By Ed Cheng

As my two year term is nearing its end, I am pleased to be handing the reins to the capable hands of Randolph Williams.  Randolph is a long-time member of the club who has had a role in many of the recent accomplishments of the club, including the adoption of new election rules and policies, the transition to a new web site, and the adoption of the code of conduct policy.  I am confident that Randolph will successfully lead the club as its next president.

I would like to thank the Members for the privilege of leading the club for the past two years.  I would also like to thank the Board and volunteer officers.  I have enjoyed working with them and developing friendships as we worked through the club's challenges.  The club is very lucky to have this group of hard working volunteers who have been dedicated to the club with good humor and cheer. 

Be sure to get in your training and base miles done this winter, and to come out in numbers when the outdoor riding season resumes in the Spring.  Happy Holidays to all.  

By WheelPeople Editors

Randolph Williams is an enthusiastic and dedicated cyclist with a passion for promoting diversity and inclusion within the cycling community. As President-Elect of Charles River Wheelers (CRW), he is poised to bring his leadership skills, innovative spirit, and unwavering commitment to equity to the organization. 

Having begun his cycling journey 20+ years ago, Randolph continues to find joy in the physical challenge, the mental focus, and the camaraderie that cycling offers. As a dedicated PMC rider for the past 8 years, he has impressively raised over $70k to fight cancer. His love for long-distance riding is evident in his frequent cycling trips from home to Montreal and back. 

As President-Elect of CRW, Williams envisions a future where cycling truly reflects the rich diversity of the community it serves. He aims to foster an inclusive environment where all cyclists feel valued and empowered to pursue their passion for the sport. His leadership extends to his role as co-founder along with Lisa Najavits and president of the New England Cycling Coalition for Diversity (NECCD), a group advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion in biking. 

Beyond his cycling endeavors, Williams is a successful and respected technology transformation professional with over 25 years at Fidelity Investments. In the past year, he applied his skills to completely overhaul the club's website. This endeavor not only modernized the online presence of CRW but also improved user experience, making cycling resources and club information more accessible to a broader audience. His entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to innovation have earned him a reputation as a trusted, respected leader with a collaborative approach and ability to inspire others.

When not on the bike or immersed in his professional pursuits, Williams finds fulfillment in traveling, roller skating, and watching sci-fi films with his wife Lisa, and daughter Sierra. Randolph and his family reside in Winchester.

By John O'Dowd

"The best time to train for an event was 6 months ago" or so the saying goes. Well, if you start training now, you'll be in great shape for summer!

CRW wants to help you get ready for the 2024 season by once again offering our winter ride challenge. 

This year the challenge is time based; how many hours can you ride between December 15th to March 15th? We have three levels of accomplishment:

25 hours: Recreationalist

50 hours: Weekend Warrior

100 hours: Racer

Anyone who reaches any of these levels is entered into a raffle for some cool prizes. We're giving out bike lights, ear buds, and official CRW gloves. Five entrants from each level will win a prize.

We count both outdoor and indoor riding. 

To log your miles:

Log into the crw.org website,

Click on your name at the top of the home page,    

Click on Edit Profile,

Scroll down to the Time and Mileage Tracker and enter the numbers of hours of your latest ride in this field:

Scroll to the bottom and save.

Raffle drawing will be at the end of March. By then you'll be ready to tackle a new cycling season. Note this is all based on the honor system, and we are comfortable that you will all abide.

Embrace the challenge!"

By Nancy Clark

Once upon a time, food used to be one of life's pleasures and athletes would eat with gusto. Today, food has become a source of anxiety—Will it ruin my health? Make me fat? Hurt my performance? Food has also become a source of shame—I shouldn't have eaten so much. I eat well during the day but I'm so bad at night. I'm afraid I'll eat too much pie at Thanksgiving.

A survey of Gen Z-ers (ages 11-26; born between 1997 and 2012) indicates 60% feel pressure to eat in a way that shows others they eat "healthy." These student athletes and recent grads —many of whom are fitness exercisers and athletes—feel pressure from social media, if not from their parents, peers, and teammates, to choose a perfect diet (i.e., no chips, cookies, burgers, etc.). And then the binge-eating and sneak-eating happens: shame, guilt, embarrassment.

