O.K. you long distance vets out there, time to help out us “newbies”!
I’m starting to develop my nutrition plan for my 1/2 IMs coming up in July and Oct. I recently purchased some Spiz and Sustained Energy. My first thought is to use the Spiz as my prerace meal then use Cytomax and ClifShot gel on the bike and the same on the run via a Fuel Belt. I will also carry some Endurolytes and use 2 per hour on the bike since both events will be plenty hot.
The root question is: Is the Cytomax and gel (I plan on two flasks worth) enough calories for this distance or do I need to carry some Spiz or Sustained Energy on the bike as well??
Thanks for your help,
Paul
Enough calories is a really hard question to answer. I think the most important thing to do is to practice nutrition religously during training and fine tune it based on how you react and feel. Think of your nutrition as a fourth aspect to triathlon. Its something you need to train, just like swimming, biking and running. One thing to also recognize is that what works well in training, sometimes doesn’t work well in races. I think you need to do some race-pace / race-distance (within reason) simulations so that you get a real picture of how stuff is going to work.
I’m not a huge gel fan as its sticky/messy but I think calorie wise its fine. I’d say most people recommend about 300 calories/hour on the bike and 200 cals/hour on the run. I usually start calories about 20-30 min into the bike and stop calories about 20-30 min before the end of the run. You can go all-liquid calories/gels/bars/natural foods…I doubt it matters as long as your practice it in race sims at race intensity and your stomach can handle it…Gordo has some good tips on his tips pages…I use carbo-pro/accelerade and go all-liquid.
Dave