Let's not get too technical Mr.B, they just taste good ! Although, I have to agree, I have been told to take them only in the last 20 mins of a long run.
Let's not get too technical Mr.B, they just taste good ! Although, I have to agree, I have been told to take them only in the last 20 mins of a long run.
It's not an Isotonic issue more a complex/simple sugar issue.
JB's, bears, squirms et al are simple sugars which hit the system quickly and give a Sugar high followed shortly afterwards by a corresponding Low. Theya re good for trickle feeding aslong as you keep eating them and/or just as you run out of energy at the end.
I try and take mine alongside Fruit bars, jels, rice pudding energy bars(Complex Sugars) etc between the two you get slow and fast release targeting the time you need a boost i.e big climb.
You can slow the release of simple sugars by adding fat I believe.(honey/jam sandwich, buttered of course).
Dont worry about the energy boost, sugars, release rates etc, as a mate of mine says - 'a bag full of morale'. Probably just goes to show that endurance is 90% attitude, 10% fitness?
I did read somewhere that one jelly baby provides enough calories for appx 2 minutes running. I usually have a couple every hour or so......
Do you really take rice pudding along on runs? Please tell me how.
I've read that sugars don't cause an insulin surge and crash if you only start eating them after warming up. Does anyone know if this is true? I think adding fat slows down digestion, but too much. You don't want to be eating stuff on a run that you'll still be digesting next day at work. And the distinction in carbs is not between simple and complex, but where they come in the glycaemic index. This is very complicated - who would have thought that boiled potatoes give you a faster rush than bananas?
I'm wondering if one of those squeezy plastic bottles of honey you can buy in supermarkets, perhaps half full, would work on a long run. I'm certainly not taking cold boiled potatoes.
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Dates.
Tao begets one. One begets two. Two begets all things.
not on races but on long multi hour runs yes, you can can those little pots, also with mixed fruit, I like potatoes boiled with mint then coated in butter and salt left to cool. a few in a zip lock plastic bag. they go down well and are a relief after haours of sweet stuff and cold roasties yum
On a long run I think you'll find jam butties will be absorbed quite quickly. When Joss broke the peninne way record that what he ate (Honey Butties)
when I did my BG I had a can of cold rice pudding at every stop
Granny knows best, nothing like a jam sandwich with butter.
In my experience 20 odd years ago, runners carried raisins, dates or dried figs, washed down with beck water. Cold rice pudding would be served up at about the 20 mile point or half way on very long runs.
I, too, remember reading many years ago that the dreaded insulin surge happened before or early on in a run but that once you were say an hour into a run your body just took the sugar and used it, like Kendal mint cake. A bugger to eat whilst running though.
But then marathon runners 100 years ago would think nothing of running the route the day before the race and arsenic was seen as a good stimulant.