Ironman Port Macquarie 2023
As I posted in my pre-Ironman blog, Shutup and take my money! twelve months ago, I decided to do an ironman, checked with my wife and committed to sleeping in the study if I was really tired. Then I entered the event, convinced a mate to join me, booked the accommodation and the flights. I also had a medical checkup and blood tests done to make sure I had no underlying health issues. During my 2022 Year in Review, I set myself the goal of finishing in the top 25% of my age group, which is around where I placed when I was doing regular triathlons before children. After four and a half months of training off the back of a road cycling season, I was ready for the event, or so I thought. The truth is nothing can totally prepare you for an Ironman and nor should it. As the saying goes, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it and to quote Mike Tyson, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
But firstly, a warning, some of
this content is very nerdy, detailed and could put some people to sleep, so I
will flag a Nerd Alert in advance so you can
skip over it if you wish to and get to the good bits faster, rather than
getting stuck in the detail. I’ve also
added a few hyperlinks so you can access further detail if you’re interested. The
photos of my event can be accessed here and general event
photos here.
Touchdown Port Macquarie, home of
the Oceania Ironman Championships. The
airport is buzzing with triathletes and their oversized luggage. The flight wasn’t packed, but just as well
when a few disappointed triathletes were told that their bikes would be on the
next flight because the Dash 8 aircraft was filled to capacity.
I checked into our Airbnb around
lunchtime, just before my friend Grant from Sydney, a veteran of 16 ironman
events and his wife Jenny arrived. Grant
was originally planning to join me doing the event, but a recent injury put
paid to that. We were situated less than
a kilometre from the race start and town centre. I assembled my bike and headed
out for a shakeout ride on the south side of the course towards Tacking Point Lighthouse (below)
and to test myself on the
infamous Matthew Flinders Drive a 200m pinch at the 172km mark of the ride. First thing I
notice is that I have no power reading coming from my power pedals after
putting them into flight mode before travelling. Instructions say that the
charger is required to wake them up. Now there’s a problem, rookie error one,
my charger is in Melbourne. I’ll see someone with the same pedals or find a
charger at one of four local bike shops. I ride on, the roads are as “rough as
guts” as my dad used to say, especially on the curb side. Chip sealed roads
with lots of ruts. No wonder they changed the Ironman bike course. Fortunately,
during the event I’ll have more choice of where to ride in the middle of the
road. I make my way out to Lighthouse Beach, which is sublime. I’d watched a
preview of the Matthew Flinders Drive climb and knew to attack it with as much
speed as possible and got to the top with a medium amount of effort. It was
surely going to be a different sensation after 172km.
I returned to the house and
headed out for a 30min run in the twilight, just enough time to get to the
start of Settlement Point Road where the road is very exposed to the afternoon
breeze and turned around. I felt strong
and the niggling left hip flexor I had treated the day before was no trouble at
all.
The swim course was open on
Saturday morning between 6:30 – 8:30am, so a chance for competitors to get a
feel for the tide and the water. The
water temperature was a pleasant 21 degrees Celsius, and tide assisted for the
first part. There were a lot of boats in
the water, but the course was well marked.
I covered the 1.2km in about 25min and headed back for breakfast.
My front tyre was looking worn and cracked so I swapped a better spare tyre onto my front wheel. Still, I was not 100% certain of the tyre choice (the ones that came with the second-hand TT bike purchased 12 months ago and were probably 10 years old) and Iron sherpa Grant agreed. Fortunately, Gordon Street Cycles around the corner and two new Vittoria Corsa tyres were purchased on the recommendation of the owner. Rookie error two, I declined the offer to have them fitted and took them home only to struggle to get them onto my rims without risking a pinch flat. Back to the bike shop where even the mechanic struggled to achieve the feat, but he did it.
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| Grant Berthold - Iron Sherpa |
In the meantime, I prepared my kit, special needs bag for the bike and two transition bags. Once I had everything laid out, I called Grant in to run through the list and cross check. He pulled up his One Note list and made sure that I had absolutely everything I needed. The special needs bag for the bike is available at the 110km point. I packed it on the recommendation of Paul Gladwell, who had two flats on the course last year. It contained a banana, some pain relief, spare tube and third CO2 canister.
