Life is an ultramarathon

... will be my race number tomorrow on the Hardmoors 110. Less than 24 hours before the start now! Kilos of food and all the gear packed, ready to go. The weather forecast looks perfect, touch wood, no snow, no rain, not too cold, not too hot. One less excuse not to finish...



Ultra (too?) confident.

Mike just came across another blog with the same name as mine: lifeisanultramarathon.blogspot.com. He started blogging in March 2008, and seems a devoted Christian. This is somehow amusing, because when I created the blog and searched about this name in 2006, the only reference I found was about Christianity - see my first entry.

Although this name is obviously not registered or reserved whatsoever, I can't deny it makes me feel a bit uneasy.

Ultra copy.

I just found an e-mail I wrote at the end of April, ie. 2 months before the Ironman. It reads:

For me the marathon should be the "easy" bit - touch wood.

I mustn't have touched enough wood ...

Ultra forecast.

Hardmoors 110 will take place in 3 weeks now, and I'm still uncertain about a few of things, some of them quite important.

1. Poles or not poles?
On one hand (*), poles are helpful in steep hills (up and down). And there will be lots of up and downs in the moors. On the other hand, poles are a real burden when it's relatively flat. You just don't know what to do with them. Therefore I've decided not to use them for the race, and trained accordingly. But I'm still unsure...

2. What map?
There are several mapping options:

	Scale	Weight	Waterproofness	Notes
none		0g	indestructible	no very helpful
Footprint Cleveland Way map	~1:45000	50g	plastic case	no GPS grid, old
Explorer Active maps OL26 & OL27	1:25000	400g	laminated	doesn't cover final segment
National Trail guide book	1:25000	300g	null	could take it apart to make road sheets
Hand make roadbook	1:25000	?	null

Current preference: OS maps, and for sure if the weather forecast looks bad.

3. What navigation tools?
I could take the GPS (potentially with preloaded checkpoints or even the whole route), a compass, both or nothing at all. Current choice: nothing at all.

4. What food?
If I want to eat 2 energy gels per hour, I'll need to take no less than 72 of them. That's about 5kg if I go for the SiS GO... I'll also need some savoury things such as Tucs biscuits.

5. Where to stay?
I'm considering the campsite at Filey, because it's cheap and you can come back from the race at any time of the day or the night. But that also means a bit less comfort after the race, especially if it's rainy.

Any thoughts?

Ultra interrogations.

(*) Actually, on both hands

Frequent readers know that I'll try to run the Dublin Marathon at the end of October. I'll actually be running with Team Sláinte (sláinte means "cheers" in Irish), along with 5 other runners.
Half of the team will run his first marathon. It might look like a small business for me compared to the Hardmoors, but indeed, it will take place only a month after the Hardmoors! So it may end up quite tough for me too.

Not being allowed to drink fresh Guiness in its own native city before the race, we will need your support. We'll run for Cancer Research UK in order to help to fund research into a problem affecting many millions of people worldwide. We've set our target fairly high, with a £3000 objective. Please pay Team Sláinte web page a visit and consider donating!

Team members:

Andy


Dan


Dave


Julien


Pete


Rachel

Many Thanks

Ultra high fundraising target.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be a scientific comparison between energy gels. It is compilation of nutrition facts about most of the energy gels commonly available in the UK and France, complemented by a subjective comment on their taste and texture. Please feel free to comment on it.

• Update 18/10/2008: corrected Honey Stinger weight, added Hammer.
• Update 14/12/2009: added Over Blast, Overstim.s and mX3.
• Update 12/01/2010: added Carboshotz.

I've tried to buy most of the gels I could find in shops or online. The most common in UK shops are PowerGel, High5 and SiS GO, but when you look carefully around, there are quite a few of them: I've ended up with nearly 3kg of running treats! The idea was to taste them for real and not only to report their composition in a table.
However, there are a couple of other gels I haven't tested: GU gel (the one all Americans are talking about, but can't find a UK retailer), EAS energy gel (looks more designed for body builders), Cyto gel (sold only by 24 pack), Clif Shot Energy Gel (can't find a UK retailer), Fireball, Cytomax Gulp'n Gel. Also, I didn't try the full range from High 5, assuming they must be fairly similar. High 5 IsoGel Plus has extra caffeine (35mg) and High 5 IsoGel X'treme is designed to "boost energy, focus and agression", although the official website is very evasive on the actual content.

