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Discover our energy gels 🇦🇺 Free shipping in Australia on orders over $220
Sprint, Olympic, 70.3 and Ironman
Triathlon Nutrition Australia
Take one serve 30 minutes before the gun, fuel the bike properly, and hold it through the run. No sugar, no stimulant unless you want it, and nothing your stomach has not already met in training.
4 distances
0 g sugar
75+ min per gel
200 mg sodium option
Shop Race FuelTriathlon Nutrition Plan, Sprint to Ironman
Find your distance and stop reading. The table runs across the four standard distances, and across the legs of each one. Most of triathlon fuelling happens on the bike, which is why the bike column is the longest one in every row.
| Distance | 30 to 45 min before | Swim | Bike | Run | After |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short course | |||||
| Sprint 750m / 20km / 5km 1 to 1.5 hours | 1 serve Energy Powder | Nothing | Hydrate in the bottle, water only if it is cool | Nothing | 1 serve Energy + Protein |
| Olympic 1.5km / 40km / 10km 2 to 3 hours | 1 serve Energy Powder | Nothing | 1 to 2 Edge gels, Hydrate in the bottle | Water at aid stations, 1 Edge gel if you are over 2.5 hours | 1 serve Energy + Protein |
| Long course | |||||
| 70.3 1.9km / 90km / 21.1km 4.5 to 7 hours | 1 serve Energy Powder in 500ml | Nothing | 1 Edge gel every 30 to 45 min, Hydrate + Aminos in the aero bottle, refill at each aid station | 1 Edge gel every 30 to 45 min, water between | 1 serve Energy + Protein within 30 min |
| Ironman 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km 9 to 14+ hours | 1 serve Energy Powder, plus a familiar breakfast 3 hours out | Nothing | Energy Powder in the bottle for the base, 1 Edge gel every 30 to 45 min on top, Hydrate + Aminos for fluid and sodium | 1 Edge gel every 30 to 45 min, Hydrate at aid stations | 1 serve Energy + Protein, then real food |
One Edge gel carries 19g of fuelling carbohydrate. One serve of Energy Powder carries 20 to 22g. Rehearse the exact sequence on two long rides and one brick before you race it.
Race Morning, and What Happens After
Two serves decide most of your race. The one 30 minutes before the gun, and the one within 30 minutes of finishing. Neither is on the course.
3 hours out
Eat what you always eat
Oats, toast, banana, whatever you have used on your long rides. Race morning is the wrong time to introduce anything new to your stomach. Keep fat and fibre low.
30 to 45 minutes out
One serve of Energy Powder
One scoop in 500ml of water. LIVSTEADY releases gradually, so you start the swim already fuelled rather than arriving in T1 needing to catch up.
Within 30 minutes after
Protein plus carbohydrate
One serve of Energy + Protein. You are rarely near a kitchen when you cross the line, and the first half hour is when your muscles take carbohydrate on fastest.
How Much Carbohydrate You Need in a Triathlon
Carbohydrate needs scale with time on course, not with distance. A three hour Olympic and a three hour half marathon ask for similar intake. What changes in long course is that you are eating for six hours instead of two, and your stomach has to keep cooperating the whole way.
| Distance | Carbs per hour | What that looks like | Gels for the race |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint | None needed | Fluid and sodium only | 0 |
| Olympic | 30 to 45g | 2 Edge gels across the bike | 2 to 3 |
| 70.3 | 60 to 80g | Energy Powder in the bottle plus 2 Edge gels an hour | 8 to 12 |
| Ironman | 60 to 90g | Energy Powder as the base, Edge gels on top, real food on the bike | 14 to 20 |
Where Edge is not enough on its own
At 19g a pouch, gels alone will not get you to 90g an hour without taking one every fifteen minutes, which no stomach enjoys across 180km. Long course athletes running high carbohydrate protocols use Energy Powder in the bottle as the base and gels on top. We would rather tell you that than sell you the wrong plan.
Why LIVSTEADY Suits Long Course
LIVSTEADY is a complex carbohydrate, not maltodextrin and not fructose. The molecule is large and heavily branched, which is why it does not need much water to digest.
That matters more in triathlon than in any other endurance sport. You are aero on a bike for hours with your stomach compressed, then you run on it. Sugar based fuels pull water into your gut at exactly the moment your body has sent blood to your legs. That is the mechanism behind most 70.3 run legs that fall apart.
Edge clears the stomach quickly and releases gradually. One pouch carries 75 minutes or more, so you are taking two an hour instead of three or four, which is fewer wrappers, fewer decisions, and less volume through a gut that is already working.
75+
minutes of energy per Edge gel
19g
fuelling carbohydrate per pouch
200mg
sodium in the electrolyte gel, for hot racing
0g
sugar across the whole range
Fuelling a 70.3, Hour by Hour
Four and a half to seven hours for most Australian age groupers. Here is the sequence, start to finish.
