Best Fuel for Long Runs: Real Food vs Gels (And Why Most Runners Get It Wrong)

Most long runs don’t fail because of fitness.

They fail because of fuel.

After coaching hundreds of endurance athletes, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself:

Athletes assume the miles are breaking them.

In reality, they’re just under-fueling the work.

Long runs aren’t meant to destroy you.

They’re meant to be a quality training stimulus you can recover from.

One reason long runs fall apart so often is because most endurance fuel options are more processed than athletes realize.

If you finish every long run completely wrecked, it’s usually not because the distance was “too much.”

It’s because your body didn’t have the energy to execute the training well.

The purpose of a long run isn’t survival.

A well-fueled long run should end with a very specific feeling:

That doesn’t mean it was easy.
It means it was productive.

The long run is meant to:

Not to leave you so wrecked that you can’t walk for 2 days.

Most beginners miss this and make one critical mistake:

They stack long-run miles linearly, assuming more distance equals more fitness.

10 miles. Then 12. Then 14. On and on and on.

What if I told you there was another way?

Almost every fueling issue I see during long runs falls into one of two buckets.

Not enough calories. Not enough sodium. Not enough fuel to support the work.

This shows up as:

Athletes blame the miles.

The real issue is that their body was never given enough energy to do the job.

Sodium is usually the missing piece. Here’s how much endurance athletes actually need in training.

Too much food. Too heavy. Too processed.

This shows up as:

Fueling doesn’t need to be complicated to work. It just needs to match the demands of the session.

In this case, the athlete is taking in fuel, but it’s the wrong form for running.

And this is where the real food vs gel debate usually breaks down.

Bananas. Dates. Bars. Honey packets.

All technically “real food.”

All fine… until you try to run with them.

Problems show up quickly:

Real food works best when you’re moving slowly.

As pace increases, digestion becomes the bottleneck.

Gels solve the portability problem. But they introduce new issues:

Many athletes can tolerate them short term. Over longer runs, discomfort builds.

So runners bounce back and forth between:

Neither is ideal.

After years of testing with athletes across:

A clear pattern emerges.

The most consistent long-run fueling has three characteristics:

Without sodium, even clean calories fall apart during longer efforts.

Liquid fuel digests faster.

It doesn’t sit heavy.

And it’s easier to consume consistently as fatigue builds.

This is the exact gap Maple Boost was built to fill.

Maple syrup is a naturally occurring carbohydrate source that:

When combined with the right amount of sodium, it solves both failure modes at once.

No energy deficit.
No digestive overload.

Athletes who switch to liquid, real-food fuel almost always say the same thing:

That’s not magic.
That’s physiology working the way it’s supposed to.

Here’s a simple place to start for most athletes.

In the 30 minutes before heading out:

This sets the stage so you’re not digging a hole from the first mile.

For runs longer than ~60 minutes:

You shouldn’t feel stuffed.
You shouldn’t feel depleted.

You should feel steady.

If you want a simple framework for fueling short runs, long runs, and race prep without overthinking it, this guide breaks it down step by step.

Maple Boost works for long runs because it’s:

This is exactly how Maple Boost was designed to be used in long runs and extended training sessions.

It gives your body enough energy to do the training well
without creating new problems along the way.

That’s the entire goal.

Long runs aren’t supposed to break you.

They’re supposed to:

If your long runs consistently feel like a grind to survive, the issue usually isn’t mileage.

It’s fuel.

When your body has enough energy, training stops feeling like punishment and starts feeling like progress.

That’s what good fueling unlocks.

Related Guides

→ Why most endurance fuels are over-processed
→ How much sodium endurance athletes actually need
→ How to fuel endurance training without bonking