Practicing Nutrition

I just read a post about the longest training day before an IM and it got me thinking. A guy mentioned "practicing nutrition". I think about this a lot. I have done a LOT of long efforts, many marathons and 100+ mile bike rides and both of the require, for me, different nutrition requirements.

An example would be solid food while biking. I'm pretty sure i can eat anything and bike, not fast but at a decent pace for about 20 minutes then up it as needed. For running, totally different story. The constant sloshing around of the stomach that running triggers is not one that agrees with my. For years I've had a 5 hour rule, where no food before a run. This rendered my stomach silent at the expense of being hungry.

Now put the two together, if the order were reversed I'd be golden, eat a ton after the run to get energy for the bike. So in training of the next year I have to pay special attention to this. My current thinking on the matter before testing it is to eat something substantial at the 90 mile mark to give myself an hour plus to digest it before the run then use gels during the run.

I can't wait to test. The longest days of training sound very exciting but I can't imagine the feeling of guilt i will experience when running for over an hour after spending 6 hours on the bike. Mental toughness will be epic. Bring it the fuck on!