First round of questions in prep for my first HIM - bike aid

I raced NO 70.3 last year, great race...other than the Gatorade issue.  As for aid stations, as you enter the area stay to your right and slow down if you are need something.  If you don't need anything from them, stay left and ride through.  Also, if you have empty bottles/trash you are going to throw away, there will be a trash area leading in and out of the aid station  Call out to the volunteer and let them know what you need, water, G-ade, gel, etc.  I usually point to the person I'm hoping to grab the item from so they are paying attention. Some volunteer may jog along of you to hand up the item.  ONce you have the bottle put it on your cage or refill your aero bottle. 

Good luck and have fun!

So far all of the WTC-branded HIM that I have done have all followed the same basic order for food/drink at the aid stations.  Approx one block before the aid station there will be a bottle drop.  Lose your empties there.  Water, gatoraid, gels/bananas/bars, gatoraid, water (so far all in that order, YMMV).  One more bottle drop right before leaving the aid station, toss any bottles that you poured into your aerobottle.  Porta-potties are mixed in there somewhere and volunteers will often hold your bike for you.

The water and gatoraid volunteers MAY run next to you - most food people tend to stand still.  Don't buzz through at 20 mph and LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDER BEFORE MERGING BACK INTO THE COURSE!  I've seen tons of accidents from people darting in and out of the flow.   Watch out for dropped bottles as well.

Aid stations get kind of hectic.  Slow down, take your time, and thank the volunteers. 

Okay, so I should only take bottles with me that I don't mind throwing away?  I don't have an aero bottle, I just have the regular ones between my knees.  Will I have the option of getting new bottles or will they just be in the screw on type regular container?  Thanks for the quick replies btw!

Yes, be prepared to lose some bottles.  Don't take any nice ones with expensive liners.

They will hand up basic water bottles.  They look like grocery store brands with screw on sports tops.  They'll fit easily into your bottle cages (but likely rattle around a bit, in my experience).  A few races I've done use gatoraid sports bottles (green bottles), but most have used the grocery store brand.  Probably depends on the sponsor.

Yes, be prepared to drop your bottles.  So fill your sports nutrition in throwaway water bottles or something you don't mind losing.  If you're worried about them running out of gatorade, have both of your starting out bottles be a sports drink (whatever you like).  Then at an aid station get rid of an empty one, pick up a water bottle, and now you're set with both water and electrolytes.

If you're really nervous, carry some nuun tablets or single serving Heed or Accelerade.  You can mix this with the water they give you to make a sports drink.  In my 70.3 I only took one water bottle, I had everything else I needed.  Just in case (plus it's faster). 

Thanks for the info guys!  I'm sure I'll think of a million questions in the next 9 weeks.  It's great having a group of people here to answer them for me! 

Good info, reinforces my plan to have gatorade in the aero bottle, Infinit in the one cage and leave the 2nd cage open.  Grab a bottle of water or gatorade on the course.  I am a bit nervous about the aid stations because of the confusion and the chance for a collision.  Spending as  little time as possible in them sounds like a good plan.  Thanks for the info!

For a cool weather HIM I had 16 oz water and 28 oz of Infinit (1000 calories) mixed in water in my areo bottle and about 8 oz in reserve in case I ran low.  It was cold so I didn't need to stop at all for refills.

On my IM temps were moderate 80s, so I grabbed a water bottle every 30 miles. 

On a HIM that was 90's I grabbed a water or gator aid every 15 miles. 

Your HIM will likely have aid stations every 12-18 miles depending on the course.  You can cary an extra GU or 2 if you are worried about them running out of gatoraid or you can just bring Infinit or some such and not worry about what they have/don't have, etc.

Last summer I did the bike portion of a HIM , and later in the summer completed Timberman 70.3.
Both times  I just loaded up my bike with three bottles of a "home made" Infinit mix I make.
One bottle an hour. 
Worked for me........... 

Now when it comes time for an Ironman obviously I will have to make use of the aid stations on the bike........... 

How do you make your homemade Infinit?

x2
Please share!

I shared the recipe with aquagirl so here it is for all of you.

Check out this from my coach from last year's old blog (look down the page a bit) and it explains it pretty well. 

http://try3sports.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

I do 22 grams every 20' on the bike and 15 grams every 20' on the run. 

I make 7 dose bottles with 154 grams including maltodextrin and flavoring I use strawberry lemonade by country time as I tried a bunch and I like it best..so I aim at 144 grams malt and then add ~10 grams of lemonade mix. I add 3 Lava Salts for electrolytes...and use a 28 oz bottle. I probably need to make it 6 dose bottles so not as concentrated. 

Run I use fuel belt flasks and add 29 grams of malt and 3 grams of flavoring with 1 Lava salt. 

He told me the amount of malt various more on height than weight....I backed off a little to the 22/15 amounts back in June. 

Maltodextrin can be bought at honeyville farms for 55# for about $50...and it will last two+ years of IM training.

Hope this helps!

Just to add...

I keep moving through the aid station on the bike. I did see some people stop but I wanted to keep moving. If you want to stop make sure you get over out of the way. I would say 95% of people kept moving so there needs to be a clear path to avoid a pile up

I rode with my aerodrink, and two bottles in a wing off of my seat. At each aid station, I would throw out my empties, and restock my wing. Once clear of the aid station is when I would refill my aerodrink (and then again along the way, when needed). This seemed to work pretty well.

Lastly, before the race I left two pre-opened disposable gatorade bottles in my wing. I almost used my good water bottles but realized it probably wouldn't be a good idea since you have to discard them. No sense in throwing out good water bottles.

I sure hope they don't run out of gatorade again Also, check out the athlete guide for info about how many water stops, etc there should be.

Kids love helping with this.

A friend new to riding has no kids paid her neighbor kids to practice bottle exchanges..they loved it and she gained confidence. It's tough to learn to ride as an adult but she has done multiple Ironman races now. 

Kathy - thanks so much for the Infinit recipe!