Here’s another rule of thumb I’ve developed for endurance cyclists: if you have to use your brake, you’re doing it wrong. That might sound a little silly, but it’s good science.

The only way that a bike moves is through the rider producing the force to propel it. You invest a lot of muscle energy to get the bike up to speed, and then its momentum ( Read more... )

To the uninitiated, endurance cycling would seem exclusively about the legs. Looking at a rider, there isn’t anything else going on other than propelling the bike forward, mile after mile.

But the reality-and one of the things that draws me to it-is that long-distance cycling involves nearly every part of the body, and stresses many bodily systems ( Read more... )

One thing amateur cyclists have in common with pros is that after a certain amount of time spent above your lactate threshold, you crack.

The human body is capable of producing prodigious amounts of power, and can sustain it over surprising lengths of time. But there’s a limit, and ( Read more... )

There are only three contact points between bicycle and rider: hands on bars, feet on pedals, and butt on saddle.

No one ever says anything good about their saddle. For the vast majority, it is the seat of dissatisfaction and pain. Even experienced cyclists, once they find a saddle that works for them, do their utmost to forget all about it.

That ( Read more... )

I’ve mentioned a couple times that this year I planned to visit a massage therapist after my big rides, to evaluate whether professional massage provided any discernible benefit in terms of recovery, flexibility, and muscle tightness. Now, with my season unexpectedly cut short, I guess I have the time to summarize my experience.

I had five ( Read more... )

When I bought my new bike, I also wanted to finally have a full premium fitting done.

Judging by the people I talk to, unless you’re a cyclist, you probably have no idea that there’s anything more to fitting a bike than making sure you can reach the pedals and the brakes, and that’s it. Well, it gets a whole lot more complex than that…

Still, it’ ( Read more... )

Some interesting stuff that shouldn’t wait for the release of my 2011 PMC ride report.

( Read more... )

With nearly fifty international victories in a sport where body mass is a primary disadvantage, and his name enshrined forever in everyone’s minds as THE WORLD’S GREATEST ATHLETE™, you’d think Lance Armstrong would be one svelte dude.

Not so much. In fact, my body-mass index (BMI) is actually much lower than Lance’s.

At 165 pounds, Lance’s racing ( Read more... )

Over the past few months, I’ve been re-reading my back catalog of cycling magazines, pulling out points that I thought were worth remembering and/or sharing. Here in part four is a collection of hard-won cycling techniques.

In training, either go easy or go hard, but don’t spend all your time at ( Read more... )

Over the past few months, I’ve been re-reading my back catalog of cycling magazines, pulling out points that I thought were worth remembering and/or sharing. Installment number three contains all kinds of crazy health and nutrition advice.

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  The average person has a resting heart rate of 60-80 beats per minute ( Read more... )