June 2022 WheelPeople

Articles
 

Spring Century - 2022

WheelPeople Editors

 

The Club ran a modified Spring Century on May 21st. There were  three beautiful routes of 100, 62 and 50 miles on slightly rolling rural roads through the Merrimack Valley of northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The 100 mile ride took  you through Exeter and Hampton Falls, NH. The other routes traveled through Boxford, Groveland and Topsfield. All routes passed through the Harold Parker State Forest. There was one crewed rest stop at American Legion Park, Georgetown. And leader led rides were were offered for the 100 and 63 mile routes. Ride Leaders were Larry Kernan and John O'Dowd

 

All in all a good day for those who joined.If you missed the ride, or want another century to ride, stay tuned for our announcement of the Fall Century in September.

 

Photographs by Michael Weintraub.

 

Photographs by John O'Dowd

 

The Gluck Legal Takeaway - The Critical Role of Witnesses to an Accident

Ronald Gluck

 

The Gluck Legal Takeaway: The Critical Role of Witnesses to an Accident

 

If you witness an accident, let the victim and the police know. The role of eyewitnesses is critical to the outcome of a case involving injured cyclists. In many cases, police receive a version of the incident from both the cyclist and from the driver of the motor vehicle. When these versions conflict, as they often do, it can be a toss-up as to who is correct. That is when an independent witness, who has no skin in the game, is critical. That person’s version of what they saw can be the difference maker in the case.

 

Unfortunately, many people choose not to identify themselves as witnesses. Perhaps they are concerned that their involvement will take too much of their time. They may fear that they might even have to go to court someday to testify in the case, or be involved in a deposition. For many people, the default is to stay uninvolved. For the victim of a serious accident, the witness’s preference to remain uninvolved can have life altering consequences.

 

Perhaps one way to think of it is to ask yourself the question, “what would I want a person to do if I were the one seriously injured in a bicycle collision?” The answer is obvious: you would want the person to identify themself and convey to the police what they had observed. Since that’s what we all would want people to do, then adopt it as a policy of what to do in the event that you are such a witness.

 

Let’s look at what is really involved in terms or your time and the interruption in your life if you became a witness in a case that eventually went all the way to trial.

 

First, at the scene you may be a first responder and can provide comfort to the cyclist and be the first to call 911. Then, after identifying yourself to police, you would briefly give your statement and the police may ask you to submit a written statement which you could do from your home. Many months later, you may be contacted by an attorney to briefly discuss your observations over the telephone and then, perhaps, in the next year you may spend an hour or two giving your observations in a deposition which these days is often done by Zoom. Although many people feel nervous when being questioned by attorneys in the course of litigation, the fact is that a witness who is simply volunteering their observations, and who has no rooting interest for either side, is treated with great respect by attorneys. The attorneys will always help accommodate a witness’s schedule to make the deposition convenient for them. And, if the case ultimately goes to trial and you are called to testify in court, the attorneys and the judge will go out of their collective way to accommodate the schedule of the witness if at all possible. The testimony would take an hour or so of your time.

 

Having done all of that, over the course of 2 to 3 years, the witness would likely feel good about their participation in the process. They would feel good that they helped the victim achieve justice. They would feel good that they stood up and made their voice heard.

 

Recently, a witness to a serious collision stepped forward and made his name known to police at the scene. He did not know it at the time, but the driver of the vehicle that struck the cyclist would present a version of accident that was designed to help him escape liability for the collision. The witness told police what he had seen. He then wrote out a statement and gave it to the police. The cyclist, who suffered a brain injury, and who had little recollection of the incident due to the brain injury, achieved justice in the end largely because of the courage and selflessness of the witness to step forward. When I asked the witness why he had stepped forward and spent his time making sure that police understood what he had observed, he replied simply, “it was the right thing to do.” Yes, the right thing to do. Many people live by that credo. This is one more way, in the bicycling and motor vehicle context, that we can all bring it to life in the name of seeing that justice is done.

 

Enjoy riding and stay safe

 

If you have questions about a particular incident or more generally about the subject matter of this column, feel free to contact Ron Gluck at gluck [at] bwglaw.com

Ron Gluck is a founder and principal at Breakstone White and Gluck in Boston. Throughout his 35 year legal career Ron has represented seriously injured individuals in a variety of cases including cycling accidents involving catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Ron is a CRW member.

