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21 Jan 2009 17:45
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: More Years, More Endurance
: Awareness Tests; Clif Bar Recall
: Super Secret
: (5 New
: How Can I Prevent Back Pain While Climbing?
: Lance Calm, Collected but Not Cool
: Cracking Up
: Get Out of a Rut
: One-Liners for "The Ride of Your Life"
Issue No. 377 - 01/22/09: More Years, More Endurance
I just heard from an excited He often rides more than 200 miles a week. He's 74 years old. So the news he sent to RBR is vitally encouraging to him and, I suspect, will be heartening to you too.
Here's Dr. Mirkin's message:
"I have noticed that younger riders can easily pull away from me in short bursts, but I keep coming back on them and seem to be better able to keep up with their accelerations as the ride progresses.
"The January 2009 issue of Exercise and Sports Sciences Reviews investigates the entire world's literature to show that endurance improves as you ageWow!
"Maximal muscle contraction force occurs when you do a single muscle contraction with all your might. Even though older people are not as strong as younger ones, many studies show that they can retain maximal force after many contractions far longer than younger people can.
"Here's the theory and evidence to explain why aging improves endurance:
"Muscles are made up of millions of individual fibers just as a rope is made up of many different threads. Each muscle fiber is enervated by a single nerve. As you age, you lose nerves throughout your body. And when you lose the nerve that enervates a specific muscle fiber, you also lose that fiber.
"Muscle fibers are classified as type I endurance fibers [also called slow twitch] and type II strength and speed fibers [fast twitch]. With aging, you lose far more nerves that enervate the strength and speed fibers than those that enervate the endurance ones.
"So, with aging, you lose strength but you retain a greater proportion of endurance fibers.
"Muscle fatigue comes from the accumulation of waste products that occurs while food is converted to energy to power muscles. With the same percentage of their maximal muscle force, older people accumulate far lower levels of these end products than younger people do. Therefore, even though older people are relatively weaker, they can maintain their forceful contractions far longer and they have greater endurance.
"This exciting recent data will encourage me to train even harder."
Who said birthdays are a bad thing? I hope Dr. Mirkin's example inspires you to keep pushing even if you're still a long way from 74.
Now excuse me while I go ride some hills.
Editor, Publisher, 62
(Dr. Mirkin provides a valuable service with his free newsletter and hundreds of short, helpful, understandable medical articles on his website at http://www.drmirkin.com)
Insaner on a Trainer
More inspiration (of a sort) came our way from RBR reader Ron Johnson, who read Scott's Spin in newsletter No. 375 where it called a 10-hour trainer ride "insane."
You want insanity? Johnson asks.
"Insane is Tom Seabourne's attempt at a new Guinness record in indoor cycling," he writes. "Tom rode 185 continuous hours [nearly 8 days], with just 5 minutes per hour for breaks. The entire event was videotaped and monitored by witnesses. Guinness is currently reviewing the tapes before certifying the record."
Seaborne, a Texan, is a fitness buff who holds several endurance cycling records on the road. His impressive bio can be found on his website at tomseabourne.com. Seaborne is in his 50s, holds a doctorate in exercise science and has type 1 adult-onset diabetes.
Excerpts from his vomitron epic are shown in a couple of YouTube videos. At 6 days he's looking surprisingly fresh at http://tinyurl.com/7ffn4o. But later that night it got ugly: http://tinyurl.com/6wm4m2
"It says something about a man's character," Johnson writes, "when he has the ability to push himself to exhaustion, pick himself up, laugh about it, and keep on going."
It might also say something about a man's sanity.
So, how nuts are you?
What's the most you've pedaled indoors in one day?
We give you 11 ways
Are You D Deficient?
Vitamin D has been in the news a lot lately and not just for teaming with calcium to maintain or improve bone health. D is also said to play roles in fighting cancer and in athletic performance.
Seeing as how the "sunshine vitamin" is in short supply right now in the northern hemisphere, 2 key questions are addressed in a web article by John Jacob Cannell, M.D., executive director of the Vitamin D Council:
Are you vitamin D deficient?
