Warm Up

It doesn’t matter how ready I think I am to ride, how limber I feel, when I get on the bike to ride, I feel kind of like I am peddling uphill for the first 30 minutes, even when riding on a completely flat surface. It’s aggravating because if I am riding a short ride before work by the time I am warmed up, the ride is nearly over. It’s those days that I usually hop right on my bike within minute of dragging myself out of bed. Like most people, I am ‘fitting in’ a ride here and there because my schedule is so tight with work and family commitments. I find myself envying the few people I ride with who are retired and leisurely enjoying a bagel and coffee after a weekday morning ride. Sigh.

ANYWAY, the best way to feel your very best and to prevent soreness later is to stretch and warm up a little before a ride. Everyone has their list of things that they KNOW are good for them, yet they avoid like the plaque: green beans; eight hours of sleep; teeth cleanings every six months; and good record-keeping for tax time. When it comes to riding a bike or any kind of exercise, a brief session of stretching can mean the difference between an enjoyable experience of riding and one that causes pain from injury.

When you spend a few minutes lengthening your muscles with a few good stretches, the elasticity of the tissue that your muscles are made of and the tissue that connects your muscles to your bones, improves. Stretching is so important that studies have revealed that young athletes, those in their pre-teens, who stretched before an activity experienced far fewer incidence of osteoarthritis or the arthritis caused by overuse when in their 20s. It’s that important.

One place to find great stretching examples is www.sparkpeople.com. It’s also a great site to commune with other folks who are learning to become active, learning about foods and nutrition and ultimately weight loss and also a place to find out about how to exercise safely.

Here’s a couple of stretching examples from Sparkpeople.com along with some articles further touting the benefits of stretching.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/stretching_quick.asp

Girl Parts and Saddles

At first, every woman riding a bike wonders how in the world anyone could spend more than 15 minutes on a triangular, hard stub that evokes medieval thoughts of torture just by looking at it. I have to laugh when I see that there are actually different kinds of seats depending on how you expect to ride: touring; performance; recreation or all-around. I mean seriously, isn't it ALL supposed to be RECREATION!

Anyway, I digress. The worst mistake uneducated newbies do is look for the the most cushy, wide, fluffy seat. One word: FRICTION. If one expects to be on a seat for any length of time. If you are going to load up Fluffy, your Shih Tzu and ride to the candy store, by all means, rest your tush on a comfy, scalloped seat that feels like the family couch. If you are going to ride for 15 or more miles with the hope of riding around town, look for a stream-lined all purpose seat that has as little surface touching your sweet cheeks as possible. While this may seem counter-intuitive, it really isn't. Less surface to rub on your bottom means less friction which means more comfort.

Does this mean you will feel comfort the first time you ride. Mais NON! In fact, the first time you ride, your soup bones will ache after the first five miles. You will be amazed that when you stop to use the rest room, just how amazing it feels to be OFF of the seat. What's more, you will be surprised at how much it hurts when you get back on 8 minutes after the trip to the potty.

Time in the saddle will eventually lead to the ultimate: NUMBNESS. I am convinced that repeated training rides with gradually increasing distance and length of time in the saddle kills some of the nerves in your bottom. However, whatever it is that makes it possible, regularly increasing your length of rides will render your bottom conditioned for that long ride.

Some great seat options are:

Terry’s Liberator X saddle

The key word is ‘gel’. Gel helps to absorb shock and and cushions a little without creating too much friction. Gel is also a good choice when choosing bike shorts, and riding gloves. But that’s another entry…

This saddle is $85 which is a fairly moderate cost considering you could buy Brooks for hundreds and look like you are riding a Mercedes instead of a Mustang. Terry’s website is www.terrybicycles.com.

Here’s one that’s a little less expensive, however, you are not getting the magic ‘gel’—though still a great option.

This is the Forte Women’s Contour Saddle and it runs about $49.99 although at www.performancebicycles.com there are MAD sales and a club that gives you 10% back on every dollar you spend. It is $20 to join the club each year.

