Caffeine in carbo gels

kingQuez

I discovered torq's forest fruit gels about a month ago, which have 89mg caffeine per gel (about a cup of coffees worth). I've used six a couple of times during 3-4hrs training sessions and all's gone well, but with a race next week I'm wondering should I stick with them for the entire length of the race or swop between them and a non-caffeinated gel/energy drink?

I drink tea/coffee regularly (a few cups a day), but would be looking at about 14gels over the course of the race. Anything bad likely to happen if I just stick with the torq gels for the entire course?

Cheers!

BeepBeep67

How long are you going to be racing for - 14 gels sounds quite excessive (usually it's one every 30-40mins).
Just be careful of the duretic effect that caffeine can have and consider other sources of energy - like a small easily digested pack of jellies (but don't experiement on race day)

kingQuez

Hey BeepBeep67, yep, to my mind it does seem excessive... i only ever used two during the latter stages of a marathon! Was planning one every 30mins (and if the marketing is to be believed should be going every 20mins, but that was too much for my tummy and my wallet!). Depending on hills I've estimated Ill be on the course for between 6 and 7hrs (ok, 'race' may be an optimistic description of what im doing ).

Krusty_Clown

What's the event KingQuez? That sounds like a crazy amount of gels and a serious amount of caffeine (hope there's no urine sampling after the race!). I'd be worried about taking on that much sugar and caffeine without having done it before in training. No way I could manage you, but you may have a much stronger stomach.

tunney

When taking large quantities of gels I do take caffeine ones. Reasons being i like a little kick every hour or two, caffiene can aud in the absorption rate of calories. Claims that caffiene's dieuretic effect are overstated massively. don't worry about the dieuretic effect - it's neglible.

I can't remember the point of diminishing returns with regards caffiene. My personal ratio is 3:1, as in one caffine for every three normal. That's the ratio that works for me and was determined in training rather than racing. Go with what you've done in training.

kingQuez

Right, that settles it -- majority of training has been with noncaffeinated energy drink, with caffeinated gels thrown in over the last month to try em out. I'll stick with energy drinks till they run out and go on gels afterthat (did this during one training and it worked OK). Should also limit the number of gels I've to carry. The last time I had 14cups of coffee in a day was probably final year in college -- so, in retrospect a slightly dumb question to of asked!

Krusty: its the bala middle distance tri over in wales. I signed up for it and then realized wales = hills :eek:

NickDrake

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

What's the event KingQuez? That sounds like a crazy amount of gels and a serious amount of caffeine (hope there's no urine sampling after the race!). I'd be worried about taking on that much sugar and caffeine without having done it before in training. No way I could manage you, but you may have a much stronger stomach.

why?? Caffenie is not on the banned list anymore

Krusty_Clown

NickDrake wrote: »

why?? Caffenie is not on the banned list anymore

Because if they sample his urine after all that caffeine, they won't be able to sleep for days. Boom boom.