The Distances

First lets clarify some confusion, Triathlon is the Sport, Ironman is the distance. Triathlon is a sport comprised of a swim, bike and run in that order.

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Sent to my buddy, who was concerned about his nutrition. My half IM (and some full IM) nutrition plan:

First, congratulations and great job in reaching this point to undertake your first half IM!
Second, here my views on nutrition:

Although I also have tried to add up calories over time at one point, I have found that it is something that is super hard to quantify like that, and I'm not sure it's useful. Race conditions change and so does your body over time.

For instance, I tried to follow similar nutrition plans at Half Vineman and Honu Half but at the Honu Half, it was a lot hotter and my stomach shut down at one point whereby fluid was sloshing around in there. So I had to stop taking in fluid until my stomach calmed down, and also I walked a lot too. A short while later, magically the fluid in my stomach just got absorbed all of a sudden and then I ran to the finish. This has never happened to me at Half Vineman where the temps are different.

Age Group - Refers to non-professional participants in races. So called because participants officially compete against other racers in the same age ( usually within 5 or 10 year brackets) and sex.

Aluminum - Light-weight metal used in bike frame construction. Generally lighter than steel, but not as strong. Thus, "oversized" tubing is used to create strong yet light-weight bike frames.

Aero/Aerodynamic- A description usually applied to bikes, but is applicable to any design or modification that reduces wind-drag and results in an object traveling faster through air using the same amount of energy.

Aero Bars - Handle bars that stretch the rider out over the wheel and lowers the body closer to the bike frame, resulting in less surface area and, thus, less wind-drag.

Aero Wheels - Generally, any wheel design that eliminates spoke count, presents a more narrow surface contact (i.e. the internal edges of the wheel are sharper, the blades are flatter) and creates less wind drag.

Aerobic: Means "with oxygen" and refers to exercise using the same large muscle group for a period of at least 15-20 minutes while maintaining around 60-80% of your maximum heart rate (called your Target Heart Rate).

Anaerobic: Means "without oxygen" and refers to exercise performed using stored energy as opposed to straight oxygen. In anaerobic exercise, the fuel for energy called ATP is used up quickly so the exercise can only be repeated for a short amount of time until ATP is restored.