Health, Fitness and Training

Or: On, Done, and Off in 45 minutes. During the 12 years I wrote for Runner's World magazine, my Go-To Guy for any training feature was one of this country's premier exercise scientists. PhD. Head of the human performance lab at a major Big 10 university. Big name in the field, tons of street cred. He remains anonymous here because he now dispenses...   Read More...

Arriving home from another excellent Saturday Sig Ride, I started to ponder. It was cold and wet. Windy and gray. I could have stayed home in the warm house watching the rotten weather descend but instead, found myself riding West of Hillsboro eating road dirt from the rider in front, dodging rain, wind gusts and sausage-crazed Verboortians. According...   Read More...

It’s Official: the Big Gray is now upon us. Not “real” winter (is this like “real” Virginia?) yet, but close enough. You know, stretches of rainy-showery days, during which only the self-flagellaters and the Certifiable ride, and those back-to-back-to-back dry-but-cold days when the saner Velo-ites among us clip in and head onto the road. Let’s call...   Read More...

This month's "Fit Bit" from Portland Velo's Fitness Guru Well, Maybe. Maybe not. Let's see what we have here. Seems that, yeah, cycling DOES strengthen your legs, lungs, heart and all its accompanying circulatory plumbing——but NOT, apparently, your psyche. Elevated HDLs? Sure. Pumped-up Quads? You bet. Bottom-feeding resting heartrate...   Read More...

by Portland Velo's own Health & Fitness Guru Warm-up. Cool-Down. Concepts fixed in the folklore of cycling. And concepts considered, oh, let's say "quaint" by way too many Velo-ites, particularly on the Saturday club ride where Full Frontal Assault, 74-Gun Broadside, Drop the New Guy, and No Quarter are more the operative terms...   Read More...