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December 21, 2009
December 18, 2009
New spin classes at Capital Bicycle
Capital Bicycle has it's new spin and fitness center open with approximately 2500 sq ft of space. Monday night 6:30pm starts with 50 min spin intervals followed by 20-30 stretching, core strength exercises, and cycling specific pilates with Cameron MacDonald. The spin instructor Matt likes it to Warrior training. Seems to be the perfect Winter training. Some of us show up earlier for extra spin time.
December 17, 2009
Capital Cross and Orienteering
Certainly one of my favorite type of days. Cyclocross and orienteering together. One of the highlights of late Fall! I may have sucked at racing this Fall, but it was still fun!
This is what it looked like 90 min before start time. Black ice on all the pavement sections. Knarly!
Start area 60 min later after 2 hrs of shoveling, sand, and salt. Starting to thaw?
More ice over the crossway on the Lake. They didn't have time to address this, so the ice stayed here till the 2nd race
Crusty snow downhill into an offcamber turn. Yea right! I was debating racing in my orienteering shoes and running the course with my bike on my shoulder. No joke, I really thought it could be a strategy.
25 deg. This crossway was filled with either snow, crust, or ice the whole way. It was an interesting section to preride. Would this be the cause of alot of carnage?
I showed up very early. Was the first one there except the race staff. I was serious about this cross race as the legs were starting to come around. It was my priority that day. Had two great weeks of training. So, I ate early and carefully, planned a warmup, and thought maybe I should be serious. I had planned on some orienteering fun just after the race so raced in Cat 4.
When I arrived I found all this ice. I was a little bummed I made the drive, but was feeling good. So, I waited it out and waited and waited. The course wasn't rideable at first with ordinary cross tires. The guy next to me drove in, got out of his car, and promptly hit the pavement hard. I really didn't want another broken bone this year. Yea, I was a little sketched. Then I watched the first guy go out and preride the course. He fell twice, came back to his car, and drove out of the parking lot. It was pretty funny! Ray had asked me to let him know if he was bothering my prerace routine. I said "I'm just really wondering if I should be doing this given what I went thru this year." The conditions South of the Baltimore area had more ice than snow. Course was unrideable at 8am, so I ran/walked the course and took pics, using my Inov-8 orienteering shoes. Enjoying the crisp air! I debated just heading to the 11am orienteering event several hours early and getting in a long run. I was sort of assuming the Cat 4 division would be cancelled. Slowly, a few brave riders ventured out. Ray and I from Team Adventures for the Cure saddled up. It was not without a few spills and wondering "this seems crazy for a race." However, sun was rising, temps were projected to get to 40 deg, so the thaw slowly ensued. Alot of riders didn't head out. I think we only had 50 out of 90 riders showing up for our division. Ray and I decided not to wimp out. I was wondering if I should of mounted studded tires. That would the trick for this ride. Ray was sporting a 29er, and I was a tad jealous! I saw a few others show up with MTB's, and was thinking "wow, they are smart." I lowered my air pressure to the point I was tapping the rims continuously. It did seem to help. Somehow, I ended up feeling it was right to be out racing.
Then, I got the front row start line? Did I somehow get points during this dark season? I know, I had a good excuse, but I wasn't sure I even belonged up there. Anyhow, I was pretty stoked and then all of a sudden, everything felt ok. But wow, it's so much easier up there than behind 50 folks. The talk in the start lineup was filled with nervousness and caution. My only comment was "someone is breaking something today." Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Bad omen! Being up front, I didn't have to produce a significant amount of lactate and settled into a relaxed 3rd place position, sitting on a wheel for the first lap. Ok, this was starting to be really fun. It may have been the low tire pressure, but I felt extremely quick in the crusty snow sections. Eventually, my legs were getting antsy. This seemed easy compared to MTBing in several feet of snow in N Michigan last year. Was it the bike or my legs? Everyone was seemingly holding back or did the strong guys stay home. I recognized one of the top Cat 4 folks and the announced said the collegiate CAt 1-3 TT champion was in our field. Sure, he's a sandbagger, but he was new to cross and we were racing in the North Pole. So, maybe it was my day? Near the end of lap 1, my legs started calling the shots as once again the lead pack slowed in another layer of crusty snow. So, that was it. I swerved around and jumped. Bad idea? However, I immediately had a nice gap. The lead lasted for an all too short 300 meters, but, I have to admit, I still remember the feeling a week later.
