My IM Nutrition Plan

griffin100

Need some advice / critique from the more experienced IM finishers out there on my IM feeding plan. Feel free to tear my plan apart:)

I'm doing IMUK so not expecting extremes of temperature (will have to increase fluid and electrolyte intake if it ends up being 25 degrees).

I weight approx. 84kgs so not the lightest.

When I run I usually sweat out 1 litre / hr; 500ms / hr on the bike

Race week I plan to eat as normal with some extra carbs in the diet, some extra salt and plenty of water. Have my last big meal mid afternoon day before race. Eat lightly night before.

Race morning cereal, toast, banannas and an energy bar / drink.

T1 bananna / energy bar

Bike 3 cliff shot electrolyte blocks every 25 - 30 mins / ~500mls drink per hr. I will be using Hi5 4:1 for the drink (50g per 500mls). This will give me an approx. intake of 400 cals / hr - 90 grams carbohydrate / hr. If possible I will supplement this with some babannas / energy bars if I can. I've used this in training up to 5hr plus rides and it seems to work well (I can do 100kms on one bottle of water and a bananna if I have to but its not reccomended). Aim to keep HR around 70-75% and will be on the bike for between 6-7hrs. I wil use the 500mls bottles of water at aid stations to make up my drinks solutions using 50g sachets.

Run 3 cliff shot electrolyte blocks every 30 mins for as long as possible - approx. 200 cals / hr - 49 grams carbs / hr. Drink at every aid station, water or energy drink. Occasional bananna. Try and avoid coke until second half of marathon. Will be on feet for between 4.30-5hrs.

Any comments on this would be appreciated. Am I taking on too many cals on the bike?

tunney

griffin100 wrote: »

Need some advice / critique from the more experienced IM finishers out there on my IM feeding plan. Feel free to tear my plan apart:)

I'm doing IMUK so not expecting extremes of temperature (will have to increase fluid and electrolyte intake if it ends up being 25 degrees).

I weight approx. 84kgs so not the lightest.

When I run I usually sweat out 1 litre / hr; 500ms / hr on the bike

Race week I plan to eat as normal with some extra carbs in the diet, some extra salt and plenty of water. Have my last big meal mid afternoon day before race. Eat lightly night before.

Don't restrict in the days before, reduce fibre content definitely but last thing you want is to wake up hungry.

griffin100 wrote: »

Race morning cereal, toast, banannas and an energy bar / drink.

What about a pre race gel, 20 minutes before the gun goes, definitely recommended by lots of people.

griffin100 wrote: »

T1 bananna / energy bar

Skip this IMHO

griffin100 wrote: »

Bike 3 cliff shot electrolyte blocks every 25 - 30 mins / ~500mls drink per hr. I will be using Hi5 4:1 for the drink (50g per 500mls). This will give me an approx. intake of 400 cals / hr - 90 grams carbohydrate / hr. If possible I will supplement this with some babannas / energy bars if I can.

Too high, far too high. Upper range of calorie absorbtion is 360kcal or so. Personaly I got for 320 or so.
Too high and you'll get GI issues (read sh!ts on the run)

griffin100 wrote: »

I've used this in training up to 5hr plus rides and it seems to work well (I can do 100kms on one bottle of water and a bananna if I have to but its not reccomended). Aim to keep HR around 70-75% and will be on the bike for between 6-7hrs. I wil use the 500mls bottles of water at aid stations to make up my drinks solutions using 50g sachets.

Fiddling as fvck. Time wasting, and to be honest not going to work.
Why not use on course drinks?
If you cannot stomach the on course drink or do not trust IMUK not to c0ck up the mix then what about making one bottle up of super concentrated mix, then having a profile design aerobottle on the front and squeezing a prefined amount in with water as needed.

griffin100 wrote: »

Run 3 cliff shot electrolyte blocks every 30 mins for as long as possible - approx. 200 cals / hr - 49 grams carbs / hr. Drink at every aid station, water or energy drink. Occasional bananna. Try and avoid coke until second half of marathon. Will be on feet for between 4.30-5hrs.

Wish I'd stuck to something like this. Plans go out the window if you don't drill them into yourself. I did on the bike and that was perfect, didn't on run and that was a disaster.

