I have tried the 320 sportsdrink and I like it, however the price is just to much for me to use it regularly. I normally dont have any issues with normal sportsdrinks either so my testning is inconclusive.

One question I have is since the mix ratio is so important, does it work as intended if I rely on maurten but also drink some plain water from aidstations? Or does this dilute the mix to much?

Yea, and what about having other sports drinks/foods/etc -does that negate the supposed advantages? It must, surely?

There are a couple threads on it if you search, including the original one where some guy from maurten tried to promote the product by asking about it here (it did not go well for him). But people here generally break it down, I think the thought is that it is a 'proprietary' mix of cheap and widely available things and the price is not justifiable. Of course, without knowing what that mix is is what allows them to sell it, I guess.

I think it is meant to be taken on its own however water can be supplemented as long as it is not taken directly before/after drinking this or taking the gel and as well, it doesn't provide salt and electrolytes so you have to add that anyway. The point of it is to avoid GI while supplementing carbs so any other sports drink will mess the balance up in your stomach but the gel/drink itself.

If I remember correctly, this is what is used by Eliud now and was used by all 3 runners in the breaking2.

For my two cents, I have tried it and felt it works for me in terms of avoiding stomach rumbling however I, myself, hate the thought of planning powder mixes in IMs (which includes stopping at special needs) so while it worked well for me in one 70.3, I plan to stick to my huma gels since I can pack enough for a whole IM ride and just take water from aid stations and I don't want to take anything differently for a 70.3 than I do for an IM.

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I have tried the 160 and 320 drinks. Not the gels. I use Maurten mostly to try to prevent stomach issues at the end of a marathon. I do not use Maurten for triathlons or shorter foot races.

In terms of stomach issues, I had none with them - however I have used it only once so far in a race setting (I rarely have stomach issues in training). Chicago marathon 2018, didn't run a PR but had no stomach issues (just wasn't the day for a PR...)

One of the main "selling point" of the mumbo jumbo of Maurten is that it's a total solution, you get more carbs for the bang... however, I don't see it as practical for a marathon, unless you're an elite. 160 is too low in sugar to be of use in a marathon. And with the 320, for the average mortal, you'll need more than one pack of it, somewhere between 1.5 to 2 packs. And there's the issue, there's not real way to carry that much liquid on yourself at most big marathons that do not allow for camelbaks / large bottles / etc. (and you don't have a drink guy like Kipchoge!)

The Maurten gels are impossible to find for me unless I'd import them, and then they'd be prohibitively expensive. So my current solution is 1 bottle of Maurten 320 and a few Honey Stinger Gold gels (I find honey is gentle on my stomach).

So I can only say it is good on the stomach. No idea on higher carb intake. And you'll need to be creative to carry the drink if you wanna fuel on that alone.

The answer is in your question.

I like the gels, the consistency is a little strange at first but I've gotten to where I like them. They are however expensive compared to other options.

I thought I read somewhere last year that Frodeno used this. He seemed to be doing fine with it (except the injury of course).

I've used the 320 drink a few times.

But really I just find it as an overly sweet, but otherwise naff/ bland taste. And defo over priced.

As others say, it's impractical for IMs as after the 1st 2 bottles on the bike, what are you going to do ? Maybe some in a special needs bag ? But that's a PITA too and maybe not early enough on a hot race ?

I reverted to what's on offer at aid stations - if it's a product I know I can stomach ok I go with that. If new to me or not to my liking I go with water, and alter what gels and bars I use instead.

Used drink and gels.

The 160 drink is a half serving of the 320, but more than half the price. If you want the "160", just buy the 320 and use half the serving.

Taste is bland, a hint of "mapleness" to it, but very sweet.

Seems to digest well for me.

Keep in mind there is a significant amount of salt.

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I use Gels and Drink mix. Only use the 320 for long rides and races. As someone mentioned, they have the right amount of sodium (for me at least). I didn't think so at first, so added a Nuun, but got bloated.

I actually love their stuff and think it's just a lot easier to take a bottle per hour. If it was easier, I would just take the bottle/fluid even on runs, but not easy to carry for the run. The gels are pretty tough to take unless you have water, don't go down as easy as SiS gels. I like the taste, but it is a little sweet which is deceiving b/c it's clear! :)

With 80g of carbs and the right amount of sodium, it worked perfect for me during IM on the bike.

Anyone been using Maurten for their IM nutrition this past year. I think I may try for Arizona by loading up 3 bottles with the 320 drink then going with on course nutrition when that runs out. I don’t see that it would work to put in my special needs bag. Any additional experience positive or negative?

Jan Frodeno uses it. You could do a lot worse.

They reached out to me a while back and sent me a ton of it. I used it and liked it a lot.

The magic is the sodium alginate in it. Shake up a bike bottle of water with about a teaspoon of sodium alginate in it until it is fully mixed. That simulates what Maurten is before you drink it - watery.