With bike gears tuned and bags packed, Grant and I headed down to rack the bike and put my transition bags in place. It always a great sight to see more carbon fibre per square metre than your nearest airport. My Kuota Kalibur had a vintage look to it amongst the high spec machines, but as Lance Armstrong once said, it is not about the bike, but he was probably referring to something else.
By late in the afternoon my mum Judy and her partner Alan arrived. They are on their way around Australia after leaving Shepparton 3 weeks ago and timed their trip around the event. It was great to have them around as support. Mum helped me prepare dinner and we relaxed with a game of Scrabble. Next my brother Jarrod from Melbourne arrived, and we sat down for a prerace meal. Jarrod is a veteran of 3 Ironman events, so he also knew what I was in for. Post dinner the Iron sherpa pulled out his laptop and started planning race day logistics, so that they could maximise the number of places they could support me from. With estimates loaded, there was a gap where they could swing by the airport and pick up Paula, my wife who was landing around midday.
Also, worth noting during the day before that I was consciously consuming plenty of carbs, sodium and water in preparation for event day. This is an essential strategy where you are going to burn upwards of 8-9000 calories in a day.
Tomorrow was the big dance, so I headed off to bed around 9pm and set my alarm for 4:45am. Even though my event would not start until around 7:20am, it’s important to drink and eat early to give everything the best chance of digesting. I want to call it event day, rather than race day, because I am doing the event to finish in a goal time in the range of 10:30 – 10:40. Whether I come first or last, the only person I am competing against is myself. The sense of anticipation was immense and even though I knew I had metaphorically dotted every “I” and crossed every “t”, it was hard to switch off. I probably managed 5 hours sleep and fortunately the night before that I got 9, so I was not in any major sleep deficit.
Event Day
4:45am came too quickly. I was fast asleep as the alarm sounded and I
went about my regular pre-race breakfast routine of hydrating, having breakfast
(details below) and the same core exercises I’ve been doing every morning for 18 years. I
changed into my trisuit and gathered what I needed for the start. Meanwhile Grant emerged and had the first of
many coffees for the day and by 5:40am we walked down to the event site. I placed my 3 drink bottles, bento box, helmet,
glasses and a few gels on my bike and checked the tyre pressures on my bike.
I did a 1km run just to get my
heart rate up to wake up the various energy systems with different paces. I would have done this routine in the water,
but the age groupers were not allowed to enter the water before the race. By 6:30am I am back sitting down with Grant
and taking it all in. It is an hour to race time, so I eat a banana and drink
some more water. The Half Ironman starts and my Gruppetto colleagues, brother
and sister combo Gabriel and Chantal Katerelos, are in the field. They
will both do well in their respective age groups.
Twenty minutes before start time
I make my way to the starting coral. The
atmosphere is pumping with amped up music, enthusiastic competitors and well-wishing
supporters.
I seeded myself in the 1:05 to 1:15 swim group based on my training times and waited in line for my start. I hear a “Hey Mick” and it is Jarrod only 2 metres away taking snaps. What a buzz, talk about being in the moment.
Back up and over the
weir before hitting the running tide head on.
I do my best to find some feet feet to slipstream off in the water and let those
in front do the hard yards.
I head out of transition and to
the bike racks which are still full around my age group area. Bike computer on, helmet on, glasses on, 3
gels in the back pocket and I am off. The
course heads north-west out of Port Macquarie towards the airport and then goes
out as far as Wauchope before turning around.
The first thing I notice is the weight of the bike, which turns out to
be 13.3kg all loaded up. (see below for
details). This is a new course which
includes more climbing than previous years at about 1625 vertical metres. There are two large laps on the northside and
a smaller lap of the half Ironman course on the southside of Port Macquarie
which turns at Lake Cathie. The hills
are best described as undulating, except for Matthew Flinders Drive, which is a
short pinch which hits around 24%.
Drafting is illegal in triathlon, so the onus is on the riders to maintain 12 bike lengths between the rider in front if you are not passing. The penalty is 5min in the penalty box, which is enough to take the wind out of most people’s sails. I must ride my own race and not worry about other competitors. Some will be faster and others slower. If I control the controllables, I will put myself in the best position for a strong run.
Nerd
Alert – Bike computer settings
I have my bike computer screen
set to display Power, gradient, speed, heart rate and cadence. Power is the most important of these. My intention for the event is to average 213
watts for the day, which according to BikeCalculator should see me complete the course in 5:20 to 5:30, but holding a
single number on undulating roads over that time is not my objective. This is where knowing the gradient kicks
in. I will adjust my power output
according to the gradient as the hill kicks in as I outline below. If you want to know more about this check out
Best Bike Split, which is designed
to help cyclists optimise their power over courses to be consistent.