I will probably update this page later on if I can get hold of other products.


Weight

Most gels provide about 100KCal in 40g. Some are provided in bigger resealable pouches intended for several usages to pack up to 300KCal. The gels with the most important level of sugar will contain less water and therefore have a higher energy-to-weight (E/W) ratio. Pure sugar Honey Stinger reach an amazing 3.24 KCal/g, whether largely water-diluted maltodextrin-based SiS GO gels only pack 1.3 KCal/g!

Table 1: energy and weight

Gel	Weight	Energy	E / W
	(g)	(Kcal)	(Kcal/g)
SiS GO Gel	67	87	1.3
SiS Smart1 Gel	67	88	1.31
High5 IsoGel	38	92	2.42
High5 EnergyGel (Plus)	38	92	2.42
Torq	45	114	2.53
Carboshotz	45	117	2.6
Squeezy Gel	25	65	2.6
PowerGel	41	109	2.66
Carb BOOM Gel	41	110	2.68
Isostar Actifood	90	187	2.08
Lucozade Carbo Gel	45	123	2.73
mX3 extreme	25	74	2.96
Scientec Nutrition Over Blast	25	74	2.96
Overstim.s (Energix / Antioxidant)	27	80	2.96
Aptonia Energy Gel	70	208	2.97
Maxim Gel	100	300	3
Overstim.s (Coup de fouet / Red Tonic)	25	81	3.24
Honey Stinger Gel	32	120	3.75

Carboyhdrate type

They are basically 3 kinds of gels available, hence the 3 groups in the comparison tables. The ones mostly based on maltodextrin (a carbohydrate that isn't sweet, derived from partial hydrolyse of starch), the ones based on glucose syrup (which are extremely sweet) and the ones combining maltodextrin and glucose/fructose. Some researchers suggest that a ratio 2:1 maltodextrin:fructose/glucose (ie. 33% sugar) is optimal. However, most of those are linked somehow to a brand, so it's tricky to get a fair opinion.

Isotonic

Isotonic gels can be consumed without extra water. This can be an advantage, but for most people water is usually needed anyway during a race anyway! I think it's becoming increasingly trendy to say that sport food is isotonic, and I expect most gels to be isotonic in a couple of years.

Caffeine

Some gels include 25 to 90mg of caffeine. As for comparison, the caffeine amount in coffee varies between 40mg (regular espresso) and 300mg (Star***** biggest brew). It's always been controversial whether caffeine is beneficial to long distance running. On one hand it's a psychological and metabolism booster, on the other hand it's a diuretic, it increases the blood pressure and might lead to digestive problems.

Table 2: composition

Gel	Carbohydrates	Sugar	Isotonic	Caffeine
		(% carb.)
SiS GO Gel	maltodextrin	0	YES
SiS Smart1 Gel	maltodextrin	0	YES	50
High5 IsoGel	maltodextrin, glucose	30	YES
High5 EnergyGel (Plus)	maltodextrin, glucose, (fructose)	30 or 46		(30)
Torq	maltodextrin, fructose	33		(89)
Carboshotz	Corn syrup solids	19		(80)
Squeezy Gel	maltodextrin, fructose	?
PowerGel	maltodextrin, fructose	38		(25, 50)
Carb BOOM Gel	maltodextrin, fructose	11		(50)
Isostar Actifood	glucose syrup	?
Lucozade Carbo Gel	glucose syrup	15
mX3 extreme	glucose syrup, fructose	68
Scientec Nutrition Over Blast	glucose, (maltodextrin)	?		30
Overstim.s (Energix / Antioxidant)	glucose syrup, (maltodextrin)	35 or 45
Aptonia Energy Gel	glucose syrup, (maltodextrin 5%)	58
Maxim Gel	glucose syrup	69
Overstim.s (Coup de fouet / Red Tonic)	glucose syrup	76
Honey Stinger Gel	honey (pure sugar)	100		(32)

* caffeine weight in brackets means that only some of the flavours do contain caffeine.

