According to a study in Northwestern Medicine people tend to drink more alcohol on the days they’ve exercised, and according to a story Outsideonline.com that’s a bad thing. In fact, alcohol is a bad thing for athletes all the way around.
If you still think a post-race beer isn’t a bad idea, consider this: alcohol interferes with your muscles’ post-workout rebuilding process by reducing protein synthesis. “So not only does alcohol interfere with recovery of muscle damage and injury,” says Barnes, “it also reduces the processes responsible for building muscle.”
Beer works great for getting you fat and keeping you on the couch. For anything else, there’s water. Click the link for even more reasons why.
Jennie Price is a link-baiting writer who has a well shared story in the Daily Mail titled On The Shame of Being Married to a MAMIL (that’s a Middle Aged Man In Lycra). And while she goes over the top repeatedly about how much she’s bothered by her husband spending so much time on the bike, she did kick down a few truths we’re all guity of:
For those fortunate enough to have normal husbands, allow me to elaborate. Being a MAMIL is about much more than squeezing your ample frame into tight lycra. . . This means boring dinner parties into silence with endless chat about bikes, spending long hours of family time out ‘training’, embarrassing your children walking around the house in bib shorts (think a mankini with padding around the nether regions) and paying eye-watering sums for obscure items of kit.
We wonder, would Mrs. Price rather her husband spend his days hefting pints at the local pub and then come home drunk to rub his bloated, sweaty belly all over her sexy red dress? Somehow we doubt it.
While some soft drink companies may want you to think differently, all athletes know that you’re only as good as the food you put in your body. Next time you head out for an all-day roll, try slipping a Perfect Bar in your pocket. The all-natural, gluten free, and non-GMO snack bars are loaded with good stuff without a single bit of refined sugar. It’s a difference you’ll noticed from the first bite.
The bars are available in seven flavors including: lite cranberry crunch, lite almond acai, carob chip, fruit and nut, peanut butter, almond butter, and vegan almond coconut. And, while each has a slightly different flavor profile with the exception of the lite flavors, all of them pack in about 300 calories. The aforementioned lite cranberry crunch and lite almond acai use puffed crisp rice to keep the calorie count in the 200 range. In addition, more than twenty superfoods such as kale, spinach, celery and others are hiding inside the bar in a powdered form.
With all that inside, it’d be easy for the bars to taste like a dirty CX racer smells, but luckily they don’t. Instead, the bars taste like fresh peanut butter or almond butter mixed with a little honey and milk—because aside from all those ground up superfoods that’s basically what they are. Though we would have liked to see one or two flavors of the bars sporting a influx of oats for a slower-release of carbohydrates on a sustained effort, for the most part the Perfect Bar really was just that. Sure they seem simple, but after a few weeks of eating a Perfect Bar for lunch you’ll be hard pressed to go back to any pre-packaged energy bar that you’ve eaten in the past. You can find them online for about $20 for a box of 8 (or 20 bite-sized minis) at shop.perfectbar.com or in the refrigerated aisle of your local health food grocer (and occasionally even Costco).
National bicycling organization PeopleForBikes set out in March 2010 to unite one million voices in support of a better future for biking. Today PeopleForBikes achieved this milestone—one million Americans have joined the movement to making riding better for everyone.
“Today is a historic day for PeopleForBikes. We are proud to have one million individuals standing behind our vision and goals,” said President of PeopleForBikes, Tim Blumenthal. “We would like to thank everyone who has showed their support for better bicycling. We plan to keep growing!” . . . PeopleForBikes believes that people, wherever they live, should be able to bike safely and comfortably and enjoy the many benefits of bicycling—for health, recreation, the economy, the environment, community and sustainability. PeopleForBikes focuses its efforts to improve bicycling through its Green Lane Project, political work, community grants, national partnerships, and by providing bicycling statistics and resources for use by all stakeholders.
Chris Horner, 2013 Vuleta a Espana champion who didn’t get to defend his title while with team Lampre-Meridal, thanks to some technical issues as a result of his nearly being killed by a hit-and-run driver last spring, has signed with the United States registered Airgas-Safeway Cycling Team.
“I am very excited to be joining Airgas-Safeway for 2015,” said Horner. “I have achieved a huge amount of success in my career and I’m incredibly proud of that. For me, the next chapter isn’t just about what I can do as an individual, but what I can give back to cycling as a sport. I had a number of options for this year and what really struck me about Airgas-Safeway was their utter commitment to giving the next generation of young riders the opportunity for success.”
Hopefully, this means we’ll see him around more often. For the official word from Airgas-Safeway, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Still trying to figure out something that will explain why Ryder Hesjedal’s wheel keeps turning fast enough to spin his stopped bike around in the middle of the road after his Vuelta crash. . . any theories?
Lazer’s Cappuccinolock will keep someone from running off with you bike, but if the thief has a boxcutter they can take your bike and your helmet. None of this is pointed out in this oddly compelling new video promo. . . You’ll see.
Meanwhile, back at the 2014 Vuelta a España, GC leader Nairo Quintana went down pretty hard in the Stage 10 individual time trial and turned the lead over to two-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador.
He hit the side of the road off the pavement alongside a guard rail on a downhill which caused him to flip over his bicycle. (:24) After being tended to, Quintana got back on his bike to finish the stage. . . Prior to today’s crash, Quintana led the overall General Classification standings by 3 seconds. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) now leads the overall GC by 27 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Quintana dropped out of the GC top ten and now trails Contador by 3:25. Germany’s Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won the TT — a 36.7 kilometer time trial from Real Monasterio de Santa María de Veruela to Borja.
When we heard Chris Horner haven’t even been watching. Probably should be. The Vuelta airs every day at 7 AM PT on Universalsports.com. Check it out. [click to continue…]
