastes better. but it gets me a huge boost of energy, so i mainly use it for short races.