3 hours before
Your usual breakfast. Nothing you have not eaten before a long ride.
30 minutes before
One serve of Energy Powder in 500ml. This is the serve most athletes skip, and it is the one that decides how the first hour of the bike feels.
Swim, 1.9km
Nothing. Thirty to forty five minutes is short enough that the pre-race serve carries you.
Bike, 90km, this is the leg that matters
Hydrate + Aminos in the aero bottle, refilled at every aid station. One Edge gel every 30 to 45 minutes. Start eating inside the first 20 minutes, not when you feel like it.
Time your last gel as close to T2 as you can. What you take in the final 20km of the bike is what carries the first 5km of the run.
Run, 21.1km
One Edge gel every 30 to 45 minutes, water in between. Your stomach is under load by now, which is where a gel with no sugar and a thin texture earns its place.
Within 30 minutes of finishing
One serve of Energy + Protein. Then eat properly once you have stopped moving.
Build Your Triathlon Race Kit
What a 70.3 kit actually costs
Enough to rehearse the plan across two long rides and race it once.
Energy Powder Tub (28)
Pre-race serve, plus the bottle base on the bike.
$109.00
Edge + Electrolyte Gel (12)
200mg sodium per pouch. The one for hot racing.
$79.90
Hydrate + Aminos Bag (20)
Fluid, sodium and amino acids for the aero bottle.
$54.90
$243.80 total. Clears free shipping at $220.
Build your race kit →Sprint
Husky Sprint, Noosa Sprint, Bondi, the Australian Sprint Distance Championships.
Olympic
Mooloolaba, Noosa Olympic, Geelong, Sydney Triathlon, Husky Long Course.
70.3
Cairns, Geelong, Western Sydney, Sunshine Coast, Challenge Melbourne.
Ironman
Ironman Australia Port Macquarie, Ironman Cairns, Ironman Western Australia.
Raced on LIVSTEADY
I finished second at the IRONMAN World Championships and UCAN was my secret weapon. Without it, I wouldn't have run under 2:50, or gone sub-8 hours. I wouldn't have had the performance of my lifetime."
Tim O’Donnell, Ironman World Championship runner up, first American under eight hours in Kona.
More on triathlon nutrition
Four guides across swim, bike and run.
Protocol
Triathlon fuelling guidelines
Hourly targets across the three disciplines and the transitions between them.
Read the guidelines AminosElectrolytes and amino acids for long course
Holding hydration together across a 70.3 or a full distance day.
Read the guide SwimCalories burned swimming
Real numbers by stroke and intensity, and what to replace afterwards.
See the numbers SodiumWork out your sweat rate
The test that sets your hourly sodium and fluid targets for the bike leg.
Run the testTriathlon Fuelling Questions
If you don’t find your answer here, contact us
Between 60 and 80 grams an hour for most age groupers, taken mostly on the bike. That looks like Energy Powder in the bottle as your base plus one Edge gel every 30 to 45 minutes. Train it before you race it. Gut tolerance for carbohydrate is a trainable thing and race day is the wrong time to find your ceiling.
Yes, and the approach is the same as a 70.3 with more of it. Energy Powder in the bottle for the base, Edge gels on top every 30 to 45 minutes, Hydrate + Aminos for fluid and sodium, and real food on the bike if your stomach handles it. Most Ironman athletes carry 14 to 20 gels across the day.
No. One to one and a half hours is short enough that a serve of Energy Powder 30 minutes before the start carries you through. Take fluid on the bike, especially in heat, and race the run on what you started with.
Nothing. Even at Ironman distance the swim is under an hour and a half, and there is no practical way to fuel during it. The serve you take 30 minutes before the gun is what covers the swim.
You can, and plenty of athletes do. The reason triathletes switch is the gut. Sugar gels draw water into the intestine, and in long course that compounds across hours in an aero position followed by a run. Edge has no sugar and a low osmotic load, so less fluid gets pulled in.
Take your last bike gel as close to T2 as you can, then one Edge gel every 30 to 45 minutes on the run with water in between. What you take in the final 20km of the bike is what carries the first 5km of the run, which is where most people lose time.
In Australian conditions, usually yes. The Edge + Electrolyte gel carries 200mg of sodium per pouch which covers part of it, and Hydrate or Hydrate + Aminos in the bottle covers the rest. If you finish long rides with salt visible on your kit, you are a heavy sweater and you need more than the gel gives you.
One serve of Energy + Protein within 30 minutes of finishing, then real food once you have stopped moving. The first half hour is when your muscles take carbohydrate on fastest, and it is also when you are least likely to be near a kitchen.
Dandenong South, Victoria. Order before noon on a business day and it goes out the same day. Free shipping over $220.