Through a little trial and error with some somewhat shorter distances, and some general guidelines found on the net I’ve come up with something but I’m curious as to what some more experienced people will have to say about it… and maybe give me some tips… Here’s my plan as it stands now:
Race start is 8AM
5AM - 1 cup of oatmeal with 1 cup of fruit and 1 cup of coffee
7:50 AM - 2 cytogels and 250ml of water
First half of bike: 2 Cliff bars and 1.5L of water and 4-5 eload caps
Second Half of bike: 2 EAS gels, 1.5L of water and 4-5 eload caps… I’m a relatively heavy sweater and it’s apparently a hot course
T2 - COLD water
Run - Water and gel first half of run and then gatorade second half
Tell me what you think and if you have any suggestions…
Caveat: You don’t say how tall you are, how much you weigh, nor your pace for any of the disciplines. That said, in reading this I would be concerned with three things:
Taking in only 300 calories three hours before the swim is too little. I usually eat 3-4 packets of Oatmeal 2.5 hours before the start gun goes off. I think you need to load up on more calories beforehand, though nerves do play a role in this.
Two clif bars is a lot of solid food to eat on the bike and expecting any sort of tangible benefit from it might be a stretch. With most solid foods in a race situation, your stomach will digest them slowly as it has other bodily priorities to get to. With about a 75-90 min gastric emptying window, a good portion of those two bars could well sit in your stomach until your done racing.
3 liters of water and 10 Eload (Ecaps maybe) caps on a 56 mile ride is A LOT. I understand it might be a hot course, but wowzers that is a lot of fluid and sodium to take in within a three hour period, along with all of your stated solid and gel nutrition.
If I calculate correctly, you’d take in about 800 calories of nutrition, 2000mgs of electrolytes, and nearly a gallon of water on the bike, yet only about 300-500 calories before the swim starts.
If it has worked in training and you have your HIM coming up, I wouldnt change it…BUT my thoughts.
Two gels before the start- not usually a good idea, this will spike insulin and may give you that up/down feeling in the swim. Best to get all your calories in at breakfast then just sip water or sports drink up until race time. Your capped by then, no need to add the extra gels.
Bike- I’d skip the cliff bars and go all liquid or all liquid and gel. Depending on how you are going to race, I find that HIM intensity it too high to get solids down. Personally, I go 3 bottles of infinit on the bike and that’s it for cals.
Run- Your fine with water/gel. Dont’ take gel with gatorade. Maybe add some coke during the second half, gives suger for quick energy and a little caffeine boost.
That’s just some suggestions, your plan doesnt seem bad though. Good luck!
Breakfast: I really do this before every race
1/2 cup oatmeal, brown sugar, big handfull of wallnuts ~ 600 calories.
Banana and water or HEED in route to race. ~ 200 calories
1 gel 45 min before then 1 gel 15 min before race. ~ 200 calories - I don’t get the sugar spike/drop like a lot of people do.
Bike
Gel every 30 minutes, water and HEED as needed depending on the temp. Normally not more than 4 bottles, 3 is the norm.
Run
Gel at start then 1 every 3 to 4 miles. If I feel full I take some Enduralytes, they seem to empty my stomach quickly. I’ll take water on the run unless they are giving out Infinit or HEED. Late in the run I will take Gatorade if that’s what they have.
I think 1 cup of oatmeal is a lot to put down but I’m a small guy. My version really jumps the calories. 300 to 350 of it is from the nuts.
I find Cliff bars are difficult to put down but I have been able to eat one early in the bike.
I’m not familiar with cytogels, EAS gels or eload caps.
I do like GU, Hammer (which I feel are allmost interchangable) and Hammer’s enduralytes. I only use the salts for emptying my stomach.
Here is my HIM feed strategy. Hope it helps. I tip the scale at about 163 lbs/ 74 kg.
Race start 7am, HOT COURSE. Goal time: 4:30-4:45.
4:30am: Two bagels/ PB, 2 Bananas, 1 cup coffee.
Maybe half a bar 60 mins prior to swim start wash down with water.
BIKE: 1 concentrated bottle of Infinit with (900 cals) Goals is 300cals every 60 mins with 800mg of sodium.
I plan on supplementing the 500mg of sodium I get from Infinit with 2 thermolyte capsules for a total of 800mg.
The plan is to take a big pull of concentrated Infinit every 15 mins a wash it down with water.
As previously posted I personally would eat more before the race as well. I do a big smoothy and bagel before HIM. Your race strategy seems pretty good to me though - I have a similar one and it worked well for me recently. After years of experimenting, food and lots of plain water works for me because it gives me a greater sense of energy than liquid only, and fights off the dehydration better. Have you tried it in training? I think the best thing you can do is have a race simulation swim/bike effort in the heat with a short run after to see how the food and drink combo works.
Agree that you need a lot more calories for breakfast and that you should finish consuming those calories ~3 hours prior to the race. You might feel a bit overfull, but that’s why you give yourself 3+ hours to digest it.
I’ve found that in longer brick rides (50+ miles) and in races such as the HIM, my stomach gets sensitive on the run. Also, as the hours go by, any of the more sweet-tasting gels might start seeming disgusting to you. My solution has been to go all-liquid. I’m doing my next HIM either on Infinit, or else Hammer Perpetuam for the bike and Hammer Heed (which has no stomach-upsetting protein) for the run. With the Hammer drinks, I am experimenting adding some salt (basically breaking apart salt Thermolyte capsules and emptying them directly into the drink prior to the ride/race); this makes the Hammer Heed less sweet and thus more palatable. Do a search here about how to mix liquid nutrition into a concentrate in a single bike bottle, plus one or two little gel bottles for the run. I also bring a couple gels as backup, but always ones that don’t taste too sweet to me. I like the vanilla Gu and the espresso Hammer gel.
Very similar to my strategy (including ~ time) but…900 cals on bike…do you not finish the bottle? I figure you’d be riding in the 2:20 range? Do you shoot for 300 cals/hr based on “race” time? Or is that 300/hr that you are on the bike?
FWIW - I shoot for 350-400/hour on the bike…mostly Infinit but a gel or two dependant on temps.
Here is my HIM feed strategy. Hope it helps. I tip the scale at about 163 lbs/ 74 kg.
Race start 7am, HOT COURSE. Goal time: 4:30-4:45.
4:30am: Two bagels/ PB, 2 Bananas, 1 cup coffee.
Maybe half a bar 60 mins prior to swim start wash down with water.
BIKE: 1 concentrated bottle of Infinit with (900 cals) Goals is 300cals every 60 mins with 800mg of sodium.
I plan on supplementing the 500mg of sodium I get from Infinit with 2 thermolyte capsules for a total of 800mg.
The plan is to take a big pull of concentrated Infinit every 15 mins a wash it down with water.
Yeah bike time around 2:20-2:30. I shoot for about 300+ cals/hr. I most likely won’t finish the whole 900 cals.
I also might take 1 or 2 gels during the bike just to keep things topped up! I think it’s better to aim a little high during the HIM bike.
If you run short on nutrition you are not going to have enough time to pound the food and recover from the deficit.
This is what has been passed on to me by some fast riders! More importantly it seems to make sense.
But who really know??
I’ll definitely get the cals up to around 600 - 700. Maybe add a bagel/pb.
FWIW I’m 5’10 and 160.
I’ll probably also switch out one of the bars for another gel or 2… I feel as though I need to have something at least a little bit solid in my stomach.
My goal time is about 5:15… depending on my run (knee issues)
I think it is highly indicidual what you can or cannot handle on the bike, but I think everyone is in agreement that calories beforehand are really critical. Get that down and you’ll be fine.