With the start of the Otter African Trail Run looming on the horizon, the time has come to decrease your quantity of training and put in those final quality sessions.

This means that, instead of just going for a 5 hour steady trail run on your local trails over the weekend, you need to put in some shorter sessions that are harder and more focused on improving a particular aspect of your trail running.  This can be a variety of different runs, from hill repeats designed to improve your climbing ability to a short time-trial on a local technical trail where you can work on increasing you anaerobic capacity to make up some time on the runnable sections of the Otter Trail.

With such intense sessions, GU Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gels provide enough calories (100 calories per gel), extra Branch Chain Amino Acids (3 times that found in normal GU gels, including 10 times the Histidine), extra Electrolytes (3 times that found in normal GU gels), extra Caffeine (1,5 times that found in normal GU gels) as well as a new ingredient called Ornithine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (not found in normal GU gels) in a form that’s easy to ingest and carry.

Together with the exclusive GU Carbohydrate blend, the extra Branch Chain Amino Acids (“BCAA’s” or “Aminos”) in GU Roctane gels serve as an additional fuel source, help to reduce muscle damage obtained during hard trail runs (thus also enhancing recovery) and provide extra mental focus for those that prefer not to take Caffeine.  The Histidine Amino Acid specifically promotes muscle buffering to prevent the accumulation of lactic acid in muscles during harder trail runs.  Who doesn’t want to be able to go harder and faster for longer!?

The extra electrolytes in GU Roctane gels in turn help with hydration, as the harder trail runs can make the sweat flow more freely quite quickly!  As Caffeine is proven to stimulate the central nervous system and reduce pain perception leading to prolonged exercise and delayed fatigue during trail running, GU Roctane gels all contain 35mg Caffeine (except for the Pineapple flavour, which has no Caffeine) to help you make those hard sessions quality sessions.

Ornithine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (“OKG”) is the last main ingredient in GU Roctane gels, and is included to help support trail runner’s recovery by helping block the catabolic effects of various hormones that cause muscle trauma.  If you’ve ever heard of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (‘DOMS”) or experienced it after a hard session, you’ll be glad to hear that OKG helps combat this phenomenon, leaving you with fresher legs the next day!

As with normal GU gels, GU Roctane gels provide fuel but not hydration, so we advise you always take a swig or two of water to help wash down the gels and then hydrate further as needed during your trail run.  GU Roctane gels can be taken as normal 15 minutes before your hard trail training session or long race and then at 45 minute intervals; but with the harder and longer sessions they are made for we suggest you experiment with 30- or even 15-minute intervals to get the optimal effect from the gels.  The whole GU product range can be used in conjunction with the GU Roctane gels, but they pair best with GU Roctane Ultra Endurance Drink for your hard trail training sessions or long trail races like the Otter.

For more info on the GU Roctane range, visit the GU Energy Labs SA website. 

If this peeks your interest in the GU Roctane gels, then check out the amazing deal on the Otter website especially for Otter runners! 

GUd luck with your last hard trail sessions and remember, “Train with the Roc, race with the Roc”.

See you at Otter!

The GU Team