 

 

 

Cycling Aches and Pains III: Numb Hands or Hands that Hurt

This article appeared in Road Biker Review Newsletter No. 1017 For a comprehensive set of columns on various aches and pains visit Coach Hughes website.

 

By Coach John Hughes

 

Do your hands go numb when you’re cycling? In the RBR reader survey a few weeks ago, painful or numb hands was the third most frequent problem cited – afflicting 16% of you as your main physical issue on the bike. (While it may not be main issue for most of us, hand pain or, especially, numbness, happens to almost all of us from time to time.)

 

 

 

I have a cyclist client, Sam, who had completed a series of brevets (200 km / 125 miles, 300 km / 187 miles, 400 km / 250 miles and 600 km / 375 miles). He developed numbness, also known as cyclist’s palsy, and actually damaged his nerves (neuropathy). It took a year of barely riding for his nerves to heal and to recover from the neuropathy. After he could ride again, I started coaching him.

 

Physiology Behind Hand Pain Numbness While Bicycling

Nerve compression of one of the two nerves in the wrist is usually the culprit.

  1. Ulnar nerve — If you’re getting numbness in your little and ring fingers, it’s probably this one being compressed. This is the most common due to its location, at the bottom of the wrist, close to the bars and hoods of a road bike.
  2. Median nerve — If the index, middle, and ring fingers to feel numb, it’s probably this nerve, which runs in the middle of the wrist. This tends to be more problematic on a mountain bike. It’s also called carpal tunnel syndrome.

Although one is more likely to afflict roadies and the other MTBers, they aren’t mutually exclusive.

Riding Technique is Key to Preventing Hand Numbness

The compression usually comes from thepositions of the hand and wrist and/or pressure on the handlebars. The more your wrist is bent, the more likely you are to have tingling and potentially numb fingers.

You can reduce or eliminate the compression through better technique. You have five different hand positions on the bars, which vary in terms of how bent your wrists are:

  1. Tops – near the stem. Your wrists are very cocked in this position.
  2. Bend in the bars — just outside of the tops. Depending on your exact grip, your wrists are also relatively bent here.
  3. Brake hoods — Your wrists are fairly straight, although this depends on where the brakes are on your bars.
  4. The hooks, or bends underneath the brake hoods — again, your wrists are pretty bent unless you are crouched very low.
  5. The drops — Your wrists will be more or less bent depending on how low your bars are and how far they are away from the saddle.

On the hoods is the best position — I use a variation I learned years ago from a pro. Instead of my thumbs on the inside of the brake hoods and my hands on the outside of the hoods, the hoods are between my index and second fingers. My wrists are much straighter and more comfortable. Some riders think this isn’t safe since you can’t grab the brakes as fast. This has never been a problem for me over 40 years of defensive riding.

However, riding on the hoods may not be comfortable if your bike isn’t fitted correctly; for example, if your bars are too far away (your reach is too great) or too low.

Learn the positions in which your wrists are the straightest. 

Although #3 is the best position:

  • the key to preventing compression of the nerves is to vary your hands among the five positions.

I’ve developed the habit of changing positions literally every few minutes among all five of the positions, although I primarily use #3 and #5 (in the drops), in which my wrists are the straightest.

 

Make it a habit yourself to switch positions regularly!

Compression of the nerves can also come from the weight of your upper body on the bars. Lon Haldeman advises that your hands should rest lightly on the bars just like they do when typing or playing the piano! It also helps to ride with “soft” elbows.

 

Solving Hand Numbness: Equipment Plays a Role, Too

Even if you change your hand positions frequently, you’re still exerting pressure on your hands against the bars, and on a longer ride the cumulative effect may cause problems. Here are some suggestions:

  • The more rake and the higher the spoke count of your wheels, the more the bike absorbs any road shock.
  • Depending on the position of the bars relative to the saddle, more or less of your weight will be on the bars.
  • Padded bars can also dampen road shock. There are numerous gel tapes and others with a bit of built-in cushion available. You can also add your own: For padding, use foam that will compress a little, but springs back to shape. I use foam sold for insulating water pipes. You only need to pad the parts of the bars where your hands rest, not the underside of the bars. And, in some cases, depending on the size of your bars, you may need to use 4 rolls of tape rather than the usual 2 rolls to get full coverage.
  • Padded gloves may also help, although they’re sometimes hard to find.
  • Ken Bonner, who has ridden over 50 1200 km (750-mile) events, rides without gloves! On longer rides, hands (and feet) often swell, and the gloves themselves can compress the nerves. I sometimes take my gloves off while climbing, when more of my weight is on my butt.