At the 2023 Food & Nutrition Conference & Exposition (FNCE) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the nation's largest group of nutrition professionals), food shaming was a hot topic. (This topic that is near and dear to the hearts of most registered dietitians (RDs), given "everyone" seems to scrutinize what we eat. Ha!) Food shaming happens not just among athletes at team meals, but also at family dinners, school lunches, and office coffee breaks. Maybe you, too, have experienced shame-producing food situations where you felt like you did something wrong because you ate, let's say, a sandwich (tsk, tsk) at a team meal, while your teammates ate lettuce leaves?

Athletes can easily end up feeling awkward, inadequate, and embarrassed about their food choices. As one runner shared, "After visiting xxx college for a weekend, I decided against going there because the women on the track team nibbled on only dry salads with grilled chicken for lunch and dinner. I felt very awkward as I refueled my tired muscles with a plateful of pasta with meat balls."

Unfortunately, in today's world, we live with a lot of morality around food. Morality can easily spoil one's peaceful relationship with food. Athletes who have been food-shamed start to focus on eating only (society-defined) "good" foods and eliminate the "bad." Consequences of being food shamed include feeling bad about themselves, a desire to eat alone, and increased self-criticism of perceived body flaws. ("No wonder I'm so fat. I should eat better...) The more shame athletes feel about their food choices, the more likely they are to restrict what they eat and cut out "white" foods, fast foods, and all fun foods. This can become a slippery slope into disordered eating, if not an outright eating disorder.

While many athletes might wish they could "just eat normally", they often hold too much shame to seek guidance from the healthcare professional who could help them: a registered dietitian (RD) who is board-certified in sports dietetics (CSSD). If they feel guilty, anxious, and vulnerable regarding their food intake, they'll fear being judged. "I would feel too embarrassed to honestly tell a dietitian about what I eat..." If that holds true for you, rest assured, a professional RD will not make hurtful or judge-y, guilt-inducing remarks. (Most RDs have been food shamed themselves for enjoying fun foods, tsk-tsk, like Thanksgiving pies and holiday cookies. They understand how uncomfortable it can feel.)

Food-shamed athletes prefer to eat alone, deprive themselves of their "unhealthy" foods—and end up shamefully over-eating them at a time of weakness. According to FNCE speaker Tammy Beasley RD, shame thrives in secret, lonely places of over-indulgence. The RD's job is to transform that shame into self-compassion and self-kindness; to let athletes know they are not alone; they are not the only humans who have devoured a pint of ice cream in one sitting.

  

Solutions: To derail the cycle of food shaming, we need to abandon food morality. Food is fuel; it is not good or bad and what you eat does not determine if you are good or bad. Your goal is enjoy a balanced intake of a variety of nutrient-dense foods with some fun foods included. Please stop scrutinizing and "perfecting" your food intake. Instead, focus on fueling for optimal performance. Trust that eating bread and pasta will not result in your body exploding into obesity, but rather will fuel your muscles and enhance your athletic ability. A cookie or two will not ruin your health forever.

   Social media is the number one instigator of food shaming. Given almost all of us use social media, and 57% use it more than 5 hours a week, we can see how food shaming can spiral out of control. Instagram photos with "healthy foods" can easily make anyone feel bad about choosing "imperfect" foods with less nutrient density. Hence, a good place to stop food shaming is at the source: limit the time you spend scrolling through endless triggering posts—and stop following triggering influencers.

 

Moving forward  

Three tips to help transform your "shameful" eating into pleasurable fueling include:

• Let go of being a perfectionist and enjoy being human, like the rest of us. Stop trying to eat a "perfect diet." An excellent diet will do the job. The goal is 85-90% quality-calories and 10-15% "whatever", such as an apple some days, and apple pie on other days.

• An excellent sports diet can include some "evil" sugar. No need to avoid all sweets and treats! The US Dietary Guidelines allow for 10% of total calories to come from added sugar. That's 240 to 300 calories (60-75 grams) of added sugar per day for most athletes, if desired. That's the amount of sugar in 3 gels, 36 ounces of sport drink, or 24 gummi bears. Sugar in any form helps (re)fuel muscles during and after a hard workout.