Cost

Price are hard to compare. If buy bulk you'll obviously pay less. I originally wanted to buy them all by the unit to compare their prices that way. As some gels are only sold in bulk, I eventually had to mix things up a bit. There is a wide range of prices, but on the whole, they are generally fairly expensive for a mix of water, sugar and minerals. Many websites propose recipes to make your own gels for a fraction of the price.

Table 3: cost

Gel	Price	By	E / P
	(£)		(Kcal/£)
SiS GO Gel	0.9	10	96.67
SiS Smart1 Gel	1.6	1	55
High5 IsoGel	1	2	92
High5 EnergyGel (Plus)	0.79	1	116.46
Torq	1.25	8	91.2
Carboshotz	1	1	117
Squeezy Gel	0.92	12	70.65
PowerGel	1.2	5	90.83
Carb BOOM Gel	1	5	110
Isostar Actifood	1.95	1	95.9
Lucozade Carbo Gel	1.1	1	111.82
mX3 extreme	1.97	1	37.56
Scientec Nutrition Over Blast	1.6	25	46.25
Overstim.s (Energix / Antioxidant)	1.73	10	46.24
Aptonia Energy Gel	1.45	1	143.45
Maxim Gel	1.39	1	215.83
Overstim.s (Coup de fouet / Red Tonic)	1.87	10	43.32
Honey Stinger Gel	1.17	6	102.56

Sweetness and stickiness

These aspects may not seem of the highest importance, but they do matter. After running for a while, especially if the weather is warm, the stomach can easily get upset. And at that point the last thing you might want is a sweet and sticky gel. On the other hand, a strong sweet taste sometimes feels good when flirting with hypoglycemia. In any case, please remember that taste is personal. This is only to give you an overall idea and you must try them by yourself to make your choice.
Note that the percentage of sugar, although strongly related, is not necessarily proportional to the apparent sweetness. This is due to the use of various kinds of sugar (glucose, fructose), as well as other flavourings and acidity regulators. For example, I found the Carb BOOM gels very similar to the PowerGel, although they have only 11% sugar against 38% for the latter. Also, the Honey Stinger, despite being composed of 100% sugar, surprisingly doesn't taste too badly sweet.

Table 4: personal appreciation

Gel	Flavour	Sweetness	Stickiness	Personal mark
SiS GO Gel	Subtle	not sweet	fluid	*****
SiS Smart1 Gel	Subtle	not sweet	fluid	****
High5 IsoGel	Too strong	sweet	fluid	*
High5 EnergyGel (Plus)	Good (choc.) / too strong (citrus)	sweet	fluid	** / ****
Torq	Very good (cherry)	very sweet	sticky	****
Carboshotz	Good	a bit sweet	a bit sticky	****
Squeezy Gel	Good	sweet	sticky	***
PowerGel	OK	sweet	sticky	***
Carb BOOM Gel	OK	very sweet	sticky	***
Isostar Actifood	Good (fruit bits)	sweet	sticky	****
Lucozade Carbo Gel	OK	very sweet	very sticky	**
mX3 extreme	OK	sweet	sticky	**
Scientec Nutrition Over Blast	OK	sweet	sticky	***
Overstim.s (Energix / Antioxidant)	Good	sweet	very thick	*
Aptonia Energy Gel	OK	painfully sweet	very sticky	*
Maxim Gel	OK	very sweet	sticky	**
Overstim.s (Coup de fouet / Red Tonic)	Good (CF) / Too strong (RT)	sweet	thick	**
Honey Stinger Gel	Good	very sweet	very sticky	*****

Conclusion

My final choice is a combo of SiS GO gel and Honey Stinger; the former to be used continuously, as they're easy to swallow and digest even in absence of water; the latter as punctual boosters or hypoglycemia killers. And obviously a couple of spare Crème de marrons for the mental.

Notes:

• Surprisingly, High 5 EnergyGel composition varies quite a lot depending on the flavour.
• No official weight is provided for SiS gels, they're measured by volume (ie. 60ml). I've weighted them myself for homogeneous comparison. I suppose the reason for that may either be that they consider them as liquid or that they want to hide their low energy-to-weight ratio.
• Update 22/12/2008: Trail Goat at iRunFar posted today a similar test of his own, but more oriented towards the US market. You might want to have a look.

You can also browse the whole comparison table at a glance online or download the OpenDocument spreadsheet. These include a bit more information and links to official websites.

Ultra energy.