The key is to get a good bike fit. If hand pain / numbness is a chronic problem, try padding as well.

Core Strength Simplified 

Every roadie I know is pressed for time to work out, and core strength exercises are often skipped to make time to ride. Here’s how to strength your core without adding workout time once you learn how to engage your core.

In order for your hands to rest lightly on the bars, you need to have a strong core to support your upper body. You have two sets of abdominal muscles. The fibers in the surface muscles run up and down your abdomen — think six-pack abs (which almost none of us ever had, let alone as we age).

 

Your deeper core muscles are underneath the surface muscles. The fibers in your core muscles run horizontally around your trunk, forming a girdle around your core that supports your upper body weight so that your hands can rest lightly on the bars. The core muscles hold your back in neutral, the flat back described in last week’s column on upper back, shoulder and neck pain. These muscles provide a stable platform to anchor your leg muscles so that you produce more power.

 

The action of the core muscles working is subtle. Here’s how to find them. Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Rest your fingers tips on the soft tissues just inside your pelvic bones. Then pull your navel in so that your abdomen becomes flat or even concave. Here are several ways to visualize engaging your deeper core muscles:

  • Imagine that you are pulling your belly button down to your anus.
  • Imagine that you are tightening the muscles around your bladder and sphincter.
  • Imagine that you are trying to make yourself thinner to slip sideways among people in a crowded room.
  • Imagine that you are pulling on a tight pair of jeans.

Now that you’ve found your core muscles, spend a just a few minutes daily for a week practicing activating those muscles so that your abdomen becomes flat.

 

We spend way too much time sitting at home, at work and in the car. Even in the most ergonomic chair, you’re not using your core muscles. To strengthen them just sit up straight away from the chair back and pull your abdomen in. Do this for about 5 minutes every hour or two. I sit on an exercise ball — to keep the ball stable, I have to use my core muscles.

 

On the bike, practice engaging your core and flattening your back.  Can you rest your hands lightly on the bars? You’ve got it!

 

Practice core training made simple! Make it a habit, just like switching positions on the bar.

The Lesson Learned from Sam

Because numb or tingling hands can get worse if not nipped in the bud, and persist off the bike in your daily life — prevention is vital. The problem cost my client Sam a year of riding.

While he was off the bike, Sam diligently worked on strengthening his core. When his neuropathy was finally healed and he started riding again — no numb fingers! He successfully completed the full brevet series and the 1200 km (750-mile) Paris-Brest-Paris.

 

The lesson is to address the problem through a combination of improved riding technique (regularly moving your hand placement on the bars), a proper fit and equipment, and keeping your core strong. Doing so will keep the issue from getting worse if it is already bothersome, and will help keep it from ever becoming an issue if you’re one of us who gets tingly only on occasion.

 

 

Coach John Hughes earned coaching certifications from USA Cycling and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. John’s cycling career includes course records in the Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200-km randonnée and the Furnace Creek 508, a Race Across AMerica (RAAM) qualifier. He has ridden solo RAAM twice and is a 5-time finisher of the 1200-km Paris-Brest-Paris.

 

He has written nearly 40 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training and nutrition, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach John Hughes. Click to read John’s full bio.  

 

My eBook Anti-Aging: 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process 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. I include sample weeks and months for different types and amounts of exercise. I give you plans to build up to 100 km and 100 mile rides. I include 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. I discuss the importance of recovery and how to gauge if you are getting enough recovery. I combine the different kinds of training into programs that balance training and recovery. The 106-page is available here Anti-Aging: 12 Ways You Can Slow the Aging Process 

 

 

 

 

The Athlete's Kitchen - Once You Lose Weight, Can You Keep It Off

 

The Athlete’s Kitchen

Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSS June 2022

Once You Lose Weight, Can You Keep It Off?