What happened was I reentered a section of snow covering the pavement near the start/finish area. Of course, the next thing I know, Bam! I slipped out hard on a small patch of ice under some snow. I remounted quickly realizing the wind was knocked out of me and found out my rear derailleur hanger was snapped. I sat there draped over my bike and watched the lead group go by. Oh well, I guess that's cross. I did attempt to run for 5 minutes wondering if could I run that far with a cross bike or if somehow a replacement bike would magically appear from the heavens. A bike never appeared, but the day wasn't over.
Later, I did get to sit and watch Ray go on to finishing his first Cx race!! Even helped him pin on his first Cx number. He ain't no wimp!! I suppose he's from Baltimore.
Then I headed over for a :55 min intermediate and 2:15 advanced orienteering run. I was utterly smoked halfway thru those final checkpoints, but totally happy! Starting at 8am then going till 2pm, but then running on progressively thawing snow and mud . It took it's toll. I was pretty shelled driving home. Endurance is always slow to come back, but what a fun day!
Love life! The official motto of AFC!
December 16, 2009
Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment
Below is an edited post from the American Veterans of Brain Injury website I submitted. My email is listed on this site for anyone who needs help or simply wants someone to talk too. Alot of these thoughts are still a work in progress.
a HBOT chamber
I had a very positive experience with HBOT. So, I figure I would chime in with my subjective experience with low pressure 1.3 ATM HyperBaric Oxygen (HBOT). Yes, it is subjective, but it worked for me.
First, I am not selling anything. Second, I am a physician. I did study brain anatomy and physiology for an undergraduate thesis. I attended Johns Hopkins Univ/Hospital in the same area with one of the leading brain research departments in the World. I only say this as I had an inlet to some professors who understood this better than I. I do not specialize in neurology or brain research. I had to learn most of this myself. I will try and keep this as nonmedical as possible.
- wabecca
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 7:32 am
December 10, 2009
Loch Raven
Many folks already know about this. If not, it seems to be the hottest local MTB access debate that I have witnessed. Forums, websites, email list serves, and team blogs are all involved. If you haven't gotten involved and want to, go to www.more-mtb.org and send the prewritten email directed to Baltimore legislators. Otherwise, there is a Loch Raven meeting 7pm at the Timonium, MD REI store.
Off-road bikers have rangers on watchRiders ticketed as officials worry about erosion, runoff at Loch Raven
 Loch Raven Reservoir attracts mountain bikers -- including world champion riders -- with its fire roads and dirt paths along the water's edge. But some city officials worry about the environmental impact of the riders. (Baltimore Sun photo by Jerry Jackson / May 2, 2007) |
December 10, 2009
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Ribbons of hard-packed dirt with nicknames like Sam's Grave, Seminary Loop and Ewok stitch the woods around Loch Raven Reservoir, a training ground for world-champion mountain bikers and urban warriors for more than a decade.
But city officials want to halt off-road use by bikers and others trying to reach the water's edge, saying the activity increases erosion and runoff into the reservoir and makes water treatment more expensive.
Six watershed rangers have been hired this year with seven more on the way whose duties include enforcing a 10-year-old policy that requires bikers to stay on maintained fire roads. Rangers have issued several $100 tickets for late-night riding as well as countless warnings, which, in turn, have generated hundreds of protest e-mails to City Hall.
"It's an outdated management plan that they're trying to enforce," said Eric Crawford, a spokesman for the 600-member Mid Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts (MORE). "It's a little obsessive and a little bit off the mark. They've never revisited it, and they should."
Today, 10 City Council members will request a public hearing for early next year to start talks between officials, members of MORE and the International Mountain Biking Association that could lead to a compromise on access. Meanwhile, preliminary discussions between the riders and city officials have been scheduled for Monday.
Loch Raven, just north of the Baltimore Beltway, is one of three reservoirs owned by the city that supplies drinking water to 1.8 million customers. Over the years, thousands of outdoors enthusiasts - from anglers and hunters to birders and bike riders - have turned its 50 miles of shoreline into an informal park.
"The watershed is a drinking water supply first and foremost," said Kurt Kocher, spokesman for the Department of Public Works. "It's too bad so many areas have to be off limits, but that's the way it is."