Over 8% 330+ Watts
6-8% 300 Watts
4-5% 270-280 watts
2-3% 240-250 watts
-1 to 1 % 210-230 watts
-2 to -3% 180 watts
-4 to -6% 160 watts
Over -7% 120 watts
On an undulating course, speed is
an arbitrary number, I am aiming to average just under 34 km/h, but it is not
important. Heart rate will tell me how
hard I am working and I will aim to sit in high Zone 2 and Low Zone 3 for the
day, which for me is between 135 to 145 beats per minute.
Cadence tells me how pedal
revolutions I am doing per minute. It is a reminder for me to keep it light on
the legs. This is an endurance sport, so
no point riding with a low cadence and overloading the legs. I usually ride around 90-95 RPM and average
88 for the day.
The other feature I use on the
computer is an alarm to remind me to drink every 15 minutes and to eat ever
half-hour. These prompts will keep me
hydrated and nourished during the ride to avoid bonking (running low on energy)
or cramping.
0 to 72km Lap 1
Once clear of the township area, I
settle into my rhythm on the bike. Not
too fast and not too slow. I remind
myself it should feel easy at first and it does. Drink, eat, ride, and watch the power meter is
my mantra for the next 5.5hrs. The rolling hills kick in once
I cross the Hastings River bridge and the chip sealed roads are decent. The wind is ever present, but not too bad. The
temperature for the day ranges from 14 to 24 degrees, which is ok and yes, I
did remember the sunscreen. My cheer
squad is out with the whole crew at the Wauchope turnaround which gives me a
boost. I am noticing a lot of riders
have been forced to stop and repair flat tyres, which is unfortunate, but it is
a part of racing.
My nutrition strategy which I go
into more detail at the bottom of the post was to be as self-sufficient as
possible. I’m consuming an 800ml bottle
of my home-made sports drink containing 90grams of carbohydrate and either a
gel or bar with a minimum 25grams of carbs very hour. I have a concentrated bottle of drink mix on
the bike which I will make me 3 bottles when I need them. I stop around the 70km mark after two hours
and mix my drinks with water supplied by the event organisers. The volunteers are very accommodating and do
a great job.
72 to 126km Lap 2
One lap down and two to go. It’s just a matter of keeping my power
consistent and not getting ahead of myself.
Everyone is on their own pace goals and doing their best. There are a few riders who I seem to have
around me all day. They spurt up the
hill and back off on the descents. I
just keep my pace steady and routinely pass them on the downhill sections.
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Around the 84km mark my chain fell off as I was changing from the big to small chain ring. I could not recover it whilst riding so I stopped and put it back on. I took the opportunity to take a nature break well off the road, which you are not meant to do in triathlon, but it seemed a perfect opportunity. At the Wauchope turnaround, I grab a gel, half a banana and a bottle of water just to have a break from the sports drink. Jarrod, Mum and Alan are there to cheer me on, which is appreciated.
126 – 180km Lap 3
Heading south was a welcome
change of scenery. Paula, Grant and
Jenny were on the roadside as I entered the outskirts of Port Macquarie. Nice to know that Paula made is safely and
was now being chauffeured around the course by the Iron Sherpa. The course headed back on itself to the
transition zone, through the township and towards the lighthouse. The atmosphere was electric with people
ringing cow bells and shouting words of encouragement.
My right foot is starting to
develop a hot spot, which is not a good sign.
Hopefully it won’t bother me on the run, or it’s going to be a long
afternoon. Jarrod has made his way-out past Lighthouse Beach and it is standing
on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I take the opportunity to drop the two empty
drink bottles I have on the bike. Every
bit of less wind resistance is going to help at this stage. I take in my first caffeine of the day, a Maurten Gel 100Caf 100 about 20-30min before I expect to need it. The rest of the support crew are at Lake
Cathie turnaround. Honestly someone
needs to do a study about the impact of support on the course because it lifts
me every time even though I’ve usually got my head down and give nothing but a
thumbs up to indicate how I’m feeling and that I appreciate their support.
