Maurten Gels

boydkev

Hi,

I am looking for peoples opinions if you have used them. I have been looking at maybe using them for DCM this year. I have only ever used the High 5 Aqua Gels with and without caffeine.
From what i have read about them they provide the Carbs to fuel the marathon but they dont have electrolytes that are in the High 5 Gels.
I suppose the thing that is putting me off is they are expensive, currently you can get a box of 12 for €35, While you can get a box of 20 High 5 Aqua for €15-20.

AuldManKing

boydkev wrote: »

Hi,

I am looking for peoples opinions if you have used them. I have been looking at maybe using them for DCM this year. I have only ever used the High 5 Aqua Gels with and without caffeine.
From what i have read about them they provide the Carbs to fuel the marathon but they dont have electrolytes that are in the High 5 Gels.
I suppose the thing that is putting me off is they are expensive, currently you can get a box of 12 for €35, While you can get a box of 20 High 5 Aqua for €15-20.

I used them for Rotterdam along with Salt Tabs.

I think they are the dogs gonads - they thing that put me off other gels is that after many many miles, it was just too sickly sweet to take any. That put me off.
The Maurten's are basically tasteless and taking these on a very hot day in Rotterdam this year proved no issue.

They'd be perfect if they had electrolytes!

healy1835

Alas, these seem to be the only gel that doesn't agree with me. Have tried 3 times, each time my stomach has done somersaults.....ah well.

Unthought Known

For me they are worth every penny, once you get used to the texture. Used them for my last 2 marathons and I've felt much stronger in the last 6 miles (taken one every 3 miles from the start).
Also no stomach issues. Personally, with SIS and Hi5 I was literally sick of them by about 15 miles.

boydkev

Unthought Known wrote: »

For me they are worth every penny, once you get used to the texture. Used them for my last 2 marathons and I've felt much stronger in the last 6 miles (taken one every 3 miles from the start).
Also no stomach issues. Personally, with SIS and Hi5 I was literally sick of them by about 15 miles.

If you took 1 every 3 miles did you carry 8 from the start?

Itziger

Unthought Known wrote: »

For me they are worth every penny, once you get used to the texture. Used them for my last 2 marathons and I've felt much stronger in the last 6 miles (taken one every 3 miles from the start).
Also no stomach issues. Personally, with SIS and Hi5 I was literally sick of them by about 15 miles.

I wondered about that. Only ever taken one and fortunately it was before a race. You'd want to know what to expect because it was quite disgusting, the texture. I thought at the time that it may have been the heat.

Why are they expensive then? What are they claiming to have that others don't?

Unthought Known

boydkev wrote: »

If you took 1 every 3 miles did you carry 8 from the start?

I carried 7, took last one around mile 21.
As I said, expensive, but totally worth it if they help you achieve your goal.

Unthought Known

Itziger wrote: »

I wondered about that. Only ever taken one and fortunately it was before a race. You'd want to know what to expect because it was quite disgusting, the texture. I thought at the time that it may have been the heat.

Why are they expensive then? What are they claiming to have that others don't?

Yeah they do almost require a little chewing.

Sheep1978

Took them in a marathon back in May for the first time, along with salt tabs (well tried a couple on training runs beforehand) and much prefer them than the High 5. Had to take a high 5 one recently and found it very sickly and too sweet. It may have been a combination of other factors too, but May marathon was the best ive felt so far so I'll be sticking with Maurten if possible

boydkev

Looks like they are releasing Maurten 100 Gel with Caffeine

https://www.maurten.com/berlin2019?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Berlin-Marathon-2019&utm_content=Marathon-Pack&utm_source=Maurten+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ee5bf46e21-EMAIL_B2C_CAF100_LAUNCH_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29ab695a7f-ee5bf46e21-279707235&ct=t(EMAIL_B2C_CAF100_LAUNCH_COPY_01)&mc_cid=ee5bf46e21&mc_eid=885a46af22

Damo 2k9

During DCM I stuck with my oul reliable Isogels, berry flavour. Whilst they are fine, by the 4th I was absolutely sick to death of them, not stomach wise but I just wasnt looking forward to them because of how sweet they were.

I think ill give Maurten another shot, I tried the drinks before and they were rotten, I dont think I actually ever tried the gels.