A Yummy Recipe

If you get fed up (literally!) with gooey, chewy, taffy, gritty, energy foods while you ride, try making this yourself. It’s fruity and compact. You can get all of the ingredients at any grocery store, but Trader Joe’s is a great (CHEAP) source for these nuts and fruits. Try making these balls ahead and putting two into sandwich bags in the freezer. If you pull two out before you ride, they are ready and thawed after about 30 minutes of riding. They aren’t much to look at (So don’t look at ‘em, just pop ‘em into your mouth!) but they are tasty. They last in the fridge for about a week.

Each ball supplies about 50 calories, some protein from the nuts, lots of fiber and good complex carbohydrates from the dried fruit. Also, dried fruit is a good source of potassium. Enjoy!

1 cup roasted pistachios

1 cup dried cherries

½ cup dried apricots

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup pitted dates

1 Tbsp. orange juice

Chop pistachios in the food processor until finely-chopped but not powdery. Divide in half and separate into two bowls. Set aside.

Put the cherries, apricots, raisins and dates in the food processor with the orange juice and process. Add to half of the pistachio nuts. Roll into 24 balls and when finished roll the balls into the other nuts. YUM.

Eating and bicycling--Eating WHILE exercising? What?!?!?!

All of my life, all I can ever remember hearing is how important exercise is for healthy weight loss. Although I have spent the better part of my life trying to figure out the balance of eating and weight loss I have spent 30+ years failing to figure in exercise. Why? Well, because for one, I hated it and for two, I was not athletic so I sucked at just about everything except bowling. Yes, bowling. But so I finally figure out that exercise is not only a good idea, it's a great part of life when you find something you like doing. Still, I never considered EATING a part of exercising and in my case, exercising means for the most part, riding bikes.

But it is. It's an essential part of not only being healthy while you exercise hard and long, it's also essential to being able to stay in the game until the end. If you ride and ignore eating, eventually, it will catch up with you and you will bonk. If you have never bonked, I don't recommend it. Bonking is when you body reaches a point where all of the glucose and/or fluids stored in your muscles, is depleted. That glucose is fuel your body has ready so that when you move through your day, you can walk up the steps, load and unload laundry, do the yard work you have been putting off or play with your kids or grandkids on the family room floor. Usually, a normal person does not have to perform more than 60 minutes of big muscle work in a normal day. This is why you don't hear of housewives falling over and 'bonking' in their laundry rooms or in the garden. But, when a person exerts his or herself for more than 60 minutes between meals, that glucose is used up.

So, say you have eaten breakfast. You get on your bike for a 35-mile ride. If you are riding at 16 miles an hour, and you are lucky enough to have a great route that doesn't stop at pesky traffic lights every mile or so, you ride for an hour and you still have about an hour left to complete your ride. If you fail to eat anything, chances are sometime in that second hour, you are going to start feeling a little nauseated. You may start sweating and feeling kind of dizzy. When this happened to me the first time, it was about 15 miles into my first 40-mile ride. I thought it was the heat so I kept pushing and before long, I felt like the angel of death was near. I felt like vomiting and my sight kept growing dark. I finally had to stop or risk passing out on my bike. Luckily, I had not even entertained the thought of clipping in. Once I steadied myself to the point that I felt I could continue to remain conscious, I searched for my cell phone and was planning to call someone, ANYONE to come and pick me and my bike up. The ride leader gave me nutrition at that point and asked me what I had eaten that morning. When I answered 'nothing' everyone gasped around me. NOTHING? Are you mad? After a Cliff bar and some watered down Gatorade, I regained my wits, if not my dignity and was able to finish the ride.

Keep nutrition handy for rides or exercise sessions longer than 45 minutes. Protein and healthy carbs are good in the form of peanut butter and whole wheat bread; honey; trail mix; dried fruit and nuts or bananas. Or, if you would rather have something ready-made, there are many commercial bars that are great and compact. Many swear by the slimy, flavored gel energy pouches such as Gu; Power Bar Gel, Hammar Gel or Carb Boom. I was introduced to my first slimy gel when I was having leg cramps during my first Bike MS bike ride. I was told that this was the best way to relieve those cramps. I squeezed the first Power Bar Gel into my mouth and truly, whether it was coincidence or not, within minutes, the cramps subsided and I was able to continue on my way. I have used them on countless occasions since for the same thing and also for quick energy when the rest stop was not a long one. The best advice I have read is to eat something, anything, every hour whether you are hungry or not. Drinking fluids is a given...that's another posting all together.