The bike leg is coming together
nicely. I’ve stuck to my plan for power
and nutrition, consuming an average of 107g of carbohydrate per hour. (full
details below) The last obstacle in my
way is the short and steep, Matthew Flinders Drive climb. To give you some idea how steep this hill is,
the organisers place carpet on the side of the road so that people who struggle
with the climb can walk their bikes up. I’m
caffeine loaded and ready for it.
My power spikes to 450 Watts and within a couple of seconds I am doing 9km/h and turning the pedals at 41 RPM, about as low as you can go without falling off. I crest the hill doing about 360 Watts with little choice in the matter. The fans on the hill are egging me on to pass another rider by my side, but I am not falling for it.
Back through the town area for
the last time and into transition for T2.
I grab my bag off the rack and sit down to change shoes, put my 2XU calf
guards on and grab my sunglasses and concentrated drinks.
The run course is 4 laps of
10.5km along the Port Macquarie foreshore. There is a decent hill and some exposed
parts. Total elevation gain is just over 300 metres. Only did I realise once I
was out of transition that I had forgotten to pick up my visor and emergency
pain relief. Iron Sherpa is along the
fence and loans me his Ironman cap. Rookie error three for the day. It’s a beautiful afternoon, the sun is
shining and the breeze is providing a little relief. My plan is to run 5:10-5:15 per km, which
will give me a marathon time of 3:40-45.
0-23km
I get into my shuffle (short strides and fast cadence) and I am running just under 5:10 per km for the first few kilometres. One of the lead female age groupers in the 35-39 category has the same objective, so we run together for the first 12km. I need a nature break, so I take the opportunity and quickly get back to my planned pace. My support crew is spread all around the course and giving me a lift. Jarrod has placed bright yellow signs around the course and chalked messages of support on the footpaths of Port Mac. Thanks to the name bib, I hear my name from what seems like a thousand strangers and there amongst them just after the rise is Steve and Gabriel Katerelos from Gruppetto. I felt like I was the most supported athlete on the course.
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23-42.2 km
Everyone has a plan until they
get hit in the mouth. My hit was a
tightening left hip flexor which was severely limiting my ability to run. My
first thought is should I retire from the event so that I do not make the
injury any worse. Then I think of my
support crew who have been there all day for me. They did not come to see me DNF. At least I can still walk and put one foot in
front of that other. I do the math,
19km to go means at least another 3 hours of walking, ok I will do that. Paula appears on queue and asks me if I want
some pain relief. I say yes, when I see
her next. Rookie error four, I should
have stopped and taken them on the spot.
Fortunately, Paula followed me
and encouraged me to stop and see if some targeted stretching might provide
some relief. Unfortunately the
stretching does not help. I was
beginning to feel cold on account of all the ice I had been using and because I
had slowed down to a walk. Paula gave me
her jumper, but I was still feeling the wind chill. Paula sends me off and heads to Kmart to buy
me a polar fleece.
As I near the far end of the
course on Settlement Point Drive, I have mild hypothermia and all I want is
a warm drink. There is a local family
sitting out the front of their house and I stop to explain that I’m really cold
and ask them if they would make me a coffee and I’ll have it on my way back in
a few minutes time. They agree and it is
just in the nick of time. Paula arrives
with another jumper and the kind locals with a hot coffee. I’m now wearing two jumpers and walking
along, trying to do my best Kath and Kel power walking impersonation by pushing my shoulders back, pumping
my arms and walking from the hips. Now
there’s sight you will not see every day and just as well.
I continue, others around me stop
and walk, so I encourage them to keep pace with me and we talk, united in our
disappointment that we have failed to reach our potential today. Now that I have slowed to a walk, I pick up
Anzac biscuits and pretzels from the aid stations to keep my energy high. Jarrod greets me around the turnaround and calls
my son Matthew on the phone. We talk
briefly via Facetime and it is uplifting to have his support.
With just one lap to go I am
ready to guts it out and get this over an done with. I managed to go from 6km/h to 7km/h. I am still battling with the cold and
oscillate from one jumper to two depending on the wind. As the wind dies down in the darkness and
with some extra pace, no jumper required.
At the 41km mark a random spectator
starts walking beside me. I ask him who
he is supporting, and he says me. The
smell of his breath suggests that he’s had a few drinks, but he seems harmless
enough. Before too long he’s talking on
his mobile phone telling people that he’s running in the ironman and taking
drinks from the aid station like he’s the real deal. Jarrod greets me about 400 metres out from
the finish. I handover the jumpers and
try to run. Either, my body is ready to respond or those extra strong pain
killers have kicked in. I almost trip over my drunken old mate and ask
for some personal space. He’s got no
intention of heeding my message.
