Food Glorious Food

Currently there are bike shorts and jerseys strewn haphazardly throughout my room, slowly but surely drying in the markedly cooler breeze coming through my window. Tomorrow is game day. 100 miles riding, roughly 7-8 hours in the saddle, a good 6 hours of that likely to be pretty uncomfortable. To date my longest ride has been 45 miles. That day I maintained a 16.25 mph pace (relatively slow when you consider it was mostly flat, but I did keep it up for 2 hours and 45 minutes). At that rate 100 miles would take me 6 hours and 9 minutes if my math is correct. There is absolutely no way I can keep that pace up for 100 miles, and when you factor in stopping here and there I'm guessing we'll roll in around the 7.5 hour mark. 7AM to about 2:30-3ish.... a veryyy long day!

According to figures I've read online a person can burn anywhere from 5000 to 7500 calories (or more) biking one hundred miles. So that means we have to try to take in calories on the bike as we go. This will be more of a trial and error type deal for us since we've never had to continuously ride for any longer than 3 or 4 hours. My goal is to balance real food with the energy/ fuel products made for endurance athletes. I've been sampling products here and there and have decided on using Hammer's HEED for electrolytes, Perpetuem Solid tablets for later on in the ride, Clif Shot Bloks and PowerBar's Energy Blasts because I like them, Stinger Waffles for right before the ride and possibly to combat hunger at some point. I will also bring a few PowerBar Energy Gels. As for real food I think I'll make a peanut butter sandwich and bring some Fig Newtons. I'll either be well energized and never hungry or sick to my stomach. I'll report later...

We're all anxious to get started tomorrow and hoping the day finds us all energized and feeling our best with no rain in sight. 6 AM check in will come early, so for now I've got to go pack up my stuff, make some pasta salad for dinner and make sure my newly cleaned bike is in peak condition for tomorrow! Wish us luck and if you're anywhere near Verona Beach stop by to support a great cause!