Is this for a 5K? Not enough info for us to help you.

Generically, I shoot for 4-6 calories/kg/hour while on the bike for any race longer than a sprint. I get all my calories from liquids because it works for me--one bottle, around 350 calories (at about 66 kg) for Olympic, two for HIM, four for IM. At a 105 kg that is a whole lot of nutrition you would need to take. I would probably aim for the very low end of those numbers.

On the run I take in cola any time it is offered, shooting for 1-3 calories/kg/hour in HIM and IM racing (I don't need any additional run calories for Olympic length if I drank a bottle of "sports drink" on the bike). If there is not cola on the course I alternate water and sports drink at every aid station.

I don't worry too much about electrolytes. I think the body does a great job of regulating this. As long as your drink of choice has some degree of electrolytes, I personally believe most people will be OK. There are varying opinions on this. Some people have giant salt intake during races and swear that it helps them race to their potential. I'm just not one of those people.

What 'you' take is very dependent on what works for you. I use an Infinit nutrition mix and add some voodoo in to it because I think it works. I have tested it out in training and racing and have got it where I like it. Concentrated gatorade would likely be just as good but I like my mix.

With whatever you decide to do, test it out in a fairly intense training session before race day. How your body does with nutrition can vary quite a bit depending on effort level. Good luck.

Lastly, there have been threads here on the past where Jordan Rapp shares his IM fueling strategy. If you search you might be able to find one. He is a guy who takes so much salt that it makes me gag thinking about it, but obviously it works for him.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

Apologies! All HIM races this season. I'd prefer liquids if possible, but how concentrated can I make these drinks without them causing a GI issue? I don't want to carry a billion bottles, prefer to have a premix in my BTA bottle and then another premix off the rear to refill up front. If I need to pick up a bottle at aid station for water consumption I can, but I'm reading a lot of places that I should stick mostly to nutrition drinks and not take in a ton of water. I guess the concern is can I take enough cal's in that way or do I need to eat solid stuff also. 400 calories/hour seems like a ton in it's own right, but def to consume in drink mix.

With the race only a couple of weeks away it could be a little bit of a crap shoot but I can tell you what has worked for me. I'm not as big as you (5'10"/165#) but take it for what it's worth:

Pre-race - ~800 calories between Pro Meal Bar/Banana/bagel w/PB. I try to eat 90 minutes beforehand and drink about 20oz of water prior to the race. Maybe a little coffee to wake up the digestive tract.

Pre-swim - one Clif shot gel pack with a serving of caffeine.

Bike - ~250 cals/hour which is a mix of fluids and clifshot gels. I try to drink 2 bottles of water, maybe a little more if it's humid. I also carry a clif bar to eat coming in off the bike if I feel like I need something more solid. It's rare I will eat the whole bar but sometimes just a few bites coming into transition helps.

Run - I dial the cals back and focus on water. I probably take 200 cals in during the run but I will eat a little banana on the course and some coke if available. My cals come from gels, and I always carry one or two with caffeine as it seems to help.

Good luck - my first HIM my stomach was a bit of a mess during the run. Expect it to take a little time and practice to get it dialed in. If you search in the forums I think you'll find most people have some stomach issues on their first long races.

In a HIM, my entire nutrition for the race would be in two bike bottles. People mix bottles up with 800 or more calories in them so you can make the stuff thick like syrup. If you do that you need to drink water also to dilute the stuff in your gut or suffer osmotic consequences.....

For me, in a HIM, I will come out of the water and try to drink my first bottle (350ish calories) in the first hour on the bike. I ditch that bottle when it is empty and grab a water at the next aid station. Then I alternate water and sports drink, trying to finish up the second nutrition bottle with at least 15-20 minutes left in the bike so it is not sloshing around in my stomach when I start the run. Obviously, the amount of water you drink is highly dependent on how hot the race is and how much you sweat. At some races I will drink 2-4 water bottles in addition to my nutrition bottles. In others I might only drink one water bottle. Fortunately for me, when I start to get hungry on the bike it usually means that I am getting a little bit dry. So for me, hunger is a barometer for hydration. Instead of eating something I drink water when I start to get hungry and it seems to solve my issues.

I have used the above plan for a lot of races and it has served me well. I have not run out of energy and have not suffered any GI issues since working this out. Hydration has typically been very good as well. It did take me awhile to figure out exactly what worked for me. I did a lot of reading on this forum of race reports and nutrition reports. I think the Infinit site has some good info as well that is worth reading whether you use their product or not. It makes sense to me when I read it.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

So no one here is taking any sodium supplements or salt tabs or anything. Just relying on the sodium in the hydration mixes to do the trick?

