Fuel Planner
Four questions. We turn the published carbohydrate research into a target you can actually hit, then show you which Cadence products get you there. No hype. Just science.
Carb targets are not weight-based, but your caffeine ceiling and recovery numbers are.
Athletes not used to eating on the move have roughly double the risk of gut trouble. We cap the target at what you have practised.
Three ways to hit it
Same carbohydrate target, different ways to carry it. Mix and match — the number matters more than the format.
Caffeine ceiling
Citrus and Vanilla gels carry 50 mg of caffeine each; Mango is caffeine free. The performance dose is 3–6 mg per kg of body weight across a whole session — past that you get the jitters and the gut trouble without the benefit. Switch a plan's gels to Mango and this stops being a constraint.
Fluid & sodium
We do not know your sweat rate, so we will not invent one.
Starting point
Drink to thirst around that, and expect the top of the range on a hot day, a hard effort, or if you are a bigger athlete.
Find your real number
Weigh yourself before and after a one-hour session, no bathroom breaks, and account for what you drank. Every kilogram lost is roughly a litre of sweat.
Replacing heavy sweat losses with plain water is how hyponatraemia starts — CarboFuel and Marathon both carry sodium, potassium, magnesium and phosphate for exactly this reason.
After you stop
First hour target
Revive Mix
Revive Mix: Chocolate · Vanilla — R 699.99 / 1 kg
Why these numbers
The carbohydrate ladder
- Under 45 minutesStored muscle glycogen covers it. If you are racing, a carbohydrate mouth rinse or a few sips is enough to matter.
- 45 minutes to 2 hours · up to 30–60 g/hrUseful but not decisive. Intensity is what moves you up this band.
- 2 to 3 hours · about 60 g/hrA single carbohydrate source oxidises at roughly 60 g/hr. That is the ceiling for glucose alone.
- Beyond 2.5–3 hours · up to 90 g/hrOnly reachable with multiple transportable carbohydrates — glucose and fructose using separate intestinal transporters. Cadence uses a 2:1 maltodextrin to fructose ratio for this.
- Very long, high intensity, trained gut · 90–120 g/hrEmerging evidence supports pushing past 90 g/hr, but only where the gut has been trained for it. Build by about 15 g per week in training, never on race day.
Why running and cycling differ
- MechanicsRepetitive impact jostles the gut. Gastrointestinal symptoms are consistently more common in runners than in cyclists, which is why we hold the running ceiling lower than the cycling one.
- Carrying capacityA cyclist can carry two 750 ml bottles and drink freely. A runner is limited to what fits in a flask or on the course, which pushes running toward concentrated formats — gels — and cycling toward drink mix.
- ConcentrationHighly concentrated drinks empty from the stomach slowly. CarboFuel is formulated isotonic at one 46 g serving per 500 ml; going stronger than that to save carrying weight is the most common self-inflicted gut problem.
- Trail and ultraLower average intensity over much longer time. The per-hour number sits lower but the session total is enormous, so solid food and flavour variety start to matter as much as the maths.
What the sliders actually change
- DurationSets the band. This is the dominant input — how long you are out there determines whether you need carbohydrate at all, and how high you can usefully go.
- IntensityPositions you inside the band. Easy efforts burn proportionally more fat and less glycogen, so they sit at the bottom; race efforts sit at the top.
- SportApplies a ceiling and changes the product mix. Cycling can reach 120 g/hr, road running is held at 90, trail at 90 with a bias toward solids.
- Gut trainingHard cap. New to fuelling caps at 60 g/hr, used to 60 caps at 90, trained caps at the sport maximum.
- Body weightDoes not change the carb target — exogenous carbohydrate oxidation is limited by intestinal transport, not by body size. It sets your caffeine ceiling and your recovery numbers.
This planner turns published sports science into a starting number, not a personal prescription. Bodies differ, and gut tolerance differs more. Test everything in training before race day, and speak to a registered sports dietitian if you want numbers tuned to you.
