Hopefully Jstyle with some good long training days you will KNOW what works for you on race day. Even with lots of practice and having a good handle on your race day nutrition...be flexible. If you find yourself needing to eat more...eat more. If you feel bloated..go with less.
As to electrolytes (salt) I find that if I'm using GA Endurance I don't have to supplement with Succeed! or e-caps....I always keep a few Succeed! caps in my race day bag of tricks in case I feel the need to switch to water and want to keep up with my salt intake. I always take a few about 1/2 hour before race time.
I like the Gordo article too...but really...find what works for you.

when I was doing my IM training , I had a few "dry runs" where I swam for an hour (knowing it would take me approximately that long) and then did a 115 mile ride followed by a 40 min brick. Doing this helped as I knew exactly what to eat. You should be focused on nutrition on the bike so that you are ready to go on the run. They will hand you off bottles of gatorade, so if you are using what they provide you shouldnt need empties (unless things are different at the different races).

Like Anton said--find what works best for you.

Just making sure--you are planning to drink water with your food & gels, right?

I'd always been told that sports drink with gels was a no-no--that it would interfere with digestion over time. But I'll admit I've never tried it.

On britt's other point--I agree that some dry runs are key. If you can figure out how to avoid that bloated sloshy stomach on the run, you'll be in a MUCH better place on race day than many of us.

JStyle--no it is NOT too early to be thinking about this! Ironman nutrition is extremely important, as it can be the deciding factor between a positive, well-executed race and a disaster. Which is why nutrition is commonly referred to as the 4th discipline (swim, bike, run, nutrition).

Pardon my French, Ironmom, but 500 calories per hour on the bike? What dereanged training plan said that?

Read this: http://crackheadfe.blogspot.com/2006_11_05_archive.html#116317169315392215

Guidelines for calorie intake during biking is 200-350 calories per hour (unless you are a huge guy).

Guidelines for calorie intake while running are about 30% of total calorie burned per hour.

Those guidelines need to be tailored to YOU, and then you also need to ensure you achieve your hydration targets.

Nobody ever can replace ALL the calories and ALL the fluids they are utilizing. The key is to keep up the best you can in order to maintain your pacing.

I think your current plan is very sound and is similar to what I am looking to do. I train with GU's, Cliff Bars, and Gatorade Endurance. What I find is that any ride under 3 hours, I can get by with 2 GU's (always try and take GU's or any gel with water NOT Gatorade, they are designed to dilute with water in your stomach, so make sure there 's a bottle of water on your bike for that.), one water bottle and one Gatorade Endurance bottle. Anything over that and I need some solid food and I like Cliff Bars. For IMAZ, my bike will have 1 water, 1 Endurance (both to be replaced at aid stations) a GU flask that hold about 5-6 GU's diluted with a little water to keep the viscosity down, and 2 Cliff Bars. If I feel the need for more food, I'll grab a bar at an aid staion. That's it for me, I really want to keep it simple and keep crap off my bike.
For the run, I am train a fluids and gels', no solid food. For me, there just isn't enough time to eat a bar and then get any value out of it. It takes a while for those calories to get to your engine. I just plan on grabbing a second gel flask and hitting the aid stations for water and Edurance.
Just keep training the way you plan on racing and your body will learn to look for calories in that specific way.

I'm guessing it was in the book Be IronFit, because that's the only plan I ever read. I'm guessing I took in close to that, with 3 gels an hour (300 cals) plus drink mix. I felt that I had a really excellent time with nutrition, so it obviously didn't bother my body at all to take in that amount of calories. I'm actually kind of grateful that I did. With my dislocated toe, I was taking a lot of ibuprofen, which eventually totally wrecked my stomach and I wasn't able to take in anything on the run except chicken broth. Despite the injury slowing me down, I didn't feel depleted on the run at all. I felt very strong through the whole race.

I think different things work for different people. I've seen people recommend only doing fluids and gels. That doesn't work for me, I feel too sloshy. I saw a woman on the bike with a baker's tube of KFC mashed potatoes taped to her frame. Hey, whatever works! I get insanely hungry when I bike, so if my body could take in 500 calories an hour, I felt much the better for it. I hardly ever get hungry when I run, so it was fine for me to not eat anything on the run. I'm sure different folks would feel totally differently, which is why experimenting with nutrition on the loooooong brick days is a good idea. I had to totally change my nutrition plan once I went over a 5-hour combined workout, so I'm glad I took the time to experiment.

Stop at an aid station? Never! I'm talking about bottle hand ups. That is where the problem can be.
Someone tosses a bottle,reaches out for a new one gets it ok but while they are pouring it,or stuffing it or racking it they drift one way or the other nailing a vol or another rider or a dropped bottle and down they go...race over.
anyway,my point was..."Lets be careful out there."

Just wanted to say, this has been a really informative thread. I am only doing my first HIM, but looking to have a prettyn good finish -- right at 5 hours is my target. Don't want to derail the IM conversation, but quick question is how critical is HIM nutrition? I do plan on practicing, but should one stick to IM level fueling, just for a shorter period of time? Like Ironmon, my stomach is picky and I do like more solids on the bike and really don't get hungry on the runs...

Thanks for all of the input everyone :)