This advice is more for other people who might be reading this thread and can hopefully avoid getting in this situation, but nutrition/hydration is pretty case by case. As you prepare for the race, one of the things you are doing in addition to upping your fitness level is learning how your body reacts under the level of stress you are going to encounter on race day, including nutrition/hydration. You should absolutely be doing extended efforts at and above race pace in which you dial in how much nutrition you can take in without negatively affecting your performance.

People obsess over which tires are 5 seconds faster over the course of 40k, but then make unrehearsed nutrition decisions that result in them connecting the porta-potty dots on race day. Nutrition/hydration is triathlon's 4th event, and the longer the event, the more important it becomes.

For the OP, what worked for me was: ~600 cal breakfast 2+ hrs before the start, gel 5 minutes before swim start, 300 calories/hour on the bike in the form of gatorade (or whatever was being offered on course) and gels, a gel at the start of the run, sips of gatorade @aid stations on run, and coke if available for last half of run. YRMV.

That makes some good sense and is a large part of what this first race is about for me. My "A" race isn't until the end of June. I have several brick days and long efforts 2+ hours on bike followed by long run. I've typically utilized whatever's in my house at the time, usually shotblocks. Sometimes fig bars, but I would imagine the fiber in those is not the best of decisions. My struggle is I don't have a base to know what a good performance or a bad performance is. My training load is heavy and this is my first race season, so of course I'm often sore. Work a lot on my feet, so trying to determine what failure is coming from nutrition issues versus training versus daily life is something I'm learning but def do not have dialed in. I'm more or less throwing darts for my first race and hope it will give me some idea of what to practice in the following two months until my second race. That's really why I'm seeking some advice, such at the 4cal/kg/hour, which at least gives me a starting point to work from.

I think alternatively I was curious which supplements people liked to use too. I've heard a lot about Skratch and Infinite. I know nothing about adding salt to the plan. There's a ton of stuff for sale and not much guidance on what to take. Inifinite seems to do the best with a lengthy survey to help dial in a formula, which I will likely try in my next training block leading up to A race. But otherwise, it's a crap shoot for those of us knew to the sport who have no idea what we should be putting in our body on race day, at least with regards to what works and what is just marketing bs.

If I were you, I'd pick a day and get up at the time you are doing your race, eat what you plan to eat for breakfast on race day, wait a couple of hours, then go bike 56 miles at what you think your race pace will be or a little harder (might as well wear what you'd wear on race day in those conditions) and take in 300 cal/hour of whatever you think will work. No stopfs. A lot of people "test" their nutrition plan at below race intensity or take breaks along the way, which completely changes the stress on your body.

Maybe you are the sort who needs magic elixir that costs a fortune and is blessed by fairies under the full moon and has been shown to increase performance by 100% in laboratory rats, or maybe you're like me and a calorie from any sports drink or gel works about the same. After the ride, do a quick transition and go run 6 miles at what you think your race pace will be. At the end of the 6 miles, you'll have a pretty good idea about how your pace/nutrition plan works.

That's fair. Tomorrow's ride was scheduled for 2+ hours anyhow, so we'll put in a 50 mile effort on gatorade and a 6 mile effort on shot blocks and see how I end up.

cmd111183 wrote:

I'd prefer liquids if possible, but how concentrated can I make these drinks without them causing a GI issue? I don't want to carry a billion bottles, prefer to have a premix in my BTA bottle and then another premix off the rear to refill up front. If I need to pick up a bottle at aid station for water consumption I can, but I'm reading a lot of places that I should stick mostly to nutrition drinks and not take in a ton of water. I guess the concern is can I take enough cal's in that way or do I need to eat solid stuff also. 400 calories/hour seems like a ton in it's own right, but def to consume in drink mix.

You can add up to 8% of sugar to water - more than that can slow water emptying from your stomach.
http://www.ehealthstar.com/dehydration/diagnosis-and-treatment-in-adults


So, 1 liter of drink with 8% sugar gives you 360 Calories. You drink to thirst. If you can't rely on your thirst, you may want to know your sweating rate in the expected weather conditions. So, if your sweating rate is 1 liter/hour, you need to drink 1 liter of fluid per hour.

Nobody really recommends salt tablets any more. During exercise you lose more water than salt, so you tend to go in hypernatremia, which you prevent by drinking plain water. You can drink sport drinks, which contain sodium and are therefore more palatable.

Other than that, you do not need to worry about other nutrients. You do not need to replace potassium or other minerals during the race, for example.