For an ironman you can fit 11 SIS isotonic gels into a 750ml bottle, no water needed, but fine if you add some. Sip every 20minutes, along with whatever is on the course and you have a pretty effective intake with minimal GI issues from my experience.

SteveMc

I’ve done it with PowerGels. Should need even less water for SIS. Mark the bottle with a sharpie at the level for each gel so you can consume the right amount, and practice in training so you get an intuitive feel for it.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I recently switched/testing SIS also due to GI issues. Is 11 gels/bottle for 70.3 or 140.6?
thxs

This is for a full 140.6. If I dropped this bottle then I would stop and pick it up! It's central to my race, and I aim to finish the bottle by the end of the bike. I never marked the bottle in increments but that's a good idea, I used a transparent bottle and could judge based on time/distance how I was going through it.

For a half I just take 3 gels on the bike in my back pocket, along with a couple of sport drink bottles. However I could always grab sufficient stuff at the aid stations if need be.

I hope that helps,
SteveMc

Thanks,

This helps. (I'll need an extra 3/4 bottle filled with SIS with my bike time).
Been using Infinit but kills me off the bike during races.

Calories burned is directly proportional to work done which is power x time. Disregarding aero drag, moving an "object" (your bike and body) over a course take the same amount of total work no matter whether you do it fast or slow. So you will burn the same # calories for a distance no matter the speed. When we factor aero back in, going faster actually burns more calories per distance because more energy is lost to overcoming the exponentially greater aero drag (assuming you have the same .cda at both speeds).

In other words, there's no need for more fuel just because you're out there for more time. Your calorie burn rate per hour is lower than if you were going faster.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

There is an added dynamic: the slower you go (relative to FTP), the more you can rely on fat metabolism. A highly trained athlete doing an IM at 75-80% FTP is different from an under trained one going at 60%.

To the OP: It also pays to have a "plan B" in case you do lose your nutrition and can't retrieve it (ex. bottle ejects and rolls across the road and is squashed under a car tire). Just know in advance how you'll handle this (ex. I'll stop at the next aid station and grab x number of gels and place them under my trisuit leg, I'll switch from water to Gatorade in my BTA, I have a backup bottle in special needs that I'll stop and get, etc.). Thinking it out in advance saves a lot of stress on raceday.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)