Cocoa Beach Century Ride

My husband and I are getting ready to leave for Cocoa Beach, Florida. We will be participating in the 22nd annual Intracoastal Waterway Century Ride. This is a 100 mile road bike ride, which takes place in Cocoa Beach on Halloween Day. The ride is hosted by the Spacecoast Freewheelers bicycle club.

Above: our 2010 Team in Training jerseys and pasta party t-shirts.

Bike with Team in Training

This will be our 5th century ride with the Palm Beach Team in Training cycle team. TNT is the main fundraising program for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a national organization which helps to raise money to find a cure for blood cancers. I am a member of the team, and my husband, Rob, is our coach! I am one month shy of turning 47, and Rob just turned 54 last week. We are a couple of young chicky poos when it comes to charity bike rides!

Above: close up view of the back side of our pasta party t-shirts.

This is the 3rd time we've participated in the Cocoa Beach century ride. We've also done El Tour de Tucson, in Tucson, Arizona and America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, in Tahoe, Nevada. We like the Cocoa Beach ride, it's only about a 3 hour drive from our house. Since it's a local event, we can take the mini van and loaded it up with all our bikes and gear, and not have to worry about outrageous airfaire charges.

Above: century ride care packages

Century Ride Care Package

Although there will be 5 official rest stops during the century ride, you never know what kind of food and hydration products will be available. So just to be on the safe side, I put together a century ride care package for both my husband and I. I filled the care packages with a variety of products that I thought we would use the day of the ride. I keep a basket filled with all the free samples I get in my race day packages. I went through the basket to look for small, sample sizes that will easily fit into our bike bags and/or the back of our cycling jerseys.

Here is what I put in each care package:

• sample size Chamois butter - don't want to have any chaffing issues during such a long ride.
• small tube Aquaphor healing ointment - I like chamois butter for my butt, but anywhere else that might rub/chafe (arms, feet, chest) I prefer to use Aquaphor.
• lip gloss for me, chapstick for my husband
• Clif Bar shot bloks - something to chew during the ride, gel packs get boring after awhile
• gel packs - mocha with caffeine for my husband, caffeine-free fruit flavors for me
• small package almonds - for before, during or after ride
• Bio Freeze - for aches and pains during the ride
• package Clif Bar roks - a bit of protein will help during such a long ride
• sample packs sunscreen - you can still get sunburned in south Florida this time of year
• Tube of Nuun electrolyte hydration tablets. Never know what brand sports drink they will have at the SAG stops. I like to add 1 1/2 tablets Nuun to each 20 ounce water bottle and fill with water at the rest stops. Certain brands of sports drinks make me sick to my stomach, Nuun is a great product!
• package Recoverite powder - protein/carb recovery drink made by Hammer Nutrition. For after the ride. We'll keep this in the van and grab it as soon as we finish the bike ride.

Contact Sports Nutrition Diva

What kind of products do you carry with you during a long bike ride? Leave a comment at the end of this blog post or send an email to: [email protected].

Take care,
Sports Nutrition Diva

View Original Post at bikediva.net

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• Cycling, Sports, SportsPLUS, Cause/Charity