I’m hoping to do my first tri in 10 years later this year. I think I said that last year before I tore something in my left leg which rendered me unable to run for almost a year. Anyhoo… my stock of Gu and Honey Stingers gels is dwindling so I wanted to start using whatever IM uses on course. Maurten 100 gels. Sounds good. I venture over to Maurten’s site and Amazon. $4/gel. Huh?
Make it make sense. Why would I pay double or triple the price of Honey Stinger or Gu gels? I take in about 300 cals/hour for a half Ironman bike. $12 per hour of bike riding is kind of ridiculous. I know I don’t have to do this for EVERY bike ride but it’s the principle of it that I find absurd.
I’m now going to yell at the clouds and the kids on my lawn.
@The_GMAN_Retired it’s why I don’t use the nutrition products from aid stations, other than coke and water. Would need to spend a small fortune learning to tolerate them (my stomach is very high maintenance in terms of gels, and I haven’t seen PF&H chews anywhere in a race, or any chews for that matter).
You don’t have to train with them more than a few times to verify that they work as a race plan. I use Maurten for races, but the rest of the time I just use cheaper gels, or you can even make your own with a bit of gumption.
One quirk though is that Maurten are 0.8 Glucose : 1 Fructose, while most other gels are 2 glucose:1 fructose, so if you’re training with other gels, remember to compensate with more fructose somewhere else.
It’s just going to get worse for pricing in the future. Just get used to using your own sugar+salt solutions, stuff as simple as 1/3 cup sugar + 1/2tsp salt per water bottle on the bike. I use Aunt Jemimas syrup in a flask for run calories, it’s super sweet and sticky but has the same calories as most gels.
I fuel most of my regular training rides with HARIBO. My logic is that if I can stomach HARIBO as fuel in training, I won’t have too much trouble switching to specifically optimized sports nutrition. Maybe I’m deluding myself, but the Swabian part of me finds it difficult to argue with the price differential: I recently snatched a few bags of HARIBO’s Easter edition at the post-Easter reduced price of €0.79/200 g, which translates to €0.13/25 g of carbs, compared to €3 for the same amount of carbs in Maurten gels.
Doesn’t mean I won’t test anything before race day which I might have to get from aid stations, of course. Even when I plan to rely on my own carbs, it’s comforting to now that I can handle what the aid stations serve if something goes not according to plan and I have to improvise.
You can turn this into a “gel” by using less water and heating it up on the stove. Just can’t let it get too thick or it won’t come out of your flask. You can also flavor it with 20-30g fruit jam/preserves.
I had all of my nutrition for a recent 70.3 spread across a PD HSC-250 and a 250ml soft flask. Worked perfectly.
I used to do that as well, and even during my races, as I had seen they had more or less the same carbs/sugar as gums from Powerbar which used to be my fueling.
Actually I buy the cheaper brands than Haribo and just make sure it has about the same carbs/sugar. Now I’m more into running and have a harder time doing it. I used to eat the little crocodiles. Now I find them hard to chew and swallow when I run hard, especially on cold days as they can become harder with the cold. I think I have a strong gut and can tolerate a lot, it’s just the chewing and breathing that gets me, and may make me go to actual gels which go straight down.
Can I ask what kind of Haribo you use and if you use them on the run as well ?
I noticed my teeth being sensitive and sore when I brushed them at the end of the day after doing a lot of chews. I think all that that chewing and spreading the sugar around isn’t good.
When I drink my calories I try to swallow them as quickly as possible. Ever since I’ve done this my teeth feel find at the end of a Ironman even as I’ve increased the amount.
Definitely ! I have the same problem, and the other reason why I’m looking to find another option than Haribos. This problem has been getting worse for me over the years as well, now even eating 8-10 haribos I can feel my teeth…
I just start my long rides with a bottle of Gatorade and Turkey and salami sandwich with extra salt butter and mayo. At halfway, I stop at a store, get a bottle of Gatorade or Powerade and a can of coke, gobble up the turkey sandwich with 500mL of Coke . Then 30 min later when it starts digesting after all the burps etc it’s like rocket fuel and I am good for 4 hrs ride. Get home, have a banana ,.orange juice and some pretzels and I am good to go for 30-40 min transition run.
On race day I can use whatever they give on course. This is the @jonnyo and @drtommy nutrition plan based on them swimming and biking in the Kona front pack with Stadler (ok until he took off on Palani at 700W). It still works in 2026. It’s probably the 500-600 cals per hour program before it got popular !!!
Real food rules !!! (ok neither coke nor Gatorade are real but the rest is). The best part is I get lunch eaten during the workout so I don’t have to make time out of my week for that lunch. It gets amortized inside training time !!!
