Half Ironman Calorie Plan

Here's a good article from Slowtwitch (gasp!):

http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/product2006/nutri/gelq1.html

Advice broken down into sections based on which nutrition systems they were using (Powerbar, Hammer, etc.).

When I did my 1st half iron this last June, I didn't get enough nutrition on the bike and paid for it dearly on the run.  Believe me, it is tough trying to get enough calories down in 56 miles.  It's something I should have worked on during my long rides...

Target 300 cals an hour (pretty much the max a body can absorb).  I take 2 gels right before the swim.

Once on the bike, I have my aero bottle loaded up with guh20, and a spare bottle below.  I usually have 4 gels taped to the bike.  I place one gel flask, one powerbar, tablets, few cliff blocks in my back pocket.  Do what you can here.  Hard to keep this all down.  I've ended up going to water only during bottle exchanges.  Stop drinking about 15 minutes before the run.  As said above, really try hard to not short change eating or drinking.

On the run, I have 2 gels and a couple of sports beans.  The beans are pretty much jelly beans but they seem to stay down easier.  Usually I have a few goodies left in the back pocket that I could not get in during the bike.

Thanks for the help everyone

I'm also doing the square lake half and this is great information. It looks like I need to work on my nutrition to see how much food/gel/drink I can handle.

Thanks

for Chisago, my intake was the following

gel before the swim

400 Cal/hour on bike

1 gel every 4 miles on the run

The biggest thing is to not do anything different than what you have been doing in training.  Meaning, if you only take in 250 Cal/hour in training, then stick with that.  If your HR during training is exceptionally low, then stick with that.  The HIM is a tricky distance as compared to the Oly and sprints, becasue if you race the HIM correctly, you can do it at about 95% of your LT and still be standing at the end of the race.

Good Luck