 

“I lost 10 pounds and vowed to keep them off, but no such luck. I’m so discouraged.”

“I reached my goal weight, then BOOM, I regained it once I stopped dieting.

“This is my 3rd time losing 40 pounds...”

 

 If any of those stories sound familiar, you are not alone. Research suggests dieters tend to regain lost weight within five years, if not sooner. This includes many fitness exercisers and athletes who struggle to stay at a goal weight.

 

 

If you are fearful of regaining your hard-lost weight, this article will help you understand why maintaining lost weight takes effort. Paul MacLean PhD, Professor of Medicine & Pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has carefully studied weight regain. He notes three reasons why dieters regain weight: biology, behavior, and environment:

- 1. Biology: The body has a strong biological drive to regain lost weight, as noted with increased appetite and a slowed metabolic rate. As backlash from dieting, the body learns to store fuel very efficiently as fat.

2. Behavior: After three to nine months, dieters tend to be less strict with their low-calorie diets; they often report they have hit a weight plateau. Despite self-reported claims they are diligently dieting (yet only maintaining weight), these dieters can become discouraged and less adherent. (Note: Diligently dieting anecdotes are hard to verify.)

3. Environment: We live in an obesogenic environment with easy access to ultra-processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle, and chemicals that contribute to weight gain including those found in upholstered furniture, pesticides, cosmetics, and who knows where else. Weight is far more complex than self-induced over-eating and under-exercising!

• When adding on exercise, some people lose weight and some gain weight. Exercise alone does not guarantee fat loss. Exercisers who lose weight tend to keep the weight off if they stick with their exercise program. High levels of exercise are linked with greater success. That’s good news for athletes who train regularly! That said, a fine line exists between compulsive exercisers (who exercise to burn off calories) and athletes (who train to improve their performance). Fear of weight gain can impact both groups.

 

• Questions arise:
1) Is weight maintenance more about being compliant to a restrictive eating plan than to exercise?
2) Do those who comply with a strict diet escape weight-regain?
3) Are exercisers more likely to stay on their diet?
4) Does exercise create metabolic adaptations that favor maintaining lost weight?

 

Research with rodents

Finding answers to these questions is hard to do in humans because of biology, behaviors, and environment. So MacLean turned to studying formerly obese rodents who had lost weight by being put “on a diet”and then were allowed to eat as desired for 8 weeks. Some weight-reduced rodents stayed sedentary while others got exercised.

• Fancy cages accurately measured the rodents’ energy intake and energy expenditure. MacLean was able to see how many calories the rodents burned and if they prefer-entially burned carbohydrate, protein, or fat for fuel.

• The exercised reduced-obese rodents ate less than the sedentary rodents and they regained less weight. Exercise seemed to curb their drive to overeat, meaning they felt less biological pressure to go off the diet. With exercise, their appetites more closely matched their energy needs.

• Exercise promoted the burning of dietary fat for fuel. Hence, the exercised rodents converted less dietary fat into body fat. They used carbohydrate to replenish depleted glycogen stores. Note: Carbohydrate inefficiently converts into body fat. That is, converting carb (and also protein) into body fat uses ~25% of ingested calories to pay for that energy deposition. To convert dietary fat into body fat requires only ~2% of ingested calories. Given the calorie-burn of exercise plus the metabolic cost of converting carbs into body fat, the exercised rodents regained less weight.

 • The sedentary rodents ate heartily and were content to be inactive. Their bodies efficiently converted dietary fat into body fat; they used carb & protein to support their limited energy needs. They easily regained weight.

 

The Depressing News  
When followed over time, the longer the rodents were weight-reduced, the stronger their appetites and drive to eat got. When allowed to eat as desired, they quickly regained the weight. “At least people, as compared to rodents, can be taught to change their eating behaviors to help counter those biological pressures” noted MacLean. For example, people who have lost weight can stop buying fried foods, store snacks out of sight, limit restaurant eating, etc..

More depressing news. Most of MacLean’s data is from reduced-obese male rodents. Exercised males showed less weight regain than did exercised females. The female rodents seemed to know they needed extra energy to exercise, so they ate more and regained weight. MacLean states we need more research to understand the clear differences in the biological drive to regain weight.

