I'm about a half inch taller, weigh about the same and eat about the same. Hammer says 350 is all the calories you should eat. I am fully on board with the Hammer nutrition thing but like to eat more. During training I have been taking in at least 400 on the bike and am running well off the bike. It's tough to say how many calories I eat when running because I use the gel flask and have no idea how many calories a random squirt contains, but I guess I try to do a good squirt every 20 minutes or so. That's my plan for IM CdA. I'll let you know how it works.

I'm getting ready for my first IM next week and I've been practicing with 400 cals/hr. Seems like a comfortable amount for me. I'm 6'1" and 168lbs

I'm 5'9", 156 lbs and for CDA I'm aiming for 300-350 per hour on the bike, aim for about 300 on the run but it will depend on how I feel.

I guess we'll all see and race each other at CdA hmmm.

Great to hear, it's going to be beautiful up there I guess.

I'm usually trying to take a squirt every 15min on the bike and every 20 on the run.
But I had some good races and some bad once with that formula, so I'm not quit sure if I'm able to digest that much and it's hard to measure.

But it seems that some other people figured the same numbers, good to know.

thanks and see you at the race

Obviously this varies from person to person, but 400 calories/hour seems to work great for me. When I go over this I start to get that bloated sloshy feeling. I'm 200 lbs.

The folks who make CarboPro (something I highly recommend, no more gels or powerbars for me, woohoo!!) recommend consuming 2 calories per hour for each pound of body weight. This was right on for me as 400 cal is what I was ingesting before I saw that rule of thumb.

What's Carbopro? Love Clif Bars, but IM buddy told me they're too solid during a race and won't digest well. Tried a gel on Sunday, and all I can say is: "Icky." Me no likey. It's a texture thing. So, right now I'm planning on bananas unless I can find something better.

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Most people don't recognize opportunity because it wears bib overalls and looks like work.
~Teddy Roosevelt

Well, after two hours or so my neck hurts a little, my but doesn't think this IM thing is too funny and the first sweat has turned into a sticky smelly layer. After a couple more hours those things don't get better...

....so a little nasty tasting gel is the smallest problem.
It's the only thing that gives you enough carbohydrates you can digest while racing.

If you're in for a long slow day (nothing wrong with that!!!!) then take your time and eat whatever you feel like but if you try to race (I know this is a word that would need some definition at this point but I'll leave it to you...) then gels are your only choice.

Or does somebody has an alternative?
I hate those things too but they go with the commitment.

See Carbopro at Sportquestdirect.com. I use it as well, both as a drink and as a "gel." I find it rather tasteless, so it is less awful than most when it warms to air temperature during a 5 hour ride on a 90 degree day. Note that it has no electrolytes to speak of, so you will need to think about Lava Salts or something like that.

I agree. If gels are the only answer, then I'll get over it. Pooks said, "no more gels or power bars for me," referring to Carbopro, so I'm wondering if that is a viable alternative, and what form it's in. I've not heard of it before.

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Most people don't recognize opportunity because it wears bib overalls and looks like work.
~Teddy Roosevelt

I am 5/8 and 162lbs, I have been training on 500 cals an hr on the bike using a mixture of a similar product to Carbo Pro and Kool Aid. I can and have taken 200 plus on the run during IM races, 300 is a stretch for me.

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Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??

Thanx!

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Most people don't recognize opportunity because it wears bib overalls and looks like work.
~Teddy Roosevelt

Sorry, I was away for a bit. CarboPro is a powder that is basically tasteless that you can add to any sports drink. I mix it with Gatorade in a large bottle to get a 900 calorie/bottle sports drink. (Some will make it 1000 cal) My plan for the IM bike is to have two of these bottles, a Snickers bar or two, and some salt supplements.

I used to tape a lot of gels to my top tube, but that can be a real pain and I don't always digest them well. So far my stomach has had no problems with carbo pro as it's very mild and I'm amazed at how well it "fuels" me. No bonks yet. My only complaint about it is that it can be a bit sticky.

Oh yeah, I HATE powerbars and cliff bars, and all those bars. Yuck. This is a nice liquid alternative and it's much easier to get down than gel.

that's sort of what I do.
I have a bottle of Leppin sqeezy (lava gel) and I pour one serving on top of my jetstream and put water, gatorade or whatever I feel like over it.

I don't actually swallow the gel, I make a gel-drink out of it...

I add lava salt..eat some banana to clean up the stomach but not for calories...

I am using Hammer Sustained Energy on the bike. It is a powder I mix with water and then add Hammer gel for more calories and flavor. I can get 1500+ calories in my aero bottle and top it off from my special needs bag to get as much as 2500 on the bike, more than enough. I'll drink a bottle of water from every aid station for hydration (12 oz per half hour) and take Hammer Endurolytes (pill) for electrolytes. It's all fairly simple. No gel wrappers, easy bottle exchange and the pills are in a rubber coin thing. Then, Hammer gel in a flask on the run and water and more endurolyte pills. My hands never get sticky and I feel less crash prone on the bike and I raced great a few weeks ago in a half.

Ok I am big and slow 6'3 , 230lbs. I was training at 300 calories and felt horrible. Had to up it to 450 - 500 calories, but couldn't really take any more gels (one every half hour). So now mix 1 TBSP of Peanut Butter and 1 TBSP of jelly into a small snack size ziplock. And alternate between my concoction and gel every half hour. Increased my calories to 450 - 500 and find it very easy to digest. Have been feelng great on my longs and durng my Half IM. It is however very difficult to look at.

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The Cuban Comet
(Comets are unbelievably slow over Cuba)

I consume about that many calories also. I use the Hammer/e-caps Sustained Energy. 2 water bottles with 4-5 scoops in each. 2 more bottles in special needs bag. I carry a gel flask with Hammer Gel for flavor & extra cals. if I feel I need it. I put Gatorade in my aerobottle for hydration & take e-caps Endurolytes for added salt. Used this formula (only 2 bottles) when I qualified for Kona at Eagleman.

The good people at Hammer would tell you not to mix simple sugars- Gatorade- with complex sugars- all the Hammer products. They told me that if you are taking endurolytes, the benefits of Gatorade (electrolytes) are meaningless and could lead to stomach discomfort. They say pure water is the way to go. With that said, it seems like things worked just fine at your qualifier race. It just raises the question "do these people know what they are talking about?" Or do results differ by racer. It just cracks me up the way nutrition companies dole out information as if it is some kind of absolute. "Do not mix simple and complex sugars because it is the law!"

I agree, some of the hype is a little out of hand. For the 1/2 I only took the Endurolytes near the beginning of the run, so I was trying to drink the Gatorade on the bike. Plain water worries me, hypoatremia et al, but I probably should have switched to it near the end of the bike, maybe with a little Hammer Gel, because the Gatorade was starting to taste like battery acid. I really wished that they had something other than Lemon Lime.