#jason sumner

[innovationforendurance]

Easing Into the Summer Cycling Season

With the unseasonably warm weather prevalent across the U.S. during the last month, it may seem like the new cycling season is already in midstream. But while the natural inclination is to get on your bike and ride from dawn to dusk in an effort to regain fitness lost during the winter, it’s best to apply a more measured approach and ease into things. This will lessen the risk of over-use injuries and help avoid burn-out down the road.

“Consistency is the most important component to getting back into shape,” says Innovation for Endurance contributor and renowned cycling coach Chris Carmichael. “Your body hasn’t forgotten everything it learned last summer and fitness returns faster than it is gained the first time around. But if you’re taking 4 to 5 days off between rides, and just riding on weekends, for instance, then it’s difficult for your body to determine whether you’re training or going on a series of disconnected rides. The consistency tells your body it’s time to make adaptations so you get stronger.”

Fellow cycling coach Frank Overton concurs with Carmichael, adding that a gradual ramp-up of duration and intensity is also key. “And make sure to balance the appropriate amount of training with the right amount of recovery,” adds Overton, who owns and operates the FasCat Coaching and Performance Cycling Center. “And of course having a plan or a coach helps.”

Indeed, if you do have a specific goal in mind, say doing a Century Ride (100  miles) in two months, it's best to map out a plan ahead of time. Ainslie MacEachran, head coach and owner of Gemini Training Systems, suggests breaking your time into two 3-week periods with a 5-day rest week in between. “Also make sure to leave enough time to recover from any accumulated fatigue during the last week before your event,” suggests MacEachran. “Getting your bike fit by a professional will also go a long way towards helping you be more comfortable and efficient. No matter what, be careful in your first week to not go overboard with intensity or hours. If you're a working stiff, take the approach of shorter harder rides during the week and then longer rides on the weekends. And be certain to dial in your nutrition routine before you arrive to your event. Practice eating during training to figure out what works for you.”

Finally, Ryan Kohler, a sports nutritionist and associate coach with Wenzel Coaching, encourages riders to complete a close facsimile of what their goal event will be. “Start with [lower-intensity] endurance training to gradually build up to a 75-mile ride over the first 5 weeks. Start with 15 miles and increase to 30, 45, 60, and finally 75 miles for your long ride each week,” explains Kohler. “Try riding 3 to 4 days per week and make sure to include one day of hilly riding if the Century Ride you are signed up has hills.”

Bottom line, just like most other things in life, a little calculated moderation is key to achieving your cycling goals. Start off easy, and soon enough you’ll be riding faster and farther than ever before.

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photo by Jason Sumner

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The Making of a Cycling-Friendly City

Portland’s standing as one of America’s most cycling-friendly cities is no secret. It was the first metropolis to receive platinum "Bicycle Friendly Community" status from the League of American Bicyclists. And every year it ranks at or near the top of various "Best Biking City" lists. Travel and Leisure Magazine recently ranked Portland No. 2 worldwide, behind only Copenhagen. And Bicycling Magazine placed it No. 2 in its 2011 list of America’s top 50 bike-friendly cities, one spot behind Minneapolis.

How did the city get all these accolades? The reasons for Portland’s two-wheeled prominence start with infrastructure. Portland’s bikeway network includes 270 miles of on-street bike lanes, bike boulevards, and paved trails, plus another 6 miles of singletrack and 40 miles of mountain bike-accessible trail. There’s also a city ordinance that requires bike parking be included in new development and redevelopment projects. The city even offers incentives for developers to provide showers and locker rooms for cyclists, and a half dozen bike corrals have been installed throughout Portland, each one replacing an on-street automobile parking space with 12 bicycle parking spaces.

“This is integral to our broader vision of Portland as a world-class, sustainable, and economically vibrant city that attracts families and businesses because of the quality of life on offer to all,” said Portland mayor Sam Adams upon receiving the platinum status award.