How much D should you take?
According to Dr. Cannell, your answers will come from a 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test, which your doctor can order, or from a DIY test you can buy on the internet.
Until you know for sure, here's his advice:
Take 3,000 IU of D per day if you weigh 80-130 pounds (36-59 kg); 4,000 IU if you weigh 130-170 pounds (59-77 kg); and 5,000 IU if you're 170 pounds or more.
These amounts could be much greater than you're currently getting from natural or supplementary sources. For example, a daily dose of GNC's Mega Men multi-vitamin/mineral provides just 200 IU of D.
Dr. Cannell's article is a tad thick but worth working through at http://tinyurl.com/7qouw9. (Thanks to RBR reader John Robert McAuley for sending this link.)
LeMond's Law. When you record rides in your training log, make your key entry the time you rode not how far you rode. The indisputable reason, according to Greg: "Twenty miles into a headwind is a lot different than 20 miles with a tailwind." The same holds for a ride in the hills vs. a ride on flat ground. For most recreational roadies, 7-10 hours of riding per week is plenty for steady improvement -- if you have an intelligent training program.
Product recall: Clif Bar is recalling 14 products sold in the
U.S. and 4 inCanada because they contain peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation ofAmerica Have you seen the classic awareness test at http://www.dothetest.co.uk/basketball.html? It's short, fun and enlightening. And it has spawned 3 similar tests on behalf of cycling safety from Transport for
London North Carolina Powerful pepper! We're hearing about a new product -- Kimber PepperBlaster -- for getting real tough with dogs or anything else that breathes air and threatens you on a ride. The mailorder company competitivecyclist.com sells PepperBlaster for $40 and promotes it with a no-holds-barred sales pitch at http://tinyurl.com/7bm9pu. Excerpt: "Stuff like Halt! is a marshmallow gun by comparison ... Unlike typical pepper spray, PepperBlaster isn't aerosolized. Rather, each unit contains two cylinders with powerful concentrations of near-pharmaceutical grade oleoresin capsicum (OC) -- a devastatingly effective irritant. Each cylinder is driven by a pyrotechnic charge and a piston, and the solution travels at 90 mph, giving it enough energy to wrap around glasses or a face mask." Or, it would seem, to penetrate a dog from its wet little nose to the tip of its furry tail.
In newsletter No. 375 we mentioned Scotchlite 680 reflective vinyl for making a bike highly visible in headlights. We noted that a kit made expressly for bicycles may become available. RBR reader Rita Joachim tipped us off to similar tape and other reflective products sold at http://www.lightweights.org. Says Rita, "We put it on our spokes and pedals last winter. It's reflectacular! Inexpensive and light as well as very effective. When headlights hit it, whoa Nellie -- it really lights up. It's a great product and pretty inconspicuous in daylight, although some roadies might object to the permanence of its installation."
member John David would like your help with a book he's researching on epic races in
North America . Says David, "I am looking primarily for races open to citizens (although pros may enter) in the point-to-point or large loop format, timed, usually 30 miles or greater, on road or off road. Single-day events, annual hill climbs or stage races would all fit the bill." E-mail your favorite to him at e-jdavid@rogers.comNew on the RBR website: We review a new version of the Topeak Allay saddle with an inflatable bladder and seatpost-mounted pump. Is air cushioning the key to saddle comfort and safety? Read our impressions.
Super Secret
While reading a review on Slate.com of the cult running novel "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker Jr., I spotted a line about "The Secret" of how you become a real runner.
"But it turns out that The Secret is that there is no secret," reviewer Marc Tracy writes. "The runner must pound the mileage, as we say. It's a grueling, tedious, insane lifestyle."
Yikes. Is that true of cycling? Short answer: Yup. Long answer: See short answer.
But wait, you say. What about all those magazine articles that tell you how to "Get Blazing Fast in 6 Short Weeks"?
