In this episode of Cook Eat Run, we're stripping things back to the essentials with a comprehensive guide on how to fuel your runs effectively. Whether you're a marathon newbie or a seasoned pavement pounder, we've all faced the conundrum of what to munch on. No more Haribo and Lucozade Light - Charlie’s come a long way since then! She’s here to share the lessons learned from her own trial and error – so you can skip straight to the success part.

Charlie spills the beans on how she taste-tested every gel, chew, and carb drink under the sun, and shares the highlights (and lowlights) of her summer-long nutrition experiment, diving into the world of carbs, caffeine, and electrolytes, exploring options from high-carb gels to natural fuel choices. Get the lowdown on texture, taste, and how to avoid the dreaded "runner's trots”, plus tips on how to train your gut for race day (and why caffeine might just be the cheaper performance booster you've been looking for).

Don't miss out on practical advice for race day, including how to carry your fuel, whether to walk or run while refuelling, and a sneak peek at what's on course at major marathons.

Connect with Charlie online @therunnerbeans / www.therunnerbeans.com 

Grab a copy of Charlie’s book ‘Cook Eat Run’ 

The Cook Eat Run Podcast is sponsored by XMiles - the One Stop Nutrition Shop - use discount code CER-POD10 for 10% off site wide at Xmiles.co.uk

This podcast is produced by Buckers at Decibelle Creative decibellecreative.com / @decibelle_creative

>> Charlie: Hello and, um, welcome back to the Cook Eat Run

podcast with XMiles. We are kicking off

with a bit of a back to basics episode on how to

choose the right fuel for your running. Because let's

be honest, it can be a little overwhelming.

I fueled for my first marathon with Harry Bow and

leukocade light because I had no idea what I was doing.

And I meet so many people that are under fueling for their

long runs and race is people posting on Instagram

about having one gel or a couple of sweets

or even nothing. And, uh, not only could this be

hindering your performance, but it makes running

so much harder. Back in

October 2022, I ran one of those weird

autumn London marathons. I kind of loved it

because I love summer running. So, yeah, it kind of worked for me.

But I just had one of those days where everything felt

incredible. The course, the crowds, my

pace felt easy, and I just felt like I was floating

through the 26.2 miles. I

also nailed my nutrition. I took like seven

gels on course, had Rice Krispy squares at the

start. I finally carb loaded properly

in the days leading up to the race, and surprise, surprise,

I never hit the wall. I didn't feel hungry or

sick as I have done in many other marathons.

And I actually ran another marathon seven days later,

the Chicago Marathon, which I do not recommend.

I mean, I recommend the Chicago marathon. I just mean I

don't recommend doing two back to back within a week.

But I was able to do this, and I think that was partly

because of the way I fueled for both

marathons and my recovery in

between. I got to that stage

after spending every long run over the summer taste

testing gels. I've posted this as a highlight reel

on my Instagram, which is at, uh, the runner beans, if you want to have a look at

and see me kind of gagging on some

gels, enjoying others, struggling

to get into other packs. Anyway, um, I basically

ordered every gel, chew, carb,

drink, et cetera, in the range of

flavors from X miles, and would work my way through

them on each run. It was actually really fun,

kind of setting everything out in the morning, planning what

I was going to have, making sure there was some that I knew

would be sort of well tolerated and some that were brand

new to me. It was a really good

distraction for me on the long runs, and it helped

me find the right gels.

Personally, I landed on precision fuel and hydration

gels. I like the thicker texture,

the mild flavour, uh, high carb content,

and I use that for the London Marathon, although there

are others that are thrown to training runs to keep things exciting.

I mean, yeah, I'm that cool.

And I'm regularly testing new products that appear on the

XMiles website. Now,

I've done the dirty work so that hopefully you don't have to and

you don't have to be in the situation where you have to get a taxi home from

your run because you've chosen too high of a fiber

gel. Um, and we don't want you

to have to order boxes and boxes of gels and bars that might not

work for you. I'm going to give you a bit of an

overview today on how to find the right fuel

for you. With that said, it is definitely

a bit of a trial and error situation, especially when

it comes to flavor, texture and

caffeine content. But hopefully today's

episode gives you a bit of a starting point.