But infrastructure alone is not what sets Portland apart, according to Jonathan Maus, publisher and editor of BikePortland.org, a popular website that keeps tabs on all things cycling in the City of Roses. “It’s so much more than just raw numbers that quantify infrastructure,” contends Maus. “It’s about the cycling scene and cycling culture that’s so ingrained here. It’s a totally all-inclusive community where everyone is welcome, racers, commuters, families. Cycling is woven into so many different parts of everyday life here.”

Need proof? According to 2010 census data, 6 percent of Portlanders use their bicycle as their primary commute vehicle, and a recent Portland Bureau of Transportation study found that bicycle traffic in the city grew more than 6 percent just in 2011. On average, 18,257 bicyclists per day crossed the Willamette River via the city’s four bike-friendly bridges.

“From what I've seen so far [the reasons that make Portland such a great place to ride] are way different than the reasons Boulder is great,” said Kip Mikler, who’s worked in the cycling industry since the 1990s and recently moved to Portland from Southern California; Mikler has also lived in the cycling hotbed of Boulder, Colorado. “It’s less to do with training and wattage [like in Boulder] and more to do with the culture of the place. Riding bikes is just part of normal people’s everyday lives.”

And why is all this important? According to the website HealthcareManagementDegree.com, Portland’s investment in cycling will save it $40 million in healthcare costs by the year 2040. And the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking in the U.S. says in its 2012 Benchmarking Report that, “Where bicycling and walking levels are higher, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes levels are lower. Higher levels of bicycling and walking also coincide with increased bicycle and pedestrian safety and higher levels of physical activity. Increasing bicycling and walking can help solve many serious problems facing our nation.”

What's your favorite city to ride your bike? What makes it great?

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photos courtesy of the city of Portland

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Super Bowl XLVI: On TV or Online -- Your Choice

February 5, 2012

For the first time in its 46-year history, America’s biggest sporting spectacle will be available online. If you're a fan, no doubt you already know that both NBCSports.com and NFL.com will provide free web streams of today’s Super Bowl XLVI broadcast between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. Coverage starts at 2 p.m. EST, with kickoff slated for 6:29 p.m.

Even if you’re planning to watch the big game on TV, it may still be worth powering up your PC. The online stream will let you choose from multiple camera angles, and even provide DVR functionality so you can pause, rewind, and re-watch critical plays (or bad calls by the refs). You’ll also be able to tune in on your smartphone, if you happen to be a Verizon customer.

The game is expected to draw the largest U.S. TV audience in NFL history, surpassing the 111-million mark set last year when the Green Bay Packers knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

NBC and the NFL have been streaming regular season Sunday night games since 2008, offering the aforementioned extra camera angles, which are not available to over-the-air TV viewers. Those free streams pulled in about 250,000 fans per game, compared to the 21 million that watch on TV. The majority of those “streamers” are getting what social media types call a "second screen experience," where TV and laptop are running at the same time. The majority of fans tuning in to today's game are expected to follow suit, utilizing the online stream as a complement to the TV broadcast - not choosing streaming over TV.

“It should be cool if it doesn't get overloaded,” said Scott Cropper, a California-based web developer. “I’ll have my MacBook or iPad going to check out the extra features and camera choices.”

Of course Super Bowl commercials, which on average cost $3.5 million per 30-second spot, are also a huge audience draw. But if you’d rather chat with friends or go to the bathroom during breaks, the Interweb has you covered there, too: YouTube will have all the ads uploaded to its AdBlitz page ready and waiting for on-demand viewing.

As for the game itself, your Innovation for Endurance Bicycling blogger is picking the Giants in a 26-22 thriller, with Victor Cruz catching the winning score and grabbing the MVP trophy. Enjoy the game, whether you watch on TV, online or both!

Will you check out the live stream broadcast or are you a TV purist when it comes to the Super Bowl? Who do you want to win? Who's your MVP pick?

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

[innovationforendurance]

Would you want your child's school to track their physical activity?