Jarrod’s there as my protector, so he manages to swing him away and let
me enjoy my finish.
I take the last turn and find
myself on the red carpet that is the finishing straight. I see the bell and joyously ring it. My whole support crew is there and I’m high
fiving complete strangers who are there to celebrate. I raise my arms in celebration, I hear the MC
trying to get my name right, which they do after 3 attempts and cross the line in a
time of 12:00:20. I am an Ironman.
Conclusion
What a day! In terms of hours, this
is the longest event I have ever attempted.
Not the hardest day out, I would save that honour for 3 Peaks back in
2019. The ironman is my proudest
achievement as a physical challenge.
Although I did not hit my lofty goal of a 10:30-10:40 finish time, I did
manage to squeeze into the top 25% of my age group, which was my original goal.
Despite my four rookie errors for
the weekend, none of them spelt disaster for me, although the pain relief might
have helped me keep running for longer.
It is such a great event, just for the stories you hear about other competitors, like the fellow first timer I met at the Event HQ a day later whose right leg was bandaged from below his knee to half-way up his femur. A fellow competitor swerved into him only a kilometre into the ride and forced him into a bollard. He initially thought he had broken his leg. He got back on his bike without medical attention and kept going. His time for the day was 3.5 hours more than he expected and he was more determined than ever to do another ironman.
I bumped into Lachlan Earnshaw, a young guy from Newcastle who diarises his training on his YouTube channel and had just completed his second ironman. He was dealing with his disappointment of not reaching his target time, but still came third in the 18-24 age group in a time of 10:33 and qualified for the Ironman World Championships, which is a massive achievement.
At the airport I meet Alex, a young guy from NZ who was did his first ironman. He had spent a few weeks in hospital a couple of months before the event and didn't even know if he would be able to make the start line, let alone finish.
On the flight home I sit next to Minnie from Hong Kong. She narrowly made the swim and bike cut-off times
before finishing in a time of almost 16 hours. It truly is an inspirational
event.
I had the best support crew I
could possibly want, family and friends with the right amount of humour,
encouragement and love to get the job done.
A week later I am still nursing a
very sore hip flexor which is improving every day. I may be an ironman, but I am walking like an
old man.
Acknowledgement and thanks to
My family Paula, Matthew, Liam,
James and Lachlan who put up with me and my strange habits for the past 4.5
months and supported me on the day and post event.
My mum Judy and her partner Alan
and my brother Jarrod for traveling to Port Macquarie to support me.
My iron Sherpa Grant for his sage
like advice and his wife Jenny for their logistical support
My Northside mates Roger, Ben,
Gareth, Luke and Kris who trained with me on the bike and in the pool.
My Southside mate Tim who spent
almost half a day with me every two weeks while we did long rides on Beach road
and a practice half IM event at Albert Park.
My Eastside mate Simon who came
out and rode 6 hours with me in the hills and provided much encouragement.
My masseuse and occasional cycling nemesis, Liam Delaney from Vigor Fitness who got my body as ready as it could be for the event.
Everyone who posted a kudos. message of
encouragement and congratulations on Strava.
The team at TrainerRoad who put
together a plan which prepared me well for the event.
Andrew Patton at Day Out sports
for the exceptional kit.
And thanks to the volunteers who make it all possible.
To everyone, this blog is my gift to you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it.
Nerd
Alert – Equipment List
Trisuit - Day Out Sports (local Melbourne brand, headed up
by Andrew Patton)
Aero Socks by Day Out Sports (will
save you 5 Watts at 40km/h, well above my intended average)
Watch Garmin Fenix 6
Wetsuit - DHB Aeron Ultra wetsuit from Wiggle. Great buoyancy where it counts and very watertight.
Bike - Kuota Kalibur IT (circa 2005-8) with HED tri Spoke and solid rear disc: Victoria Corsa 25mm tyres: 10 speed Dura Ace 12/28: Crankset FSA 54/42: ISM saddle: Profile Sonic Stryke aero bars: Profile bottle cage mounted on aero bars: Favero Assioma Duo power pedals: Garmin 1030 bike computer: 3 bottles: bento box: mini tool: 2x CO2 canisters and valve: Spares bag: 2 spare tubes: tyre levers: a packet of patches, just in case. (13.3kg)
Run
Skechers Go Run Fast – easy to
slip on and no laces to tie.