Sorry, but the folks who wrote those aren't telling the whole truth. I should know. I churned out my share of them in a previous life.
Granted, some reasonably structured training will help you improve in the short run. But the sad truth is that real fitness gains take years. You have to change your body on a cellular level, and your cells would much rather sit on the couch eating double-stuft chocolate cookies.
That means lots of hard work. It's not all "grueling, tedious and insane," although I'm not sure how else to describe intervals in the rain or 90-minute trainer sessions.
Often, the long road to fitness is rewarding. Sometimes it's even fun. Some people like that it's tough. "You get back exactly what you put into it," they say, unlike life, which can be so unfair and nasty.
But, really, there's plenty of unfairness in fitness. Someone with superior genes doesn't even have to outwork you to crush you. They're just better.
If you can ignore that horrible fact and focus on your own progress, it's easier to accept that there's no Secret.
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How Can I Prevent Back Pain While Climbing?
I know you're familiar with riding in southern
Arizona Kitt Peak Any steep-and-long climb is likely to cause back stress no matter how strong you are or how well your bike fits. Pedaling forcefully at a slow cadence requires your low-back muscles to work extra hard. They eventually fatigue and ache.
Check your saddle height. A seat that's a bit too high may not cause back pain in mild terrain when you aren't putting lots of pressure on the pedals. You might even toe-down your feet a bit to compensate for the higher-than-ideal saddle.
But when you push hard on a climb, your heels drop and shorten your leg/foot combination. Your saddle suddenly becomes too high. Your hips rock, the side-to-side motion stresses your low back, and guess what -- halfway up the hill you have a backache.
Also, steep climbs mean that gravity is pulling you to the rear of the saddle because your bike is tilted up at 10-15%. This has the same effect as riding on the flat with your saddle slid way back on the rails -- something known to cause back pain.
There is no sure-fire solution. But you can do these 4 things to reduce the stress:
Climb more often so that
Kitt Peak Gates Pass , from the steep western side, should makeKitt Peak Install gearing low enough so that steep climbs aren't like leg press workouts.
Alternate sitting with standing to change your back's position and relieve tension.
Include crunches, back extensions and related exercises in your conditioning program. They're key to building low-back strength and are detailed in the illustrated RBR eArticle, "," by
Coach Fred says: "It's not too late to start my program, especially if you're stuck on the trainer due to the extra-harsh winter weather we've been having in the U.S. If you start doing the training sequence around Feb. 1 you'll be done by late April when the riding season begins to pick up." The Coach's power program is based on just 2 one-hour workouts per week and costs $3.99 in the )
Let's begin with a recap at the 1/3 point of the Tour Down Under, the season's first ProTour race. Making it even more newsworthy this year is 's participation -- his first pro road event since winning the Tour de France for a 7th time in July 2005.
Stage 1 of the TDU was won by defending champion Andre Greipel (Columbia-High Road) in a bunch sprint after 140 km (87 miles). An estimated 88,000 spectators watched in temperatures reported to have reached 43C (109F). "It's hot, man, it's hot," commented a toasted Armstrong, who finished safely in 120th place. "It's a dry heat, but it affects performance a lot. There's really no way to perform at a high level ... you just cope, drink as much water as you can. I think we [on Team Astana] went through 15, 20 bottles apiece today."
In stage 2, Armstrong tested his legs late in a small break, a move he later termed "maybe not the smartest thing I could have done, but I just followed a couple of wheels and found myself in a little group." He rolled to the finish in 21st place after the 145 km (90 miles), 13 seconds behind winner Alan Davis (Quick Step), the only man to ride all 11 editions of his home country's tour and now overall race leader. "It's going to take a while to adapt to race speed," said Armstrong. "I think today proved that . . . it's fast, the guys are strong." He said the speed combined with the heat makes the Tour Down Under a "suffer-fest," but he added, "I like to suffer... If I wasn't enjoying it I would pack it in, despite the bigger reason." That was a reference to is goal of increasing worldwide awareness of cancer's scourge and ways to defeat it.
