Recently in health Category

Fixed gear and single speed bikes have seen a big resurgence in the last 5-10 years, They're popular as simple, easy to maintain transportation and they're certainly the rides that today have the biggest 'cool factor'.

Simplicity is the biggest common element between fixed and SS bikes. Derailleur bikes need a whole lot of cleanup after riding in rain or snow, the absence of derailleurs, cassette/freewheel and associated cabling greatly simplifies maintenance.

Road cyclists favor fixies, especially in the off season because they require the rider to work in a higher gear up hills and force them to spin faster riding down, this builds strength and smoothness at high cadence.

I find it hard to dial in the right amount of electrolytes when training. The first time I became aware that there was a problem was in the '07 Mooseman Olympic when I was beginning to experience cramping in my calves and quads by the end of the bike leg and after finishing the run, my hamstrings got into the act also so that for an hour or so my legs were trying to cramp in both directions at once -- not good.

Until then I'd been hydrating with alternating bottles of Cytomax™ and water, which gave me about all the carbohydrate I could absorb, I'd experience some issues with cramps in training but written it off to muscle fatigue. After the painful post-mooseman experience I started adding more electrolytes to the mix and found that my problems with cramping had passed.

This fall I had a routine physical and checked in with my doctor about my tendency to experience passing out when I stand up during periods when I'm training hardest. I've always written it off to my relatively low blood pressure and heart rate. The doc suspected insufficient hydration / blood volume but we ruled that out because I routinely check my weight after training to ensure that I'm hydrating well enough. What she suggested is that I'm down on electrolytes. Since then I've further upped the amount of salt I take in when training and I think I can say that this is addressing the problem ... a happy thing as needing to be frequently cautious about the simple act of standing up gets tiresome.

How to manage hydration requirements

The first thing is to measure your sweat rate, this will vary depending on exertion levels and the weather conditions you're training in, so do check in a variety of circumstances. It's a simple thing, just get on the scale before you head out and then again when you're done.
([start weight]+[water intake]-[finish weight])/[time training] = sweat rate.
I lose something north of 3lbs per hour of water when going hard in high temperatures, given that, it probably shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out that while I was hydrating fine, I was losing more salt than I was replacing.

live and learn :-)

Usually I talk about bike repair and safety here but this week I'm thinking about training, so here goes.

I think all endurance athletes fully understand the need to fuel with preferably organic, high-nutrient foods, lean proteins, highly-colored veggies etc. We also understand the need for active recovery to build the muscles that we're developing in training.

One of the keys to repairing the damage done in training and accelerating recovery is ensuring that your body has a healthy supply of antioxidants. Endurance training creates significant stress on the body in the form of free radicals, which are damaging to cellular membranes, antioxidants are responsible for cleaning up these free radicals.

See the full article for ways to get antioxidant's in your regular diet as well as ideas on supplements ->>