A fueling plan built for your actual course
Tired of a fueling plan that tells you to take a gel at 40 minutes, when 40 minutes puts you in the middle of a hill with no aid station close by?
CarbRate places every gel and every drink on the real course you are running, using its actual elevation profile and the aid stations the race publishes.
So you never take a gel without water or try to fuel while running up a hill.
Why you can follow your fueling plan exactly and still end up with an upset stomach on the hills
Almost every fueling plan is written in minutes. A gel every 30 minutes, a few sips every 15.
But 30 minutes into your race might put you at the bottom of a climb, halfway down a steep descent, or a mile past the last aid station.
A steep climb is the hardest time for your stomach to handle a gel. Running hard already by as much as 80%, and a climb at race effort cuts it further.
Taking a gel without water is nearly as bad. A gel is concentrated carbohydrate, and your stomach needs fluid to absorb it.
That is how you can follow your plan exactly and still have a gel sitting in your stomach at mile 20.
The miles where your fueling matters most are often the long climbs late in the race, where you burn the most glycogen.
Luckily, your race has already published its elevation and its aid stations. CarbRate uses both to place every gel and drink where you can take it.
Your course decides where you can take each gel
Your carbohydrate target comes from how long you will be running. A hilly marathon and a flat marathon need a similar number of grams an hour.
The course decides where you can take those grams.
Your stomach handles a gel best on a grade you can run comfortably, with water within reach.
On a real marathon course, those spots are not evenly spaced.
CarbRate scores every possible spot in your race on three things: the grade you will be running, whether a real aid station is there, and whether a climb is coming in the next few minutes.
Then it moves each gel to the best spot near when it was due, and never by more than a few minutes.
To do that yourself, you would need the elevation profile, the published aid station list, and the time to check every gel against both.
That is why CarbRate places every gel for you, on the course you are actually running.
CarbRate places every gel on a grade your stomach can handle
The rule is simple. No gel on a climb steeper than 3%, and no gel on a descent steeper than 7%.
On a steep climb your effort goes up at the same time your stomach is least able to absorb fuel.
is the hardest thing on your legs in a race, and the pounding shakes your stomach while it is trying to absorb the gel.
CarbRate reads the grade along your whole course and moves your gels off the steep climbs and descents.
When a climb is coming, CarbRate has you take the gel before the climb.
So the fuel is already in your system when the climb starts.
CarbRate places your gels where the aid stations actually are
A gel without water sits in your stomach, even if it is the right gel at the right time.
Your race publishes where its aid stations are. CarbRate places your gels at them, and a real aid station counts for more than anything else when it picks a spot.
In our Boston example, a 3:30 goal at 18°C, all eleven gels are placed at a real aid station, none is on a climb above 3%, and no gel moves more than six minutes from when it was due.
Where a stretch of your course has no aid station, CarbRate tells you. The gel is marked carry your own water.
You know that weeks before the race, so you can plan to carry water for that stretch.
CarbRate tells you exactly how much it knows about your course
Not every race publishes its elevation and its aid stations.
CarbRate tells you which of three levels of course detail your plan is built on.
When CarbRate has your course and its aid stations, every gel is placed at a real station.
When it has your course but not the aid stations, your gels are still placed off the steep climbs, and CarbRate tells you to carry your own fluid.
When it has neither, your plan is timed to your goal pace. You can attach the course later and CarbRate places every gel on it.
You always know which part of your plan is measured and which part is an estimate.
CarbRate turns your course into a schedule you can follow like a recipe
Your plan is a simple list.
Each step has the mile marker, what to take, which aid station it is at, and one line on why.
You can print it as a cheat sheet, and on race day CarbRate says each step out loud so you never have to read it.
You have nothing to work out about your fueling while you are running.
Not a major marathon? Know the course already?
A fueling plan built for the course you are actually running
You have studied the course map. You know where the hills are and roughly where the aid stations are.
Your fueling plan should be built around them too.
- Fueling plan built on your exact course
- Personalized to your sweat rate, weight, and goal
- Adjusts when the race-day forecast changes
- Week-by-week gut-training practice schedule
- One prescribed change after every rough run
- The dress-rehearsal run, scheduled early
- Live guidance through every gel and drink
- All 163 gels, chews, and mixes built in
Julie Beaudoin“This app helped me test products throughout my training for Grandmas and put together a plan with more drinking. It was the first time I’ve finished with no stomach issues.”
See how CarbRate handles the rest of your race
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