August 23, 2018
PDF version for Premium Members is here.
Ask the Coach: Nutrition Advice for Long Endurance Rides
By Coach John Hughes
Two of my clients recently had nutrition problems during long rides. Although most roadies won’t ride this far, the lessons apply to any endurance rider. Here’s what happened on a 100 mile ride and on a 24 hour race. Read more.
More Bicycle Parking Tips from RBR Readers
By Jim Langley
A bunch of interesting comments were posted in response to last week’s Tech Talk about safely parking road bicycles: The Safe Way to Park a Bike Against a Pole. Let’s look at your best tips and I’ll add some insights along the way. What we’re trying to avoid when parking is our bike falling over. Because in a worst case scenario, it’s entirely possible that just by falling and hitting something, the frame could get seriously damaged or even broken. I’ve seen this happen so often that if I even hear a bike going “timber!” I cringe and – I’ve been known to dive to try to catch bikes before they go “crunch.” I bet some of you do, too. Read more.
Empowered Women Empower Women: Trek Women’s Advocate Summit
By Sheri Rosenbaum
Late last year I received an email that the Midwest Trek rep nominated me for the Trek Women’s Advocate team. I was humbled and honored for the nomination. The next step was completing an application and waiting until June. I virtually forgot about it until the email came with the fantastic news that I was selected to be on the team! For years I’ve been an advocate for getting more people, especially women, into biking. I’ve been lucky to be on several advocate teams in the past including Pearl Izumi, Strava, Venus de Miles and Jules Threads. With the Trek program I now have the support of my local bike shop, the other Trek Women’s Advocates and the whole Trek family. All three groups are committed to getting more women, more bikes, more often. Read more.
Outbound Lighting Focal Series Road Edition Bicycle Light Review
By Rick Schultz
New to the market, Outbound Lighting has designed a headlight that spreads the beam horizontally instead of shining a circular beam. This concept allows a cyclist to see the road better left-to-right. The other main advantage of this ‘ROAD’ light is the ability to aim the light higher than a typical bike head light without blinding oncoming traffic (cars and other bicyclists) thanks to the cutoff line. Read more.
Endurance Training and Riding — 3-Article Bundle
Want to improve your cycling? Ride more easy miles. Coach John Hughes emphasizes that low intensity endurance riding brings about specific physiological changes that don’t result from harder training. These include improving your:
- ability to utilize fat for energy;
- capacity to store glycogen in your muscles and liver;
- muscular endurance by increasing the number of mitochondria, the subcellular structures where aerobic energy is produced; and
- neuromuscular efficiency of pedaling.
Coach Hughes has written three articles about endurance training and riding for this bundle — Beyond the Century, Nutrition for 100K and Beyond, and Mastering the Long Ride.
Why You Should Be Eating More Vegetables
By Gabe Mirkin, MD
Researchers followed 38,981 adults for 16 years (1999-2014) and found that those who ate the most vegetables and the widest variety of vegetables, particularly dark green vegetables, had the lowest rate of heart attacks and heart disease. For more than 60 years, research has shown that a high-fiber diet helps to prevent heart attacks and many other diseases. Studies show that many of the impressive health benefits from eating vegetables, beans, whole grains and fruits come from the short chain fatty acids produced when bacteria in your colon ferment soluble fiber from plants. Read more.
17 Miles of Cycling Perfection
By Lars Hundley
On a July family road trip from Dallas, Texas to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, it turned out that there was still a little room left in our Subaru Outback for a bike, even after we packed all our necessities and made room for our dog, who joined us on the trip. I had done exactly zero cycling research in advance of this trip. It wasn’t intended to be a bicycle-related trip in the first place. It was a family vacation. Sometimes though, you get lucky. Read more.
Question of the Week
Are you the only cyclist in your family, or do other family members ride too?
Lars
Good for Lars that he still had room in his Subaru Outback for his bike after all the necessities were packed. After making the 17mile ride with exactly zero cycling research are you ever going to ride an 18th mile?
I don’t know. That seems kind of far to me.