lemonlaug
08-14-2009, 09:23 AM
So I recently bought a few of these: http://www.honeystinger.com and found them to be pretty good. Honey tastes good, and even in the middle of long hard rides I found it to be pretty inoffensive. I like that it's got reasonably small number of ingredients and it seems to stave off bonking as well as the next gel. IMO the packets are poorly designed they have kinda square shoulders which makes it kind of a pain to stick the whole thing in your mouth and use your teeth to squeeze the honey as I usually do with these things. All in all, it's a better experience than GU chocolate outrage, which GU Corp. and I at least agree IS an outrage (no I do not want a spoonful of brownie batter while I hammer into this headwind, maybe later).
Anyhow, my real reason for trying these out was cause I knew that I could easily make them myself if it was effective, so I'm going to give it a try. Thought I'd share my hypothetical approach, and maybe get some good pre-emptive feedback I'll try to let you know how it goes.
Delivery Mechanism: $3 gel flask. Holds 5 oz I think, which is way more than your average gel, but it's easily pocket size, reusable etc. I do wish there were smaller ones out there, but this is not bad all in all. Of course this assumes that I'll be able to get the stuff I make out easily, and that washing etc. is not too much of a pain. Maybe for a race or something I would still use the packets for their size, weight advantages. I see the advantages here as not having to create a little piece of trash on every bike ride, and having control over exactly what goes into the mix (although I'm frankly not a big believer that it matters much beyond the calorie content and the structure of the sugar), and possibly some cost savings (which I'm sure I can then throw away by buying local honey at the farmer's market).
The ingredients are easy, as the package says it's Honey, Water, Electrolytes, and assorted B vitamins. I've got some B vitamin supplements, which I plan to crush and add. Salt is an ingredient, but so is Potassium Citrate, which as another electrolyte is probably nice to add also. Maybe for the future I'll try to get some of those electrolyte tablets to make the electrolyte content a little more favorable. But let's be honest, this whole gel thing is about the sugar right? My normal use is to prevent bonking during an afternoon ride. I've got a high metabolism and very little excess fuel reserves, so I tend to bonk hard if I let the blood sugar get too low. Caffeine is another obvious thing to add. The HS brand caffeinated gels use Kola Nut Extract, but I don't know where to buy that and have no qualms about using caffeine pills to the same effect.
I was thinking I'd be able to back out the amount of water in the thing by subtracting the honey weight from the total weight of the thing, but I seem to have 0 weight left. Since the HS gels weigh 37g and have 120 calories, and honey is about 3.0 calories per gram (http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/sweets/5568/2)I guess I'll proceed by using the minimum amount of water it takes to dissolve whatever additives I plan on using, and then I'll mix and see.
I'm not a gel connoisseur by any means, but I have a good feeling this will do the trick, and I suspect it's not something that it really occurred to me to make myself until the HS ingredient list inspired me. Anybody else out there doing this? Going to try?
Anyhow, my real reason for trying these out was cause I knew that I could easily make them myself if it was effective, so I'm going to give it a try. Thought I'd share my hypothetical approach, and maybe get some good pre-emptive feedback I'll try to let you know how it goes.
Delivery Mechanism: $3 gel flask. Holds 5 oz I think, which is way more than your average gel, but it's easily pocket size, reusable etc. I do wish there were smaller ones out there, but this is not bad all in all. Of course this assumes that I'll be able to get the stuff I make out easily, and that washing etc. is not too much of a pain. Maybe for a race or something I would still use the packets for their size, weight advantages. I see the advantages here as not having to create a little piece of trash on every bike ride, and having control over exactly what goes into the mix (although I'm frankly not a big believer that it matters much beyond the calorie content and the structure of the sugar), and possibly some cost savings (which I'm sure I can then throw away by buying local honey at the farmer's market).
The ingredients are easy, as the package says it's Honey, Water, Electrolytes, and assorted B vitamins. I've got some B vitamin supplements, which I plan to crush and add. Salt is an ingredient, but so is Potassium Citrate, which as another electrolyte is probably nice to add also. Maybe for the future I'll try to get some of those electrolyte tablets to make the electrolyte content a little more favorable. But let's be honest, this whole gel thing is about the sugar right? My normal use is to prevent bonking during an afternoon ride. I've got a high metabolism and very little excess fuel reserves, so I tend to bonk hard if I let the blood sugar get too low. Caffeine is another obvious thing to add. The HS brand caffeinated gels use Kola Nut Extract, but I don't know where to buy that and have no qualms about using caffeine pills to the same effect.
I was thinking I'd be able to back out the amount of water in the thing by subtracting the honey weight from the total weight of the thing, but I seem to have 0 weight left. Since the HS gels weigh 37g and have 120 calories, and honey is about 3.0 calories per gram (http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/sweets/5568/2)I guess I'll proceed by using the minimum amount of water it takes to dissolve whatever additives I plan on using, and then I'll mix and see.
I'm not a gel connoisseur by any means, but I have a good feeling this will do the trick, and I suspect it's not something that it really occurred to me to make myself until the HS ingredient list inspired me. Anybody else out there doing this? Going to try?