Hello all- I’m looking for help on figuring out what exactly is going on with my nutrition plan. My stomach has historically been my weak link and I thought I had a good plan heading into racing my first full this fall, but need help. Quick background: 53 years old, didn’t start doing tri’s until I was 36, did my first HIM in about 5:10 which included a flat tire late on the bike. First marathon was at 41 when I ran 3:17 at California International. So decently fast for normal people but obviously nowhere close by slowtwitch standards. Had some injuries which kept me from racing for years, and absolutely have slowed down with age and lack of year-over-year consistent training. But I’ve been healthy the last couple of years and had a consistent build-up to attempting to complete my first Ironman. My last two halves were Santa Cruz in late 2022 and Oregon this year in July, both around 6:00 - Oregon has the short swim but I also had a flat there going over railroad tracks, so I figure it kind of offsets the swim. But my general expectation for a full was to finish in the area of 13 hours, with around a 1:25 swim, 6:15 bike, and 4:45 marathon plus transitions. No real performance goals other than to just enjoy the experience and finish.
After never finding a product I really tolerated that well, after Oregon I started mixing my own nutrition with sugar, table salt, sodium citrate and Gatorade powder for flavoring. I’m 6’0†and race at 180 pounds, which is really thin for me, not a salty sweater but a moderately heavy one (I prefer to think of it as an “efficient coolerâ€). For a full Ironman, my plan was to take in four 24-ounce bottles of nutrition along with probably a roughly equal amount of water, continuously sipping an ounce of water, two ounces of nutrition, and another ounce of water roughly every two miles on the bike. This would get around 36 ounces of total fluids per hour, which is on the high end but I had gotten dehydrated previously. Each bottle had one packet of powder, seven tablespoons of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of sodium citrate, for 315 calories, 1,000 mg of sodium, and 75 grams of carbs each hour. Training with all my long workouts went much better than it ever had, so I felt really confident going into Ironman California in October.
Unfortunately I had just gotten strep from my daughter the Monday before the race, got diagnosed on Thursday and placed on penicillin by a doctor who apparently did not think it significant to point out any possible problems when I specifically said all I cared about was functioning as well as possible for the race in a few days. I actually felt good (my strep wasn’t that bad and I wouldn’t have gone to the doctor except my daughter’s was much worse and she had to go in) and am not used to antibiotics, so didn’t really think much about the effects. Swim was great, first 80 miles on the bike or so were great, but then stomach clamped down and couldn’t take in any more nutrition. I was mildly/moderately nauseous but never threw up or really had to, but couldn’t ride comfortably in the aero position given the stomach pain – just a moderate squeezing feeling like I would throw up anything else I put down – so the last 30 of the bike were not fun, and by the time I finished, wasn’t sure I could run a mile. Slow jogged around 6 miles, then had to walk for a mile and got more nauseous and light-headed and had chills. Got to medical and they checked my blood oxygen which was 86, then checked again a few minutes later and it was 82. Couldn’t stop teeth-chattering chills and after about 20 minutes just sitting there, I made the decision to stop. Annoyingly (but helpfully for next time) I felt really pretty fine around an hour later.
Given how well training had gone on all my long rides/runs, and talking with my coach afterward, it seemed logical that the antibiotics not letting me digest my nutrition or water properly were a big reason for the breakdown. After a couple of days, I signed up for Arizona hoping to capitalize on the training I had done and be healthy this time.
For whatever reason, Arizona was worse, and my stomach started rebelling only around 40 miles into the bike. I had to stop consuming my bottle nutrition soon after and by the time I rolled up to T2 in 6:42, I had only taken in around 1.5 bottles instead of 4. I did eat around 6 half-bananas on the bike trying to push down the nausea. Felt like absolute garbage going into T2 but wasn’t having uncontrollable chills at least, like at California, so started out just thinking I would try to walk the marathon. For the first hour and 15 minutes, that’s all I could do, but then my stomach relaxed and I was able to run miles 4-13. Stomach then reared up again and I had to walk four, got to run three, then walked until a mile before the finish and was able to run the last mile. Each aid station was an exercise in minimalism, getting by mostly on a few sips of broth and a few sips of water, although there was a nutri-grain bar, a couple things of chips, and a few banana halves in there as well, along with a few sips of coke here and there as well. I ended up running a total of 13 and walking 13, took 6:16 to do the marathon and finished in 14:56, nearly two hours over my race goal. (But ecstatic to finish nonetheless.)
Based on what I thought I would have needed to keep going, I was shocked at being able to continue (in such limited fashion as it was) on so few calories. And looking back, I think once I got on the bike, the problem may have been simply pouring in too much too fast, although I thought my targets were solid and my training supported my ability to handle them.
I know a common major problem leading to how I felt could be over-exertion given current fitness, but don’t feel like that was the case here. I feel like it’s more specifically something I’ve messed up either in my calculations of proper targets of what I need to take in, a proper balance of nutrition/hydration, or something else. If anything, given my goal just to enjoy the long day and the excitement of becoming an Ironman, I was focused on not going too hard and ensuring I could comfortably finish. I was doing around 150 watts on the bike which felt easily sustainable for 6 hours. And when I ran, if my stomach would let me, the legs were good, I was shocked at how good it felt just getting to run those nine in a row, before my stomach shut me down again around the halfway point. Talked to several people who had overbiked and were paying for it on the walk/run, but that wasn’t me.
Anyway, would love to hear what any nutritionists or just experienced full-distance racers think and how they would recommend changing my approach, if I just need to lower my targets of calories/fluids/other or what exactly. It was amazing to finish and I honestly look at my time as a badge of honor of how deep I dug, refusing to quit despite feeling like garbage for like 10 hours out there, but I’d love to actually be able to have exhaustion be my limiter next time and not my gut. Thanks for any thoughts!