Looking for optimal fueling during your super-long morning bike trek? Well, according to a new study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, whether you pick a sports drink, gel, or energy bar, they'll all absorb the same. From The New York Times:
What the researchers found was that the carbohydrates from the gels and the sports bars were being metabolized as quickly and as efficiently as those from the sports drink. The experiments weren’t designed to test whether the various carbohydrates actually improved the riders’ performances, enabling them to ride longer and harder. But it did show that gels and bars were as effective as sports drinks at sparing the riders’ stored body fuel.
That said, it appears the second two might be the more efficient options. (Sorry, Mr. Gatorade.) The article explains that because you get more calories by volume in the gels and bars, they make it easier for the athlete to get jacked quickly. The study also suggests the perfect glucose to fructose ratio is 2-to-1 and that it's best to stay away from fructose-heavy fuel sources because they are more prone to cause "gastrointestinal distress."
Personally, I'm on board for all of this. I mean, who doesn't love sports gels? They're basically just a guilt-free excuse to eat a mouthful of cake frosting. The GI distress thing bothers me a little, though. Frankly, that's the last thing in my mind in those situations. In fact, I used to go mountain biking with a bunch of Australians on weekends and, frankly, it was considered rude not to fart loudly at some point.
So, fructose! Fructose! Fructose! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Here's a fun article from yesterday's paper re an big ultra-endurance run that happens this weekend up in my neck of the woods:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/25/2843710/ultra-runners-eat-for-the-long.html
"Both women say they could not stomach what the other does. It's just the way their digestive systems react to the stress of endurance competition.
'The ones who shock me are people who do a hundred miles on gels alone," said Anderson-Abbs, who must sit out Saturday's race after recent knee surgery. "I find after a certain number of hours of just gels, my stomach can't handle it.'
Yet to gel-only runners, watching someone run beside them while scarfing a sandwich is just as shocking.
'It's frankly amazing to me what some people can put down and still run," said Hoffman, who takes only gels.'"
[I can't even tell you how long it took me to figure out what works for me. My aerobic capacity can keep me going and going, like the Energizer Bunny . . . the gastro distress though . . . UGH!!! And, no, it's not the jet-propelling kind. Believe me you DON'T want those kind of runs when you're on the run! Now, I've got it down to a science though and doing my part to keep Hammer Gel in business. What I consume on the bike is much less of a concern; I guess it's all that jostling around from the pounding of running that gets my tummy in a rumbly].
/michm