Pacific Health Labs Accel Gel Review
Sooooo I love to listen to podcasts while I run. I started doing this a year or 2 ago & can’t get enough! Over the years, I’ve found a few podcasts that I’ve been pretty loyal to, & it has paid off 🙂 The Run to the Top podcast by Runner’s Connect is sponsored by Pacific Health Labs, & they made it super easy to get some free samples of Accel Gel for listening to the podcast! Yay! I just love freebies– especially running freebies. So I got my THREE free accel gels (chocolate, vanilla, & strawberry kiwi), & I decided I’d share my thoughts about em.
First of all, I hate gels. More often than not, I will gag mid-race while I try to choke down a GU because the consistency is just so gross to me. No amount of yummy sounding flavor helps me get them down typically, so I really only use them as a last resort. For that reason, I give Accel Gels an 8 out of 10 on the CONSISTENCY category! It’s much thinner than GU, which allowed me to take it in without gagging or having to stop for not being able to breathe. That sounds dramatic, but I’ve actually choked a little on GU. I’m special, I know.
FLAVOR– The strawberry kiwi was pretty tasty. It wasn’t overly fake-tasting like candy, but it was true to what I would expect from strawberry kiwi. Lightly fruity & sweet. Again, totally an 8 out of 10. Chocolate is a tough flavor to recreate if it isn’t actual chocolate, in my opinion, so I had low expectations for this one anyways. I will say I was happy it didn’t have a bad aftertaste or anything, but it wasn’t one I would pick to buy again. I believe it had a little bit of caffeine in it though, & I’m all for a little caffeine boost! That one gets a 7 out of 10, but only because of the caffeine 😉
PERFORMANCE– Since doing Whole30 at the beginning of the year, I know now I can go much longer on a run without fuel than I previously thought. I now reserve gels for 10+ mile runs. I used one around mile 7 of an 11 miler recently, & one between miles 7 & 8 for a 12er, & both times I was very happy performance-wise. I didn’t bonk, I didn’t get queasy, & my blood sugar seemed to stay pretty steady, so I give em a 10/10 there. They did their job & did it well! I think their patented & proven 4:1 carb to protein ratio made a difference here, & perhaps even jumpstarted my recovery. I felt like a million bucks the day after both of these runs.
PACKAGING– I think packaging is pretty standard for gels, & these neither dazzled nor disappointed. I’m not an engineer or even very creative, so I can’t really think of how packaging could be improved upon, so I’ll give a 10/10 for lack of concern there! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Anything I’d change about these? I don’t like to be a nay-sayer without anything constructive, but I really don’t know how to improve upon gels! If anything, accel gel achieves fixing my biggest complaint, which is the thickness of other gels. This one will certainly be the one I go to for future races, & I’m eager to see what other flavors are out there. I tend to like lighter but simple fruit flavors, like strawberry & even citrus flavors, like lime & lemon. Again, I like a caffeine boost, so I hope Pacific Health Labs offers other caffeinated varieties of accel gel in flavors other than chocolate. I could totally go for a mocha version!
What about you? What are your go-to long run supplements?