Ironman Race Nutrition

Thanks Bryan - Appreciate the discussion, especially views from experienced guys like yourself.  Training for my first IM (IMAZ) and trying to figure out the best approach for me.  Infinit has worked best in long training, I would like to live off the course but prior experiences with GE weren't that successful. 

My current plan would be three 2 hour bottles on the bike with pick ups of water.  Only concern s four bottles makes my bike heavier, but I'm a big guy anyway, not sure it makes that much of a difference in the long run, especially since AZ is flat.

Stil trying to figure out the run

How far apart are the aid stations on the bike?

Ah, someone else who prefers to live off the course.

Since registering for IMCDA I have been training to THAT day. My HIM in September was training for the IM. I chose to not live off the course at the HIM as they did not have what IMCDA will have. GE and Powergel. SO, I packed it all for the Half.

I had a very successfull half, not fast, SUCCESSFULL in that I beat my goal time with no issues.

During hot weather long training days in August I found 20 ounces of GE and as close to 1 full aero bottle of water as I could get in per hour kept me hydrated. Combined with gels every 20 minutes or so got me close to 400 calories an hour on the bike. Strictly gels and water on the run, 1 every 30 minutes for roughly 200 per hour.

I did not compensate my water intake for the very cool temps on race morning and found myself needing to pee REALLY bad. Read about it the RR, it was BAD!

My current plan for CDA is start the bike with a GE onboard and aero bottle full of water and 4 gels in jersey pocket. With aid stations approx every 10 miles I will be hitting one every 40 minutes or so and be easily able to keep a bottle ahead on both water and GE and if I grab 2 gels at each station I keep ahead on that to. I have 2 bottle holders so storing the 2nd and keeping the empty to the drop area is not a problem. Once aero is empty I will just empty the new bottle in to the aero and keep the empty in my jersey pocket.

Even though CDA is still 7 months away my nutrition is pretty dialed in as I have been practicing it since June of 2007.

Im a big fan of the live off the course method too.  Im not trying to deny the benefit of some of the other products out there, but for liquids it just adds cost and complication to an already difficult day.  Luckily I can stomach just about any type of liquid nutrition ... have raced courses with Infinit, GE and Hammer.  Gels Im much more sensitive too, but thats a very easy thing to carry your own.  Im a heavy sweater so I do need salt tabs, but can avoid the port-o-let ... 5 races and havent peed yet.  Not saying I didnt have to go, just that I didnt stop

I put together a personal plan for Olympic and HIM distances that I have raced and am very happy with MY plan.  As always, nutrition is a intimately personal thing and you need to test!  I do advocate the live off the land method though if your stomach can take it.  Stop at EVERY aid station and take something.  Watch that you dont take too much and get bloated, in which case you need to flush with just water for a few stops, but you absolutely must keep nutrition coming into your body at all costs.

Oh this is so helpful reading this thread.  I've got my first Ironman in 11 days.  (countdown has begun)

I'm planning on living off the course for drinks (endura) and powerbars.  they aren't providing gels on the course they are going to be in the race bag. so will have my gel flasks for gels.

I've tried it all out on my long training sessions,  no problems at all on the bike.  a few issues with the run but I've cut back the amount of carbs I was taking in and that helped with GI issues.  so I'm having less then the amount I"m sposed to but I just couldn't digest the amount that i was sposed to have.

fingers crossed it all goes well on the day.  

I haven't done an Ironman but I am doing my first HIM in May and I have been toying with my nutrition plan and seeing what works and what doesn't work. 

I have a stomach that can pretty much tolerate anything, and I have been using G.E. and PowerGels.  I have tried the Carbo Pro and I mix the powder into my G.E. about half way through my ride I start to get feel bloated.  Am I doing the right thing or should I try something different.  Maybe just the G.E. without the Carbo Pro? 

My biggest fear is not finishing a race because of my nutrition, but I sometimes think that I may drink to much and suffer on the run because of this.  During races I tend to notice that I feel the sloshing (sp?) feeling in my stomach. 

If anyone has any advice I would love the help.

My HIM nutrition worked well and it is all mostly on the IM course so I suspect I will go with it at IMLP next July.

My sweat race on the bike is about 46 oz/hour and run is 55 oz/hour.

Bike I drink GE in bottles and water in my aerobottle. Goal is to drink about 45 oz/hour (so one of each) and take in 270-300 calories/hour. I set a timer to beep every 20' and I rotate eating a gel one time, then other calories of a variety of things 2x then another gel. I take Lava Salts every 20' or 2 out of 3 depending on temps and how my GE consumption is going. My goal sodium is 1000-1200 mg/hour.

My coach wants me to try uppping calories on the bike when I start doing longer bricks next spring to see if it helps me run better. 

Run I try to drink 2 water bottles an hour and take a gel ever 30'.  My HIM didn't have GE on the run and I couldn't stomach accelerade so I went with water w/nuuns, Lava salts, and gels. I did the math and if I drink 48 oz of GE it is almost exactly the amount of calories and sodium I need per hour, but until I can practice it I'm not sure that will work. How much GE can I drink in a day? I will have an alternative plan with water, gels and Lava Salts. We'll see what works best on my long training runs and my long bricks.

One thing I found interesting is that I worked for 3 months on learning how to drink more running as I was trying to replace as much or close to how much I sweat. I was able to learn to drink 48 oz/hour by practicing and now it seems normal for me. 

