I must first say that this is an awesome forum for everything about Triathlons.
I will racing my first half iron distance this weekend in Ottawa and have some questions.
A alittle background info -
been running for 2 years, cycling for a year and just started swimming at the beginning of June.
I’m a fast learner and didn’t intend to race this a half iron tri, but rather the half iron duathlon.
What changed my mind was swimming with a local tri club, joining a swim club, and loving the open water -gave me the proof and confidence that trying a triathlon was within reach. I the past couple months I have done 3 triathlons from sprint to just about olympic distances and sure I have done enough for each of the 3 disciplines.
Anyways, I am very excited but nervous about this weekend.
My main concern is that in running races in the past and Olympic distance duathlons I have a tendency to cramp (calves, and sometimes quads near the end of the race).
This could have been from lack of fitness in the past, but I know a big part of it was pushing too hard and mostly nutrition.
As a ‘salty sweater’ I have switched from Cliff shot (60mg of sodium- no caffeine) to Power gel (200g of Sodium +caffeine) and have noticed a big difference…no cramping this summer.
But the Half Iron distance is a lot longer and want to get enough nutrition but not over do it.
This is what I am planning… (I’m 5’5 & 141lbs) Weather will be warm with a low of 15 deg. Celcius to a high of 25 with humidity feeling like 31.
Breakfast -
Cliff bar, bananna, (suggestions?)___ 250ml water, 500ml of Perform (not a big breakfast eater before races)
Pre swim - sip of water with PowerGel (Double Latte)
On Bike and on me - cliff bar, 6 PowerGels, a pack of Cliff shots, and those Energy Jelly Beans, 2X 500ml or water, 2x 500ml of Perform.
On Run - 3 powergels, fuel belt with 2 bottles (one water and one Perform or normal gatorade) and then sip water/perform during water stations.
I wouldn’t be able to handle that much food on the bike. My stomach would explode. I’m also not big on breakfast before races, but you’d be eating every 20 minutes on the bike.
Your bike calories add up to around 1300. That’s a lot, unless you expect to take 4.5 hours to ride 56 miles (which I don’t expect to be the case). That many calories would turn into serious gut rot for most people.
The run might be right, it just depends on how you can process calories while running. Also depends if you expect to run 1h20, 2 hours, or more.
Thanks for the input, I know I think I am alittle paranoid…as a newbi tri wannabe.
I didn’t necessary plan to eat everything, but at least 4 gels on the bike, and the if I get sick of the gels, the cliff blocks or jelly beans could replace.
I mostly fear the run… especially knowing it will be hard not to push it on the bike.
For training, it’s been a good spring and summer.
At the end of May I PB with a half marathon time of 1:30 then started swiming for the challenge.
I have swan 4 times week (2 pool workouts - 70mins -where I got up to swimming about 2800m total) and 2 open water swim (1km-3.8km -my longest but took almost1.5hours!)
I have a slow and steady swim and don’t know how to push it yet.
I bike 4-5 times a week with rides ranging from 20 km tempo to about 95kms… alot of hills in those rides from Gatineau Park and in Tremblant.
I run 3-4 times a week but only logging about 30-40km a week… have run alot more, but learning how to swim was my focus.
Trying to be modest, I should be around 40-45 mins swim, 2:50 bike, and 1:50- 2 hours run.
Also, I am 38 years old.
I’m kind of similar to you. Life long runner (if you can say life, i’m pretty young) and I started swimming in june…then a few weeks later I was like…well why not bike. And following my sound logic…why not register for a half iron distance 3 weeks before a full marathon I’m training for. Makes sense?
My breakfast will probably be a bagel with butter and boiled egg. Probably a 12-20 oz of gatorade with pre race added in (if I can find my damn bottle of pre race). On the bike, gu chomps and 3 roctanes along with 20 oz of water and the infinit formula they’re giving out on the course (that could be risky, i’ve never had infinit). Then on the run, probably just two roctanes and a few oz’s of water per aid station.
I really have no clue what I’m doing, goal times are 35 min ± 2 on the swim, 3 hrs ± 15 min on the bike, 1:30 ± 5 min on the run. So probably like 5:30? I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing lol.
I’m excited though, my xlab bento box came in today so that makes the gel situation a bit easier.
Any other advice? I’ve been lurking here for about 2 months but I’m pretty much just going to go have fun and try to think how stupid it is that I want to do a full next year.
