Training
Fuelling long sessions
Most of what Gauge does is decide what you eat across a day. Long sessions are the exception: past a certain length, what you take during the session matters more than anything you eat around it. Gauge plans that separately.
When fuelling appears
Sessions of 75 minutes or more get an in-session plan. Shorter than that and you don't need carbohydrate on the move — you have enough on board, and Gauge stays quiet rather than inventing a ritual.
You'll find it on the day's card: tap the day type at the top of Home to open Why today, and a fuelled day shows the amount, the gel equivalent, and the timing.
The plan, and where each number comes from
A typical long-run day reads something like 75g — about 3 gels. First one around 30 minutes in, then roughly every 20 minutes.
- The amount is your hourly rate multiplied by the fuelled portion of the session — everything after the first half hour — rounded to whole gels.
- The first 30 minutes aren't fuelled. You start with muscle glycogen already available; taking carbohydrate immediately doesn't help. This was always in the arithmetic and is now stated plainly.
- Gels are a unit of measurement, not a prescription. Gauge counts in 25g units because that's roughly a standard gel. Chews, drink mix, real food — anything that delivers the carbohydrate works. Three gels means 75g, however you get it.
- The interval spreads the total across the fuelled minutes. It's a rhythm to aim for, not a stopwatch.
The number that changes everything
How much carbohydrate you absorb per hour is the single biggest input, and it varies enormously between athletes:
- Not practised yet — about 35 g/hr
- Some practice — about 60 g/hr
- Well practised — about 90 g/hr
Tap the rate on the fuelling card to change it.
This is a trained capacity, not a fitness score. Your gut adapts to taking carbohydrate on the move in the same way the rest of you adapts to training — by doing it repeatedly. A strong runner who has never practised fuelling genuinely belongs on the first line above, and there's nothing embarrassing about it.
Which is why the honest answer is the useful one. Set it where you are today. Claiming 90 g/hr because it sounds better means Gauge plans 90 g/hr of fuel into a stomach that can't take it, and you find that out at mile 18. Practise on your long runs, then come back and move it up.
Practise it, don't discover it
Race day is the worst possible time to test a fuelling strategy. The point of the number being on your long-run days is that those are the rehearsal: take the amount Gauge plans, note how it sat, and adjust.
Gauge asks how it went after a fuelled session, and uses your answers to suggest when you're ready to move up a level.
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Last updated July 29, 2026