Hi Luke,
What seems to be confusing you? What was your nutrition plan looking like originally? Many people confuse a good nutrition race day plan with \'eating healthy\'. You don\'t need low-glycemic carbohydrates while racing, that will only delay the time it takes your body to process the carbohydrate into useable fuel. Simple, high-glycemic carbohydrates keep your body from tapping into your glycogen stores. If you have any questions...ask away.

Hi Colleen,

I think it's very hard to give you a straight up answer without looking at your position on a bike.  Tri bikes certainly help with a better position while riding in the aero bars.  But if you have a hard time staying in the aero bars, or plan to ride and race a lot of hilly courses there's no reason you can't set yourself up well on a road bike.  The main benefit to Tri bikes is that they open up your hip angle and keep you from reaching for the aero bars.  I think the step up from your current bike will be a huge help no matter what you choose.  If you're thinking longer term, you may want to just go straight to a Tri bike.  That will save you another purchase down the road.

Hi Steve, thanks for your comment.
Comfort is important, for sure, but you can't dismiss the benefits of aerodynamics. If you're set up correctly on a tri bike you will go much faster than using a normal road bike. Yes, the road bike position is more comfortable and always will be, but if you ride in the aero position enough in training you can easily get through 180km feeling ready to run fast. As professional Ironman athletes, we can honestly say you'll never finish a 180km TT feeling 100% comfortable. Our necks, backs, shoulders, crotches are always somewhat sore by the end of it. Yes, if you're set up so poorly that you can't stay in your aero position for the entire race, then there is not much point to a tri bike. Or, as we've seen before, if some folks are too scared to stay in the aero bars on the downhills - perhaps a road bike would be a better option as well.
Looking at your Lance Armstrong and Indurain comment...they were constrained by UCI rules that only allowed their seats to be 4cm (maybe more) behind the bottom bracket. They could not be any further forward, no matter what. Had they not had those rules they would have had much different positions in their time trial bikes.
Sitting further forward allows you to be more aerodynamic without closing off your hip angle. It's a worthy change that can save incredible amounts of time in an Ironman. The right amount of training and proper set up will get you through the day.
All the best,
Trevor and Heather Wurtele

As an addition to this post - For Ironman Arizona, 2011 Trevor went with gluten free, blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Topped with almond butter and jam, butter and cinnamon honey, almond butter and real maple syrup. Topped that off with Ultragen, coffee, banana, We'd say it worked very well - 8:22 overall time and a strong 2:51 Ironman marathon.

Or not.

Most pharmacies have them. Probably in the nail polish aisle:)

Hi Barb,
Thanks for the question. You may want to look at doing a bit of bare foot walking. Walking on a beach for 10 minutes a few times per week, perhaps some clean grass or rubber running track. You really have to be careful with bare foot \'running\', but once your feet are strong enough to tolerate it, it\'s a great little tool to have.
In our opinion some people go WAY overboard with it. We use it now and again simply to work a few foot muscles that we would otherwise not use in a running shoe. However, we\'re now at the point where we run in racing flats 80% of the time so that keeps our feet fairly strong.
I stress - start with walking and don\'t move into trying a bare foot jog (and a short one at that) for quite some time.
Cheers!

Hi Chip,

Thanks for your question.

Sometimes we do mix liquid shot with water. For a full Ironman, however, we tend to simply fill up a normal water bottle with about 2000 calories of liquid shot. We usually use a clear water bottle for the liquid shot and mark it in quarters so we can see how much we\'ve consumed during the race.
When we said \"We usually mix our bottles to that concentration\" we were talking about the drink mixes. In a half ironman we do sometimes dilute the liquid shot with water simply to make it even easier to swallow.
Another factor to consider is the weather. Sometimes a race like Lake Placid can go either way. If it\'s a cold day you may end up consuming less water for every calorie. When you\'re racing, try not to over think it. Just have a general plan and pay attention to how you\'re feeling physically, that can tell you a lot.

Yes, I typically perform a triple sow-cow upon my treadmill dismount. Errrr, that\'s figure skating, never mind. :)

Thanks for your question.

Most people do have a higher max HR while running as opposed to running. More important, however, is deciding whether or not this measurement will affect the way you perform in either event. More than likely it won\'t make any difference.
If you\'re basing some training zones off of your max HR perhaps you could also include some other form of measurement. This is where using power on your bike can be very beneficial.