I’m just over 60kg, bike is similar I’m 275 cal an hour. I carry some blocks so I can add more cals 25 at a time if needed. Run I plan for 200-250cal an hour in gels not including any cals from sport drinks on course. Your breakfast seems big to me? But stick with it if it’s been working on your longer training days. I aim for around 600-700 cals 3hr before excluding sports drink and a pre race gel before swim.
Hi, I’m planning my first 70.3 in may aswell.
Nutrition is a topic i have yet to figure out. But this is what i got so far.
I weigh 75kg (will probably drop 3kg before raceday)
My plan is:
Big breakfast oatmeal or cereal, coffee, juice. 2-3 hours before race.
Banana and some fluid 5 min before start.
Come to the start with a full tank. I have always done this for shorter races and longer bike rides and has worked well.
Then about 60g carbs an hour during bike and run.
Will try combining carbs in fluid, gels and bars.
I have yet to figure out how i’m going to bring all this food on the bike and run.
A risk is that too much carbs in gells and fluids and no solids might give you intestinal problems. I have had this problem once in a 12 hour bike ride in the alps. You don’t want this. That’s why i want to experiment with using bars. Cliff bars seem to work but are difficult to eat while riding and running.
Need to test this, but i live in a much colder climate than where the race is. So in my training will probably need less fluids and more calories to maintain body temp. So this might be difficult to test.
If I used what you have above I’d bonk very badly
Curious what you see about this that tells you that you would bonk badly. I am just starting to figure out a plan for my 70.3 in May as well and I have no idea what a good plan looks like. Just starting my research but would be interested in what tells you that you would bonk. I assume that a lot of this comes from experience.
That is a massive amount of carbs, where are you getting all of those? What foods? Also, note that I just posted a similar discussion on what people eat the morning of, and many people shared actual foods they eat. One thing I am seeing in your listed breakfasts is that you have no proteins or fats. See below that fats are an important store as it relates to racing and hydration and so you should plan for some.
Finally, good timing as I have a book coming out in the next couple of days on race nutrition - before and during. I’d be happy to share it for free to anyone who wants, it’s just a passion project of mine. As if I don’t have anything better to do…
On hydration,
Take the following two cases, which assume riders at a moderate sweat rate (75-80 degrees F) during a five-hour ride:
–Rider 1: Amateur cyclist in good shape; riding 150 watts/hour on the bike; burns 594 calories an hour with around 1,500 calories stored as glycogen
– Rider 2: Professional cyclist; riding 250 watts/hour on the bike; burns 990 calories an hour with around 2,000 calories stored as glycogen T
Taking into account generalized glycogen and fat stores, Rider 1 could rehydrate and fuel with 160 calories an hour while Rider 2 would need to fuel with 292 calories an hour.
Hi Dave - I have a book coming out as soon as this week (for fun, a passion project if you will) and it will help you with all of this. It will be free, so if interested, shoot me a message or keep an eye out as I will post it here for everyone to get.
Hi there - I’ve mentioned in a few places, but keep an eye out as I have a book coming out soon that will cover all your questions for race day nutrition. It will be free.
If I used what you have above I’d bonk very badly
Curious what you see about this that tells you that you would bonk badly. I am just starting to figure out a plan for my 70.3 in May as well and I have no idea what a good plan looks like. Just starting my research but would be interested in what tells you that you would bonk. I assume that a lot of this comes from experience.
For half I have taken in 2600 calories for the day before starting the run. Never had a stomach issue even on the run.
I swim and bike the equivalent of a half 2 times a week. Fortunate to be retired and basically limitless time to train and test nutrition.
Hi, this isn’t a bad start - consider it a first draft. The person who wrote it grabbed some pieces of nutrition science, at least. The real fun is going to be finding the foods that meet your targets.
For the pre-race meals, you’ll need to get in there and see what you can tolerate before high effort. I don’t imagine you’ll keep this part of the plan.
And during the bike and run, I’m guessing he has assigned those carbs because he read the max our intestinal transporters can move is 60g/hour of glucose. This is true - 60g is the max, regardless of body weight. But we rarely consume pure glucose and we can take up some as fructose too. So that’s where people are noticing the target carbs seem low.
I’d suggest you look at Rappstar’s old race reports. He was very generous in sharing what he did and it’s great advice.
For me,
1- try it all in training starting now. It doesn’t have to be for every workout though. For example I’m doing a Spring marathon and will be using race nutrition on marathon pace sessions but not all the runs.
2- I like a big breakfast 3 hours or so before. Low fiber, high CHO and decent fat and salt. I avoid dairy that day so its oatmeal with coconut oil, banana, maybe a few salt stick tabs and maybe a scoop of EFS recovery shake. Then water until the race starts with a gel just before the gun. Race is all CHO, 300-400 cal /hour on the bike, 250 on the run, salt depending on the conditions, 600-1000 mg/hour. I don’t “need†all the CHO from an energy perspective, but my engine seems to like it.