Unthought Known

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

During DCM I stuck with my oul reliable Isogels, berry flavour. Whilst they are fine, by the 4th I was absolutely sick to death of them, not stomach wise but I just wasnt looking forward to them because of how sweet they were.

I think ill give Maurten another shot, I tried the drinks before and they were rotten, I dont think I actually ever tried the gels.

I took Maurten gels at 3, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21 miles. They're sweet, but not that sickly and I had no issues at all. You just need to get used to the texture as it will take you by surprise the first time you try them.

boydkev

Unthought Known wrote: »

I took Maurten gels at 3, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21 miles. They're sweet, but not that sickly and I had no issues at all. You just need to get used to the texture as it will take you by surprise the first time you try them.

I used them on sunday and took them at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and i took a caffine Isogel at half way. I tried them out in my 3 LSR's (21, 16, 12) to make sure was happy with them. They are a weird texture and did not have any stomach issues during the marathon, Very happy with them.

Damo 2k9

Do you take them with a swig of water to help them go down?

boydkev

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

Do you take them with a swig of water to help them go down?

No need to take water, they are like soft wet jelly.

Sheedy234

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

Do you take them with a swig of water to help them go down?

I took 6 over the recourse of DCM ,first 3 regular and last 3 caffine. I felt very strong throughout and ended up with an unexpected pb. Took them roughly every 6km and I sipped on the maurten drink before the marathon. I will def use again. I would take small amount of water after them ,they are a jelly like texture.

Murph_D

I puked up the fifth one but wouldn't hold that against them, probably should have tested them more (if they weren't so pricy I would have taken more on the final LRs)

Kellygirl

I took them every 30 minutes on Sunday and the last 2 were the caffeine versions. I took 8 in total as had a drop in energy in the last hour so took a spare one I carried. I had no trouble with them I tried the caffeine ones in training 3 times. My stomach cramped slightly the first 2 times but ok the 3rd so I took an Imodium before the race Sunday just in case. No issues but still had an energy dip at 21/22 miles. Possibly didn’t drink enough water though.

Enduro

Some actual research on their effectiveness....here

Murph_D

Interesting alright. I don't suppose there's any reason to think the gel version would be any different to the liquid version tested here (especially as the liquid supposedly turns into gel in the stomach)?

For me, the difficulty has always been an inability to ingest the 'recommended' intake for keeping glycogen levels topped up. I did find the Maurtens went down more easily (but also came back up more easily!)

Enduro

Murph_D wrote: »

For me, the difficulty has always been an inability to ingest the 'recommended' intake for keeping glycogen levels topped up. )

There's the interesting thing for me... what makes you think you need to keep glycogen levels topped up? If you start a race with a theoretical 2 hours level of glycogen (say) and finish with a theoretical 5 minutes level of glycogen (say) what is the problem?

martyboy48

Enduro wrote: »

There's the interesting thing for me... what makes you think you need to keep glycogen levels topped up? If you start a race with a theoretical 2 hours level of glycogen (say) and finish with a theoretical 5 minutes level of glycogen (say) what is the problem?

Forgive me, I'm not sure what you mean here, is it like theoretically does not equal reality??

Slightly OT from original post, forgive me. I remember around the time I first started posting here and reading Enduro posts regarding gels ....
It did strike a chord with me and I have never taken them morso out of curiosity rather than *principle.
Any time during a marathon when I fail to some extent, I put it down more to cramping which I put down to poor training and poor conditioning.
IE non structured/same pace and no strength work followed by a last minute panic to ramp up miles ect.....

I am a big sweater though, to the extent after a marathon I'm fairly soaked and a white line clearly visible on my maroon singlet. I've taken a salt tablet once and on that occasion everything went and no cramping but that could be just coincidence.....

* If I ever run a 3:01 marathon I may try them for my next!!!!!

**So, to finalise this long post, I'm glad I've picked up on Enduros posts in this regard. Otherwise I would be needlessly struggling to gulp down gels to get under a 4hr marathon, where now I'm a poorly trained 3:12 marathoner gel free....

Murph_D

Enduro wrote: »

There's the interesting thing for me... what makes you think you need to keep glycogen levels topped up? If you start a race with a theoretical 2 hours level of glycogen (say) and finish with a theoretical 5 minutes level of glycogen (say) what is the problem?