The Tour Down Under is being reported extensively by velonews.com. Daily highlights are televised in the U.S. by Versus. The race ends on Jan. 25.
Let the record show that Armstrong finished 64th in his first official comeback race, the Tour Down Under's Cancer Council Classic, a criterium that drew an estimated 138,000 spectators in Adelaide on Sunday evening. "I think the last time I did that style of racing, that fast, was probably in 1990," Lance said. "It's fun to get back in there." Average speed for the crit, which didn't count in the Tour Down Under's general classification, was 47.4 kph (29.4 mph). Winner was homeboy Robbie McEwen (Katusha), taking his 13th career victory in the TDU.
For a look at Armstrong's new racing bike, a Trek Madone 6.9 Livestrong, click http://tinyurl.com/9odxmk. The "1274" on the wheels and frame is the number of days between his last race in 2005 and the first day of the Tour Down Under.
As promised, Armstrong's personal and independent drug testing started before the Tour Down Under. The announcement came on Sunday, but a companion web page to display results has yet to appear. The program will include testing about once every 3 days by Don Catlin, chief science officer of Anti-Doping Sciences Institute in California. As reported by , Catlin lists 3 goals: "high frequency testing" to gather a large data pool; storing samples for up to 8 years for potential retesting; and "program transparency" for access by other anti-doping agencies. Armstrong is now subject to tests from 5 separate entities -- the World Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the International Cycling Union (UCI), Team Astana and Catlin. He says he has undergone 12 out-of-competition tests since announcing his comeback.
"It's formalized, it's under way and it's the most comprehensive anti-doping plan in the history of sport. I'm proud of it." on personal testing by Catlin
More than 200 drug tests are being conducted at the Tour Down Under. Each of the 133 pros in the race was required to provide blood before the start. Additional blood and urine samples are being taken each day. Testers are looking for EPO/CERA and human growth hormone is addition to other banned substances. Some samples are being frozen for retesting years from now when technology advances.
Armstrong's latest racing schedule includes Milan-San Remo, Italy's foremost one-day classic, in late March. According to Team Astana director Johan Bruyneel, after competing in Australia, Lance will race the Amgen Tour of California in February, France's 2-day Criterium International and Milan-San Remo in March, the Tour of Flanders (maybe) and Italy's Tour of Trentino in April, the Giro d'Italia in May and July's Tour de France. "If the schedule stays like this, there will be no other races," said Bruyneel.
Bonnie D. Ford of espn.com is flat out the best cycling writer not affiliated with the cycling media. She just might be the best cycling writer, period. Her just-published feature article titled, "Why Now? Why Not" is a comprehensive examination of from cycling to doping to cancer to politics, leading off with the most captivating mug shot of the man we've seen. Then Ford writes: "Armstrong is revered, feared, resented and admired. . . . Some people can't get enough of him. Some have had more than enough of him." No matter which side you're on, you're bound to learn something at http://tinyurl.com/6sk64o
Chipotle is gone from Team Garmin's official name and orange-and-blue argyle racing kit. For 2009 the U.S.-based ProTour team is known as Garmin-Slipstream. The new name, according to a press release, brings "attention to Slipstream and its focus on ethical sporting." Although the Chipotle restaurant chain is no long part of the name . . . .
"We are still powered by Chipotle burritos, as we always have been. Chipotle is our secret training weapon."Jonathan Vaughters, director of Garmin-Slipstream
Michael Rasmussen expects to be able to race again no later than July 26, the end date of his 2-year suspension for drug-testing violations. Meanwhile, he's hoping that the Court of Arbitration for Sport will look favorably on his appeal to have the suspension shortened. The gangly Danish climber, now 34, was well on his way to winning the 2007 Tour de France before being fired by Team Rabobank because he had lied to avoid out-of-competition drug tests. This winter, Rasmussen says he is training diligently, with one exception. "I basically live as if I was racing," he told , "but I'm not watching my weight as carefully. I generally eat and drink as I like -- for the first time in 15 years." Rasmussen says he rode 2,500 km (1,550 miles) in December and is doing 3,000 km (1,860 miles) this month. "I have no problems keeping my training morale high. After all, July isn't that far away, so for now that's what I'm training towards."