 

A glimmer of hope
The best way to maintain weight is to not gain it in the first place. Yes, easier said than done (as stated upfront), but at least athletic people who maintain a consistent exercise program can curb weight regain. We can also change our behaviors to minimize weight regain by prioritizing sleep, curbing mindless eating, and choosing minimally processed foods.

 

Ideally, the sports culture will change so that athletes can focus less on weight and more on performance. It’s time to acknowledge that athletes, like dogs, come in many sizes and shapes. Some athletes are like St. Bernards, others are like Greyhounds. A starved St. Bernard does not become a Greyhound, but rather a miserable St. Bernard.

 

 By fueling your genetic body type and focusing on how well you can perform, you can enjoy being stronger, more powerful—and likely can still meet your sports goals. When being leaner comes with a life-long sentence to Food & Exercise Jail, you might want to think again?

    

 

 

 

 

Sports Nutritionist Nancy Clark, MS, RD counsels both casual and competitive athletes in the Boston-area (Newton; 617-795-1875). Her Sports Nutrition Guidebook can help you eat to win. For more information about her books and online workshop, visit NancyClarkRD.com.

  

 

 

 

 

Riding Winter Street

John Allen

 

 

In the March Safety Corner, https://www.crw.org/content/winter-street-bridge-westbound, I addressed how to use traffic-signal timing when entering the east end of the Winter Street bridge in Waltham.  My attention was drawn to this bridge when the CRW Ride Leaders’ Ride in December crossed it both ways. The ride started and finished at the Craft Food Halls on one side of the bridge. Pleasant rural roads are beyond the bridge. It is seven lanes wide and built to interstate highway standards.

Intimidating? Not necessarily, using CyclingSavvy strategy. The March Safety Corner included a video of the full traffic-signal sequence when entering from Third Avenue in Waltham. I showed that there was a time when no more traffic would enter the bridge for a full minute.

And here is a follow-up video of a  ride, crossing the bridge and continuing past it – into the five-lane Winter-Street Oval. Mostly, this is a forward view, but from time to time I expand a rear view. 

In this ride, my lane choice gave motorists another lane in which to overtake, no matter what their destination. Making my left turn from Third Avenue, I chose the lane that led to the one I would to take across the bridge. On the Winter Street Oval, I rode in a middle lane and motorists could pass me on either side. And throughout the ride, I controlled the lane: I rode in its center. This may seem counterintuitive but it is safer. Riding between lanes invites close passes on both sides.

So, was this ride perfect? No. It was of an exploratory ride, and I’d do a couple things differently next time. There is always something to learn.

One thing I’d do differently is obvious, and I explain it in the video: Even though I was at the end of the queue on Third Avenue, a driver was able to make the left turn behind me, late enough not to see me until after turning onto the bridge. A solution, as I explained, would be to pull to the right-hand curb after turning and wait until the signal changed. Also, a closer examination of traffic-signal timing might reveal how long the light allowed the left turn, so I could slip in at the end.

The other thing I might do differently is less obvious: change lanes to the right earlier before exiting the Winter Street Oval. That would get me out from in front of motorists turning left onto First Avenue, which leads to a big Home Depot store. But this time, there was nobody heading for Home Depot, as I could see in my rear-view mirror.  

 
 

Kittie Knox Ride

Randolph Williams

 

 

Join us on a ride to celebrate Kittie Knox

On Sunday, June 5, 2022, at 9 am, NECCD (New England Cycling Coalition for Diversity) and MassBike will host a community bike ride around Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, and Waltham to celebrate Katherine “Kittie” Knox, a bi-racial woman cyclist and barrier-breaker in the 1890s.

 

 

Kittie Knox rode with the Boston-area all-Black Riverside Cycle Club (RCC).. Kittie rode fast and long, including century rides. She designed her clothing and refused to wear a long skirt while cycling.  In 1895, she and the RCC protested the League of American Wheelmen’s  (LAW) color bar.

 

On this ride, participants will learn more about Kittie as a bicycling pioneer, see highlights of her life, and ride and reflect on racial and gender representation in bicycling and advocacy.

 

 

 

 

 

There will be three route options along the Kittie Knox Path:

Registrants will receive finalized copies of the route.

