"I had one powerbar, a water bottle of gatorade and a couple of gels."

If you felt okay with this during your training, stick with it. I think with 1/2 IM and longer, timing is everything so I would recommend loading up a bit on cals 3 miles into the bike (or once you're settled in) and at around 40 miles and also (depending on the heat) adjusting your fluid intake accordingly. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

My only concern would be during race day, you're going to be going out harder and longer than what you've experienced in training. I'm not suggesting you try anything new so much as making sure you eat and drink what you're used to at regular intervals.

I take down one water bottles worth of Perpetuem (250 calories) an hour on the bike, sipping every 20 minutes, then switch to gatorade and water for the first half of the run and coke on the second half.

Point is, make sure you're taking in proper amount of calories and don't wait until you're thirsty to drink.

I dont think that 1/2 IM nutrition is much to worry about, especially for a finishing time around 5-5.5 hours... There is a lot of room for error, and even if you do get some GI discomfort, the race will be over before the suffering gets too bad.

Since you are used to gels, i'd use those. I'd say, take one gel 5-10 mins before the swim start. Then start taking gels on the bike after 15-20 mins, at one gel every 30 mins, washing them down with water. Also, on the bike, drink gatorade. Then, right before getting off your bike, take one more gel (that'll probably make 5 total on the bike). Carry 2-3 on the run with you, and take those at 30 mins, 1hr, etc.

Just make sure to wash down the gels with a mouthful of water.

This protocol is simple, and generally well tolerated.

wilson

This is a favorite topic for me. I did two 1/2 IMs this year - Wildflower and Vineman. Wildflower I winged my nutrition, Vineman I planned ahead. Wildflower, I was under nurished, dehydrated and stumbled across the line in 6:59. Vineman I was well hydrated, never bonked, never cramped and finished in 5:32 with energy to spare.

My Vineman plan was this (based on a 7:26 start time):

Breakfast starting at 5:00am was a vanilla power bar, banana, Starbucks doubleshot (in the can) and 16 oz of water. At 6:00 I had another power bar and some more water and two endurolytes. At 7:00 I had around 10 oz of accelerade.

Before the race, I took a sticky address label and wrote my nutrition plan on it and stuck it to the stem of my bike. It had two columns - the gel column had the exact time that I should be taking the gels based on my estimated swim split and start time - so every 30 minutes starting at 8:10. It may seem anal to write down all the times, but I just didn't want to think about it. I also had a schedule for endurolytes - 1 tablet per hour starting at 8:30. I wrote these times out as well. Finally, I set the timer on my watch to go off every 10 minutes to remind me to drink.

Yes, it was very detailed, and the list a bit anal, and people made fun of me, but it worked very well for me and my results speak to that. Your results may vary...