It's GU to TORQ

Nutrition is a pretty important part of ultra-running. Whilst you can get used to running without eating too much by becoming a more efficient fat burner, for races and for optimum performance you really need to stoke the fire as you go. In my training I tend to rely on fat-burning, largely because gels are frigging expensive, and I'm too cheap to buy them if I can help it. So I very rarely eat anything on my runs, even on my long (25-30ish miles) ones.

But even the most efficient fat-burner still needs carbs to function - "fat burns in a carbohydrate fire" I believe is the cliché that is bandied around. For this reason, I tend to use gels when I race, and will often make my way through a 100 miler predominantly on these, with the odd bit of fruit thrown in at the aid stations. I don't go too nuts; for instance I probably had 5 gels in 8 hours at the recent SDW50 - so about 1 every hour and a half. This works out fine for me, and gives me the energy I need to keep going, without causing major stomach-related issues or borderline diabetes.

Below is a little review of the two main brand of gels that I use - TORQ and GU. I don't really know the ins and outs of physiology and metabolism (I believe that the head-bone is connected to the arm-bone?), so I won't go too much into the "sciencey" side of things. The main thing that I care about is how they taste and how easy they are to eat while running. It's simply a way of getting energy into my face at the end of the day. Beyond that, I don't notice a huge difference between them; I know what I like and what works for me after a few years of trying various things out and failing miserably every now and then. I'll pretty much eat anything I'm given, but these are the ones that I will go for if given the choice.

TORQing About Running (it's a homonym, y'see...)

A few months ago, I happened to see a message on Facebook about an interesting sounding new initiative. TORQ are a fitness consultancy firm that also produce a range of nutritional supplements such as gels, bars and recovery drinks. They are highly regarded in the mountain biking community, and sponsor teams in cycling, MTB, triathlon etc. They are now interested in getting involved in the trail and ultra running scene, and were looking for runners to make up their new trail team. What was interesting about this was that they are not looking for the top runners in the country, but instead are interested in putting together a team of inspirational runners who are passionate about the sport regardless of whether they are elite athletes. So runners from all backgrounds were asked to submit a CV describing what running means to them, a little about their background, and any blogs or the like that they might have.

You may have noticed that I quite enjoy banging on about running (my poor wife sure knows it), so I figured I would put something in. To be honest I hadn't heard of TORQ before this, but a friend described them to me as the "Rolls Royce of gels" which was pretty high praise. Since I pretty much use gels exclusively when I run, I thought why not have a crack.