Home made running gel recipes

Over the past year or so, whilst browsing various running-related subreddits (online communities on the reddit.com website), I’ve noted a number of recipes for home made running gels and nutrition that I wanted to try to make for myself.

Recently I noticed the lifetime spend on my xmiles account (the place I order most of my running-related nutrition from). The figure almost made my eyes pop out.

Home made running gel recipe

Realising the amount of money I had spent on running gels, bars, chews, and so on was the impetus I needed to finally try out some of these home made running gel recipes.

With that in mind, I ordered a few things and set out to make a DIY gel recipe I found posted on reddit from the website https://yearroundrunning.com.

Here’s what I ordered in bulk to get started, along with the prices I paid:

• 5KG Maltodextrin Pure Carbs Carbohydrate Powder (£13.99)
• 750ml Agave Nectar, Mild (Pack of 3) (£11.15)

I already had some bottled lime juice and sea salt as additional ingredients required.

The recipe method I followed was:

• Poured 75ml of hot (not boiling) water into a saucepan. I kept this on very low heat on the hob while mixing everything together
• Add 70g of agave syrup to the hot water
• Added 2g of sea salt (roughly 700-800mg of sodium)
• Added 20ml of lime juice
• Slowly added 100g of maltodextrin to the mixture in the saucepan, whilst stirring it in
• Wait for most of the maltodextrin powder clumps to dissolve, then leave mixture to cool

Packaging home made running gels for on the go consumption

Next up, I needed to put the mixture into something convenient for consuming on the go. Cleverly, a while ago I started keeping my Precision Hydration 90g gel packs with screw-top lids. These normally cost between £4.50 and £5 each, and it felt like such a waste to first of all be spending that much on 90g of carbs, and then second of all throwing the packs away afterward.

I would clean them out once finished, then store in the cold fridge (same thing I do with my running water flasks to prevent mold build-up inside).

Now I had the perfect 90g re-usable running gel packs.

I decanted the maltodextrin and agave nectar home made running gel liquid into a couple of 90g packs and put the screw tops back on.

Note: Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate made from starch, such as potates, rice, or corn.

About running gels, nutrition, and absorption on the go

Studies have found that an efficient absorption rate of carbs for runners (note, this can vary based on your intensity / work rate!) is generally around 2:1 for the glucose to fructose ratio. The body has different ‘transporters’ (proteins) for glucose and fructose, SGLT1, short for Sodium/Glucose cotransporter 1, and GLUT5, respectively.

So first of all, the recipe above’s maltodextrin is the main glucose source (the 2 part of the ratio). The agave nectar is the main fructose source, or the 1 part of the ratio). Note, my bottle of agave nectar showed there were around 70g of sugars, per 100ml of syrup.

If you look at my favourite commercial running gel (the precision hydration brand), they use this same 2:1 ratio.

When out performing, our bodies can reach a maximum amount of carbohydrate absorption from just glucose. This where the addition of fructose can help. Using the other transporter GLUT5, we can absorb even more carbs from fructose sources. We’re essentially overcoming that bottleneck.

With regard to the sodium (sea salt) ingredient, this helps aid in the water absorption. The ratio here is a bit of a trick to get right as sweat rate can differ quite a lot from person to person. Over the years I have learned that I sweat quite a lot, and in addition to what I might use in gels and nutrition, I’ll supplement with effervescent eletrolyte / sodium tablets in my water too.

Testing the recipe and cost savings

I tried the gel out on a long run, and although its not as pleasing to the taste compared to precision hydration, its not far off in my opinion.

The lime and salt helped to offset the sweetness quite nicely, though I found even my slightly dialed back 20ml of lime (compared to the original recipe’s 30ml) was quite strong. Next time I might try 15ml of lime juice instead.

However, consuming 90g of this over an hour or so slowly worked just great for me on my long run. Following each sip of gel, I would follow this with a swig of water. Good not only to help balance some of the sweetness in the mouth, but also for the teeth! (My dentist would be proud).

Making these home made running gels can save you a lot of money compared to buying commercial gels. I estimate a cost saving factor of around 7x times! Especially worth your while if make this in larger batches, bearing in mind it won’t keep for too long.

Other home made running nutrition recipes

I’ve also been experimenting with ‘bar’ style recipes too. Using the same bulk pack of maltodextrin, oats, rice crispies cereal, sugar, agave nectar, I’ve had some success with more solid running nutrition recipes.

I still need to refine the method and packaging parts, as this can be quite a messy one to consume on the go, but perhaps I’ll post the results here when I find a good solution to packaging.

I can see many possibilites here to improve the flavour and texture, such as using dates (great flavour and helps bind ingredients), other dried fruits, maple syrup, etc…

We as endurance athletes can save a lot of money by following the DIY route. Money saved on expensive and overpriced running fuels can be better utilised elsewhere.

I’m keen to pick up more recipe ideas to try out, so if you find yourself reading this after searching around for other recipes, and you’ve picked up any other good ideas yourself, please share the recipes in the comments!