Notwitch

agree re planning. for my last few long runs I ran 10 mins/walked 1 min simulating walking through the aid stations taking on fuel. this was fixed in my mind. it was brilliant in that apart from one stage when I got a bad cramp and walked for 2 mins, I only walked at the aid stations. it failed me because I hadn't researched enough and believed the aid stations to be 2 km apart. some where not even 1 km apart but my mind still said walk for 1 minute. this gave me plenty of time to take on water/gels/coke etc and i think helped keep stomach issues to a mimimum.

I had set the garmin 405 on a session of multiple repeat of run till I press the lap button then count down 1 minute. without fail by the 4th count down beep towards the end of the 1 minute the legs started running again. i'm not sure what ratio i'd use next time but it would definitely be planned around walking through most of the aid stations.

I also think that you need to be ready to be flexible on eating during the 2nd half of the run. what's gone down ok for the first 10 hours may not go down well now. i got a sniff of a tuc cracker at one of the later aid stations and was like a demented man looking for them at every aid station afterwards. i'm sure there's kids in klagenfurt waking up from nightmares of a demented sweaty irishman shouting 'tuc crackers, tuc crackers, tuc crackers' at them.

boccy23

Have never done an IM (only sprints) but read about IM Nutrition in 220 mag last week. One thing that stuck out was she recommended not to eat directly getting onto the bike or starting the run as the body is getting used to the change over and doesn't need the problem of trying to process the food.

hunnymonster

boccy23 wrote: »

Have never done an IM (only sprints) but read about IM Nutrition in 220 mag last week. One thing that stuck out was she recommended not to eat directly getting onto the bike or starting the run as the body is getting used to the change over and doesn't need the problem of trying to process the food.

it's most important to the swim -> bike section. Allow about 20 minutes to get sorted before starting inject calories.

levitronix

Think its great having a plan but its not always easy sticking to it, I havnt meet an ironman yet whos race went to plan, things change very quick during race day, for me the lure of tasty coke was to much haha never planned to take it, on a hot day power bars taste gack !!
Be prepared to make little changes during the day

griffin100

Thanks for all the advice, some good stuff here.

What about a pre race gel, 20 minutes before the gun goes, definitely recommended by lots of people.

Forgot to say this was in the plan:o

Fiddling as fvck. Time wasting, and to be honest not going to work.
Why not use on course drinks?
If you cannot stomach the on course drink or do not trust IMUK not to c0ck up the mix then what about making one bottle up of super concentrated mix, then having a profile design aerobottle on the front and squeezing a prefined amount in with water as needed.

Yeah need to think about this a bit more. I've heard some horror stories about the drinks on IMUK, some of them like syrup, others little more than water.

Too high, far too high. Upper range of calorie absorbtion is 360kcal or so. Personaly I got for 320 or so.
Too high and you'll get GI issues (read sh!ts on the run)

Not an outcome I want:) I had planned on less but the more I read the more I start to think the more the better.

Think its great having a plan but its not always easy sticking to it, I havnt meet an ironman yet whos race went to plan, things change very quick during race day, for me the lure of tasty coke was to much haha never planned to take it, on a hot day power bars taste gack !!
Be prepared to make little changes during the day

At least a plan will give me something to work off before it all goes pearshaped.

Reviewing the plan now and I'll probably cut back to 200cals / hr on the bike from gels with another 100-120 hr from liquids. Will have to try some Gatorade Endurance again before the big day in case I get stuck drinking it on the bike.

speedyj

Suggestion re concentrated drink is a good one - simplifies things, I like simple .

Having an idea of roughly how many cals per hour to aim for on the bike helps me. Knowing the calorific value of various products, e.g 500ml sports drink 100cal, 1 gel ~100cal, powerBar ~300cal, 3 fig rolls 100cal, lets you adapt to race conditions, how you're feeling, losing/forgetting stuff etc..

I can't remember sources for determining this (could have been slowtwitch or the Going Long book), but obviously it depends on factors like how much you can tolerate (practice in training), your weight etc.. I do remember using 300cals per hour as a rough guide in 2009 when I was 70kg..