The device’s purpose is noble enough: Put the Polar Active monitor around your child’s wrist and it can, according to the company website, “help improve health and fitness by measuring the impact of daily activity.” The monitor, which resembles an oversized wristwatch and is geared specifically toward elementary and high-school students, tracks heart rate, activity level, calories burned, and sleep patterns. All of this data can then be downloaded and parsed, helping teach young people the benefits of staying physically active (i.e., not playing video games all day).

But what if these monitoring devices, which are designed to be worn all day and night, were being used on your child at his or her school? Does it then sound more Big Brother than bulge battler?

Those are just some of the questions being asked in several U.S. school districts, which have begun implementing the device’s use. The Bay Shore district, in Long Island, New York, recently purchased 10 of the innovative $90 monitoring devices (see video report). The idea, explains district athletic chair Ted Nagengast, is that the data will serve as a means to raise awareness in students about the effects of their actions. “It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the obesity epidemic,” Nagengast told the New York Post. “It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’ We want to give kids the opportunity to become active.”

Meanwhile, after an initial study phase completed last semester, plans are in place for 25 of the devices to be purchased for each of the 18 Parkway elementary schools in suburban St. Louis, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Initially they will be used by students during physical education classes. Later in the school year, district officials plan to have various students wear the devices around the clock for a week at a time. "We want to be able to look at both physical activity and sleep patterns,” said Ron Ramspott, coordinator of health, outdoor and physical education for Parkway, in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. “We also want to see how various activity levels correlate to student achievement and behavior.”

Participation in the programs is voluntary and parental consent is required.

All by itself, that’s definitely a good thing, especially when, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled in the past 30 years, and the current percentage of children ages 6 to 11 who are obese is nearly 20 percent.

But critics of the device’s implementation, including some parents and the American Civil Liberties Union, say this kind of 24-hour-a-day monitoring, even if it’s well-intentioned, is an invasion of privacy. “When you get into monitoring people’s biological vital signs, that’s a pretty intrusive measurement,” Jay Stanley, a spokesman for the ACLU, told the Post.

The story has been picked up by numerous media outlets, including the Daily Mail, in the UK, and the CNN evening talk show "OutFront," which asked a panel of guests about what happens to the data and who has access to it. Those answers are not yet entirely clear, but wouldn’t the insurance industry love to know who is more likely to develop diabetes during adulthood?

Cara Bauer, a St. Louis area PTO president, and mother of a son and daughter in the Parkway district, heard about the activity monitors from her daughter whose school was part of of the initial study phase, and who told her mom she didn’t like wearing “the funny watch.” “I feel they're getting into privacy issues, into people's personal lives, when they have to be worn at home,” Bauer told the Post-Dispatch. “That kind of makes me a little leery. I think the monitors are a fantastic idea in school, but I don't want that at home.”

What do you think? Would you want your child wearing one of these devices? Would you allow it into your home?

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photos Courtesy of Polar

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Winter isn't the end of the cycling season: Have you met the snow bike?

Just because there’s frost on your windshield and snow in the driveway doesn’t mean you have to put away your bike for the winter. Not if you own a snow bike, anyway. And while you may be thinking "crazy sport for crazy people," the increasing number of snow bike options is testament to the growing popularity of pedaling in powder. The website RideFatBikes lists 10 different snow bike manufacturers, and a recent Outside Magazine article called the experience “pretty dang fun.”

As the photo above illustrates, the biggest difference between snow bikes and traditional two-wheeled steeds are the tires. Standard mountain bike tires are typically 2 to 2.5 inches wide. Bulbous snow bike tires can run 4.5 inches or more in width. That extra girth, combined with ultra-low tire pressure, allow snow bikes to stay near the surface whether you’re pedaling on hard pack or venturing off-piste.

“It’s a total change of perspective,” says Ben Welnak, owner of Twenty2Cycles, which makes custom snow bikes. “It’s not fast, smooth, flowy singletrack. It’s a different type of riding. Once you understand that, riding can become a lot of fun and it opens up the opportunities for the snow riding.”

So what do you need to know to ride in the snow? For starters, always make sure your bike is dry at the beginning of your ride. “Road spray can sneak up and get in your derailleur,” Welnak warns. “Once you pull it off the car, you may find yourself with frozen solid parts.”

