70.3 Race Day Nutrition

Everyone has a different formula of what works for them on race day. I know it can take a while to fine-tune it. This is what works for me.

Breakfast is always oatmeal - when I'm racing at home it's steel cut oats in the crock-pot overnight. Otherwise it's some instant thing I can fix wherever. And a banana with peanut butter. I drink 16oz of ZipVit energy drink to wash it all down. I don't drink coffee (gasp!!) - never drink it before training rides, so figure I don't need it race morning. I'm super sensitive to caffeine and before a race it seems to just screw up my blood sugar.

About :30 before the swim start I take a gel.

Bike: Because the ZipVit Energy Gels have 200 calories in them (as opposed to 100 in most other gels), I take 1/2 a gel every 1/2 hour on the bike. So over the course of the bike I take 3 gels, along with 2 bottles of energy drink, and depending how hot it is, 1-2 bottles of water. My final gel on the bike is a caffeine gel, the others are regular.

Run: 2 ZipVit Energy Gels and water. Same thing - the final gel is caffeine. If I am dying I will start using Coke after mile 10 - never before, as it takes me on a wild caffeine high-low crash-feel-good-again ride that does not work for me.

Anyway - hope this helps if you are looking for some 70.3 race day ideas! Happy training/racing!