Team Rock Racing is alive for 2009. The irreverent squad with a penchant for hiring doping-tainted riders met the requirements for a license just before last Friday's deadline. "It went down to the wire but Rock Racing finally fulfilled all of its obligations for registering as a UCI Continental team in 2009," USA Cycling's Sean Petty told velonews.com. Continental status is 2 steps below the elite ProTour. However, Rock's 5-rider team did not appear at its first race of the season, Argentina's Tour de San Luis, which prompted the organizer to demand the return of $30,000 in advance payments for travel and other expenses.
Operation Puerto is moving back toward the front burner. The May 2006 police bust of a Madrid blood doping clinic implicated a number of top cyclists, including Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and even . The first 2 were among those whose careers were ended or suspended, but Puerto eventually fizzled because it was ruled that no Spanish laws at the time had been violated. Now a court has reopened Puerto with a ruling that says "evidence exists that a crime was committed against public health." This is based on the court's decision that "blood cells must be considered medication as soon as they become substances capable of alleviating illnesses or affecting body functions." Such as performance in sports. There were plenty of blood cells involved in the Madrid clinic, as some 100 frozen bags of blood were confiscated along with transfusion equipment, steroids, hormones and EPO. A detailed news report from Madrid is at http://tinyurl.com/9dmuty
Madison, Wisconsin, will be the venue for Olympic road cycling in 2016 if Chicago's bid to host the Games is the one accepted by the IOC in October. Road cycling was originally to take place in Chicago itself but the International Cycling Union objected that the course was too flat. In the revised proposal, Madison would host the road races and time trials, with the road course including laps within the town and loops outside near Blue Mound. Madison would serve as the Olympic village for some 320 cyclists, using University of Wisconsin dormitories planned to be built before the Games. Competing with Chicago for the 2016 Summer Games are Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
Will we someday see a black cyclist win the Tour de France? There is a movement to help that happen, founded on the theory that if Africans are dominant in distance running they can be as successful in road cycling. Their ability has recently been shown on the Alpe d'Huez, but some serious roadblocks lie ahead. Read the interesting feature article at http://tinyurl.com/9qnant
Cracking Up
Dear Uncle Al,
I've never written to you before, but I really need your all-knowing advice.
I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. I've witnessed the usual signals. If the phone rings and I answer, the caller hangs up. My wife has been going out with "the girls" a lot recently, although when I ask their names she always says, "Just some friends from work, you don't know them."
I think deep down I just didn't want to know the truth, but last night she went out again so I decided to stay up and check on her.
Around midnight, I hid in the garage behind my bikes so I could get a good view of the street as she arrived from a night out with "the girls." When she got out of the car she was buttoning her blouse and straightening her skirt.
It was at this moment, crouching behind my carbon road bike, that I noticed a slight crack in the down tube.
Is this something a bike shop can fix, or should I send it back to the company? -- Concerned Roadie
Uncle Al Replies: CR, I'm truly sorry for your dilemma. It's not the first time I've heard this sort of sad tale. You spend years investing in a relationship only to be let down. Believing that time will heal all wounds too often proves to have the opposite result.
It's not like this is anything new. It can happen to the best of us without warning. You can read articles and books about this situation, you can seek advice from friends, you can even cry about it. But even the strongest bonds can fail. That's life.
I urge you to seek professional help. A caring person trained in these matters is far better than trying to sort these things out alone. Of course, sometimes a person who claims to be able to "fix anything" will only make matters worse. You need to accept that a problem might be beyond repair.
Now, about that lying, cheating wife of yours. . . . Any guesses where she and "the girls" are holding their get-togethers? Maybe a visit from your Unc could help repair this crack in your relationship.