2XU visor and Calfguards
Everyday sunglasses
Could do different.
Carry less fluid and rely more on
the oncourse aid stations could have saved at least 1kg, but a 1kg saving with
my power and speed would have only made me a minute faster. It would have also mean that I would have to
substitute my nutrition away from the products I normally use. More on that below where I analyse the event
supplied Gatorade and why it may not be a good idea.
FAQs
Did you lose weight during the
training? No, my weight stayed stable.
My waist is smaller, and I’ve put on muscle in the arms, shoulders and
legs.
Did you lose weight because of
the event? No, when I got home two days later, I weighed the same as I did
before I left.
Do you have a coach? No, I’ve
been using TrainerRoad for the past
four years. I enter my events into the
app and it produces a training plan based on the time I have to train, my level
of fitness, feedback and progression using AI.
It’s brilliant and I don’t know why more people don’t use it. During the ride I posted my best ever power numbers between 3:30 - 5:35, which is testament to their training plan. I also glean a lot of useful infromation from the following science backed podcasts: TrainerRoad: Successful Athletes Podcast: The Science of getting faster: Trivelo - Get Fast Podcast: Triathlon Nutrition Academy: The Cycling Performance Club (formerly Semi-Pro Cycling) and Effortless Swimming on YouTube.
How much training did you do for the event? 14-18 hours a week, slowly ramping up over the duration. I started on 9th December 2022, after having 5 days off following the Tour of Bright, 3 stage bike race.
When’s your next event? As
much I said one and done, I could see myself doing an Ironman once every 5
years if I had mates who were interested in doing it. Otherwise, it’s back to the winter cycling
season here in Melbourne and the Northern Combine’s Jack Woods Memorial at Broadford on
the 27th May.
What would I do differently
next time?
- Only train on the type of terrain, I will encounter at the event. My 28km training run out at Park Orchards two weeks before the event put too much strain on my body and was the cause of my hip flexor injury.
- Get that hip flexor treated immediately and probably not run on it between the injury and the event.
- Get a massage at least once a month during training to ensure that my body was in peak shape leading up to the event, rather than 4 days before.
- Fit new tyres to the bike at least a week before the event. No one wants months of training interrupted by inferior tyres on event day.
- Seed myself in the faster swim group. Being able to swim on the feet of faster swimmers would have saved me a few minutes. As it was, I had one of my best open water swims and caught a lot of swimmers who end up drafting off me.
- Empty my bags out onto the ground in transition to make sure I looked at everything I needed. I missed by visor and pain relief at T2. Fortunately, Grant loaned me his hat and my wife had pain relief for me.
- Put a head torch in a special needs bag for the run. It gets dark quickly and some of the course is not well lit or has uneven surfaces.
- Have a warm jumper in the special needs bag or with a support person to hand to you if you get cold.
- Have a support crew person get you your warm drink of choice if you need it.
- Take a week off after the event and go somewhere warm. Although I still had a lot of adrenaline flowing through my body, I think I would have benefitted from switching off for a week rather than going back to work on Wednesday.
Nutrition
Nutrition is often referred to as
the fourth leg. Get this wrong and it’s
going to be a very long day and an even longer recovery period. I am very happy with the nutrition strategy I chose.
Dinner
Pasta bakes with roasted
vegetables, cream, ricotta, tomato pasatta, paprika and cheese, served with a
green salad and bread.
Breakfast (143g carbs)
600ml of warm water with a couple
of teaspoons of Sole.
120g rolled oats 66g carbs with
maple syrup 20g carbs and a small handful walnuts 2g carbs, but some omega 3
fats which help act as an energy transporter.
2 slices of Fruit loaf 43g carbs
with peanut butter 1.4g carbs and marmalade 10g carbs
Pre-event snack (25g carbs)
Banana 25g carbs and water
Nerd
Alert – Carbs on Bike (530g)
2x90g per 800ml bottle
1x270g concentrate, about 480ml.