You could also try the xmart's monthly nutrition

boxes or energy gel selection boxes.

There's even a high carb option, which I definitely recommend

you go for. You can get 10% off everything on

the Xmiles website as a listener, uh, of the cookie

run podcast with xmars with the code

capital C E r

po d ten. So that's c

e r pod ten with no

spaces.

Our bodies rely on two fuel sources to feed our

muscles, carbs and fat. And when it comes to

endurance events, carbs are

king. They're our primary fuel source. Due

to the ease of availability, our body doesn't have to work

that hard to get the energy. However, we can

only store a finite amount on our body and, um, not enough for us

to complete a marathon at, uh, top performance anyway.

So the current research suggests that carb replenishment

should be around 40 to 80 grams/hour for

the average runner. People like Elliot Kachovi

can take about 120 grams/hour but

they also have their race nutrition on the course without having to carry

25 gels. So there is that.

How many carbs our body can utilize depends on our

size, our running intensity, our pace, and,

um, just personal digestion.

Fueling during the run is something we need to train for just as

much as clocking up the actual miles in the build

up to your marathon or half marathon. So just as you're training your

legs and your lungs, you need to train your gut.

It, uh, sounds a bit gross and it kind of is.

It's literally getting your gut used to

being plied with sugar carbs

while you're running and, um, not having

a bathroom situation. Shall

we say

sports gels choose liquid fuel, and

bars all work in a similar way.

Sports gels choose liquid fuel, and

bars all work in a similar way by

providing specially formulated simple sugars that are

easily absorbed into the bloodstream to fuel your muscles and

organs. There is a finite amount of carbs

that our body can utilize an hour. This is usually around 30 to

90 grams, although you can train yourself to take in

more. By combining different types of

carbs, sports nutrition products are able to

maximize the body's uptake and usage of carbs,

which isn't easily replicated by eating real food options

like fruit or sweets, which often come with higher fiber or

higher fat content as well, although there are

more natural options when it comes to sports fuel, which

we'll get on to later.

So when thinking about our fuel, the starting point for me is

always the carb content. That is

the most important thing. Ideally, I'm looking

for something with over 25 grams of carbs per

serving, so that I only need to take one every sort of 30

minutes or five ish k on the course. Depending on

where hydration stations are and my pace,

you can find the amount of carbs per serving on the back of any pack

of blocks, bars, gels, drinks, that sort of thing.

For example, cliff bar shop blocks have 31 grams

of carbs per three blocks or half a

pack, while a goo gel has 22

grams. Some good higher carb options

include precision fuel and hydration at, uh, 30 grams.

You know, that's one of my faves ote super

gels, sis beta gels, and

morton 160 at, uh, 40 grams of

carbs per pack. I've actually

recently tried some gels, the two two sixes

and another type, which I'll talk about a bit

later, that have 50 or 55 grams of

carbs. But it is worth kind of

balancing out whether you want the bigger packs, which they

generally are, versus the smaller ones, which have

slightly lower carb content.

To make it easy, Xmars actually has a filter where you can

choose high carb options on their website, which is

really helpful.

So I tried neversecond C 30,

which has 50 grams of carbs. And

I like the taste, the berry flavor, but found the texture to be

kind of like a lumpy liquid, and it took a while to eat the

whole gel. So I'd probably recommend if you're going to have something a little bit

bigger, that you sip it over a longer period rather

than try and down it in one, which is what I tend to do.

The two two sixes, high fructose gels have

55 grams of carbs. I tried the cola

flavor, which, um, maybe was a mistake.

Kind of tastes like the base liquid for a soda

fountain diet Coke, which, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love,

but I did find it a bit secretly sweet. But the

salty strawberry tasted much better in my opinion,

although it was still quite sweet. These are ones I would

definitely need to take with just plain water.

