For a half, it's really not so bad to have 2 heavily concentrated bottles of your own mix and grab water if you want from the aid station. For the full, it's kind of annoying, but doable, to have to cart around 4 nutrition bottles and grab waters as well.

Plews must have gotten someone at Ironman to convert to LCHF

---

blog

talk me through this - what exactly is going in your bottles and how are you consuming it?

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

At least it doesn't have stevia in it.

Roughly 140g of carbs / water with 1 gram sodium in each bottle. About every 40k try to work my way through one bottle.

That is great. I just assumed it did. Props on them for making a quality electrolyte drink. Seems like for IM they should supply the one that actually has sugar in it.... but for IM to be mixing this stuff in bulk I can see how it causes issues if you are trying to mix 20 liters at a time and actually get it stirred together.

And why not concentrate it more? You don't need 4 bottles for an IM. I mix up to 750g of sugar in one 950mL bottle for long bike rides, so you can easily get enough carbs for an IM into two 550-750mL bottles.

Ya, I could. Never tried that much. Just spacing out 40k seems reasonable to make sure I'm getting the timing/dose right.

This is where maltodextrin shines. Sucrose=glucose+fructose. Maltodextrin=long chain glucose. I don't know of any reasonably available long chain fructoses, but just swapping glucose for maltodextrin makes the mix taste less sweet and more 'creamy'. It's still a thick mix, but 250g in a 500ml bottle is the limit of dissolution and leaves you needing ~2 in an IM bike.

^^^

---

Kiwami Racing Team

I'm confused by the PF&H thing. It's not like they don't make an energy drink that is specifically targeted at endurance athletes, so it's obviously a conscious choice on the part of IM or PF&H or both, not to offer it. Is it because they already have an energy partner (Maurten?) Or cost?

I do carry all my calories anyway for a half - PF&H 90g gel with a screw top is perfect for the run. I got excited when I first glanced at the announcement as I thought they might be handing out the gels on the run, but sounds like not.

I totally think this is a way for ironman to make two sponsors happy and get more money in the process. Tell Maurten they can be the official fueling partner of Ironman, and whoever ends up winning the hydration bid will become the "Official Hydration" partner. I just wish Maurten would start supplying some 160 or 320 bottles at aid stations, especially on the bike. That would make life easier for many.


Sidenote, but what flavors of Mortal are being provided at the aid stations? I figure they'll use one flavor on bike and a different one on the run like they did with gatorade endurance.

---

USAT Level 1 Coach
Team Next Level
http://goteamnltri.com/

I bet a lobbyist at The Feed convinced them that water is only for hydration. You need GELS and CHEWS for nutrition! Luckily The Feed is running a sale right now where you can pick them up for just $4.25 each.

an so, practically speaking, you've got two bottles on your bike? and one is 'syrup' and the other is water? and you take a mouthful of syrup and then wash it down with water?

and then pick up just water at aid stations?

---

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I do this and have been very happy with it. In years past I've used powerbar hydro (25g/sachet) all dumped into a big water bottle i carry behind the seat. Then a water bottle between the arms w/ electrolyte in it. My standard 70.3 bike program is 100g carbs/hr from 10 powerbar hydros, big sip every 15 minutes. Then at every aid station I grab a water bottle, drink as much as i can from that, if it's hot, squirt the rest on me and then dump it by end of aid station. Then drink off my electrolyte bottle in between aid stations, usually every 10 minutes. I use a big 32oz zefal bottle for that.

This year i'm leaning towards a DIY fuel bottle with the same idea, but probable more in the 120ish g/hr range. I've been using DIY stuff in training to hit those numbers and seem to be handling it. I am playing around with making a 300g bottle that's 3 caffeine gels (3x25g), basically for flavor, and then 225g table sugar to get carbs up. I might split it 112 malto and 112 fructose, but right now the sugar hasn't been beyond my sweetness tolerance, but I could see how it might be for some.

---

USAT Level 1 Coach
Team Next Level
http://goteamnltri.com/

I took the opportunity to try Mortal at Gulf Coast 70.3 this weekend. The stuff is putrid. Undrinkable. To quote my niece when she tasted coconut milk a long time ago "this tastes like anus."

I had to gargle water to get the nasty out of my mouth. That drink would have to make me at lest one minute/mile faster before I would consider it. Thankfully, GC 70.3 also had Gatorade on the course. Truly gross. I cannot believe people actually buy it.

I've only tried one of those before and I think it's quite nice actually...

Anus or coconut water? :)

This is in our family lore. We were in the Coke tent after a 10K, and Coke was giving out their new coconut water product they just acquired. I like other coconut water products I tried, but this one was not that good. My niece was like 8 years old, and when she took a sip and dropped that quote, it reduced a crowd of us to tears of laughter. I still laugh a little remembering it as I type this.

Coconut water first, the anus and Mortal are about on equal footing for any utility of approaching my mouth.