As for clothing, no need to go overboard. “People run out and buy fancy $300 winter cycling shoes,” says Welnak. “Save yourself some cash, get some flat pedals and just use your regular winter boots. They are cheaper and warmer than any cycling-specific shoes, with plenty of room for layers of socks.” Ski goggles are also useful. “They might look funny,” adds Welnak. “But they’ll keep your eyelids from freezing shut.”

As for tire pressure, lower is better says Jay Petervary, who won this year’s 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational aboard a 9:Zero:7 snow bike. “Low pressure can be the difference between riding and pushing,” says Petervary. “As little as 3-4psi, 10 max. Moisture management is also key. The trick is to not get so sweaty that all your clothes get wet. Then you stop and immediately get cold. Part of the fun of snow biking is figuring these things out. The more comfortable you are, the longer you’ll ride.”

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photo Courtesy of Twenty2Cycles

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2011 LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin Wrap-Up

Jason Sumner, Innovation for Endurance Bicycling Reporter, reports from the 2011 LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin, which took place October 15 and 16 in Austin and Dripping Springs, Texas. Participants joined a 5K run/walk or a bike ride ranging from 20 miles to 90 miles. Lance Armstrong, founder of LIVESTRONG, was on hand for the 90-mile ride, as were cycling champion Levi Leipheimer and 2011 Tour of California champion Chris Horner. See the participants in both races and you'll feel the energy from this inspiring event! For more innovation and news about bicycling, running, fitness, health, and the environment, go to Nissan Innovation for Endurance on Facebook. You can also enter there for your chance to win a 100% electric Nissan LEAF or one of our weekly gear giveaways.

[wgoodness]

Exercise Addict!

I am definitely an exercise addict. If I don't workout for a day my energy level and mood are significantly lower in a subsequent "workout withdraw". I generally workout in the mornings and even when I wait until the afternoon the first part of my day is fairly dreary (unless I have sugary breakfast or caffeine which are obviously not the best ways to feel good). Basically I do not function vary well until I have released endorphins and I recognize that is why I get myself moving everyday. God willing I will be an exercise junkie my whole life! :)  

[innovationforendurance]

Can Exercise Truly Be "Addictive"?

We’ve all heard about the phenomenon that is the “runner’s high” – the notion that pushing one’s physical limits not only sheds pounds, but triggers the release of joy-inducing chemicals called endorphins. It would make sense then, that since humans have a profound tendency to rigorously repeat behaviors that yield good feelings, that exercise can in turn be addictive. That's the case being made in a new book, The Compass of Pleasure, by David J. Linden, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Linden contends that everything from exercise to food to sex to drugs hits certain pleasure centers in our brains, causing a veritable rewiring that results in cravings.

I am a believer: Last week, I competed in a mountain bike stage race in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Totals for the seven days included 36-plus hours of pedaling, 337.5 miles traveled, 34,299 feet climbed, and an immeasurable amount of suffering. On dozens of occasions, usually while walking up a precipitously steep climb in the heat of the day when the temperature often exceeded 100 degrees (see photo above), I asked myself why on earth I was doing this. I had no chance of winning, earning prize money, or attaining anything beyond “finisher” status. Yet, each evening, I indeed found myself craving more. And this, contends Linden, probably makes me an addict. “Exercise addicts display all of the hallmarks of substance addicts,” Linden writes. “They exhibit tolerance, craving, withdrawal and the need to exercise ‘just to feel normal.’” Other possible addictions: Foods with fat or sugar are particularly problematic, causing the aforementioned brain rewiring in our brain’s pleasure centers that ramp up cravings.

It’s not all bad news, though. A recent New York Times blog referenced a University of Oregon study that showed in some people even charitable giving could become addictive.

What do you think: Does exercise addiction qualify as a true addiction - or is the term being used too loosely? Do you think you qualify as an "exercise addict" and if so, why?

—Jason Sumner, Bicycling Reporter

Photo Courtesy of Brasil Ride