Both the never second C 30 and the two two six s,

uh, are on the bigger side. Um, so yeah, you might

want to sip those rather than try to chug.

I also really like the idea of the peanut and

honey. Two two sixes. Um, I

tried this on a recent run and I kind of

like the almost savoriness of it, although

it was still obviously sweet with the honey, but it's

a little bit thicker, a little bit kind of, um, more

claggy. So I found it quite hard to take it

on the run, but I imagine it'd be really good as like a

high carb addition to your pre run toast,

porridge or bagel or in your carb.

Loading. 55 grams is a real whack. Or you

could make your own. Uh, the victus

during gel has 45 grams of

carbs and I recently tried the lemon flavor, uh, and found

it I can only describe as inoffensive.

So good for those who like a thin gel, like the high

five gels, but with a higher carb content.

Maybe taste should actually come first because

really, how are you going to

eat however many gels, up to seven that you need

if you don't like the taste? So maybe that should have come before carbs, but

it's a bit of a no brainer. But if you're going to be eating high

quantities of, um, these gels or

drinks or chews, then you're going to probably want to like

the taste or at least tolerate it.

It might be worth having a range of flavor options on race

day to avoid flavor fatigue. I know that

I don't deal very well with very sweet options anymore, although I

used to solely fuel using salted caramel

goo, which tastes a bit like dolce de leche. It's

quite thick, but it's quite delicious.

Talking of kind of thickness, texture also

comes down to personal preference. Some people like

the gooes, the thicker gels where you might need to sort of chew

it. You might like a thin gel where you don't need to take

water with it, but you will still need to hydrate on course. But

it might just be a bit easier if you don't want to have to time it

with the fluid stations, or maybe

you just don't like that gel liquidy type texture at

all and would prefer a bar or a shoe.

Typically the thinner gels like sis

go two two six s high five, uh,

are isotonic, meaning you don't have to take them with water.

And the thicker gels, like the precision

fuel and hydration goo hammer,

they'll need to be taken alongside water.

While I'd recommend it, um, I try to time

mine with the coarse age stations or

carry a hydration pack or handheld bottle with me

on the run. If you don't

like the textures of gels at all, I promise you

there is a range you can find thicker ones, thinner

ones, um, puree style. But

if that's really not for you, you might prefer a

chew like the Velo forte cubus energy

chews. The ginger flavour is my favorite.

Maybe the cliff bar shop blocks

margarita is the winner in my opinion. Or the

scratch labs energy chews, which are literally like little sweets. They are

delish. They kind of remind me of jelly tots which I

haven't had for years, but used to be all the rage when I was at school, which

is maybe aging me. Um,

you can find the full selection of XML so you can have a play

around with some of those as well.

It's worth bearing in mind that you'll need more

chews to consume the same number of carbs as a

gel. So for example, three

times usually ish, the amount to

the carb content of one gel. Like the cliff shop

blocks 31 grams is three

chews. This can work out quite

handily, as you could maybe have 1

/mile but you might want to think about how you're going

to carry them and if you're going to remember to take

them because sometimes, even with the gels, every

sort of 30 minutes ish, I can forget or

I don't want to take it because I'm feeling a bit nauseous or

tired. So it is worth thinking about

how that's going to play out into your fueling strategy.

I kind of like to mix choose in at

the end of training runs because then it helps me

avoid flavor or texture fatigue and

it's something a little bit different. And often it's when

I'm kind of at the end of my tether with the gels.

I also like to play around with liquid carbs.

So if this is something that you feel like you might tolerate better or

for training runs, maybe you're on the treadmill, or you've got someone with you on

the bike, you could try something like

tailwind or Morton drink mix.

They can be also really helpful in the lead

up to your race when you're carb loading, just to be able to sip

on like 50, 60 grams of carbs in

one bottle. My plan for the

next marathon is to bring a handheld with me containing

some liquid carbs and electrolytes to sip, sort of

pre race, and then during the first half of the race before handing it

over to a friend or, um, just kind of chucking

the bottle.

