There was a thread earlier this week poking fun at people who load down their bikes with water and food for an Ironman. So what do you minimalists carry on the bike? What do the rest of you carry? What do you leave for the special needs bag?
In terms of: food, drink, bike repair, other?
It’s been a few years since I have done an IM(1997 was my last), but my typical strategy would be to pack along 5 clif or powerbars in my bike jersey pocket and start out with two full water bottles in frame mounted cages. I would pick up anything esle I needed at the very well stocked aid stations that came up every 30 minutes along the course. I found no need to take anything else along. Also, one spare tublar and one CO2 cartridge.
Fleck
As little as possible…
Food, is a 500ml bottle of Enervitene, and drink is one bottle of electrolyte drink and then the rest of what is provided.
Bike repair is covered by one inner tube, 2 Co2 canisters and inflator head,patch kit and two allen keys that cover most common ones. Any mechanical repairs are covered by the course mechanics but of course the bike is serviced by the LBS before leaving and checked again when assembled at racesite.
Special needs has medical bits, a cold weather shell and standby nutrition.
Other? Like what?
"As little as possible… "
The best answer.
An Ironman bike ride is the BEST supported century ride that you will ever be on. Why be loaded down like a pack mule? Who knows, but I love standing at the exit to T1, as people head out onto the bike and look at the super light and super aero bikes loaded down like they are heading out for a week long bike tour. Strange. However, as you pointed out a while back, Tom, there seems to be an “expert” on every corner in this sport, so maybe I am missing something!
Fleck
Amen to that. They don’t have aid stations every 10 miles on the ride for nothing.
<<there seems to be an “expert” on every corner in this sport>>
Absolutely. And in this corner you are the expert.
I’ll admit that I’m confused about this. Most of my calories will come in liquid form, and the fuel container says 2 scoops of powder per 20 ounces of water. So 3 scoops per oversized bottle, for about 350 calories. I want to drink one of these an hour, and supplement with a little solid/gel food and water. On a six hour bike split, that’s 3 oversized fuel bottles, plus a water bottle before I reach the halfway mark and reinforcements.
Unless I want to use my preferred fuel, how do I avoid being a pack mule?
Mix your prefered fuel in double strong batches (or figure out the ratio you need for calories) then drink a little with water from aid stations.
Sparky,
I was proposing that my employer should a UML software packages called Enterprise Architect by Sparx Systems. Since our CEO found that it is called Sparx because of Mr Sparks who founded Sparx Systems, he keeps calling me Mr Sparky every time he sees me.
His point is that I proposed that we use some unknown package that is the brainchild of some ozzy guy called sparky instead of buying a Borland, IBM or similar.
At IMFL bike leg I started with 1 GU flask, 1 cliff bar, 1 Double strength bottle of Accelerade, Aero bottle half filled with water.
Special needs I got anther GU flask, 1 cliff bar, 1 Double strength Bottle of Accerade,
From aid stations I got 5 bottles of Gatorade (dumped them in my aerobottle and tossed them) and 5 Bananas.
Next time I would probably not take the Accelerade and get the extra calories from gatorade and a few more gels from the aid stations.
jaretj
Double batches? Here’s a word I recently added to my vocab: osmolality. Has something to do with the concentration of stuff in your water. High osmolality makes digestion get tougher. At least that’s the word at Infinit nutrition. My read on this is that double batches will be harder to digest.
Hammer gel in flasks that I swap out at special needs. I keep my calories simple and avoid worrying about how to get enough of the right food while riding through aid stations (ever tried a rootbeer flavored gel on a hot day?) Use the water from the aid stations one Profile jetstream aerobar mounted bottle, which I refill from the handouts one bottle on the downtube, which is really just an insurance bottle) Salt tabs (lava salts or endurolytes) but I am thinking of cutting way back on this cause it seems to be more marketing than science One extra tubular tire and one CO2 cartridge w/inflator strapped in the seat tube bottle cage (Cobb’s wind tunnel test says that bottles in the cages are actually more aero than no bottles or bottles behind the seat)
one Playboy and one Penthouse - a little reading for the down times on the bike - all the rest you can get at the aid stations.
that is why I said dilute it by combining with water from the aid station to cut it down.
Nutrition: 1 Hammer Sustained Energy Large Bottle packed with 8-9 scoops of S.E. and 3 squeezes of Hammer Gel for flavor. This contains 1200 calories. I keep this bottle on the seattube. This gets me from T1 to Special Needs on the bike.
Hydration: I take a bottle of water from every aid station. This bottle goes on the downtube. I drink roughly 12 ounces every 10 miles.
Electrolytes: I have a coin pouch with 12 endurolytes kept in my back pocket. This gets me from T1 to Special Needs on the bike.
Repair: 1 tubular tire, 1 tire lever (just in case), 2 CO2 cartridges, CO2 inflator.
Special Needs: Another Large bottle with 1200 calories. CO2 cartridge and tubular tire (very old nasty one that I don’t mind throwing away). Another coin pouch of Endurolytes. Pringles (just in case).
This protocol serves 2 primary purposes:
First, I’m not dependent upon what’s being offered on course.
Second, it’s easy to get enough calories and keep the bike light and aero (no stuff on the front of the bike).
I used carbo pro for IMFL. Instead of 2 scoops i used 6 per bottle. I drank a third of a bottle an hour. I would take a sip and wash down with gatorade or water from the aid station. That takes care of the osm…os…osmal…new word. I did carry 3 GUs. In my special needs I had 3 more Gus and another bottle of carbo pro.
At MOO, I put 10 scoops of Perpetuem in a bottle and mixed appropriate amounts with water in my front aero bottle. The down side is that the mix looks like the contents of a giant liver abscess, and doesn’t taste much better by the end of the day. I’m drinking what they have on the course from now on.
Has anyone ever experimented with adding their own sport drink mixes to Gatorade? I’d bet it’s vile, just curious…
I think, you should never eat/drink, what you dont Know. Its better to take one more bottle with your own drink, than to take something you have not tested in training. I myself cooked for the IM Germany my special meal (milk rice with dehydrated fruits) and it did very well. I also took 3 powerbars and 2 Squezzies, but everyone has to test be himself, whats good for him.
It`s important to position the bottles behind the saddle not to high. For good aerodynamic behind the saddle, there is big tank (never reach, ever reach or so) available.
greetings from germany
Bernd