General Discussion Triathlon Talk » What's your IM Nutrition plan? Rss Feed  
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2014-07-24 7:31 PM

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Subject: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
As I am ramping up over the next several months, I am always curious to hear what people do for their nutrition. I have a plan that has worked nicely with no issues for my two HIM races, but always looking to try new things as I get tired of the same old thing over and over, even though it works. I have plenty of time to experiment over the next 10 months, so just looking for new ideas for training. I have been a Perpetuem and Gu fan, but am getting tired of the same old thing. What do you use for this distance and how much?


2014-07-25 5:36 AM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
My wife makes amazing whole grain pancakes. I take 6 pancakes on the bike with 50 50 gatorade rain / water mix. I eat a pancake every hour and drink gatorade mix every 10 minutes. On the run I use Gu and NUUN kona cola tablets.
Kevin
2014-07-25 8:12 AM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
Wake-Up - Bagel w/ peanut butter and a banana. Water and/or Gatorade. Yeah, I know Gatorade isn't the best, but the routine has worked.

Swim - 1 Gel 15-20 minutes before the start.

Bike - Bike bottles filled with 1.25 cups of maltodextrin and 1.5 NUUN tablets. I haven't found a flavor of Perform that doesn't give me a gut ache. I take a couple drags of this every 20 minutes along with 1 Trader Joe's stroopwafel (they're lined up like poker chips in my bento box). I like these because they feel closer to real food than gels, bars or shot blocks. Water every 10 minutes or when thirsty. 1 Salt Stick per hour, or 2 per hour on rides over 85F.

Run - I carry a bottle of Sierra Mist out of T2 and sip from it for about the first hour. If my stomach is acting up, this calms things down. I usually can't stand to chew anything while running, so for the rest of the run I stick to water, cola and orange slices at the aid stations.

Post-Race: Beer, Fried Chicken, Ice Cream and two #2 breakfasts at Mickey-D's the following morning.

2014-07-25 8:17 AM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
Bonk Breakers (2) on the bike and PowerBar gels on the bike and run. Gatorade for drink. So far it is working pretty well for me, but remember that this is very personal (I can't do GUs, too thick for my liking).
2014-07-25 8:45 AM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
i've been trying a variety of things - personally can't do GU - causes severe GI issues...

I've found that the powerbar wafer things work well; or the powerbar protein bars - I cut them up into small pieces and just grab and go
2014-07-25 9:34 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?

Breakfast #1 (4 a.m.) - bagel w/ peanut butter, coffee

Breakfast #2 (6 a.m.) - 2 slices of bread, peanut butter, honey, sip Gatorade

Pre-race (6:45 a.m.) - Sports beans

Bike: 250 calories of Infinite per hour - take 2-3 big swigs chased by water every 15 minutes. Set timer on Garmin to remind. Supplement with PayDay bar after the halfway point and have GUs and Sports Beans handy if I get sick of Infinite. Top off water at every aid station, goal to drink all of it before I get to the next.

Run: Goal of 1 GU every hour, but my stomach usually has other ideas. I like to wait until the halfway point to start Coke and chicken broth, and from there I grab whatever looks good at aid stations. Usually nothing, but sometimes a few grapes or potato chips. Tootsie rolls are great for me on the run as well. 

Post race - an entire pizza and real Coke.



Edited by lisac957 2014-07-25 9:35 AM


2014-07-25 9:59 AM
in reply to: lisac957

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
Breakfast - toasted bagel or english muffin with peanut butter, banana, *strong* coffee and clif shot electrolyte drink

Pre-swim - clif shot block

Bike - semi-concentrated clif shot electrolyte drink bottles, and alternate between vanilla or chocolate honey stinger waffles, and clif shot blocks. (fyi, I'm favoring the honey stinger waffles more and more in recent training rides.) And when i run out of my bottles before Special Needs, get water on course and add a Nuun tablet. And 1 or 2 salt tabs depending on the heat and humidity on race day.

Run - pretty much eat/drink what's on the course, but also 1 or 2 salt tabs per hour depending on heat and humidity on the day. Generally I tend to favor fruit, pretzels and chicken broth, but each race is different so I'm open to changing things up depending on how I'm doing.