OK, 'topped up' is the wrong expression - I'd be happy enough to end up with 5 mins worth. But that still means taking on some fuel in any race longer than 2 hours - unless you're trained to metabolise fat very efficiently (which I understand is something you are particularly well adapted to do yourself, at least better than most).

Enduro

Murph_D wrote: »

OK, 'topped up' is the wrong expression - I'd be happy enough to end up with 5 mins worth. But that still means taking on some fuel in any race longer than 2 hours - unless you're trained to metabolise fat very efficiently (which I understand is something you are particularly well adapted to do yourself, at least better than most).

That makes more sense alright.

I'd still question a few assumptions there. We're all individuals, so I would guess that the whole 2 hours figure is no more than a historical artifact of initial research, and that in reality there is probably a lot of variation between people. I'd also guess that little or no studies have been done on gender differences in this area. I'd also say that it isn't 100% fat burning versus 100% glycogen burning at that pace and distance, so the even within individuals there is still like to be more variance again.

I do often hear people worring about "energy deficits" etc that leads to totally counterproductive thinking. Humans are a lot more complicated and robust than the simple "fuel for the car's engine" model that often get used to justify a "need" to "fuel" (lots of inverted commas there... I have a particular personal dislike of the use of "fueling" in a human context).

Enduro

martyboy48 wrote: »

Forgive me, I'm not sure what you mean here, is it like theoretically does not equal reality??

Slightly OT from original post, forgive me. I remember around the time I first started posting here and reading Enduro posts regarding gels ....
It did strike a chord with me and I have never taken them morso out of curiosity rather than *principle.
Any time during a marathon when I fail to some extent, I put it down more to cramping which I put down to poor training and poor conditioning.
IE non structured/same pace and no strength work followed by a last minute panic to ramp up miles ect.....

I am a big sweater though, to the extent after a marathon I'm fairly soaked and a white line clearly visible on my maroon singlet. I've taken a salt tablet once and on that occasion everything went and no cramping but that could be just coincidence.....

* If I ever run a 3:01 marathon I may try them for my next!!!!!

**So, to finalise this long post, I'm glad I've picked up on Enduros posts in this regard. Otherwise I would be needlessly struggling to gulp down gels to get under a 4hr marathon, where now I'm a poorly trained 3:12 marathoner gel free....

Just using theoretical to try to put as absolute numbers as possible to try to illustrate my point (that energy deficits are not a problem). From my other reply above I'd be sceptical that it was possible to lay out real world scenarios with a high degree of confidence in their accuracy. Hence the emphasis on theoretical.

Put it another way, to use the god-awful car engine analogy... If you're driving from Dublin to Galway you don't have to stop at every petrol station to keep the tank topped up. If the car has a big enough tank there should be no problem burning through the tank's contents as long as there is some left at the end (in fact the car will become more efficient as the tank empties, as the weight being transported reduces. (This is a big factor in planning fuel loads for flights, for example)).

SeeMoreBut

Anyone using he 160 gels and think of them? The positive I find is less to carry and not be taken as often but I find they are to probably to much to consume over a minute or so. Never mind chucking it down in one go like most gels.

I've only tried a couple so probably getting use to it

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121394838#Comment_121394838

Like most gels I would recommend taking them slow, maybe over a km. Bit by bit. No need to kneck them.

py

I used a number of the 160 gels during Chicago marathon last month, having previously used their 100 gels and 320 mix without any issue. There is definitely a noticeable size difference but then you are not carrying as many. I am lean towards the down in 1 method taking gels or drink mixes. It has never caused any issues thus far for me.

Comic Book Guy

Initially i necked the 160 gels in the one go doing my long runs in preparation for Dublin. Found it really tough to get a 3rd one on board never mind a planned 4th. Like @marathon2022 suggested i then tried taking them in small amounts over the course of 4 minutes or so and found it made a noticeable difference later in the run, i had no sickly feeling and no issue taking ones later in the run. I guess its an individual thing though and trial and error will educate you.

sk8board

I tested 3 of the ‘super gels’ (Maurten, SIS beta fuel, Precision Fuel PF30) and ended up going with the PF30’s.

they’re cheaper, always a discount code, easier to open with teeth, no tear off, no taste, and fold up very small, so it’s easy to carry lots in racing short pockets.

Money no object, Maurten seems like the winner, but PF definitely one to consider I would say, and I’ll stick to them from now on.