I assume you have gel flask. Where do you keep it ?

That means your calorie burn on the bike is going to be about 3348 kCAL.

My first question is - what have you found as a sustainable nutrition intake during training?


For folks I work with I typically advise to "start" around 50% of anticipated calorie expenditure on the bike and adjust from there based on energy levels and gut tolerance.


FWIW - I anticipate to be around 3,900 kCAL on the bike at arizona, and my plan - based on training and experience is to consume 18 gels on the bike - ~1,980 calories - which is just a touch over 50%.


If 2,000 has proven to work for you in training, then go for it. That said - you're taking in a fair amount of solids during your ride, and that can slow digestion and absorbtion - which may leave you feeling bloated an yucky and bonking even if you eat enough. If I were in your situation, I'd be looking at around 16 gels.


Salt intake - have you had any issues with that level of salt intake?

Run: On the surface if your gut is doing good, and you get enough energy in on the bike - you may be OK on the run. How does your gut usually fair calorie absorbtion wise on your long runs? The run nutrition on IM Race day can be a bit tricky because you are starting relatively in the hole compared to a typical long run day - so you *will* need more calories on the run, than on a normal long run day. i.e. I can run 2:15 to 3 hours easily on just water or at most two/three gels, but on IM race day I usually try to triple that intake.

Nutrition is very personal and individual. Some people have said that you're taking too much, others say not enough. It really isn't what works for them, it's what works for you. It isn't necessarily weight based, but generally the more you weigh, the more you can consume. I don't see how much you weigh, so it's hard to say. A typical 175lb athlete could take in 75g of carb/hr on the bike, or 90g/hr. The same athlete might do 50-60g of carb/hr on the run. I have seen some women be able to take in 90g of carb/hr, while some men weighing 200lbs are at 60g/hr. I work full time as a sports nutritionist so a lot of my time is working with athletes on their nutrition plans. Here are some comments:

• You have 6 weeks, so you have time to practice your race sim nutrition 2-3 more times
• Make sure you practice your dinner then night before and breakfast-use the same times as well. ex. 6:30pm dinner, 3:30am breakfast
  
• Make sure you practice in typical race day conditions (of course you can't know for sure)
• Practice your nutrition plan at the same speed and intensity. Too many athletes train one way, and end up racing another. Going out harder then you trained makes it hard for your gut to digest.
• Do a sweat test if you're not sure how much fluid to take in
• Practice with race course nutrition in case you need to rely on it, or you're planning to use it (I think you said you were)
  
• Have a back up plan if something goes wrong-often for athletes it's water, coke and a salt tab on the run
• If you use two simple sugars (glucose and fructose as an example) you'll be able to digest more carbohydrate. Generally a agreed upon number is 90g of carb per hour using a mixture of sugars. Most sports nutrition gives you this-Hammer is an exception.
  

Without knowing more history about you it's hard to say for certain if the plan is right for you. But looking at it, it seems reasonable. I up your electrolyte intake on the run though (personal opinion that most endurance athletes should be around 600-800mg/hr). Practice and have a back up plan if it goes wrong. Good luck!

Do you know how many kJ you burn on a ride that replicates the IM duration and/or distance?

If you do then all you need is a little math and presto you know what you need.

I have not found the ideal solution for carrying a gel flask and always worried I would lose my nutrition plan if my flask went sailing off the bike. I stick to concentrated carbopro bottles but am always looking for different ideas. sentania seems to have a good setup and is an experienced racer. i still prefer to have nothing on my downtube or seatube.

When planning one's IM nutrition it's hard to accurately evaluate one's exact intake of every nutrient.
In your case, with GI issues it might be good to be able to easily see your distribution of fiber intake and such.


As I've mentioned once before on ST, I created an online "Long-Course-Triathlon Nutrition-evaluation tool", when I saw a great need amid herds of triathletes oblivious as to how much of any given nutrient they were planning to take race-day.
It's not always easy to get a good handle on things like your exact sodium intake, or your likely caffeine level given that caffeine has a half-life of ~5 hrs (too much caffeine is shown to be detrimental, too little and you may be missing potential benefits).


The tool is a web-app built on top of a google-doc, so if you have a google account, just fill out the form (link here) and you'll receive an email with the info and a link to the tool in your google-drive.
You use drop-down menus to quickly describe your race plan and it provides a breakdown of most of the useful data in table and graph form.


The tool has a large library of triathlete's typical pre-race and in-race foods, containing all constituent info (including the fiber in your beloved Bonkbreaker bars).
You can add unlisted foods to your personal food library, and optionally submit them to the global library, where it trickles back to all users.
Here are some sample images from the tool. It's pretty much out of beta, it proved useful to a few folk in Kona & last weekend's IMMD.

It can store several races, and provides warnings, for example if certain levels are well outside typical ranges.
I'll create an explanatory walk-through video guide of the tool soon on www.triathlonlog.com.




Good luck in IMAZ.
Doug
http://www.triathlonlog.com/...tion-evaluation-tool
https://twitter.com/dougsbrain

Generally, an athlete's body won't digest much more than that when racing anyway.

Always always always have a backup bottle of nutrition at special needs.

It's unlikely that you will need to use it, but it's nice to know it's there.