Strategies for keeping track of how many Perform bottles drank during an IM

GMAN 19030

IMAZ will be my first IM that I will be fueling solely with on the course nutrition.  My plan is to drink 9 or 10 bottles of Perform during the bike.  9 if I decide to eat a Poptart halfway through or 10 if I don't.  My plan is a 5:05-5:10 bike so ~ 350 cals/hour.

Anyhoo... how the hell do I keep track of how many bottles of Perform drank during an IM?  I can see myself sitting on my bike around hour four and thinking was it 7 or 8 bottles so far.

These are the thing I worry about.  

gamb

Lap your GPS every time you finish a bottle?

GMAN 19030

I thought of that but I have autolap set already. I like to know my lap NP and all that to make sure I'm on target.

Still an option though.

Al Truscott

 This is an advantage of the 3 loop course. You only have to add up to 3, not. 9-10. As long as you get 3 bottles per loop, you can do it. Checkout the course map at the event website for locations of aid stations. My suggestion ... Don't get a bottle @ the aid station just after the turn around ( top of the "hill"). Slowing there would just hurt your downhill momentum. Take one bottle @ each of the  other stations, and finish it before the next one. Last loop, hit the 4th aid station as well.

rtagher

For my recent IM I knew my goal was to take in 1.5 - 2 bottles per hour. I leave my GPS go, but set my cheap timex watch for the timer to go off every 10 minutes, reminding me to drink. I knew if I was getting 6-8 oz every 10 minutes I was right on track. You can then tweak it up or down based on your urine output, weather, how you feel, etc.... this method worked very well, but the hardest part is knowing when to swap your bottles out depending on where the next aid station was going to be.

robin sarner

on the hour and half hour, make sure you are finishing a bottle.

novaavant

I set the garmin to alert every ten minutes. I take a swig and finish a bottle every 30 minutes as Robin said above. The ten minute alert also reminds me of the nutrition - gels etc - that I need to take in.

Nate Parady

This is a great question and fun to obsess over.

My one thought on a potential technique for me is just as Jamie mentioned. Hit the interval button eveyr time I finish a bottle. And also just really focusing on each 30 minute interval executing pace and nutrition. 1 bottle should be done at the end of each 30 minutes interval. Something I've been practicing during training.

When counting bottles the conundrum starts when you come upon an aid station and you are only half way through a bottle. Do you ditch it and get a new one? Can you remember that you drank half the contents of one bottle back at mile 40 and then another half bottle at mile 60. This is advanced math at mile 90 of the bike. What happens when you are peeing a lot and simply can't force down 40oz an hour.

harrast

Thanks for getting the ball rolling in this thread. I have a challenging time keeping track of fluid consumption as I sometimes replenish before my a2 is empty, sometimes I'll grab a bottle and chug half before discarding, etc. I am definitely in the market for a better approach. Then there is the issue of carrying concentrate and mixing on the bike, which I have also done. Let's get this figured out.

GMAN 19030

Stupid me. In addition to the Garmin 500 on the bike, I'll have my Garmin 910 on my wrist so I can hit the Lap button on that for every bottle. Problem solved!

Dino Sarti

I know what you are thinking - "was that 5 shots or 6?". Well, to be honest, in all the excitement I kinda lost track myself. Since this is a 357 magnum, the world's most powerful handgun, you gotta ask yourself "do I feel lucky?". Well, do ya, Punk!?!

How about 10 little stickers, like hole punch dots, on your base bar or stem. Peel or scratch one off after every bottle?

Coach Patrick

I use an A2 torpedo mount bottle, all other bottles go here to be consumed. I aim to be on E every 20 or 30 mins.