Narrow paths originally carved in the landscape by deer were deepened and widened over the years by people. Mountain bikers who enjoy the thrills of so-called single-track riding adopted the routes and sometimes added ramps and bridges. Loch Raven's steep hills and slick stream crossings have attracted Baltimore's elite riders such as 24-hour endurance champion Chris Eatough, downhill and cross-country titlist Marla Streb and Pan American gold medalist Jeremiah Bishop.
More recently, bikers with small, powerful lights on their helmets have taken to after-hours riding - trespassing in the eyes of DPW officials and their rangers, who have begun issuing tickets.
Kocher said the city's management plan was drafted with the help of riders a decade ago.
"These are clear guidelines so that you can have recreational biking without degrading the habitat around our drinking water supply," he said. "This international organization doesn't know a thing about Loch Raven. They don't care about wildlife or sensitive plants, they just want to ride. If they were riding over George Washington's grave, they wouldn't care."
But the mountain bike community says it has lived up to its part of the management plan: maintaining trails, picking up trash, educating users and acting as extra eyes for security.
"We felt we were on the right path and doing the right thing," said Keith Voss, a Baltimore County mountain biker who regularly rides at Loch Raven.
Kocher said DPW is marking fire roads with new signs, refurbishing and installing information kiosks that were damaged by vandals and printing maps of legal trails that will be distributed at bike shops.
But mountain bikers say the difference between single-track trails and fire roads is like the difference between Skyline Drive and Interstate 95.
Crawford said right now the two sides "are not speaking the same language," but he hopes a compromise can be reached. "Loch Raven was the first place I rode a mountain bike and next year I hope it will be the first place my daughter will ride a mountain bike."
December 07, 2009
December 05, 2009
Cool Down?
NOT MUCH SCIENCE BEHIND THE ARTICLE, BUT THIS TYPE OF DISCUSSION COMES UP FREQUENTLY WHEN I'M RIDING OR RUNNING. FOR MOST OF US WHO ARE BUSY BUSY BUSY, WRAPPING THE WARMUP INTO THE WORKOUT AND ABBREVIATING THE COOL DOWN IS ONE OF THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE. I KNOW A FEW CAT 1-3 LEVEL RIDERS WHO LITERALLY FINISH THEIR INTERVAL WORKOUT AT THE FRONT OF THEIR HOUSE. SURE, IT IS NOT IDEAL, BUT WHEN PRESSED FOR TIME, YOU HAVE TO WEIGH THE GOOD WITH THE BAD. JUST REALIZE THAT THE METABOLIC WASTE PRODUCTS TEND TO HANG AROUND LONGER IF THEIR IS NO COOL DOWN. THE FACT IS, DESPITE WHAT EXERCISE COACHES SAY, WE DON'T TRULY KNOW HOW DETRIMENTAL THOSE METABOLIC WASTE PRODUCTS ARE. COULD THEY EVEN BE BENEFICIAL? WE DON'T TRULY KNOW.
BILL V
NOW THE ARTICLE
Is the Exercise Cool-Down Really Necessary?
Evan Sung for The New York Times
MY husband and I were riding our bikes not long ago, and when we were about a mile from home, we did our usual thing. We call it the sprint to the finish: ride as hard and as fast as we can until we reach our driveway, racing to see who could get there first.
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We pulled up, slammed on our brakes and hopped off our bikes. A neighbor was walking by and said, “How did you do that?”
“I just put on my brakes,” I told him. No, he said, he meant how could we just stop like that without cooling down?
Strange as it might seem, that had never occurred to me. But the cool-down is enshrined in training lore. It’s in physiology textbooks, personal trainers often insist on it, fitness magazines tell you that you must do it — and some exercise equipment at gyms automatically includes it. You punch in the time you want to work out on the machine and when your time is up, the machine automatically reduces the workload and continues for five minutes so you can cool down.
The problem, says Hirofumi Tanaka, an exercise physiologist at theUniversity of Texas, Austin, is that there is pretty much no science behind the cool-down advice.
The cool-down, Dr. Tanaka said, “is an understudied topic.”
”Everyone thinks it’s an established fact,” he added, “so they don’t study it.”
