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Originally Posted by Purplefirefly
Thank you so much for posting this! As a beginner I really do appreciate your experienced point of view. Now....what is gu?
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Gu is a brand of carbohydrate/electrolyte gels (powergel, clifshot are some others). They are extremely nasty. They have the consistency of hmmm...well some say thick honey, others say snot. They are 100 calories of basically pure sugar with just enough electrolytes to rapidly absorb. They also often have a bit of caffeine. They were MEANT for endurance racing.
They really truly are not needed in training until you are running a minimum of 2 hours non-stop, and most people can condition themselves to ~3+ hours before needing them in training. In a race most people take them every 45 min - 1 hour but it depends on your intensity. Beginners can't race at the intensity (% HRMAX)of an elite either.
Of course gu marketing will tell you to take one 15 minutes before a workout and every 30-45 minutes after that. blech
They are good in situations where you need calories but are working too hard to digest calories. Ultra runners (50 miles, 100 miles) often DONT use them because at that point you have to learn to maintain a pace and stomach some sort of real food.