 

The ride’s strategic partners include::

 

Bikes Not Bombs

Biogen - Rolling Clones

Black Girls Do Bike

Blue Hills Cycling Club

City of Cambridge

Charles River Wheelers

Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts

Friends, Bicycling History Collection, UMass Boston Archives

League of American Bicyclists

Major Taylor Association

NAACP, New England Area Conference

Nashoba Valley Pedalers

New England Chinese American Alliance

North Shore Cyclists

Roxbury Bike Brigade

Seven Hills Wheelmen

Tour de Cure - American Diabetes Association

Urban Cycling Club

West End Museum

Women on Wheels Boston

Yellow Jackets

 

 

 

Registration: The ride is free, but participants must RVSP.  RSVP Today at https://www.massbike.org/kittieknoxride_22

 

 

Sleep to Recover from Hard Exercise

Sleeping can help to prevent exercise injuries.
By Dr. Gabe Mirkin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sleeping can help to prevent exercise injuries. Healthy U.S. soldiers in training are less likely to suffer exercise-related injuries such as fractures, sprains and muscle strains when they sleep at least eight hours at night . Compared to soldiers who slept eight hours a night, those who slept for fewer than five hours a night suffered double the rate of injuries. The average college athlete gets 6.5-7.2 hours of sleep each night, and increasing their sleep duration to eight or more hours per night improves performance in many different sports.

 

Athletes who train for competition in sports that require endurance learn sooner or later that after exercising long and hard, they feel sleepy and need to go to sleep to recover.  Older people may need even more sleep after intense exercise than younger people. If you don’t get lots of extra sleep when you do prolonged intense exercise, you don’t recover as quickly and are at increased risk for injuring yourself. It works both ways: regular prolonged exercise helps insomniacs fall asleep more quickly  Sleep is necessary for healing your brain and your muscles. You sleep to catch up on the energy that you lose being awake, both moving and thinking. Your brain uses more than 20 percent of your total energy, and the energy supply to your brain and nerves is regulated to a large degree by a chemical called ATP . When you are sleep deprived, levels of ATP drop , and when you go to sleep, brain levels of ATP rise significantly.

.

Get Off Your Feet
• Athletes in intense training recover faster by getting off their feet after they finish their hard workouts and not even walking around until it is time for the next day’s recovery workout.
• Intense exercise damages muscles, which causes your pituitary gland to produce large amounts of human growth hormone (HGH) that helps to repair injured tissues, and you produce the largest amounts of HGH when you sleep. A ninety-minute recovery nap after you exercise also improves your ability to reason and think .
• Runners who slept after a morning workout were able to run much faster all out in the evening .
• Napping for more than 20 min after exercising improves mental preparation for subsequent performance 

 

Excessive Napping Can Signal Health Problems
Napping is healthful unless a person’s brain or heart is damaged so they require a lot of extra sleep . People who take naps lasting longer than two hours are far more likely to suffer serious heart disease than those who take shorter naps or no naps at all (Sleep, 2015;38:1945-53), and people who nap longer than two hours have increased risk for diabetes as well as for heart attacks (Sci Rep, 2016;6:1-10). Excessive total sleep time appears to be a marker for serious heart disease and brain disease. Those who take daytime naps in addition to sleeping more than six hours every night are more likely to suffer heart attacks than nappers who sleep less than six hours at night . See my recent report, Is Napping Healthful?

 

Signs of Overtraining
A regular exercise program is supposed to make you feel good, increase your energy level, and help to control your weight, but exercising too much can affect your brain as well as your muscles. Athletes and dedicated exercisers often suffer from an overtraining syndrome in which their performance drops, their muscles feel sore and they are tired all the time. You may be exercising too much if you:
• feel irritable, tired during the day and unable to sleep at night
• lose your appetite
• see no improvement in your athletic performance over an extended time
• feel no enjoyment from exercising
• have frequent colds
• have persistent muscle soreness
In particular, muscle soreness on one side of your body or localized discomfort in one part of your body are major signs of an impending injury. For my personal story of overtraining syndrome, see Avoiding Overtraining

 

My Recommendations
Getting enough sleep is just one of the keys to recovery from intense exercise.
• Immediately after a hard workout, eat whatever sources of carbohydrates and protein you like best. I eat oranges and nuts to help me recover faster for my next workout.
• When you are training properly, your muscles can feel sore every morning. If they don’t feel better after a 10 minute warmup, take the day off.
• If you feel pain in one spot that does not go away during a workout, stop that workout immediately. Otherwise, you are likely to be headed for an injury.
For more of my recommendations, see Recovery: the Key to Improvement in Your Sport

 

Caution: Before you start or increase the intensity or duration of your exercise program, check with your doctor to make sure that you do not have any health conditions that may be harmed by vigorous exercise.