3x50g MyProtein Energy Gel Elite
gels (25g carbs)
1x25g Banoffee oat bar (21g
carbs)
1x50g Mars bar (35g carbs)
Nerd
Alert - Carbs collected during the ride (58g)
1x40g Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100
(25g carbs and 100mg caffeine)
1x8g (third of a banana)
0.5x Gatorade bottle (25g carbs)
Nerd
alert – carbs carried on the run (180g)
180g of home made sports mix
concentrate across two bottles (I was expecting to use 60g per hour and use on
course nutrition for the last 40min, but it didn’t go that way. I used up my concentrate over about 3.5hours
and didn’t need much after that.
My homemade Drink mix per 90g
serve or 1:2 ratio of fructose to glucose. Recipe from Cycling Tips.
(Compare in a table my drink mix against Gatorade. Next step will be to improve the ratio to 1:1.8
fructose to glucose using 64g of sugar and 26g Maltodextrin.
Nerd alert - Homemade drink mix recipe
60g castor sugar dissolved in hot
water (30g fructose & 30g glucose)
30g Maltodextrin powder (30g of
glucose)
1 scoop Magnesium powder
(2.1g magnesium: 681mg calcium: 500mg Glutamine: 500mg Taurine: 681g Calcium:
10.5mg Potassium) – also provides a lemon flavour to the mix
1 tbsp Sole 1434mg sodium
1/2 tsp bicarb soda 630mg sodium
(170mg calcium & 228mg phosphorous) (known to reduce stomach acid/gastric
reflux, buffer lactate only in larger quantities for shorter durations and it
flattens out the taste of the mix)
This mix contains a good balance
of electrolytes which are essential for or basic life functioning, such as
maintaining electrical neutrality in cells, generating and conducting action
potentials in the nerves and muscles.
Comparing my DIY drink mix to Gatorade
Endurance Powder like for like based on an 800ml bottle
|
Ingredients |
DIY Drink mix |
Gatorade |
|
Fructose |
30g |
18g |
|
Glucose |
60g |
32.4g |
|
Total energy (carbohydrate) |
90g |
50.4g |
|
Sodium |
2064mg |
408mg |
|
Magnesium |
2.1g |
|
|
Glutamine |
500mg |
|
|
Taurine |
500mg |
|
|
Calcium |
681mg |
|
|
Potassium |
10.5mg |
180mg |
|
Ratio of Fructose:Glucose |
1:2 |
1:1.8 |
Gatorade drink mix 750ml
(oncourse nutrition).
47.25g carbs
383mg sodium
Takeaway if you are going to use these products, and you are
a heavy sweater make sure you are adding sodium to them and supplement the remainder
with gels or bars. You will also need two or more 25g gels per hour. Also, there’s no
guarantee that the organisers have mixed the product at the ratio you want it
and there’s no way to tell. Gatorade’s
catchphrase is Nothing Beats Gatorade.
I’d beg to differ. I lose an
average of 1500mg of salt per hour which would leave my body in a significant
deficit over the course of the day. Gatorade
is a proprietary product, so I cannot offer any more detail than what is on the
label.
Nerd alert - The day by the numbers
The average human body generally
stores 500 – 600grams of glycogen (carbohydrate) in the muscles, so there’s only
enough energy to get through 5 to 6 hours of the event before the body starts
burning fat as fuel (aka Ketosis), which you don’t want to do in an endurance event. With carbohydrate loading, studies have shown
that people can store a maximum of 15g of glycogen per kilogram of body mass,
so that would give me about 1000-1100grams of glycogen, so this is roughly the
base level that is being topped up continuously during the event.
|
|
Average speed |
Time |
Litres Liquid consumed |
Estimated sweat Loss* (Litres) |
Carbs/Calories consumed |
Calories burned* |
|
Breakfast & pre-event |
|
|
0.8 |
|
167/668 |
|
|
Swim |
3.5km/h |
1:06:07 |
|
0.7 |
11/44 |
802 |
|
Transition 1 |
|
0:06:36 |
0.25 |
|
|
17 |
|
Ride |
32.3 km/h |
5:36:20 |
4.25 |
4.0 |
588/2352 |
4000 |
|
Transition 2 |
|
0:03:24 |
|
|
|
7 |
|
Run |
7.16 km/h |
5:07:51 |
3.0 |
7.3 |
300/1200 |
2914 |
|
Total |
|
12:00:20 |
8.3 |
12.0 |
1066/4264 |
7740 |
*figures from my Garmin watch and
Strava
Links
My event photos from the event
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