How many bottles to carry on bike during IM (Page 2)

That was my set-up as well except I carried two 2-1/2 hour bottles of perpetuem since I didn't have any special needs bags at the race I did.  Filled up the aerobottle with water from the course and chucked the empty perpet bottle after I finished it & that system worked great.

So what happens when you lose your bottle over a bump, or forget to put something in your special needs bag, or don't stop for it?  You end up having to go course supported by default.

If you can't stomach Gatorade (or whatever a course offers), then I would usually suggest training with it more to build up a tolerance for it.

Of course nutrition can make or break a race, and I certainly wouldn't say that one should not pay attention to it.  What I would say is that people spend far too much time agonizing over exactly what they should eat and when instead of just going with the flow.

Besides, how many people actually get to the marathon and run the whole thing??  How many people either end up eating absolutely nothing on the run or turn it into a smorgasboard??  It is a rare occurence to meet someone who didn't throw their nutrition strategy out the door come the 10 or 15 mile mark of the marathon.

In all the pre-IM talks I went to they always stress how important it is to be flexible on race day.  The key thing they drill into you is "If something isn't working out on race day, change your strategy to find something that will."  That is why I have slowly worked away from the "must eat/drink/breath at this interval" and just go with what works on that day now.

I'm going to agree and disagree with you on this one Rick.  I agree that you shouldn't rely on a specific interval for your  nutrition.  ie, must have one bottle of X every 60 min exactly.  But you should know, through training, that you will go through a bottle of X about every hour.  That is how you build your nutrition strategy. 

In my case, my primary plan was to carry 3 bottles on Infinit and pick up my special needs with 3 more bottles.  Did I have a back up plan?  YEP!  I had a gel flask onboard in case I didn't get my special needs.  Luckily I didn't have to use it (although I got lucky Nan was able to get me my bottles at special needs). 

I used infinit for the entire race.  In total, I grabbed half a banana (came back up 20 miles later intact) and maybe 2 pretzels and like 6 grapes.  The rest I had with me. 

BUT...as I have been told many times and agree with you...it's never too late to recover and take in nutrition.  If crap hits the fan, adapt.

Yep.  Just fill it while riding/rolling.  You can fill that thing up at 20mph w/o issue.  Get a bath poofy thing and replace the yellow thing.  Although, I think the new ones come with a black top.  Big fan of the bath poofy.

I have a NeverReach that I start off with 32 oz of water, 1 24 ozbottle in the cage with Gatorade Endurance and another 24 oz bottle with 16 gels diluted with water. I take a hit off the Gel bottle every 20 min, constantly sip on the NeverReach, try to go through 1 bottle of Gatorade every 90 minutes and use Cliff Bars as solid food broken up into 50 cal bites.

Fully self supported.   Two 3 hour infinit bottles on the two frame cages, one water bottle in rear cage.   That gets me through 6 - 7  hours without any other nutrition or need to stop (I don't start Infinit until 30 minutes in).  I do add a payday, a gel flask and the occasional gatorade pickup just for different flavors or emergency calories.  I will have one extra 2 hour bottle in SN just in case the fit hits the shan on the ride, but I expect not to have to stop for it.

Seems pretty darn simple for me, and I don't have to rely on anyone else for nutrition (save water handoffs)

Bike will get lighter as race progresses, and I don't have to worry about filling an aero bottle on the fly, or making sure the concentrate gets in there, or..... I have a hard enough time concentrating at mile 80 of the bike without adding that.  Only bottle I might  lose is water which is replaced within 10 miles (maybe a long 10 miles....), but that is fixed after the first 1/2 by ditching empty infinit bottle and putting water in the frame cage.

I'm a clyde and not looking to qualify, so any extra weight (within reason) isn't much of an issue for me, but I'd like to see the delta between 3 full bottles vs. 1 bottle + one full aero bottle.  Can't imagine the 3 weighs much more.....  Plus mine is reducing throughout the race, the aero + 1 bottle is constant throughout.

Whatever you do, find what works for you by experimenting and training that way

Hi -- I did something slightly unusual at CdA this year.

I worried I'd be very cold getting out of the sub-60 water, so I had a thermos with heated chicken broth and an empty bike bottle in my swim-to-bike bag. As I changed into bike clothing, I asked my volunteer in the changing tent to pour the broth from the Thermos into the bike bottle.

 I carried the bottle of hot broth out to my bike, where I also had a throw-away bottle of plain water. I sipped on the broth for the first 10-12 miles, it calmed my stomach and warmed me up. I also had some plain water.

 For the rest of the ride, I had plain water in one cage and Gatorade Endurance in the other. I felt like I had plenty of liquid, drinking a bit every ten minutes.

Just a follow-up after IMFL on Saturday, this setup went flawless for me.

It was a nice surprise to find that the water bottles they handed out on the course were cold.

-ak-

True true.  Totally agree with that.

But you look at what some people have on the bike and carry out of the changing tent and you just have to shake your head quite often.

Don't worry Mike, its not my intention to dissuade anyone from using your stuff.