• Enjoy a satisfying breakfast and lunch. Stop eating when your body feels content, not just when the food is gone, you think you should, or you're feeling ashamed because you are eating more than your peers. Adequate daytime meals can curb afternoon and evening (shame-inducing) binges.

•Finally, bring fun back into your food-style. Yes, please shamelessly enjoy fun foods like Thanksgiving pie and Grandma's special holiday cookies, keeping balance and moderation in mind.

 

Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD counsels both fitness exercisers and competitive athletes in the Boston-area (617-795-1875). Her best-selling Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a popular resource, as is her online workshop. For more info, visit NancyClarkRD.com.

-- Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD Sports nutrition counselor Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, 6th Edition www.nancyclarkrd.com (Books, presentations, blog) Twitter: @nclarkrd Office: 1155 Walnut St., Newton Highlands, MA 02460 Phone:617-795-1875 "Helping active people win with good nutrition." Secretary, Professionals in Nutrition for Exercise and Sport (PINES) www.PINESNutrition.org

What can a camera do for you? Or radar?

I recently heard of a cyclist who is recovering from a hit-and-run collision. The cyclist wishes that he had a video camera to record a license number. And (though I heard this second-hand), he wishes that he had the camera for his safety. I know another cyclist who runs front and rear cameras every time he rides. He says the same thing about safety.

How might a camera increase your safety? Well, other road users might notice that you have a camera, and be more careful. But, cameras are small and might not be noticed. You might want to have a big sign on your back: “warning, security cameras in use.”

Cameras can help to point the finger of blame in the event of a crash. This goes too often though with a victim mentality, that crashes are unavoidable. Videos reflecting this perspective are all over the Web site of Cycliq, which specializes in cameras designed to record crashes. Better cycling skills could have prevented most of these crashes. Cycliq promotion states that “We're on a mission to make cycling safer and give you peace of mind when you're on the bike.” They could give you peace of mind that you will recover in a lawsuit or insurance claim. 

Why not expand the tech? Linking a rear-view camera to a smartphone on the handlebar could give you a small rear view, without the need to look back. Just remember to look up for the traffic ahead! Video displays integrated into eyeglasses will probably be next.

After I have said all this, are you wondering how it is that my Safety Corner articles include so many videos?

Indeed, I have four high-definition action cameras. I could ride with cameras pointing forward and back, left and right! That’s a thought! The two older ones which don’t automatically deshake video haven’t been getting much use. I could fix the shake in post-production though.

Usually I can’t be bothered with all the tech. It’s already enough of a hassle to change into the right clothing –a jersey and shorts for a summer recreational ride, or layers for a winter errand – also the helmet and gloves. I have shredded a cycling glove on pavement more than once, leaving the palm of a hand intact.

I could have taken quite a few license-plate numbers over the years, of vehicles whose drivers are behaving badly in one way or another. But, the hassle…I use front and rear cameras on special occasions, when I have something I want to show. It is worth the trouble to me then.

One is on my helmet, the other on a rear rack that can clamp onto any bicycle, even a borrowed or rented bicycle when I travel. I have bolted a quick-release camera mount to that rack. I can stow my rear camera in a waist pack when I park the bicycle, and I bring the front one with my helmet.

Oh, I did happen to shoot video of one crash. My intention was to point out design issues with a shared-use path, and I got to show more than I had planned on.

It’s nice to feel protected and safe. Fine, run cameras all the time if you can afford the several hundred dollars, and you can manage the tech, and it makes you feel better.

But also, my helmet carries a little rear-view mirror, and a glance into it every few seconds keeps track of what is happening behind me in real time. It’s more informative than expensive Garmin radar and it’s cheap.  You may read more about mirrors in my Safety Corner article on page 5 of the February, 2018 Wheelpeople.

By Eli Post

It was just a weekend ride, but so popular that it became a very successfull fall century, which lasted many years up to the present day. At the Cranberry Harvest Ride we had more “thank you” and “great ride” and “beautiful route” comments then we can recall in quite a while. The ride was on roads that are not common for CRW with gorgeous landscape full of cranberry bogs, lakes, farms, woods, and the flattest terraine in southern MA.