So I've touched on it a little bit.

But caffeine is

quite an important thing to think about and

to train your gut with. If

you don't drink coffee in day to day life, then you

don't want to go out and have four caffeinated

gels and just hope for the best.

We know that caffeine can be a performance booster, especially

when used correctly, so that makes sure that you want

to.

We know that caffeine can be a performance booster, especially

when used correctly, so that's making sure that you time

it right. It takes about an hour to reach its full potential

in the bloodstream, but it can upset some

people's stomachs or give them the jitters, especially if you

don't have much coffee in your day to day life. I've had four today,

so I think I'll be probably fine with caffeinated gels

on raised day, and I train with them regularly.

If you do want to enjoy some of the performance benefits of caffeine,

which is up to two to 4% and quite

a lot cheaper than the vaporfly

or other carbon plated shoes,

you're going to want to consume around three to six

milligrams per kilogram body weight before and during your

training and race. So for most runners, that looks like

200 milligrams or two coffees or

two well caffeinated gels like the Morton

caffeine precision fuel and hydration caffeine

sturker. Unsure if that's how you pronounce

it, but the St

Y RKR caffeine and dual

carb gels, or the two two six s,

it's worth looking out for how much caffeine is

actually in the gel. So some of them, some of the goo, some of the other

products have caffeine in them, but

it's not the 100 200 milligrams

that you'd be looking for for that performance booster.

Obviously you want to make the most of your caffeine intake if you are

taking it, so you'll want to time it well,

since it takes about 60 minutes for it to fully

kick in, try taking it

about 60 to 90 minutes

before you want it to kick in.

So, for example, if you're running a four hour, uh,

marathon, you want to take your caffeine jars around the

one and two, um, hour mark or two and two and a half hour

marks. As well as thinking about

carbs, caffeine taste,

texture, you may also want to think about

electrolytes. Some running fuel

contains electrolytes, most commonly sodium, but often

potassium as well. We lose these

key electrolytes when we sweat, which can cause cramping,

stomach issues, reduction in performance, headaches

and more serious issues.

Electrolytes help control muscle contractions and make sure your

body functions properly during exercise. And

they can also help break down carbohydrates for more fuel

for your muscles and increase the blood flow to keep your heart

pumping. All pretty important things

to help maintain your electrolyte balance and

hydration. Replacing these electrolytes is crucial

and you can get these from some gels like

humidia plus neverseconds, C

30 plus SAs go electrolyte

gels or things like the margarita shop blocks and

the velo Fortier citra. If

you do choose a fuel without electrolytes,

like the precision fuel and hydration, it's my pet peeve. I

wish they had one with sodium in. Then you are going to

have to think about how else you can maintain your sodium levels on the

run, particularly if you are a very

salty or heavy sweater, which you'll know if

you have ever had the white crust on your body or clothes after a

run or you're drenched through. That's

me. Often options

include electrolyte drinks, tabs, salt

sticks or pills. I actually just ordered

some salt stick electrolyte fast tubes to give them

a try for my next race.

We've talked a lot about kind of the specific

sports nutrition products some people might

want to try more. Real food or natural fueling

options which you

for those wanting to try more natural fueling

options, there are still specially

formulated sports nutrition products that are made

from real food. These are from

brands such as Hammer, which produce.

These are from brands such as Hammer who produce gels with a chia

base or velo forte, which are based on real

food. For those with sensitive stomachs, these can be

good options as they tend to be better tolerated than those with

synthetic ingredients. Although it's worth keeping an

eye out because they often have a lower carb content.

So we've talked about caffeine

texture, taste, electrolytes,

carbs. What else should we think

about? For me, a good starting

point is looking at what fuel is on

course during a race.

This can have.

So we've talked about a lot of the kind of things to

look out for in gels, but where to start?

I often think a good starting point is looking at

what fuel is on course during your race.

