Home Made Energy Gels

I came across the idea of making my own energy gels after looking at the Home Made Gels, Gu's and Bars thread on Coolrunning. It seems that the primary ingredient in energy gels is Maltodextrin, which is readily available from most chemists and also home brew shops.

The maltodextrin that I bought is comes in a 900 gram tin and is called Polyjoule. It costs around $14. Some guys get their maltodextrin from home brew shops in the form of powdered corn starch, but I'm not 100% certain about the validity of this comment saying that it's not wise to use the home brew stuff. $14 for a tin of Polyjoule still makes a lot of gels at minimal cost so I'll stick with it for the time being.

As for the recipe, well there's not really much to it all all. Throw some maltodextrin into a mixing jug and add some hot water to make plain gels. In my opinion the unflavoured stuff actually tastes surprisingly quite good. It will initially look quite milky but overnight it will turn into a clear gel so just be a bit patient. Some guys nuke their mix in the microwave but I don't really like doing that.

As for flavours, well try anything that you think might sound like a good idea. I've personally used quite a few cooking essences, with my favourite so far being chocolate and coconut. Go easy on the flavourings as they are quite concentrated and you won't need much at all. I've also used citric acid to give a tangy lemon flavour, but citric acid is very potent and I've found it hard to get a consistent flavour. You could also try adding in some Gatorade powder or any drink flavourings that you like.

The benefits of caffeine for endurance sports are well know and I briefly touched on some advice from a leading sports nutritionists in one of my other posts. Here it was recommended that 3-5mg per kg of body weight every 5 hours is all that is needed. I personally use Nodoz tablets and simply crush them up a bit, dissolve in some hot water and mix it into the gel mix.

I have also experimented with trying to add some healthy fats into the mix as this is something that we supposedly need during long endurance events. So far I have just added a dash of flaxseed oil. It does separate over time but a quick shake of the gel flask mixes it up fine.

My longest training runs to date where I have solely used energy gels has been 4.5 hours and I must say that they worked fantastic. I took some gel every 30 min with water and I didn't have any energy crashes at all. I actually think that my performance during my training runs using gels only has probably been better than anything else I've used so far.

How long it would take me before I get tired of my home made gels I'm not sure but the results are definitely encouraging.  They will most certainly be a part of my overall ultramarathon nutrition strategy.

Making your own gels is a fun, cheap and effective way of supplying your gel requirements. Give it a go!