As a keen marathoner who’s always looking for ways to improve my PR, I take great interest in what the best runners in the world use when tackling the event, and one product has taken all the attention in recent years as world records have tumbled.
The best carbon plate running shoes are used by all elite runners and most keen amateurs these days, with their lightweight, springy designs helping to improve running efficiency.
These so-called super-shoes have been controversial because their impact on the sport has been so dramatic, but they’re not the only recent innovation that has helped elites and amateurs smash world records and PRs.
Swedish sports nutrition brand Maurten’s energy gels and drinks have been used by every World Marathon Major winner since 2017, and to set every new marathon world record since 2018.
Sebastian Sawe used them when he ran the first sub-two hour marathon at the London Marathon in April, consuming an astonishing 115g of carbs per hour during his run.
There are a lot of energy products available so Maurten’s dominance among elites is remarkable. In contrast, carbon racers from a wide variety of brands have been used to win races and set records.
To find out more about how and why pros use its hydrogel drinks and gels, I spoke to Joshua Rowe, head of sports tech at Maurten.
How do Maurten’s hydrogel products work?
The difference between Maurten’s gels and drinks and other brands’ products is the hydrogel technology used by Maurten, which changes how the carbs enter your body, putting less stress on the stomach.
“Hydrogel technology is not new technology in the sense that it came from the medical industry,” says Rowe. “It’s classed as a drug delivery system.
“The stomach is really acidic. It's designed to kill bacteria. The problem with that is if you end up ingesting a really acidic drink, which tends to be the case in the nutrition industry, it enters an acidic environment and it creates a bit of a boiling pot. That’s where athletes get GI issues. They feel sick, they bloat."
By forming a hydrogel Maurten's gels and drinks bypass the stomach entirely and enter the small intestine at a faster rate. At that point the hydrogel degrades and the carbohydrates are released to be absorbed.
“The Kenyans put it the best way," says Rowe. "They say it's the ‘disappearing drink’.”
How many carbohydrates are elite runners using in races?
“I would say nowadays they’re all having an aggressive intake, getting close to 90g per hour,” says Rowe. “If we look at like Sabastian [Sawe], there's some that are getting close to 115g to 120g.”
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Are there downsides to consuming so many carbs in races?
Compared to cyclists in particular, runners tend to take on a lot less fuel during long activities, and one of the reasons for that is simply that it’s harder to consume carbs during runs than bike rides.
“The biggest difference runners have compared to cyclists is that because there's more muscle movement and more muscle recruitment when you're running, more blood flow is diverted away from your stomach,” said Rowe. “That's why a lot of runners have stomach issues.
As Rowe explains it, the blood flow is going into the muscles, plus blood needs to go to the skin to help expel heat. That menas any internal organs that don't really need the blood almost go into a hibernation state, and that's what happens with the stomach.
So when you consume a large amount of carbs, your stomach can struggle to process them because it's in this slowed-down state. The hydrogel helps with this, as it delivers the carbohydrates effectively even when there's not much blood flow going to the stomach.
Should amateurs try to copy this high-carb strategy?
High-carb running is all the rage right now, but amateurs might not get as much from the strategy and simply copying the likes of Sawe it isn’t necessarily the smart approach.
“Just because the elites have this much it doesn’t mean that if you go to have that much you're going to get the same performance benefits,” says Rowe.
“A really high powered car, when it's pushed at max, will drain all of its fuel really quickly. Say a Formula 1 car is fully optimised to be able to burn fuel very quickly and very fast.”
That’s the elites, and we mere mortals are usually not quite as well optimized, which means even if we consume 100g of carbs we might not be able to process and use that amount.
How do you train your gut to handle high amounts of carbohydrates during runs?
If you are keen to optimize your fuelling and increase your carb intake, you need to train your guy to handle it.
“If you practise consuming carbohydrates frequently during the build up to the marathon you will optimize your uptake and you'll get more comfortable ingesting like the intake you need to have,” Rowe said.
“Where a lot of people go wrong is they just do a couple of long, easy runs and test a couple of gels, but the problem is with that is that intensity is a really important factor, and so is frequency."
Lots of runner practice their fueling strategy on easy runs, which is useful, but those runs are not as intense as race day when it can feel harder to take a lot of gels or energy drinks because you're pushing so hard.
To counter this Rowe makes his athletes practice feuling at race intensity, and also at the same frequency as they will be consuming carbs on race day.
“If you plan to have a gel every 5km or 7km, in training that might mean you might take it every 30 or 35 minutes," Rowe said. "But then on race day, it might be every 20 or 25 minutes. So it feels like quite a lot. People need to practise the frequency as well.”
You should treat your gut training like your regular training, building up over time to ensure you can handle the carbs you plan to consume on race day.
Carbon shoes vs carbs; which is more important?
Carbon plate running shoes have been seen as the driving force behind elites and amateurs getting faster in recent years, especially with regards to the marathon, but could high-carb strategies be just as important?
Shoes will always steal the focus with the general public; indeed when Sawe ran his record at the London Marathon it was in the brand-new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, the first carbon super-shoe to weight under 3.5oz.
However, Rowe suggests elite athletes rate the importance of advances in nutritional just as highly, and that importance is borne out by the science.
“If you're doing a lot of good training and using nutritional products in your training, it's the same effect as the carbon shoes," Rowe said. "It helps with recovery. It helps you run quicker. It makes you feel better.
“Then we get to race day and there is some research being published that if you compare a 60g carbohydrate intake to 100g or 120g, it equates to a 3% improvement in running economy.
“We talk about shoes having a 3-4% increase in running economy. It's the same as having a good carbohydrate intake."
If you're fuelling well during long events, it can also help you avoid the dreaded 'wall', which used to be the most common factor in derailing runners late in marathons.
“What hitting the wall really means is when your body transitions from using carbohydrates as a fuel source to utilising fats as a fuel source," said Rowe. "That's because your body needs to work harder to break down fats than carbohydrates.
“Now athletes are able to ingest so many carbohydrates, it’s almost that the wall's not really a thing anymore. So it’s a combination. The shoes can help, but your body needs to be able to be fully primed and utilizing carbohydrates to allow you to do that.”
