Saturday, September 17, 2005

Nancy's homemade sports gel revisited

This is a slight revision of Nancy's lemon iced tea sports gel recipe #1 in a larger quantity with some lower glycemic index carbohydrates added for longer-lasting energy:

2 ounces (1 scoop) Carbo-pro powder (or other maltodextrin powder)
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp. lemonade Crystal Lite
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. peach iced tea Crystal Lite
6 Tbs. honey
9 Tbs. white Karo syrup

Dissolve Crystal Lite and Carbo-pro in lemon juice in a measuring cup with a good pouring spout. Mix in Karo syrup and honey. Pour carefully into 2 gel flasks.
Makes slightly more than 1 cup (8 fluid ounces).
Contains approximately 70 Calories/Tbs or about 140 Calories/fluid ounce.
Take 1-2 ounces per hour in small sips during active endurance sports.

You can adjust the ingredients easily to taste - use any flavor of Crystal Lite and use water instead of lemon juice for a sweeter gel, or change the ratio of honey to Karo syrup - but I find that this recipe makes a tangier, fresher-tasting gel that I personally like better than any of the sickly-sweet store-bought gels which I have tried.

You may note that this recipe contains no amino acids, proteins, or fats. For ultra-endurance sports or queasy stomachs you may want to add ingredients like protein powder. Then again, some ultrarunners I know swear by individually-packaged string cheese - a concentrated, convenient, portable, and inexpensive source of high-quality milk protein along with some fat.

Remember electrolytes are also negligible in this formula (as they generally are in most sports gels and even in most sports drinks). Be sure you replenish sodium and potassium losses from another concentrated source such as Succeed caps while you also attend to rehydrating yourself.

2 comments:

:) said...

Thanks for the update...I really need to try this!

TriStupe said...

i always thought tht those expensive gels are actually flavoured condensed milk.

;-)