I am 6’3" and 178, I will be doing the Iron 226 Du up there (driving 11 hours on Thursday) in Ottawa this weekend. I have practiced my bike nutrition in training and on a 105 mile ride I took in 1600 calories and that was good. On a 60 mile bike/10 mile brick run I took in 1000 calories and was fine on the run. My calories were in the form of 800 calories worth of gatorade (powder mixed heavily concentrated) with 120 calories protein powder and one gel. For the race I plan on taking in around 2200 calories for the main reason that I am able to take in calories more on the bike than the run.
You will mainly know what you need from what you have done in training, but it won’t hurt to have too much food with you and then not need. Much better than not having enough and then regretting it. My rookie mistake last year in my first half distance was drinking way too much water which washed away the gatorade that I took in. I was sick with a chest cold so I drank OJ on the bike which I had never tried in training. I wound up cramping REAL bad on run at first, but it went away with a quick stretch for 9 miles until it came back.
I did my first HIM last Sunday.
3 white bread (jam,Nutella,honey), coffee 3 hrs before swim
Carried and used about 900 kcal on the bike (2x500ml into water (sponser long energy+protein), 1 clif bar) plus one bta with water. All carried myself cause of being paranoid.
Started fueling bout 30 min on the bike.
On the run I stuffed a gel for safety, just drank water every station, last of the 4 laps used coke and water.
I lost some on the last 2 laps but finished way better than expected and felt good behind the line, what was important to me.
Don’t carry more you can handle, you don’t wanna be the local supplier do you?
Good luck with your new venture! You won’t regret it. I wish I could offer you more advice on food, but I find that the more you train and the more you race the more you figure out about yourself. Good starting points by everybody who has already commented on this thread. But food can be something that’s very specific to each person. If you keep things around 300 ca/hrl or less, I would assume less in your case because you are very light, it’s a good start. I have found in my training and racing that erring on the lower side is better than over eating/drinking. Of course I have no data to back this up! But it is what has worked for me!! But more importantly I just wanted to wish you luck and welcome you to an awesome life of accomplishment thru endurance sports!!
The only thing I could add is, make sure you eat a good 3 hours before the race and drink plenty that morning and the day or two before. I usually drink plenty and thought I was fine at my last HIM, but somehow I fell behind that morning and day before. The result was my HR running about 15-20bpm high almost the entire race, GI issues drinking more than planned on the bike and run to " catch up". I also suspect Hammer Heed doesn’t agree with me. The result was running a pace 15-30 seconds slower than my HR zones would indicate in training, which cost me about 3-6 minutes overall… and a LOT of needless suffering to gut it out. I was still having GI issues on and off for 2 days afterwards.
I like sleep though!!! Thus year for my IM I ate while changing in transition between swim and bike. I had half a bowl of oatmeal about 2 hrs before race but I just can’t eat well morning of, too nervous.
The RD just sent out an email that said the following,
On the bike: For those competing in the Half distance duathlon or triathlon there are three (3) aid stations located at Mile 15/Mile 36 & Mile 45. These aid stations are “neutral” aid stations and will offer refill (Infinit Nutrition or Water) for your bottles OR you may provide a “SPECIAL NEEDS” bag (ask for bags during packet pick-up) with your specific drink (no glass) or other nutritional requirements.
What is a “neutral” aid station? And I can stop and hand them my bottle and they will put infinit go far in it for me?
That’s a new one to me. Not that I’ve been to tons of races before, but I’ve been in to enough. I’ve never heard the word neutral aid station used before. The special needs though, it sounds as if you can fill bags for each aid station to pick up at them when you’re racing if you want to use your own food/drink. Thats pretty convenient!! Other than that, you can use what they’re offering which is infinit and h2o
Yea, I have no idea. I’ve done all of two sprints, so I have not a clue what that means. I wouldn’t mind a bottle of infinit go far though around 35 miles in though!
Nice!! Good luck dude. Don’t hesitate to contact the RD. they should be willing to answer all questions unless the race is huge, sometimes then it’s hard to get a hold of someone. Facebook? Twitter? Or ask a volunteer to make sure when you’re on site, they can at least guide you to someone who can answer your questions. For the races I’ve been to, there’s always someone to help, even athletes. Never be afraid to ask, everyone is willing to help.
Should be a smaller race, 700 people between a mini tri, sprint, olympic, and half. And I believe all of 100 in the half. I definitely intend to attend the one hour talk the day before the race and will probably ask him to elaborate on what a “neutral” aid station is.
Maybe it just means that the volunteers are “common” for all racers. As opposed to a supported aide station, where you might supply your own pit crew such as in an ultra marathon or 24 hour bike race.
I also suppose neutral could mean, they don’t provide hand offs and you have to stop and grab a bottle. That would really suck and change how many bottles one carried.