It’s not even clear what a cool-down is supposed to be. Some say you just have to keep moving for a few minutes — walking to your car after you finish a run rather than stopping abruptly and standing there. Others say you have to spend 5 to 10 minutes doing the same exercise, only slowly. Jog after your run, then transition into a walk. Still others say that a cool-down should include stretching.
And it’s not clear what the cool-down is supposed to do. Some say it alleviates muscle soreness. Others say it prevents muscle tightness or relieves strain on the heart.
Exercise researchers say there is only one agreed-on fact about the possible risk of suddenly stopping intense exercise. When you exercise hard, the blood vessels in your legs are expanded to send more blood to your legs and feet. And your heart is pumping fast. If you suddenly stop, your heart slows down, your blood is pooled in your legs and feet, and you can feel dizzy, even pass out.
The best athletes are most vulnerable, said Dr. Paul Thompson, a cardiologist and marathon runner who is an exercise researcher at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
“If you are well trained, your heart rate is slow already, and it slows down even faster with exercise,” he said. “Also, there are bigger veins with a large capacity to pool blood in your legs.”
That effect can also be deleterious for someone with heart disease, said Carl Foster, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, because blood vessels leading to the heart are already narrowed, making it hard for blood to get in. “That’s always a concern,” Dr. Foster said. “But to my knowledge there is not a wealth of experimental data.”
But does it matter for the ordinary, average athlete? “Probably not a great deal,” Dr. Thompson said. And, anyway, most people don’t just stand there, stock still, when their workout is over. They walk to the locker room or to their house or car, getting the cool-down benefit without officially “cooling down.”
The idea of the cool-down seems to have originated with a popular theory — now known to be wrong — that muscles become sore after exercise because they accumulate lactic acid. In fact, lactic acid is a fuel. It’s good to generate lactic acid, it’s a normal part of exercise, and it has nothing to do with muscle soreness. But the lactic acid theory led to the notion that by slowly reducing the intensity of your workout you can give lactic acid a chance to dissipate.
Yet, Dr. Foster said, even though scientists know the lactic acid theory is wrong, it remains entrenched in the public’s mind.
“It’s an idea we can’t get rid of,” he said.
In fact, Dr. Tanaka said, one study of cyclists concluded that because lactic acid is good, it is better not to cool down after intense exercise. Lactic acid was turned back into glycogen, a muscle fuel, when cyclists simply stopped. When they cooled down, it was wasted, used up to fuel their muscles.
As far as muscle soreness goes, cooling down doesn’t do anything to alleviate it, Dr. Tanaka said. And there is no physiological reason why it should.
That’s also the conclusion of a study of muscle soreness by South African researchers who asked 52 healthy adults to walk backward downhill on a treadmill for 30 minutes — an exercise that can cause sore leg muscles. The participants were randomly assigned to cool down by walking slowly uphill for 10 minutes or simply to stop exercising. The result, the researchers reported, was that cooling down did nothing to prevent sore muscles.
And muscle tightness?
“In a different generation we would have called it an old wives’ tale,” Dr. Foster said. “Now I guess I’d call it an old physiologists’ tale. There are no data to support the idea that a cool-down helps.” But, he added, once again, “it’s an idea we can’t get rid of.”
Exercise researchers say they act on their own advice.
Dr. Thompson says if he is doing a really hard track workout he will jog for a short distance when he finishes to avoid becoming dizzy. If he runs a half marathon, he will “start shuffling forward,” after he crosses the finish line, for the same reason.
As for Dr. Tanaka, he does not cool down at all. He’s a soccer player and, he says, he sees no particular reason to do anything after exercising other than just stop.
December 04, 2009
A magazine I liked :) Gone forever?
Will the public ever realize the hypocrisy existent in politics? What gives: an economy still stagnant, unemployment getting worse, and a healthcare bill that does nothing to address costs or actual quality of care!! RomneyCare in Mass has already paved the way. I'm referring to the hypocrisy that now exists in both political parties.
This was a great magazine! A sad day indeed!
National Geographic Adventure Magazine Folds
by steve casimiro ⋅ December 3, 2009 ⋅ 
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National Geographic Adventure will cease operations, it was announced today, a victim of the down economy and systemic changes in publishing. The final issue is December/January, the Best of Adventure, which is on newsstands now.
