In training, we spend the majority of our time swimming, biking, and running but focus very little on nutrition. And yet without proper nutrition, we are unable to successfully execute our race. To be honest, if you're racing short course, you'll probably get a pass for overlooking nutrition but if you're racing Ironman, you will have a catastrophic meltdown that is unparalleled by anything else.
I remember doing my first half ironman on water alone. At the time I was completely self-trained and I didn't have a clue. I set out to only swim, bike, and run because in my mind, that was what triathlon was all about. And besides, it was only going to take me four hours anyway... at least that's what I thought. I had some ridiculous notion that I would do the swim in 30 minutes, the bike in two hours, and the run in one hour 30 minutes. And while the 30 minute swim isn't all that impressive, the bike and run times are quite impressive. Even with proper nutrition I doubt I'll ever hit those numbers in a race but it was going to be my triathlon debut so let's not get lost in reality.
Needless to say, I didn't finish in the time I had planned and I'm quite surprised I finished at all. I think my actual finish time was 5:25 which is amazing considering how much I fell apart when my (lack of) nutrition plan caught up with me on the run. At the time, I was a 1:30 half marathoner and should've completed the run in about 1:45 if all things went well. But things didn't go well and I posted a 1:54 instead. All I can say is that I suffered from the moment I left the bike until the moment I crossed the finish line. Lesson learned.
Without getting too hung up in the numbers, let's get some basic facts. The average person has about 2000 calories in their glycogen stores and about 70,000 calories in their fat stores. So that means if you're racing in a sprint, you really don't need to consume anything during a race. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, it just means you could get away with not doing it. What's the reality? For me... I burn about 1000 calories an hour at sprint effort and I can finish a sprint in just under an hour. So that leaves me with 1000 calories to spare assuming my glycogen stores are filled. In the case of a sprint, I would probably take a gel shot (100 calories) as soon as I got on the bike and maybe another when I started my run. For anything longer than a sprint, I move to my standard nutrition plan.
Through the process of trial an error, I have come up with my plan. I started off with some basic information I gathered from one of the gel manufacturers' web site. It stated that an average person can "process" between 240-280 calories an hour. Note the word "process". What this means is that even though you could be burning 600-1000 calories an hour, an average person can only process about 240-280 calories an hour without having some sort of stomach issues.
While trying to determine your plan, you should know that what you can eat while you're on the bike is not necessarily what you can eat on the run. It's much harder to consume solids while running... and still breathe. If solids are your thing my advice is to take small bites. In addition, an aggressive bike position also makes eating a little more difficult since you're in an awkward position to begin with. Obviously you could break aero to eat but then you'd be defeating the purpose of an aerodynamic bike. Don't sweat it though, you can practice all of this while training and work it out before race day.
So the typical question is... what should I eat and how much? All of this is very individual and requires a small amount of trial and error. For me, I first started off with determining what I liked versus what I didn't like. I found that I really don't like gels. Most of them don't taste very good to me, I can't survive on them for anything longer than an hour or two, and if I eat too many, I get indigestion. I like solids. I have a combination of bars from various manufacturers that I rotate to keep from getting sick of them. My latest collection consists of Lara bars, Nature Valley granola bars, Odwalla bars, Cliff Bars, and Balance bars. Also, you're not just limited to bars and gels, there's an entire selection of products that you can drink produced by manufacturers such as Infinit, Carbo-Pro, Endurox, and Accelerade to name a few.
Depending on how long and how hard the workout, I typically consume about 400 calories an hour broken up into 30 minute intervals. I usually start off with a bar of about 240 calories and then follow it up with a Nature Valley granola bar (170 calories). On the really hot days, I need a little more and might double up on the bigger bars but if I start to feel full, I’m probably eating too much and back it off a bit. The point is that I've played around with it enough in training that I know how my body reacts to different situations and I know how to adjust it accordingly. It's no different than the other aspects of training; you need to practice in order to get this dialed in. Even still something can go wrong like the other day with my Taco Bell meltdown but I was able to recognize the problem and get back on track.
My advice for you is to start off with eating a specific number of calories at regular intervals. Once you get into that habit, if you need to, increase the number of calories per hour until you feel like you're not bonking. For me, that number was 350 but I continued to play with it and found that I could get to 400 without causing issues. Like most people, I can eat more on the bike than when I run so I like to pack away as much as I can-when I can. Those extra calories allow me to back off my consumption on the run when I need to. In the case of Coeur d'Alene this year, I switched to gels during the middle of the run due to my increased pace. The gels are easier to get down but have fewer calories. Fortunately I had plenty of gas left in the tank and was able to finish the race successfully despite my reduced consumption.
As a final note, there is recent research that shows a benefit to using nutrition with a 4:1 carbohydrate-protein ratio. While most of the products I use have this ratio, I have not found any significant difference to those that do not. My own personal conclusion on this theory is that most of the products I like already have this ratio so I'm going to stick with them. However, if you're into gels, the only gels that I know that have this ratio are Accel Gels from Accelerade. This is not a product endorsement and in fact, while I did like the taste of their gels, I found their packaging to be cumbersome.
Good luck and happy eating.
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