I’m just about out of my Clif shot 100mg caffeine gels (they have been discontinued) and I’m looking for options.
I liked the 100mg dose with the Clif shots and they were fairly cheap compared to other gels, I’m not seeing anything comparable. SIS has a 200mg gel that is reasonably priced per mg of caffeine, but that’s a pretty big dose to use for “topping off” during a race. I’m not a huge caffeine user, but often do 400-600 mg over the course of a long race and the 100mg size allows a steady supply. There are lots of ~75mg options, but they all seem to be $2-$3 per gel and that gets pricey in a hurry (I do caffeine on my weekly long ride as well as races).
I’ve considered switching to caffeine pills, but not sure about the logistics of doing that in a race. Any recommendations on best way/products to get your caffeine in?
If you want to be smart about price then just buy some 100mg caffeine capsules. You can get like 500 for $15. Either pop them when riding or break them open and pour into your water bottle
My stomach does not like caffeine pills. Since I’m allergic to coffee I can’t say how this flavor tastes. Hammer nutrition makes an espresso flavor with 50 mg. If you buy the bulk bottle it’s about $1.00 per dose.
A cold Monster if I’m stopping at a gas station mid ride
Coffee or a caffeine pill in the morning before training rides.
Generally I’m not using caffeine mid ride during training unless it’s a big ride and it’s the aforementioned gas station re-fuel. Whenever I do those bigger rides and add the caffeine, sleep suffers that night and the next day is tough. Try not to do the added caffeine often because of that.
I’ve had two kinds of Bonk Breakers that are really good and the pouch has 100mg of caffeine. I’ve had Root Beer and Cola and prefer the root beer but both are basically candy that I’m excited to eat especially during races.
Precision hydration makes a 100mg gel. Tastes good. Very mild.
Maurten makes a 100mg one. It says its a gel. It is not. It is loose Jell-o. And it tastes like, well, if you mixed caffeine powder into an unflavored jell-o packet. I wouldn’t say I “hate” it, but I definitely will grab the Precision Hydration one before that one lol.
Yeah, I saw that, but I can’t even wrap my head around $4.50 per gel. I guess I could swing it for just caffeine, but that would still be ~$70/month doing 4 per week. I’m a big believer in replicating race nutrition/hydration on my long rides, so whatever I use for racing I need to use for my training.
I used to buy the cliff shot gels at around $1 each in bulk boxes (both caffeine and non-caffeine), but was still spending about $100/month on gels until I swapped over to maple syrup for most of my calories.
I think I’ll order a box of those 200mg SIS gels and some tablets and give them a try. The SIS are “only” $2.50 each and I’ll only need a couple for most rides/races. I’ve also supplemented with caffeine Skratch in the past and I might look to use that more for maintaining (I already spend a bunch each month on Skratch and the caffeine stuff isn’t much more). It’s just tough to combine hydration and caffeine for some races when you don’t know how much you’ll be drinking depending on weather, etc. Also tough when using neutral aid to carry/mix powder at aid stations.
I’m not a coffee drinker these days either, but I definitely respond well to caffeine. From what I understand, response to caffeine is a genetic switch of some kind (some do, some don’t). Caffeine is like cheating for me as long as I only use it once a week or so. When I used to use caffeine daily, it had very little effect other than when I tried to scale it back it gave me headaches and made me tired and cranky.
I used verb energy bars for a little while. They have around 50 mg caffeine in a 90 calorie bar, like a mini clif bar. They have some different flavors that are good but I’m personally trying to lower my caffeine intake at the moment.
1 big cafe con leche in the morning has been all I need so far even with riding.
The expense is real, I think I spent $130-$140 on gels just during the LT100. Fortunately I’ve done enough testing that I’m comfortable using liquid fueling with Malto / Fructose for the bulk of my training and then separate fueling / hydration and use Maurten for races only. I do use them though for a couple big “check out” rides usually done in a long, hot, humid day outside.