Now pour it into a shallow clear tupperware bowl and then dribble spoonfuls of lemon juice onto it. The lemon juice simulates your stomach acid. Acid makes sodium alginate turn into a gel. In a short amount of time, the spots where you dribbled lemon juice will plump up into hydrogel lumps and you can scoop them out with a spoon. It's a really cool experiment.

Chefs have been doing this forever to make cool treats. Maurten is doing it to make your body see your fuel as more of a solid once it hits your stomach acid and it'll pass through to your intestines without irritating your stomach it like simple sugars would. Bonus is your fuel is literally encased in water, but I don't know if that's very helpful or just a little.

Here's a video showing how it's done. If you use calcium chloride instead of acid it does the same thing, so you'll see that in most video demonstrations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKnlOgjdKWk

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FWIW, Maurten had a surprisingly strong market share at the recent Chicago Marathon, at least judging from the used gel packs littering the course. I was around the 6,000th runner down the course (finished in 3:28 at age 55; my point: there were plenty of serious but "non-elite" runners ahead of me). I estimate that Maurten's black wrappers accounted for between 40 and 50% of the used gels. That despite Gatorade's major sponsorship of the race; Maurten didn't even have a presence at the expo.

Based on what I saw, I would bet that Maurten is growing like crazy.

I’ve used the gels in a race but not the powder mix. The powder mix I’ve used in training but not long run rides. It’s expensive but there’s very little taste to it which is what I want for an Ironman distance race.

Maurten users are prolific litterers !
/P

I used it at IMAZ last year. I liked the gels. The mistake I made though was to add the gels to my water bottles on the bike. It doesn’t mix like other gels and after the race I noticed my water bottles had no liquid in them, just the weird consistency of the Maurten gels. And I cramped on the run. I would use their powder mix next time but last year the gels had just become available and I couldn’t get the powder.

Good luck and enjoy IMAZ!

Cheers,

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I really like it a lot. No stomach issues. For whatever reason, I like the bland taste especially while competing.

The main concern is the cost. It’s expensive compared to other products out there.

I say give it a try and see what happens. If the nutrition works for you then it’s a viable option to use as long as you’re not bothered by the cost.

Another trick for Maurten users (and anybody with clear fuel) - Add a drop of food coloring to it when mixing it up. Then you can tell what is fuel and what is water when you've got a lot of bottles happening.

I do that to indicate bottles of different contents if I have a bunch of bottles. For example, Red color has more sodium, blue has caffeine, green is more concentrated... whatever you want to remember. And handy to tell a support person to grab for you. "Emily, can you hand me the green bottle at the next aid station?"

Super pro tip: Always try to buy and use clear bottles so you can see how much you have left and what it is.

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cost is definitely an issue. For me, I’m not planning on using it exclusively during training. I’ll use it for big training rides and frequently enough to know my body is happy with it. For other rides I’ll use Gu gels and gatorade endurance mix.

Excellent tip. Have you done a concentrated maurten bottle? I assume it works fine.

I tried it on race day at my last olympic. I loved the taste. It's like light sugar water. With its simple ingrediant list, I'm sure our collective minds could figure out a homebrew recipe

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That’s my plan as well. I’ve been testing it with long rides and it’s worked out well. My concern is that I don’t think I can solely rely on the drink mix in an IM since I don’t think you’re supposed to mix it up and leave sitting for a long time. I’d love to have two bottles in my special needs bag.

I have been using it for about 6 months.

First race mistake was trying to concentrate it for an Olympic. I put two 320's in 30 oz water. Gel turned to almost solid overnight - so no bike nutrition - bonk on run - could not catch up on nutrition.

Then for run training I would use a 320 in 20 oz water for 4 miles and would drink about 1/2 the bottle - then add water (diluted it) for the next 4 miles - then Maurten for 4 etc.. That worked out really well - I live 4 miles from the gym so the distance was perfect for the re-mix bottles in training.

For long rides just don't mix it sooner than 24 hours before use and it works well. I mix it the night before. For IM Chatt I mixed my main unit (30 oz with a 320 and 160) and then filled two bottles behind the seat with just 320 powders and added water at aid stations when needed so it would be cold. That worked well other than no cold water on the second loop at aid stations :-)).

I'll use it again at IM Cozumel and have been refining the intake so I hope that goes well.

I'll finish the season with it and then use something else until next summer due to cost.

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Definitely don't do that. It puts too much sodium alginate in one bottle and turns it too thick to drink through the nipple part. You'll get super frustrated.

But if you make your own home brew, concentrate all the other ingredients except the sodium alginate. Then add a heaping 1/4th teaspoon of sodium alginate per bottle. That seems to be around the right amount for my own recipe. I blend it in a vitamix so it is very consistent and doesn't clump.

I think if you put a lot of Maurten in a bottle, then it's too much sodium alginate and it'll get too thick. Somebody posted above in this thread already about how it ruined their race.