January 27, 2022
Anti-Aging: Flexibility in 30 Minutes a Week
By Coach John Hughes
Stretching regularly will relieve tightness, increase your comfort on the bike and improve your recovery. The following program takes about 10 minutes per session. You’ll get results with just three sessions a week.
Your muscles have a natural range of motion (ROM) that is a result of your genetics. The ROM differs among individuals. You can’t increase your natural ROM range; however, use it or lose it applies to flexibility just like other aspects of fitness. If you don’t regularly move your different muscle groups through their full ROMs, those muscle groups will shorten and you’ll be less flexible. Unless you work to maintain it, the loss of flexibility increases as you age. Read more.
Different Discs: Yokozuna’s Ultimo Cable-Actuated Hydraulic Disc Brakes
By Jim Langley
Almost four years ago now, my friend Bruce L. Ross, who lives just down the street from me, contributed a 2-part story about converting his Colnago to a hybrid brake setup with a disc up front and the stock rim brake in the rear. Read more.
Power TLAs Explained: What’s TSS?
By Martin Sigrist
Takeaway: Power based training introduced a variety of new concepts and acronyms. This is the first of an occasional series that will explain these in plain English. “TSS” or Training Stress Score is the first as it is fundamental. It is an objective measure of how much “stress” a workout causes. This is of importance because the essence of getting fitter through training is to put stress on you body so that it adapts and becomes fitter. TSS allows this to be planned and measured in a precise and effective way. With practice it can allow an ideal balance to be developed between workload and recovery. Read more.
Quick Tip: Why Is My FTP Lower Riding Indoors?
By Rick Schultz
For those that have been cycling both indoors and outside (In Real Life – IRL), these two related questions come up all of the time.
- “Why is my trainer harder to ride (i.e., harder to pedal) than my road bike IRL?”
- “Why is my FTP lower inside than IRL?”
Bikase Seat Bag Review Roundup
By Sheri Rosenbaum
It’s been almost two years since my last Bikase review when the company’s owner contacted me with a few new products to test. Like the Beetle X phone case, these seat pack samples were well made, durable, functional, and affordably priced. Read more.
Why is there no kickstand on a road bike?
QUESTION: Why is there no kickstand on a road bike? I am coming back to bicycling as an adult and was shopping for road bikes, and none of them have kickstands. When I was a kid, almost every bike had a kickstand and it was much easier to keep them in the garage. What gives? – Randy H Read more.
How We Learned That Lactic Acid Is Good For You
In the 1920s, experiments suggested that the accumulation of lactic acid in the bloodstream interfered with a person’s ability to exercise by causing muscles to stop contracting. However, Carl and Gerty Cori won the 1947 Nobel Prize for discovering the “Cori Cycle,” in which lactic acid produced by reduced oxygen levels from intense exercise may be good for exercisers when it travels from muscles to the liver, where lactic acid is converted to the sugar, glucose, to be used by muscles to supply extra energy. Read more.
Aventon Soltera Ebike Review
By Lars Hundley
The more ebikes I review, the more I am pleasantly surprised by their individual advantages and the differences between them. I guess it only makes sense, as there is also a large range of specific regular bikes like road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, commuter bikes, etc. With the Aventon Soltera ebike, the bike is designed to meet two specific goals — a low weight, and a low price. And they nailed it on both goals. Read more.
Anti-Aging E-Book 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process
Anti-Aging: 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process, by Coach John Hughes, includes chapters on how to meet the American College of Sports Medicine’s recommendations on aerobic, high intensity aerobic, strength training, weight-bearing exercises, balance and flexibility. Hughes includes sample weeks and months for different types and amounts of exercise and gives you plans to build up to 100 km and 100-mile rides. Hughes includes a plan to increase over two years your annual riding from around 4,000 miles (6,500 km) to over 5,000 miles (8,000 km) a year. You can easily modify the plans for different annual amounts of riding. Learn the importance of recovery and how to gauge if you are getting enough recovery. Hughes combines the different kinds of training into programs that balance training and recovery.
Question of the Week
When did you last buy a new (or used) road bike?
Cool Stuff to Read
Peloton Magazine: The Art of Cycling: Icons in Posters
VeloNews: Swiss Side publishes wind tunnel results for gravel tires
Bicycle Retailer: SRAM acquires cycling computer brand Hammerhead
End Note
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