OK I searched & found lots of IM nutrition posts, but none for a half. I’m doing my first half at FIRM man Sept 12th and am basically clueless. My longest race to date has been Xterra USA, which was 3:30 for me. I expect the half to take me somewhere between 4:45 and 5 hours. I’ve heard the “gel-every-30-minutes” method for the bike & run, but am curious to know what other Slowtwith brethren (& sistren?) are doing.
I usually race Olympic distance with Accelerade on the bike plus one gel toward the end, then just water on the run as needed.
Thanks paul. The second & third bottles would be just water, correct? FIRM has two water bottle hand-ups on the bike, plus gatorade & clif shots every other mile on the run.
All bottles have Gatorade with salt. The salt is key. There is insufficient salt in pretty well all drinks. First two bottles on the bike, third bottle stays in T2 and then you run with it for a mile and force yourself to drink the whole thing even if you don’t want to. The Gatorade on course is usually too watered down to have any electrolyte benefit, unless you get it in proper Gatorade bottles. You don’t want to cramp in the second half of the run. Use as much salt in the bottles as you can comfortably take in without the taste becoming overbearing. This way, you don’t have to fiddle around (and forget to take) salt tabs.
There are lots of different possibilities for half-IM nutrition, but here is mine…FWIW: Lots of grazing the day before, try not to stuff myself though, liberal with the salt Like Dev, I recommend oatmeal for breakfast, I like to mix in nuts, berries and stuff I start out the bike with some Gookinaid (low calorie, electrolyte drink) to help my stomach settle after the swim After 10 or 15 minutes on the bike, I’ll start in with gels and a fairly concentrated bottle of accelarade and cytomax…both the gels and the bottle must be chased with water I purchased one of those five gel flasks that clips into a holder and it works great. You can take smaller hits more often and there are no messy wrappers to worry about With the gel flask and one concentrated bottle, I avoid any solid food to make sure I stay away from nausea Keep taking sports drink, water and gels on the run also…otherwise the last few miles can be brutal
Pre-race snack (in transition area): about 1/2 a Clif Bar, a little Gatorade
Bike: one 400 calorie bottle of Gatorade Endurance (2x the sodium or regular g-ade) and CarboPro, 5 CarbBOOM in gel flask, 1 Clif Bar. Goal is to get all the drink, most of the gel and 1/2 of the Clif Bar down with at least 2 x 24 oz bottles of water. Total of 900 cals.
Run: 2 CarbBOOM - one at about mile 4, the other at about mile 8.
Post-race: Endurox within 30 minutes, then a banana as soon as I can stomach it.
I just did my first HIM. I went the simple route. I did it on Gu and Gatorade.
Eat well and large the day before and the day of have a decent breakfast (I have a cast iron stomach so I can eat just about anything before a race). I was up about 2.5 hours before the start. I had an Ensure, a havest bar, and a red bull for my daily dose of caffine. I drank 28 oz of gatorade before the start. I also ate a power bar about 40 min before the start.
On the bike I used 5 Gu gels. Taping them to the top bar and/or stem worked very well for me. It’s convenient and you can easily see whether you are on track or not. I drank gatorade since that’s what I had used in training and they were severing it on the course. I had one 28 oz bottle with me at the start of the bike then I picked up 3 20 bottles on the course and drank most of them.
On the run I drank a glass of gatorade at every aid station (every mile) and ate 3 Gu gels. he bike the gels were just something I had to eat but on the run they really picked me up when I was feeling down. I highly suggest carrying one or 2 “emergency” gels in addition to what you plan on using. My suggestion for the whole race nutrition plan would be that however much you plan on eating or drinking, allow for a little extra for each leg since it would suck to run short.
Comments - I felt I had enough calories and would not change my eating but I felt like I drank too much. Between what I drank during the race and in the day or two before, I felt rather bloated during the latter stages of the race.
I think you will find the 1/2 will not be that much harder than the xterra usa except for maybe the run distance in the 1/2. What AG ? we came in right about the same time if you were there last year. Those sandy climbs plus the altitude are tough.
You might check the recent maltodextrin threads here and on Gordo’s forum. G’s forum also has some 1/2 IM tips - think they are a bit conservative on the hr as the 1/2 is more like an oly than it is like an IM - depends on the risk you want to take from what I can gather.
I was in the 25-29, though I turned 30 this year. Xterra USA is an amazing race. I felt awesome last year & beat some guys from out East that had normally bested me. That course favors the strong riders… I swam slow, but passed about 90 people on the way up Tunnell Creek. I guess that’s my next logical question… how hard to go for the half? My current plan is to play it conservative on the first half of the ride then open it up, & do the same for the run - keep my hr under 145 for the first 10k, then see how I feel & open it up.
I’ll share what seemed to have worked very well in my first HIM effort a few weeks ago, 4:58. I had zero stomach issues or stiches…felt awesome coming off the bike. YMMV.
Wake-up: bagel and bannana, cup of OJ
Pre-race: 1/2 clif bar, some water and Gatorade to wash it down
Swim: 1 clif bar, 2 bottles gatorade… (just kidding)
Once on the bike, I followed Gordo’s tip to stick to water for the first 8-10miles. After that, I really couldn’t tell you if I took 8oz of Gatorade at mile 16 or a shot of gel at mile 44. What I can tell you is what I consumed over the entire bike leg (miles 8-50): 2/3 of a Clif bar, 3/4 of a flask of HammerGel that had been very lightly diluted with water, 2/3 bottle of Accelerade, 1 bottle Gatorade, 1 bottle water. Mind you, ambient temps on the bike leg were in the low 70s…so I barely dripped any sweat. I have a feeling not eating/drinking past mile 50 (well, maybe a few shots of water) was key in not having any stomach issues on the run.
On the run I ended up taking in two gels, and stopping for a splash of water every 2 miles or so. Again, it wasn’t the hottest of runs, so your fluid intake will vary depending on your sweat “rate” and the ambient temp.