Post race - pizza, and then some more pizza. At IMMT in a few weeks, I plan to add a whole bunch of Tim Hortons doughnuts to my post-race grazing as well.
2014-07-25 11:09 AM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?

I do a lot more "real food" for training and racing.  

Fig bars
Granola bars
Nutri-grain bars
Payday candy bars
Lance Crackers

I do *some* sports drink but mostly water.  I'll do *some* gels or powerbars.  

On the run, I'll graze at the aid stations and alternate water and sports drink.  

During the race, I often want choices between sweet and salty.  

2014-07-25 11:35 AM
in reply to: McFuzz

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?

I use a liquid of some sort. I used accelerade for many years successfully but after like 7 years I got tired of the taste and I started using skratch last year which I really like.  Then I will use some other type of food.  I have used fig newtons, but I got sick of them.  I have used twizzlers licorace quite successfully. They are cheep, you can get them anywhere, they taste good and they don't melt.  Cute them in 1/2 and they fit in a bento box.  VOILA.  Lately i have been using gels because if I have a big bag of twizzlers around the house I will eat them and I don't need the calories right now I basically try to get 250 ish calories and hour on the bike.  Right now for my long runs I use the skratch and drink about 80 calories(One bottle about 22oz) worth every 25 minutes or so which is how long it takes me to do 2 of my usual loops around my neighborhood

2014-07-29 6:35 PM
in reply to: Socks

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
Powerbar 4 am. Gu 15 min before swim. Bike 2x bottles of 1200 cal Infinit. Run 1 Gu per 30 min. Done.
2014-07-29 7:22 PM
in reply to: KatieLimb

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
This is my standard, copied many times, Long course race nutrition post. I have thought a lot about it and trial and errored it until it works almost perfect for me:

Race Nutrition. I am going to tell what I do and the reasons why and then I would be happy to discuss. What works for me might not work for you. What I am doing now is way, way different than what I did for my first HIM in 2010. Some of it has been trial and error. A lot of it has come from reading what others have used. This is long course--IM/HIM nutrition but it is really time driven so you can adjust for whatever length you think you will be on the course.

Race day morning:

At least 2.5 hours before the race I eat the following:

Oatmeal--two packets of instant oatmeal with raisins added. I use this as my standard because it is easy to take to any race and can be fixed almost anywhere.
Banana, sometimes two. Usually purchased at the race location but sometimes I bring this with me.
Coffee. one to two cups.

I eat this whether I am racing an IM or a Sprint. I want calories in the tank on race morning. (I also eat a bowl of cereal about 30 minutes before just about every morning swim I do and it never bothers me so if I start the race with a little bit of food in my gut it is unlikely to cause me an issue).


In the 90 minutes leading up to the race:

I will drink a 20 ounce water bottle filled with my 'bike nutrition mixture'. My goal is to get this finished 15-30 minutes before I go in the water. In the 20 ounces is around 430 calories with 93 grams of Carbs, 2.5 grams of protein, some caffeine, 635 mg of sodium, 260 mg of potassium, a tiny smidgen of calcium and magnesium. I mix two scoops of a custom Infinit mixture with one packet of Generation UCAN to achieve these numbers.

Usually I can't wait to get in the water because I am 'very well hydrated' at the start of a race.


Swim:

Well, there is no nutrition for me during this phase. Sometimes there is some inadvertent extra hydration that goes on during some of the rougher swims. It happens. I have heard of people stuffing a gel pack in their wetsuit and eating it at the halfway point. I have never seen the need but I'm just sharing.


Bike:

Here is where the nutrition strategy gets important. I don't eat or drink anything in T1. The goal is to get out and get going. I can "eat" while I am moving.

My nutrition strategy is 100% liquids, no solids, no gels, for the entire race. I used to take bars, pretzels, gels, etc. What I found was that taking in solids had me very nauseated and with some diarrhea (sorry to be graphic but IM racing ain't for the weak of stomach) when I got to the run. Since I have switched to all liquids I have not had a GI upset issue or a hydration problem in any race. For an IM race, four bottles of the same mixture outlined above is my total bike nutrition (approximately 1720 calories). I start with two bottles on my bike coming out of T1 and then pick up two more at Special Needs. (In a HIM I would only use two total bottles, in an Olympic, only one).

