First off, an administrative note: you may have noticed a few changes at The Fartlek Runner over the weekend. In between runs I moved the blog from wordpress.com to being self-hosted, which included giving the blog a new look at feel. I’m still working out a number of bugs (images, links, etc., that didn’t come over), but things should be functional over all. If you run in to any problems, please contact me and let me know so I can fix it.
Onto more interesting things!
How to make your own running gels:
I’ve recently been re-reading Brendan Brazier’s book Thrive Fitness. It was a huge help for me in preparing for the half marathons I ran last fall, so I wanted to review it for things that I missed or had forgot that I could use in preparing for Ottawa. I have to admit that I didn’t really try many of the recipes when I originally read the book, mainly because I was still tweaking some things in my own diet and wasn’t yet comfortable making a Thrive Pizza. One of the recipes I really had wanted to try was making my own gels.
I have nothing in particular against commercial gels, other then my stomach doesn’t agree with them. But there is something to be said for knowing what each ingredient in your food is, especially when it comes to fueling your body for the demands of longer-distance running.
For those who may not be familiar with gels, they are quickly digesting sources of simple and complex carbohydrates to help runners refuel quickly and efficiently. They often contain electrolytes and sometimes have caffeine in them as well. Gels are typically taken every 30 to 45 minutes on runs lasting longer than 60 minutes, and help to offset muscle fatigue and improving performance.
The next issue for me was how to package the gel once I made it so that I could take it on a run. Dime bags? Uhhh… no. Zip lock bags? Possible, but could be messy. Then I read about gel flasks — a variation on a fuel belt bottle that straps onto the belt upside down for easy use. So I picked one of those up last week. If anyone else has other ideas on how to best package these gels, I’d love to hear about them.
Now lets get to the fun part — the recipe. The following is reproduced with permission from Thrive Fitness by Brendan Brazier, and is the gel recipe I tried yesterday:
Carob Energy Gel
- 2 large Medjool Dates
- 1 tbsp agave Nectar
- 1 tbsp ground salba
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp cacao nibs (or substitute carob powder)
- Sea salt to taste
Blend all ingredients together into a gel-like consistency. For an extra kick, add 1 tsp ground yerba mate.
A few notes on this recipe: I doubled it (figuring that would be equivalent to two gel packages for a 26k run) and used dried Medjool Dates soaked in some water for a couple of hours. I made it the night before my run (which was early in the morning) and found it got thicker over night. So the morning of my run, I added some water to thin it.
I found that the taste of the gel was much better than the commercial gels I had tried, and didn’t leave that “smacky” texture in my mouth. The carbs from the dates hit within five minutes and were sustained thanks to the longer chain fructose from the agave and selba. All in all, I’m a convert — it was easy to make (using a blender) and did the job.
