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What to Wear in Various Weather

What to Wear Cycling in Varying Weather, a Conversation with Coach Ertl This article began one December when I started trading emails with Coach David Ertl. Coach Ertl lives and rides in Iowa. I grew up in neighboring Missouri and can attest to the terrible weather (and the 100-degree-plus extremes — in normal years!) possible in […]

Dictionary of Cycling Lingo

A List of Common Terminology to Decipher the Sometimes Arcane Patois of Road Cycling Ever wonder what cyclists are talking about when they start throwing around weird slang? We’ve created a bicycling dictionary for you, with definitions of the most common phrases and words related to cycling. Did we miss a word? Leave a comment […]

Anti-Aging: Is Winter Endurance Exercise Important?

By Coach John Hughes Endurance exercise is a relatively long ride at a conversational pace.  But is this important in the winter when it’s hard to log outdoor miles and hours on the trainer suck? Probably not if you use Merriam-Webster’s definition of endurance: “The ability to withstand hardship or adversity especially: the ability to […]

Exercising in Cold Weather

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D. Cold weather is associated with an increased incidence of heart attacks (Arch Intern Med, 2004;164(8):863-870). The majority of cold weather deaths are associated with elevated blood pressure and increased clotting to cause heart attacks and strokes. If you have heart or lung disease, you are far more likely to die in […]

What does “no-drop ride” mean?

QUESTION: What does “no-drop ride” mean? My bike shop has a list of group rides, and they describe some of them that way in parentheses. —Jeff T. RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: It’s a ride where nobody gets left behind, no matter how slow a rider they are. If you are a new rider or even […]

Do indoor bike trainers work?

QUESTION: Do indoor bike trainers really work? Can you actually improve your fitness that way, or is it just a burning calories kind of thing for exercisers? – Bryan P RBR REPLIES: Indoor bike trainers definitely work. In particular, the new generation of smart trainers and smart bikes that can both measure and control how […]

Is Protein the Key Piece to the Obesity Puzzle?

By Kevin Kolodziejski Granted, the question posed in today’s title doesn’t carry the same existential clout as “To be, or not to be” — which just happens to be the world’s best-known should-I-commit-suicide-or-not soliloquy. So allow me to ask you another, not quite as imminent as Hamlet’s but still related in a way to your […]

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