An ongoing list of things I’ve tried. Hopefully this doesn’t make people think I’m too Type A:
- Rx Bars:
- Pro: taste, calorie density
- Con: need lots of cutting, chewing, and water
- Rating: 2/5 stars, wouldn’t recommend unless you’re doing easy efforts and/or stopping to eat
- Clif bars (choc chip):
- Pros: actually delicious, calorie dense, easy to swallow (just a little water)
- Cons: high on sugar (more of a problem for 8+ hour efforts), need to be cut into eights
- Rating: 4/5 stars, still using these
- Clif double espresso gels:
- Pros: tasty, easy to swallow, have caffeine (!)
- Cons: 100mg of caffeine is dangerous (esp with 3-4 of them)
- Rating: 5/5 stars, but be careful with the caffeine.
- Side note: great for when you have to go to a late night social obligation but feel a little flat 🙂
- Justins PB gels (really they’re pouches):
- Pros: real food, tons of calories, tasty, have found these super useful when I’m <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>really</span> feeling rough
- Cons: need tons of water (swallowing and digestion), feel a bit heavy, can’t partition the gels (its too liquidy), somehow manages to get EVERYWHERE
- Rating: 2/5 stars. Would keep one handy on long rides for bonking, but too many cons to use as a go-to
- Infinit
- Pros: tasty, easy to swallow and digest, easy to dilute, customizable
- Cons: takes up a bottle cage (more infinit–>less water)
- Rating: 4.5/5 stars. Lost half a star because the synthetic nature catches up with you around the ~10hr mark
