Absolutely…if you don’t recover effectively, you lose some of the value of the previous session and potentially compromise the next…
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can you share a data file? - HR/cadence/pace/terrain
@fes2 If you are racing 70.3 and upwards, getting nutrition right will have a profound impact on the day. In training, even on long bike rides and long runs, you may not notice a huge amount of difference, but believe me that training yourself to be able to eat and exercise at the same time is really important.
I have thought about your original post. Initially I thought of course you should be feeling a differenence when you do a long ride with and without food, but then I started to think about my own experience, even up to a couple of years ago, I would do a long club ride without eating, since the intensity was low I certaily wouldn’t bonk. Often I wasn’t hungry, so didn’t bother eating. Where I absolutely did notice was on race day, I could get through the bike underfueled, however, the run would always be impacted. I found in the last couple of years that the more I eat on the bike, the better I run. Now I have a plan how much to eat, I know how many g of carbs I will take on the bike and the run, and I stick to that plan.
I find it amazing how many people finish their IM bike, with 75% of their gels still taped to the bike, it just comes down to lack of planning and lack of practice
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and i wonder how they fare on the run…
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Don’t knock it, that’s what most bike manufacturers base their aero claims on.
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Don’t knock it, that’s what most gel manufacturers rely on…
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I know i made that mistake on the bike in my previous IM.- : Nice- so the whole second half of the bike is down hill so you don’t feel tired/thirsty, then you hit the run.- gulp down loads of liquid to try to make it up.- then slosh home. Very keen not to do that again…- Planning to set a timer or something similar.-
I set an alarm on my garmin to remind me every 15 mins. I probably dont need it now, but still use it. Its especially important in Nice as you are climbing and dont want to eat because you are working so hard, then on the descent, the last thing you want to do is take hands off the bars to get some food.
On the run i take a gel every 4km and a cup of water and coke/red bull at every feed station
Every 10, but i alternate between fluid and food and late on alternate the food between savoury and gel. At key milestones i also take a couple of salt and vinegar hula hoops or a jelly baby.
Water and jelly baby at every aid station, gel every other, and leave the coke until as late as i can
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On the bike , regular 5 hour Sunday rides done on fig rolls - 2 @ 75’ 120’ 165’ 205’ 240’
Works a treat.
None of your cheap fig rolls either. A whole £1 get a packet of mcvities - the Rolls Royce.
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@Blueandy and @explorerJC both confirm that you don’t need expensive sports supplemens or gels. Fig rolls are great, I also use the expensive McVities variety. When I race Ultra’s I have a ziplock bag that contains salted nuts, raisins, dates, figs, jelly babies and bits of chocolate, its pot luck what I get
FWIW, maurten is great, but if I had to choose between Maurten and Jelly Babies, I would take Jelly Babies… also its really great to wind up Americans on Zwift rides describing how I am eating the heads off the jelly babies.
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Peanut butter, jam or cheese sandwiches for me for 11 months of the year, with one bottle of wiggles own brand energy drink or just juice with some salt in.
Race day mix of sport products with bars/gels/bottles (although did my first ironman with some jam sandwiches and a chocolate bar as well)
Not had any issue yet consuming 300-400kcal/hour, but about to start spending some money and and practicing a more established routine.
Ditto except i use sports mix because they take a little longer to eat than jelly babies…
I tried the Luchos Dollitos last year. Everyone raved about them but I didn’t get on with them much. They were like biting into those crystalised fruit things your Gran has at Xmas, just harder.
Bloody expensive also.
My go-to used to be chunks of marzipan- I know the proportions of fat/sugar/protein weren’t right, but every piece was a treat, so the mental lift made more difference.- Marzipan is an “imported for foreigners and therefore premium cost” item over here, So it would be nearly as expensive as the maurten you are all talking about 
Next long ride is going to be snickers and put some hydration salts in the water.- see how that goes.
I love marzipan, hate icing.
I like both.- Would skip the cake if I had to though.
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I ate a snickers in a 20 mile mara prep run, made a nice change to gels.
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Didn’t AB have one in T2 for his first ironman?
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Such a shame they changed the name from marathon!!
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