Long course nutrition
This is a much ask question and concern, thankfully the answer is really quite simple.
Nutrition in a long course event is just as important as logging all those hours training. If you can follow these guidlines in training, make a few adjustments to suit your body and stick to it on race day you will be fine.
It doesn't matter wether you get you get your carbohydrate calories from solid of lquid as long as your stomach can tollerate what you are consuming. The key is finding out what works for you, my personall advice is to get most of your calories in a fluid / gel form and eat solid food to keep the hunger pangs at bay.
So how many carb calories do you need? If you follow this formula then you will be close to it: -
1gm of carbs (4cal) per kg of body weight per hour
You may need to adjust this number up or down dependant upon your personal tollerances.
So for exampl a 75 kg male will need 75 x 4 = 300 cals per hr
or a 55kg female will need 55 x 4 = 220 cals per hr.
Along with this you will need fuild and electolytes at the rate of 500-1000ml per hr. This will depend on body size and temperature.
My preference is to make up a concentrated sports drinks with flavoured and plain for half my needs and another for my special needs bag, which I'll pick up at the half way point. With the aim of drinking the first concenrate by the half way point. I will also supplement this with and energy bar to keep the hunger away. I always sip the concentrate and follow it with plain water.
This approach means I can train with what I am going to use on race day and I only ever need two bottle on my bike, one with concentrate and another with straight water.
Another way to make a concentrate is to put the required number of your favourite gel straight into a bottle. This saves having yur top tube taped with them.
In hot races a loss of appetite is quite common, so if you plan on a lot of solids you may not be able to take it on board, so be prepared to use more gels and fluids.
Practice what you are going to do on race day in training, adjust accordingly to meet you bodies needs and thats it.
