Your Mid-Race Strategy: When to Use Gels, Chews, and Drinks for Best Effect

Whether you’re taking on a marathon, a triathlon or a long trail run, Active Root’s range of stomach-friendly sports nutrition and hydration products are there to help power your performance and achieve your goals. The golden rule when it comes to sports nutrition is 'try before race day', multiple times if you can. It is essential to practice your fuelling strategies prior to your event, so you can arrive on the start line feeling confident in your fuelling and focusing all your energy on enjoying the journey to the finish!

How Active Root Nutrition Can Help

Ginger: We use natural root ginger in all our nutrition products. Ginger is scientifically proven to help prevent bloating, nausea and stomach discomfort during exercise, thereby allowing athletes to focus on their performance rather than their stomach. Another key benefit of ginger during exercise is its ability to reduce muscle soreness. The anti-inflammatory properties of ginger can help combat the inflammation that often accompanies intense physical activity. 

Fuel: By using unbleached cane sugar as a fuel source, our products provide a balanced mix of glucose and fructose, offering a steady energy supply without the spikes and crashes.

Electrolyte: By incorporating natural sea salt, we ensure that our products provide essential electrolytes to maintain hydration levels and prevent muscle cramps.

Mid-Race Strategy

Proper nutrition and hydration is crucial for marathon runners, triathletes and ultra runners to maintain energy levels and support recovery. Test your fuelling strategies during training to find what works best for you and to prevent digestive issues.

Energy Gels (or Gel Mix), Energy Chews, and drink mixes are popular options for quick and convenient fuelling on the go. Our Sports Drink Mix and Electrolite Drink Mix contain carbohydrate and electrolyte sources, with single serve sachets that mix into a 500ml flask, easy at aid stations and will fuel you for up to an hour with a single serving.

Energy Gels: Our range of Energy Gels are perfect for mid-race fuelling. Our gels are designed to enhance your performance and provide reliable support during your marathon, triathlon or long trail run. Crafted with quality and convenience in mind, as well as being gluten free, vegan and all natural, this product is ideal for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike.

Our Energy Gel contains 50mg of ginger to maintain a settled stomach, 30g of carbohydrates for a steady release of energy, and 122 calories in each gel. You need around 60g of carbs per hour for a steady rate of exercise. We would recommend consuming a gel 15-20 minutes before you start to give yourself a strong start to your run or triathlon. During your race you should aim to consume a gel every 20-30 minutes to maintain a steady supply of energy. Finally, you can take a gel immediately after you finish to replenish energy levels. To ensure proper hydration, take 300ml of water with every 2-3 gels per hour of exercise.

If you’re looking for both fuel and hydration then we would recommend a mix of Sports Drinks Mix and Energy Gels.

Drink Mixes: Our Sports Drink Mix is a carbohydrate based drink designed to fuel and sustain longer efforts. This can be consumed before, during and after exercise, and features a carefully formulated blend of slow-burning cane sugar to provide a steady stream of fuel rather than the short-lived bursts of energy from traditional sports drinks. Our Sports Drink Mix contains 239mg of ginger to help prevent gut bombs, 40g carbs for a steady release of energy, and up to 161 calories in each serving. Sports Drink Mix also includes 567mg sea salt, helping to replace vital electrolytes lost through sweat. 

Electrolytes are crucial for maintaining fluid balance, muscle function, and overall hydration. When you sweat, you lose essential electrolytes such as sodium. Our products are formulated to replenish these vital electrolytes, with sodium the most prominent electrolyte in the Active Root range, ensuring that your body's hydration levels remain balanced. This helps prevent cramping, fatigue, and dehydration, allowing you to maintain peak performance. This is especially important during warmer weather when you’re likely to sweat more and lose those vital electrolytes.

With only 33 calories, 8g of carbs, and 801mg of unrefined sea salt, our Electrolite Drink Mix provides the perfect balance of hydration and electrolyte replenishment. The optimum amount of ginger keeps your stomach settled and supports better hydration.

Simply add a serving of Sports Drink Mix or Electrolite Drink Mix to your water bottle or soft flask (usually 500-750ml of water), shake well, and you’re ready to hydrate and refuel on the go. The sachets are also perfect for mid-race - light to carry or leave it your drop bag for adding to your water during the event.

Energy Chews: Deliciously fiery, our portable Energy Chews provide a refreshing and natural alternative designed to replenish essential fluids with electrolytes, as well as giving a rapid energy boost. Each serving (5 chews) contains 96 calories, 24g carbs, 57mg sodium and 1,452mg of stomach-settling ginger.

We recommend eating four to five energy chews every 30 minutes during endurance events. Our resealable pouches mean you can reseal easily during your session, and refill the sachet afterwards using our large pouch of chews.

You should aim to consume a small amount at regular, frequent intervals, e.g. every 20 minutes. This is to maintain a steady energy supply and prevent blood sugar peaks and crashes.

With our range of ginger-infused products, including Sports Drink Mix, Energy Chews, and Energy Chews, marathoners, triathletes and trail runners can tackle challenges with confidence, knowing their nutrition is supporting their performance and recovery.