By the morning of the next day after the race (when I could think just a little more clearly), I suspected this had to be a major issue and it was.  Below is a listing of what I consumed on the bike (before I started running).  I don’t really know what I consumed while running except that I only drank (no eating).  Mostly I had Gatorade, a few times it was Cola during the run.

Calories through Swim & Bike (not run)
Item	Amount	Calories
Protein Bars	0.25	145
Perpetuum (scoops)	12	1560
Gatorade Endurance (24 fl oz bottles)	6	900
Banana	1	170
Power Bar	0.5	120
Shot Bloks (bloks)	5	167
Food Total		3062
Swim (miles)	2.4	-616
Bike (miles)	112	-7316
Exercise Total		-7932
Grand Total		-4870

Verification of this problem appears in my weight loss.  The day before my weight was 183.8 and after the race it was 176.8 revealing a difference of 7 lbs.  Presumably, some of this is water weight although I didn’t feel thirsty so I don’t think liquids was the most significant part of the equation.  I didn’t feel hungry either so perhaps “feelings” are not the best indicator - dahhh.  I have racked my brain and I can't come up with anything else.  Even if I have forgotten some things I ate, it couldn’t have been even 1,000 calories, never mind the 5,000 I was short. (Also, after the race I had roughly 4 pieces of pizza.)

Why so little food?  Initially (within the first 10 miles of the bike) I just didn’t feel like eating.  My taste buds rebelled against the first bar that I ate.  The problem was, I didn’t force it down.  Perpetuum and Gatorade tasted fine so I relied on those heavily.  I mixed the Perpetuum to a strong, slightly less than a paste type consistency – 6 scoops to a 20 fl oz container.  The front compartment of the aero bottle had Perpetuum, which I refilled from my special needs bag.   (I didn’t take anything else from the special needs bag – throwing back all the bars/bloks/etc that were in the bag.)

Even when I started my run I didn’t feel like eating.  I don’t know why for sure, but I suspect one of the problems was consuming Perpetuum with Gatorade rather than water?  Perhaps my stomach wasn’t able to absorb the concentrate of calories?  Doesn’t seem probable but I am grasping for something.  I didn’t use Perpetuum in much of my training (it’s kinda pricey), perhaps my stomach just wasn’t used to it.  I recall running 4+ miles after one 3 hour ride that I did use Perpetuum and I did have the feeling of food sitting in my stomach rather than being absorbed.  I had the same feeling when I started running during this race but it wasn’t something I noticed while biking.  Hmmm…

Mistakes (besides just plain old stupidity):

• Why didn’t I tally up the number of calories I was eating versus what my body needed during the race?
• Why didn’t I have an accurate count of the total number of calories I was burning (all I had was a rough estimate of 700-800 calories per hour but according to mapmyrun.com, it should have been 8000 by the time I finished the bike.
• Why hadn’t I worked the Gatorade and Perpetuum into my calculations of calories while training so that I knew just how insufficient they were?
• During my training I generally under consumed calories and didn’t notice an issue.  I didn’t mind since I was trying to loose weight so under consuming was desirable.  Why didn’t I try the full swim and bike so I could see the combined effect?  (The answer is that I didn’t think the swim would affect me much since I didn’t kick significantly.   I had ignored the fact that the nutrition aspect.)
• Why didn’t I train multiple times with the Perpetuum and Gatorade combination?

Was my poor nutrition preparation and under consumption to blame for my poor performance during the run?  At first I thought yes.  However, according to Mark Allen, we can’t absorb more than 500 calories per hour.  Since I didn’t consume anything on the swim, 3000 calories over a 6 hour bike period is perhaps the best I could do.  Furthermore, according to Andrew R. Coggan in this article, amounts larger than 300 “don't seem to be any more effective in improving performance in laboratory experiments.”  Ben Greenfield’s Kona Ironman plan indicates similar calorie amounts (actually, slightly more and he weighs less).  Given my exhaustion immediately after biking, I suspect I under ate and drank.  Since I didn’t need to use the restroom for my entire bike ride, I don’t think I over ate or drank.

Oh well, no more Ironmans next year and I want to get a 5 hour half-Ironman and an under 5 hour bike under my belt before I try another Ironman regardless.

Saturday, June 30, 2007 12:23:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  Personal | My Sports