To calculate nutritional needs on the bike. I use 4-6 calories/kg/hour as my nutritional requirements. For a 70 kg male (me, approximately) that is 280-420 calories per hour. I don't have the reference on that number but I know it is out there and that it works. Where you fall on this spectrum needs to be worked out in training.

So, once I am on the bike I try to suck down an entire bottle (430 calories, remember?) in the first hour. I figure coming out of the swim I am a little behind and need to get some calories in. Once I finish that first bottle I drop it at an aid station and get a water bottle to supplement my hydration--drinking to thirst (at a hot race I will also use the water I pick up at each aid station to douse my jersey, shorts, helmet, etc to aid with evaporative cooling). After the first bottle I try to make each subsequent nutrition bottle last about 1:15. At the half way point at Bike Special Needs I dump everything and pick up two fresh bottles of the same stuff and follow the same plan.

If I drink all four bottles, 1720 calories in 5.5 hours (my projected IM bike split) I will have taken in 313 calories per hour which is on the lower end of the above formula but experience has shown me that this will have me coming off the bike well hydrated, calorically ok and ready to run.


Run:

All liquids.......

I hate carrying stuff with me when I run. I use a Nathan hydration belt for long training runs but I hate it. I don't like how it feels. I hate lugging around an extra pound (or two) of stuff when I am racing. Most of these races have aid stations every mile anyway so I don't feel the need to carry my own stuff at this point.

I go with water as much as I can get and coke every time it is offered. I don't wait for the half way point of the run or anything like that. When coke is available, I grab a dixie cup and down it. I also drink at least one water per aid station if not two. If it is hot I grab a third to pour on me to cool off. I have never figured out my consumption on the run but lets say 30 calories per cup times 16? aid stations, would come out to 480 calories...... More than enough to run the marathon if you have done your job fueling on the bike. I have never felt that nutrition has been a limiter for me on the run since going with this plan. If you really want numbers, you should probably shoot for 2-3 calories/kg/hour on the run. The body just cannot absorb the same levels of calories while running as while biking. If you tried to keep up the 4-6 calories/kg/hour I guarantee that eventually you will end up bloated, nauseated and miserable......

My last two IMs I did not turn in a Run Special Needs bag. I am fueling off the course. I'm not going to change my shoes. At the half way point of the run I am going to just suck it up and finish....... I'm not saying that is what you should do but for me Run SN doesn't offer much.


Post Race:

Goal is to feel good enough to eat within a couple of hours of finishing. Beer. Wings. Poutine in Mont Tremblant......

Everything I take in for the entire race is caffeinated. I am probably going to put myself in to Afib at a race some day. I have never really slept the night after an IM. Whether I am on an IM high or just caffeinated to the gills, it is what I have come to expect.


Questions? Comments?



2014-07-30 5:04 AM
in reply to: wannabefaster

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
Breakfast - rice, banana, berries, and honey with almond milk
Pre-swim - Gel or Envirokidz bar
Bike - 3 EFS Liquid Endurance shot flasks mixed with water in bottle between tubes, and 2 x higher concentrated bottles of Skratch labs sports drink
Run - 2 packs Honeystinger chews and Skratch labs sports drink
2014-07-31 12:02 PM
in reply to: jarvy01

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?
I love the PB & J Bonk Breakers and I am a huge fan of the Expresso Love Gu packets. I put the Gu in my mouth, swish (turning it into liquid) and swallow. I get that feel-good feeling I get from a nice AM cup of coffee. IN LOVE! I have had great success with one bonk breaker and one granola bar, 2 Gu gels, Gatorade and water with NUUN tablets for both of my HIM races. However, hoping that carries over (doubled) for the full Ironman. Was also contemplating a PB&J sandwich during my bike ride during IMFL.
2014-07-31 2:17 PM
in reply to: jarvy01

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Subject: RE: What's your IM Nutrition plan?

Originally posted by jarvy01 Breakfast - rice, banana, berries, and honey with almond milk Pre-swim - Gel or Envirokidz bar Bike - 3 EFS Liquid Endurance shot flasks mixed with water in bottle between tubes, and 2 x higher concentrated bottles of Skratch labs sports drink Run - 2 packs Honeystinger chews and Skratch labs sports drink

Please clarify.  3x EFX-LS flasks in one bottle with a some water on your frame?

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