super aero 
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Basically same as me then 
Although itās so cool that early in the day, I often struggle to drink all that.
Those cablesā¦my poor eyes 
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Yes. Itās painful. But getting it recabled is nearly as much as I paid for the bike 
I took on 1.5l in an hour and a half on this afternoons ride - with a gel and the full routine two hours before etc.
Seemed okay, but effort wasnāt that high.
A final run through on Sundayā¦in the rain 
Itās all coming back to me now!
Two 750ml bottles in an hour. How big was your bladder after that
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EDIT: an hour and a half. I had to stop after 25 minutes to empty the bladder.
Aim is to drink 500ml in the first 40 minutesā¦EEK!
Clarifying advice on caffeine during race. Seems like consensus for 1/2 or IM distance is none before, and to wait til towards mid bike before starting on caffeine. At this point is advice to load towards 2-3mg/kg, meaning would need to use the extra strong gels/shots? And then maintain levels with the 30mg/100ml gels?
What are the main pitfalls, GI upset from attempting to load? Never attempted loading up that high, have just used around one of the normal caffeine gels (30mg caffeine) per hour during bike/run.
Controversial!!!
I read to smash it in early on in the bike.
(High5 nutrition guide)
Make sure youāre used to it!
Yeah full IM you go for it towards end of the ride so you get full benefit on the marathon. For 1/2 I would go early on the bike. The HIgh 5 guides are good, pre-load, then go 1 caffiene gel per hour to keep on top of it. Because of my size I need a horse sized dose, easy to pre load that but hard to get on the bike. Sometimes use the high strength chewing gum
Yeah had come across the high 5 guide, but hadnāt ever heard much about the concentrated shots/blocks/gum, but if rely on normal strength caffeine gels thatās would be ~7 gels which would take hours to get in! First would be starting to wear off by time got towards 200mg taken in.
SIS do bars with 150mg caffeine. They are palatable, as is all their stuff. In fact I prefer SIS gels to H5 nowadays, the lemon isogels are almost like a dessert, I had one on the run today and it went down a treat.
High5 do the following;
XTreme Caffeine Hit - sports drink. 140mg per 500ml
Isogel Caffeine Hit - 100mg per gel
Thatās 240mg caffeine that can be popped within the first 50 minutes (gel at 10:00, then just keep sipping that caffeine drink until itās gone!)
Pop a ProPlus at 50mg and youāre at ~300mg within the first hour.
Again, make sure youāre used to that much caffeine 
I would be spending the day in the porta loos if I took that much!
I plan to drink a coffee in the morning for cleansing reasons, then two lower caffeine gels during the day (think they have 40mg each), then some coke second half of the run.
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Yes, the normal gels are 30-40mg caffeine.
I drink 3-4 coffees per working day, so am accustomed to a high caffeine load (I should really turn one or two to decaf/half and half!)
If you test this in training, then you can find what works for you 
Like @Jorgan, Iām generally better with SIS than High5ā¦but High5 has been available in Lidl/Aldi for cheaper than Decathlon own brand, so Iāve been using that for nutrition practise for a while now.
I donāt use anything if Out for a nice scenic ride of 4 hours or less. Just normal household food and drinks.
I race with nearly all liquid nutrition. Iāve tried Hammer, SIS, GU etc but my fave option for endurance cycling/IM is ZipVit because at 204cals and 51gm carb per gel, Iām not aware of any other gels that pack that punch.
They definitely need decanting though and they are like wallpaper paste without water.
For running, Iāve found SIS work great as they donāt need water. For trail running and full hydro vest, I have one bottle with Tailwind and the other with water.
Havenāt tried Tailwind on the bike.
I got all my SIS stuff when they had it down by the till in Lidl 
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I bought 4 x 20 gel boxes from wiggle when they had them at Ā£11 a box. sadly, they have not repeated the offer.
I once tried the 20g/Whey protein recovery gel from SIS. Again the lemon flavour is great and the consistency is very dessert like 
Yeah the Lemon whey yogurty thing is good. The strawberry is honking. Its a pretty expensive dose of whey though, but very convenient to chuck in a bag and have at the end of a race.
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Anyone want some 1-2y out-of-date High5 cack?
I got a new dentist a few years ago and gave up using maltodextrin etc about the same time. Was eating/training to maximise fat oxidation by then too, so doing a lot of riding just on water anyway. I now race mostly on isomaltulose (trade name Palatinose) which is non-cariogenic and absorbed slowly in small intestine.