Changes

The guideline of a gel every 30 minutes will need adjustment for each athlete. Heavier athletes may need more and lighter may need less. Faster athletes may need more gels and slower athletes less.

==Gels at the start==

It may be worthwhile to consume a packet a couple of minutes before the start of the race. It is easy to consume a gel at this point, and the body can start to digest it while at relative rest.

==Adding Protein==

There is some evidence that adding protein to the carbohydrate can improve performance<ref>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2575187/ Adding PRO to create a CHO:PRO ratio of 3 – 4:1 may increase endurance performance and maximally promotes glycogen re-synthesis during acute and subsequent bouts of endurance exercise</ref>, as well as attenuate muscle damage in endurance exercise<ref>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2575187/ The authors concluded that combined ingestion of PRO and CHO improves net PRO balance at rest, as well as during exercise and post-exercise recovery</ref>.

==The Golden Rule==

It is vital to remember [[The Golden Rule of Racing]] and practice this in training. If you want to try energy gels with protein, you need to try these out '''at race pace'''.