New on RBR's
Members will find the links to this exclusive content on the page after logging on
Ed Pavelka's feature article "" details workouts, skill drills and skull sessions with Carmichael Training System coaches during 3 days of intensive training in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Les Woodland pens his 19th strange-but-true tale from European cycling: "One Year: 75,065 Miles."
Join the for access to these articles and 255 web pages of exclusive road cycling advice, information and entertainment. For just $24.99 per year for 24/7 access, you'll receive 10 valuable member benefits, including a 15% discount on all products in the . Check the full list of bennies
Get Out of a Rut
Grooves in the road running parallel to your direction of travel can catch your wheels and snatch bike control.
Concrete roads are notorious for wheel-eating seams. Ruts, crevices, fractures and furrows carved by farm machinery can appear on any paved surface and too often when you least expect them.
Keep your eyes up to spot these dangerous fissures. They're harder to see in shady sections or on roads with patches. Anticipate the possibilities so you can ride a smooth line that keeps your wheels away from risky sections.
What if a crack does catch your wheels?
If it's short and straight, don't panic. Coast, crouch like a jockey with good balance, and ride it out. Pull up on the handlebar at the exit to lighten the front wheel and reduce any impact.
There are 2 dangers when you respond the wrong way:
If you try to turn your front wheel out of a rut, the wheel can catch on the edge and wash out, taking you down.
If you slam on the brakes, that'll leave your wheels trapped, upset your balance, and you could fall over.
However, you might need to get out quickly if the rut leads to something worse. If it's not too deep, the trick is to lighten the bike by rising off the saddle and pulling up slightly on the handlebar and pedals at the same time, then steer to the side. After your front wheel glides out, the rear will follow because you've taken your weight off it as well.
Some ruts are really nasty, though. They're deep with nearly vertical sides. Steering out won't work. In this case, you have to jump the bike up and to the side. This is a technique you need to practice on a soft surface (a large grassy field) before you try it on pavement.
Can you see why trail riding on a mountain bike is a great way to improve your road bike skills? And as a recent tip on RBR's Comments page pointed out, off-road MTB riding will also give you plenty of chances to practice reactions when falling.
One-Liners for
Our newest eBook, written by accomplished long-distance cyclist , provides the guidance every time- and obligation-challenged roadie needs to choose smart goals and then find the training opportunities to accomplish them. Here is what 6 cycling experts are saying about :
An excellent guide for people who are looking to expand their cycling horizons." -- Chris Carmichael, founder of
"A wealth of useful, practical material to set and achieve your extraordinary goals." -- John Lee Ellis, endurance cycling legend
"It will help get your head and heart ready to tackle any grand cycling challenge." -- Selene Yeager, Bicycling magazine's "Fitness Chick"
"No matter what your goal, this eBook will serve as a thoughtful and effective roadmap." -- , founder of Terry Precision Cycling for Women
"I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get the most out of cycling -- and life -- in today's busy and demanding world." -- Chris Kostman, director of AdventureCORPS
"This eBook is the kick in the pants you need to raise your cycling results to a new level." -- , director and Race Across America winner
contains 75 photos & illustrations and has a 3.45 MB file size. See the table of contents and read an excerpt to view 34 of the 164 pages.
Place your order, and the program you need to make "the ride of your life" a reality in 2009 will instantly be delivered to your
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HOT List: January's Bestsellers
1. The Ride of Your Life-- by David Rowe. See above! (eBook)
2. -- a 12-week power-building cycling program by Coach Fred Matheny (in the eArticles section)
3 -- strengthen your abs and back where cycling performance hinges, by Dr. Alan Bragman (in the eArticles section)
4 -- certified Spinning instructor Jennifer Sage makes sure indoor classes transfer to the road (eBook)
5. DVD and workout manual by Harvey Newton, former Olympic Weightlifting coach and longtime road cyclist
Look for newsletter No. 378 on Thursday, Jan. 29.
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