It can mean that you can use the gels at aid stations

and maybe carry one or two less on your

body. Oh, my God.

So we've talked about what to look out for in

your sports nutrition, like the texture, the taste, the

carbs, the electrolytes, the caffeine. But where

do you actually start when it comes to fueling?

Well, I like to look at what fuel is on

course during my race. This means that

you can use the gels at the aid stations and hopefully carry one

or two less and also buy one or two less because they can get quite

expensive. Don't forget we've got the

10% off code, so listen at the end

and I will share it with you again.

London Marathon has leukosade gels on course, so if

you're planning on using these on race sits worth giving them a try

during training. For those running Manchester Marathon,

you'll find go sis

gels or sis go. Not really sure

which way you call it, but we'll link it below.

And those at, uh, Brighton, you'll find high

five on course.

Some other things to think about. I know it's

confusing, you've just got to keep

working at it. But

another thing to think about is how you're going to

carry your fuel. Are you going to stuff your

pockets, bring a hydration vest, have your friends and family

hold them for you? If, like me, you need

six or seven gels, this is definitely worth considering when

picking your fuel of choice. I had my mum standing

with some of my gels during the London marathon and

whilst it was really helpful, it was quite

stressful, like knowing that I absolutely had to

see her. So I had her at mile seven.

So I'd already taken two gels and I got to replenish

with three more at that point. Um, and I

know it's not that crowded. I know exactly where we normally stand.

But if you are relying on friends or family having the

gels for you on course or whatever you've chosen to

use, make sure you know exactly where they're going to be, when

they're going to be there. And, um, they know how to

look out for you and you know how to look out for them.

It might also be worth considering things like how easy it

is to open your fuel on the go. I found that the

Velaforti gels are quite hard to open.

Hopefully they've changed their packaging since I last tried

them. Think about does it involve

chewing your sports nutrition of choice like

shoes, shop blocks, bars, that sort of

thing. I personally find that when I'm really cold or if

I'm trying to run quite fast, I

struggle with shoes, but I'm totally fine taking them on

like training runs or in warmer training.

Are you going to walk while you fuel or are you going to

try and take them on the run? Are you going to

use the aid stations for your

water? Are you going to try and carry it yourself? All

things to consider,

hopefully we've covered just about everything about energy

gels and shoes and how to choose the right options for

you. But if you do have any other questions,

make sure to check out the xmars website.

They have tons of information on there. Or

send me an email or dm, um, on Instagram.

I'm at the runnerbeans. Or, uh, you can

email me at therunnerbeans@gmail.com and

don't forget, you can save on all your fueling needs at xmiles m

your one stop nutrition shop with the code

c e r

podpod ten. That's

c e r po d ten

for 10%. Uh, off sitewide

tune in next time for episodes covering carb

loading. We've got caffeine and performance where

we really deep dive into the nitty gritty about

why caffeine helps us, uh, perform

better. And another episode

on why everyone in the endurance world is talking about

CBD right now. So make sure to subscribe,

give us a rating and review and we

will see you or hear from you next time.

Tune in next time for episodes covering carb loading.

With Featherstone nutrition, caffeine and

performance, we're going to deep dive into the nitty gritty

on why and how caffeine impacts

performance and, um, discuss why everyone in the

endurance world is talking about CBD right now.

So make sure you subscribe, like

leave us a rating and review all the good stuff. Love to

hear from you. Slide into our DMs, give

us a follow and we will hopefully

join you on your run or your commute or

just going to sleep. I listen to podcasts when I'm on the way to

sleep. Um, when I'm trying to go to sleep

so

why do I do this?

Give us a, like,

subscribe, give us a like,

leave us a rating and review. Get in touch, tell

us what you want to hear about, and hopefully we

will join you on your next run, your commute,

or. I personally listen to a lot of podcasts, and I'm trying to go to

sleep, so maybe that's where you're listening to this now. And,

um, have a great

weekend.

Bye.