Ah, that did ring a bell 
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I found the Scillies pretty humid on several of my runs early morning.
Just ordered some Precision Hydration to try out. Need to figure out what to do come marathon day.
Rough plan is
PH the night before and morning of
One of the new fangled drinks (Beta fuel or Maurten) at the start
Water and gels on the run
Iāll need to test the PH and energy drink before race day obviously. Is the on course water enough for a marathon? I never manage to drink much when stuff is handed to me.
I switched to Maurten half way through the season, could be placebo effect, but it really does seem to work. On a run, I take a Maurten gel every 6km, and a cup a water and cup of Red Bull / Coke at each feed zone - Gives me around 85g-95g carbs per hour. although difficult to be accurate as a large proportion of Coke / RB ends up on me rather than in me.
Maurten contains no salt, doesnāt seem to be an issue for me, but maybe something you want to be aware of
I used beta fuel for the first time on Sunday. Tastes ok, not too sweet and stomach seemed to take it.
Itās also got some salt in it, though I could probably do with a top up as was getting cramps towards the end of the race. Will do another test run on Sunday before saving the rest for marathon day.
Strangely, my best performance came this weekend in Nice, when I probably took on the least amount of nutrition ever.
Normal breakfast approach, plus a gel pre-start as standard. On the bike I then got through less than 1.25 litres of PH1500 (well over half of that prior to reaching the summit of the col de vence), and only had 2 chews, about 1 cliff bar, one chunk of sainsburys flapjack, and one gel with 45mins to go. I then had another gel starting the run, and a second 40-45mins in. I only had the tiniest sips of water on the run.
All in all, it surprised me. Less was definitely more. I was working much harder than normal on the bike, so just didnāt feel like eating and drinking as much. And it seems to have worked out well. Could see that tactic getting me into a fairly large hole in a full however.
Also popping my question in here (from the IM Hamburg thread) as it will be more useful for the responses to sit in this thread ā¦
how did you get on with Maurten in the end @Matthew_Spooner ? Do you still use it? You stated above that you needed to supplement with additional electrolytes as it contained no salt. which Maurten product did you use? Iām looking at the drink mix 320 at the moment, and it states that it has 0.5g of salt per serving. Though it does seem to be limited to just sodium chloride, and not the other electrolytes one would normally expect to find.
Would people say that supplementary electrolytes will need to be taken with this approach? I have a tub of saltstick capsules that i used in the Jurassic Coast 100 last year (switching every hour between a tab with water and a bottle of tailwind) that iād be happy to supplement the maurten with.
Iām looking at my fuelling options for a tough 100km n a couple of weeks. Iām keen to try a predominantly liquid based approach to minimise pack weight, and then supplement with a few snacks. then stck up on āproperā food at the main aid stations where i can get a bowl of chilli or soup or something similar.
Iāve used Tailwind, and that worked well. But i am tempted by this very high carb ratio in the 320 maurten mix. That would mean one 500ml bottle of that on the front of my pack at all times, and then keep the other bottle with just water to drink to thirst. That makes managing my food/pack much easier.
Any thoughts/suggestions gladly received.
Also looks like SIS have developed a competitor solution - Beta Fuel. The only other one with 80g of carbs per serving. Anyone tried this one?
Me - Iāve used it just before a Tri and on long runs as a test. No GI issues and if it gave me 80g of carbs then great, because I would struggle with 3 gels per hour. I think itās got more electrolytes in than Maurten but probably not enough to rely on for really long stuff.
It had a pretty successful first outing from memory 
Haha - was it delivered in a brown bag?! 
OK a pack of Maurten on order. Paid a bit more for next day delivery so I can take it for a test ride on my planned 3+ hr run tomorrow. Itāll be a nice social pace, it tough terrain. So perfect simulation for NC100.
Bit of an expensive trial if I donāt get on with itā¦,but there we go!
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So would you say youāre sold on Maurten GB? I have to admit, the fact Kipchoge uses it does make me give it further thought. Reading up on the gels, they sound like theyāre a different style, but are they bulky/easy to carry?