 

 
This article is courtesy of Dr. Mirkin https://www.drmirkin.com/
 
Sports medicine doctor, fitness guru and long-time radio host Gabe Mirkin, M.D., brings you news and tips for your healthful lifestyle.  A practicing physician for more than 50 years and a radio talk show host for 25 years, Dr. Mirkin is a graduate of Harvard University and Baylor University College of Medicine. He is board-certified in four specialties: Sports Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Pediatrics and Pediatric Immunology. The Dr. Mirkin Show, his call-in show on fitness and health, was syndicated in more than 120 cities. Read More

Article Sleep to Recover from Hard Exercise | Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Health (drmirkin.com)

 

 

June Film Festival

Alex Post

 

There's nothing better than getting out for a ride, but on a rest day a video can almost take us there. Enjoy our monthly virtual film fest.

 

Flying Bicycle
A dream for many inventors has finally started to become reality, with some innovators having success with a pedal powered flying bike plane. Riding one has its challenges, but a remarkable achievement nonetheless. Now we just have to come up with additional hand signals for up and down:)
6 Mins.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bicycle Helicopter
Continuing on a theme, if a bicycle plane wasn't hard enough, engineers are working on the challenge of building a bike helicopter. Clearly it's takes more pedal power than a plane to stay aloft, but is guaranteed to be a solid workout!
5 Mins.
 

 

 

 

 

Alex Post is a CRW member who lives in Virginia, but regularly visits MA to bike with his dad. He has also led rides for the club

 

 

Riding the Trike – Interim Report

Eli Post

My article last month on acquiring a trike generated a lot of interest. Some thought it might be a good step for them to take, while others had a family member or friend in mind. Others just enjoy reading my articles.

In any case, I took possession of my trike on May 2 and am sharing my initial observations and experiences.

Generally, I am happy with the purchase. It’s given me additional, precious time on the roads. However, there is a downside: Toting the three-wheeled monster around is a definite chore. 

So far, I’ve only done short test rides to familiarize myself with the controls, especially the electric-assist ones. Here’s what I have to report.

  • I store the folded trike in my hatchback. Besides having to unload the trike, before I can ride I also must re-install the seat and the battery, and make a few other adjustments. The process takes about a half hour before I am ready to roll. It’s not an ordeal, and entirely within my expectations, but it forecloses the option of a spontaneous ride. With my two-wheel upright bike, I could watch the weather and wait for a window of opportunity for a short ride. All I had to do after driving to a start location was throw on the front wheel.
  • The ride itself is comfortable, especially when you have a lounge-chair instead of a hard saddle. The thrill of speeding along with the wind in your face is still very much with you.
  • Friends who spend the winter in Florida tell me trikes are ubiquitous there, but they are still rare in New England. As a consequence, I am frequently stopped by strangers who are simply curious, considering a trike for themselves, or just friendly. Motorists give you more respect, and crossing major roads is somewhat easier.
  • I still am getting used to the electric-assist element of the trike. The motor responds to your cadence and cuts out when you stop pedaling. I have seven gears and nine assist levels. Only experience riding on the road will tell you what combination works best on a given terrain.
  • The salesperson I dealt with used to be in service and has been terrific in getting back to me on technical questions.
  • My test rides have all been on my own, but I’m looking forward to group rides when I become more adept with the control of the trike.

The article was edited by Tim Wilson.

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June Picture of the Month

WheelPeople Editors

This is a view along the Cranberry Harvest Century, which will return in the fall. It is also a reminder of the scenic rewards we enjoy riding in New England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June Updates

WheelPeople Editors
Crash on the Bikeway Last month we reported on a crash on the Minuteman Bikeway.Crash Incident on the Minuteman Bikeway | Charles River Wheelers (crw.org) John Allen provides a brief video of what not to do on a bike path.
 
 

 

 
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