I would recommend switching back and forth between water and GE.  While you certainly need to keep up with your hydration and nutrition, thicker, sweeter items such as GE, gels etc will take longer to digest.  Sometimes 15 minutes with just 4-8oz water in your stomach can make that feeling go away.

Look on Hammer Nutritions website for the Gastric Emptying Rates to see how quickly your body can clear the stomach.

I use GE too, but I water mine down. For the HIM distance, I am able to fully support myself on the ride (i.e., don't need to pick up anything at aid stations). I am trying come up with how I am going to do IMLP without stopping on the bike, but still giving myself watered-down GE, since what's on the course is not watered down. I just can't come up with a solution. I thought about starting with water only in the aerodrink and watered-down GE in my bottles (between 2 or 3, need to work on this during training). Then, add GE to the aerodrink when I drink half the water (not sure how that will go, though), and then just replace my used GE/water bottles with water only. Still not sure if that'll be enough to get me through the race, though...

Hopefully I will think of a solution over the next few months.

Based on two HIM's and many long training days, I attribute my GI issues to GE and gels tho I never take them together. I've had much better success with Perpetuem. I can go 3 hours w/ Perp than switch to GE but I still need to monitor Gel intake. I also use Uncrustables on the bike (2 over 3 hours)

So, I think my issues are sugar related, specifically the GE, since the uncrustables have never seemed to have a negative effect on me. I look forward to figuring it out during IMLP training.

Good thread, thanks.

I believe the best approach for long distance racing fueling is to KISS it (keep it simple stupid). The main issue when people experience GI issues is when they over do it. Whatever they eat/drink they just do too much of it. The main reason for this is that they over estimate their cals needs during race dace in terms of the intensity at which they are racing + the actual race conditions (weather, topography, etc). Many just eat/drink too much and the gut can empty/process that for fuel fast enough causing bloating and other issues.

Bike: 3 2x concentrated InfinIt Clydes mix bottles, Powergels every 30 min, s-caps on the 15's and 45s.  Drain water from aerodrink up to every water station.

Run: Fuel belt w/ some water to rinse and some GE.  Interchange GE and/or water at every table.  Gels every 00 and 30, s-caps on the 15's and 45s.  Occasional banana and Coke ok with 5 to go (probably will experiment earlier next time.

This did pretty good for me except I couldnt stop peeing after mile 7 on the run.  It was a cooler day than some of my longer runs in the heat so I wasnt dropping as much sweat as on some of those runs.  Musta hit the port o potty about 6 or 7 times on the remainder of the run, peed twice on the bike.  Had too many experiences in endurance stuff at the other end of the spectrum to take changes.  Dont think hydration was obnoxious, just wasnt draining that much sweat that day.

Single greatest benefit of having completed my first marathon last month. I realized how little I needed to run 26 miles.  I was amazed at how many people were peeing in the woods at mile 2. I can understand if you didn't make the port-o poties before the start but otherwise I think most ovedo it. I nailed it, as I never had to go.  Again a very valuable lesson learned.

Having been on the side of the underdoing it, I can see why some peeps err to the side of peeing more.  Its much more fun!

understood. No offense meant. MCM was 2 weeks after the Chicago debacle so that was  on everyone's mind. Truth be told, I had my FB ready to go. Happily for me I didn't use it or need it.  

Proud member of the KISS club.  LP was done with 1 bottle on the bike, which I would simply drop & replace at each aid station.  Went with GE the whole way.  The rest of my cals came from 4 gel flasks that I carried.

On the run, I went with just what was on the course.  Started with GE/water and eventually added coke.  Had some banana (and maybe orange?) at one point and tried a gel but didn't want any part of that.

I did dehydrate more than expected and in hindsight probably could have drank a bit more aggressively on the bike.  Temps ended up a bit higher than expected and, more importantly, the sun was brighter and more draining than I planned for.  Wasn't a major nutrition blow-up, just a detail that could have been executed slightly better.

As has been said, there are a lot of differing body types, metabolic rates, and tastes out there.  So the options for nutirition are nearly endless but the important thing is to practice a ton with what you'll use. 

I train with GE as well, and water, since that's what's available on race day.  I also supplement that with Perpetuem, although I'm thinking of ditching that next year for various reasons.  On the bike I take about 1 bottle of GE and 1 of water each hour, a Power Gel every 30 minutes and two Endurolytes every hour.  For rides over 4 hours I take a peanut butter and honey sandwich with me and eat that about halfway through the ride.

For training runs over an hour, I drink one bottle of GE every hour and take a Power Gel once an hour.  For runs longer than 1 1/2 to 2 hours I'll also take 2 Endurolytes once an hour.

These things work well for me after a lot of experimenting and trying different combinations.  I wouldn't say they're for everyone or anyone, just what works for me.

As an aside, at IMFL this year I had the flu up until early race morning.  Needless to say I started out way behind the curve on nutrition and it certainly affected my race and how I was able to fuel on the bike especially.  However, by the time I got to the run I was ravenously hungry so at every aid station I would take a small handful of pretzels and fruit, especially the watermelon.  I also alternated taking water at one station and cola at the next.  Also had a little bit of chicken broth toward the end (that stuff is nectar by the way!)  This worked well and I felt like I was able to catch up a bit on my nutrition over the course of the run.  Not completely of course but at least some.  Just had to be flexible and change up a bit on the fly.