I feel Iām on top of what I want to do in a tri, but for a standalone marathon, Iām seriously unsure of what the right approach is. As might be expected, I seem to burn through glycogen way faster in a marathon than triās, and have less opportunity (or ability) to replenish. I feel like Iām trending better in terms of HR - my MP runs are all showing far lower values than I was seeing in the spring, but I still want to try and up my pre- and mi-race fuelling. Iām just not sure GU gels, which I use for HIM/IM is working.
What would anyone suggest for a suitable marathon nutrition plan? A bottle of 320 in the morning before the race, and then supplement with gels? My parents and gf will be at the next race, so grabbing a bottle/gel mid-race will likely be possible (although no idea yet when/where on the course that could take place).
āWhat are Ironman supplying on course these days? Anything has to be better than the Power Gels of old!ā
The only gels iāve ever come across that you had to chewā¦ they were sickly disgusting things!
Paging @gingerbongo for a reply!
Sorry bud, missed this. Iāll drop a reply tomorrow when Iām in work and my brain is working again!
I canāt comment on the gels, as I havenāt tried them Iām afraid. I know paying athletes to use your products doesnāt necessarily mean theyāre any good (!) but Kipchoge and Jaaaan are both using them They claim on their website that a number of other athletes are also using them, despite contracts with other firms, so they sell them in completely blank, non-branded pouches/packs! Thatās either a genuine endorsement or a really clever little marketing ploy!
The drinks did work for me. As I alluded to on a previous thread, I had a bit of a wobble about 3-4 hrs in where I didnāt think I was going to be able to stomach it any more. But that soon passed. I just needed a drink/food that I could oppose it with, from a taste perspective. Once I had this down, I had no other issues. The problem I had was that the sachets were pretty big to carry around, especially when youāre looking at a14hr event! I had a kiloās worth in my pack ā¦ though I didnāt use about 4/5 of them in the end (out of 13). I also reckon I threw away about 1.5 pouches worth.
The biggest pain that I had with them was mixing them. If you donāt mix the powder REALLY well then it goes all clumpy. Once it starts to clump, itās seriously hard to get it to mix ā¦ at least in a soft flask on the go. I had to throw one bottle away as I just couldnāt get it to dissolve. Again, I then worked out a method ā put about 10ml of water in first, then in with the sachet, shake it up, top up with water and then shake like mad. It was made harder with the flasks being wet, so the powder just stuck to everything. Would obviously be easier if you could pre mix it e.g. for on a on a bike or if you were supported, and a hard bottle would make it much easier.
If you can run with a small bottle of the strong Maurten and sip that over the course of an hour or so Iād say that would be ideal. Maybe a couple of those mini bottle that go on a belt ā¦ think Lange may have used that technique a year or two ago. Or give the gels a crack ā¦ they do a caffeinated one as well now. Iād be very tempted to try the gels out if I was doing a race of less than 3 hours. The biggest downside is the cost. But the amount I normally spend on an ultra, packing out on all sorts of food, I wonāt be too far away.
My next race will be more than double the last one though. But I now know that a bottle every 1.5 hrs is plenty at that intensity and Iāll have a support crew. So I wonāt need to carry it all with me this time. Iāll also go with my high 5 zero as itsā antagonistic pair if you will.
Now I think about it, it may be worth buying a few of the gels as well actually, in case I need that instant hit. Esp. the one with caffeine.
On my previous maraās I took like 6 gels or so, one every 7/8 km. I was always a very high carb burner in those days. Guess it depends how well fat adapted you are ā a mate ran a 2.32 on water alone.
Keep the thread updated with your plans though mate. Obviously give it a go in training, see how you find it.
Anyone seen this? 
First itemā¦
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Zwift arenāt short of a bob or two are they?!
Looks like 3d printing is finding a firm foothold in the game. More next year i would assume.
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Thanks for all this info Pete. Final query ā¦ where did you order your stuff from? Just checking Iām not missing out on a supplier that can do cheaper than what Iāve otherwise found!