After one of my recent workouts, I figured that it cost me $36 in product. That's not reasonable. Here's how to plan your next workout so you can still fuel high-carb and not break the bank.
I'm a carb dealer. So I like to think I know a thing or two about carbs.
But last week I did the "wrapper math" on a recent workout — I laid every used wrapper out on the table — and the total came to $36 for a 2.5-hour session.
That's not reasonable. I was dipping into my own supply and lost track of what it cost. Classic dealer mistake.
Today I'm fixing that, so you don't get the same sticker shock I did.
Start with one premise: a carb is a carb.
Sure, there are different ratios, gut-friendly options, real-food formulas. What actually matters is getting the right amount per hour. Let's target 80g.
Which one? Whichever works best for you — the right flavor, the right consistency, and whatever your stomach is happiest with.
So let's look at the options (and the hacks) to get your cost per carb back to a reasonable level.
First, a baseline. Most gels are about 3x more expensive than a high-carb drink mix. But there's always a trade-off: I usually want high-sodium hydration in my bottle and my carbs in my gels. With quite a few high-carb drinks, you sacrifice flavor, sodium, or both.
There's also a science upside to drink mix: sipping gives your body smaller, more even hits of carbs, versus the big 30-40g hit of a gel all at once.
Here's the concoction I've been using that solves most of this:
Step 1: Take 2 scoops of high-carb drink mix (60g of carbs). You can use anything — Tailwind, Maurten, Carbs Fuel, Precision. I used Feed Labs High-Carb because it's what I had handy, it's a great price, and the flavor is neutral.
Step 2: Add hydration. Since I’m using a neutral-flavor high-carb, I've been adding a Mortal Salty.
The drink is already pretty sweet, so I only use half a serving — Grapefruit is the winner here. Because Mortal Salty has 2x the sodium, half a serving still gets me a full hydration dose of sodium (450mg, if you're curious) with half the sweetness.
Doing this with Maurten? Use their new "Additions" — flavor add-ons with no extra sugar. Same idea as the Mortal trick, just without the extra sodium. With Maurten, the extra sodium could really mess up their hydrogel, so use their Additions product.
Precision Fuel & Hydration: Makes it easy with a neutral high-carb (60g) packing 1,000mg of sodium. One catch: it takes 4 scoops to hit 60g, so only do this with a big bottle (24oz or larger).
Tailwind might be the simplest answer of all: one scoop gets you 90g of carbs and 680mg of sodium, in Ginger Lime or Lemonade.
Running and don't want a full bottle?
My first choice: grab a flask. I've been using this 500ml flask with the integrated handle, and it's great. Bonus: Do I maybe get a small arm workout? Unclear, but I'm telling myself I do.
Hate carrying anything? I get it. Get the Arch Max vest. They're made in Spain, and they're what the pros actually use — most of the UTMB trail pros get these from Arch Max and rebrand them with their sponsors' logos. We have them with two 300ml flasks for $109, and they fit really well.
Now, the math.
One bottle of my concoction: $2.44 for 64g of carbs (you get 4 bonus grams from the Mortal). That works out to 4 cents per carb — less than half the price of fueling with most standard gels.
That doesn't quite get you to 80g per hour, but add one more scoop of high-carb (taking you to 90g) or add a gel, and you are still a fraction of the cost of all gel fueling.
Best pure value?
I didn’t attend this to be an ad for Tailwind High Carb, but they legit have the simplest and best value here: $0.04 per gram of carb, 90g of carbs, all the sodium you need, and two flavors to choose from. The trick is that you have to want those two flavors and want the full 90g of carbs.
Do your own wrapper math after your next long session. If the number makes you wince — you know where to find me.
