This is my nutrition plan used on Sundays Sportive. I have been practising this for the last few weeks so I'm happy that it works for me.
- Saturday night a good old pasta meal.
- Sunday morning got up at 6.30 to get porridge in, approx 500cals plus steadily drink a couple of glasses of water to maintain hydration.
- Once we started the event I just sipped water for the first hour.
- I have my Garmin set to bleep every 30mins. So on the hour I use either a Clif bar or a Powerbar Ride the latter was used last Sunday. Each bar was 220cals. Then on the half hour I used SIS gels which are 87cal. This is providing me with just over 300cals/hour.
- In addition to that I had 2 water bottles one with 2 High5 electrolyte tablets in and the other plain water. I drank from both steadily throughout the ride. I didn't refuel at the stops and looking back I felt I could have done with another bottle of water for the last 10-15miles.
When we arrived at the finish I felt ok, a slight lack of hydration but not major and tired legs.
As Dave has said this plan may not suit everyone but it works for me. It's something you have to experiment with and see what your body can handle or not. For example I tried a High5 energy drink the other day and I felt terrible, so I've crossed that off the list. It's better to do all the experimenting in training than in a race
Hope this helps?