The move follows a report by Folio on Tuesday that the National Geographic Society was trying to find a buyer for the struggling book, and rumors of a possible deal to sell NGA to Bonnier Corp. proved unfounded. Advertising pages were down 44 percent through the third quarter compared to last year, which was itself a tough year. It was no surprise that the magazine was struggling; all outdoor publications have suffered big drops in advertising and most have had layoffs. Like many, Adventure cut costs dramatically, including dropping from 10 issues a year to 8, but it wasn’t sufficient. Just a few issues after celebrating NGA’s 10th anniversary, the National Geographic Society decided enough was enough.
NGS released the following statement:
National Geographic is transitioning its Adventure brand from traditional print to a multi-platform model that will include newsstand editions, books, e-magazines, mobile applications and a robust Web site. National Geographic will also continue to honor the world’s great explorers and adventurers with the National Geographic Adventure Awards. “We’re tremendously proud of what John Rasmus and his team have accomplished over the last 10 years,” NG Publishing President John Q. Griffin said in making the announcement. “They have consistently delivered award-winning editorial to an enthusiastic audience of readers and advertisers. But given the current advertising environment and the opportunities we see in emerging digital platforms, we think the time is right to transition the Adventure brand.” Griffin shared the news at a staff meeting in New York today. A total of 17 staffers in New York and Washington are affected.
The New York office will remain open until December 18 while the business of shutting down goes on–returning photos to photographers, for example. Further details were not forthcoming and there was no word on exactly how Adventure would transition to a “multi-platform” model without a staff.
The sadness I feel at NGA’s passing is deep beyond words. Some of my dearest friends and most respected colleagues lost their jobs today, and though I have every confidence they will thrive in their new ventures, the dissolution of this amazing group of people has me heartsick. John Rasmus, the founding and only editor the magazine ever had, built a title that carried the National Geographic excellence into a world where people don’t just read about adventures, they create them for themselves. From nothing, he built a magazine that was sober, insightful, and wide-ranging, one that dwelt on the depths of the oceans and the heights of the tallest peaks, but that was intimately accessible to someone just venturing outdoors for the first time. The people he assembled over the years were and are some of the brightest and most gifted in publishing. It’s no small measure of his eye for talent that three of his past editors have gone on to make their mark as the top editors at Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, and Popular Science. The current staff is scary smart, deeply committed to the magazine, and fully connected to their pursuits they cover.
John called me about contributing to the magazine before it launched in 1999. At the time, I was freelancing for all the usual suspects—Outside, Men’s Journal, Backpacker—and I was intrigued by the concept of a National Geographic magazine about adventure. And it was funny, that first year or two. Whenever the staff in New York called on behalf of the magazine, they’d say, “Hi, I’m calling from Adventuremagazine.” Those of us in the field would say, “Hi, I’m calling from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC…adventure.” They were so eager to stand on their own, separate from the mothership, but that gradually changed until they embraced NG fully and completely. I understood their desire to make their own mark, but was relieved when they pulled the yellow border closer. National Geographic is the most respected, influential magazine in the world. To travel under its banner is a blessing, an honor, and a gift. More important, it stands for a level of quality and striving for truth that is rare in the world of publishing. Oh, everybody tries hard at magazines, but working for a National Geographic title fills you with an imperative to uphold a century of journalistic heritage with great work. John set the bar high and never lost sight of it. Over the last 10 and a half years, I have been pushed, pulled, and challenged by my editors, in both editorial and photo, to live up to that, and I am better in every way for it.
For those of you who are just passing readers of the magazine, its demise might be a mere curiosity or random note of economic discord. But for those of us who care about good writing, great photography, insight and curiosity and advocacy for an engaged relationship with the world at large, it is a truly remorseful day. The outdoor culture is far emptier for this news. Magazines are, of course, businesses, and some of them are nakedly commercial. But some are built around an idea or a calling, and these, the best of them, can create an emotional bond with their readership based on shared philosophy, common passion, and mutual respect. National Geographic Adventure’s tagline, “Dream It. Plan It. Do It.”, is a powerful call to action. More critically, it puts the focus on the reader, where it should be, to get up, get out, and get going. If past experience is any guide, those of us who have been connected to National Geographic Adventure, either as readers, contributors, or both, will carry fragments of that DNA with us, whether we’re writing, shooting photos, or simply out in the world. The magazine might not have survived this economy, but its ideals will. And for that, we should be thankful.
Steve Casimiro
West Coast Editor
National Geographic Adventure