The ride was developed and orchestrated by Bob Wolf who emphasized that he could not have done this alone. In the spirit of “it takes a village” there was input and effort from well over a dozen folks in the CRW community. The area was new to the club and there were multiple scouting missions to work out and fine tune the routes including checking out the various food and rest stops.

The ride has become a CRW Classic.

By Doctor Gabe Mirkin  (This article is curtesy of Dr. Mirkin)

A study of 1275 people found that those who had very weak hand grip strength had signs of accelerated aging, as measured by deterioration of the DNA in their cells (J Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, Feb 2023;14(1):108-115). The authors of this study cited earlier studies showing that grip strength appears to be a better predictor of life expectancy than blood pressure. Muscle weakness also predicts increased risk for:
• physical disability in older people (J Nutr Health Aging, 2018;22:501-507; Ethn Health 2017;26:1-12)
• long-term disability and development of chronic diseases (Exp Gerontol, 2021;152:111462)
• dementia (Clinical Interventions in Aging, July 5, 2018;13)
• cancer (Cancer Med, Jan 2022;11(2):308-316)
• heart attacks (J of Epidem & Comm Health, Nov 11, 2020;74(1):26-31)
• premature death (J Am Med Dir Assoc, May 2020;21(5):621-626.e2)

Five percent of people in their seventies, 25 percent in their eighties, and almost 40 percent of people in their nineties suffer from some level of dementia. One study of more than 5000 people, average age over 70, found that low muscle size is associated with increased risk for dementia (Age and Ageing, March 2017;469(2):250-257). Many studies show that excess belly fat is a major predictor for dementia, but lack of muscle size and strength appears to be an even stronger predictor of dementia than having excess belly fat (Clinical Interventions in Aging, July 5, 2018;13).

Home Test to Predict Risk for Dementia
You can get a simple Grip Strength Tester at Amazon and other retailers. A male’s average grip strength rating should be 105 or higher, while a woman’s average grip strength rating should be 57 or higher. I realize that a falsely weak handgrip test could cause needless concern. I recommend that if you are worried about your hand strength, check with your doctor who can order a more complete workup if needed.

You can expect to lose muscle size and strength as you age. Between 40 and 50 years of age, the average person loses more than eight percent of their muscle size. This loss increases to 15 percent per decade after age 75. The people who lose the most muscle usually are the least active, exercise the least and are the ones who die earliest. Older people who lose the most muscle are four times more likely to be disabled, have difficulty walking, and need walkers and other mechanical devices to help them walk (Am J Epidemiol, 1998; 147(8):755-763).

Your muscles are made up of thousands of muscle fibers, just as a rope is made up of many strands. Every muscle fiber is innervated by a single nerve fiber. With aging you lose nerves, and when you lose a nerve attached to a muscle fiber, that muscle fiber is lost also. A 20-year-old person may have 800,000 muscle fibers in the vastus medialis muscle in the front of his upper leg, but by age 60, that muscle would have only about 250,000 fibers. For a 60-year-old to have the same strength as a 20-year-old, the average muscle fiber needs to be three times as strong as the 20-year-old’s muscle fibers. You cannot stop this loss of the number of muscle fibers with aging, but you can enlarge each remaining muscle fiber and slow down the loss of strength by exercising muscles against progressive resistance (Experimental Gerontology, August 13, 2013).

My Recommendations
Strength training, aerobic exercise and a healthful diet can help to slow the frightening loss of muscle size and strength in people as they age (Clinical Interventions in Aging, August 6, 2015;1267-1282). I believe that everyone who is able should do some form of resistance exercises to increase their muscle size and strength. If you are not already doing strength training exercise, first check with your doctor to make sure you do not have any condition that may be harmed by exercise. Then see Resistance Exercise You Can Do at Home. I recommend that you hire a knowledgeable personal trainer at least for a few sessions to set up your home program and help with choices of equipment. I also recommend lifting light weights with more repetitions, because lifting lighter weights many times is less likely to cause injuries than lifting heavier weights a few times.

By Eli Post

We preach safe riding continuously, and our advice should be taken seriously. There are too many accidents on our rides. However, there are expert riders who can take their bikes to new levels, and we should sit back and enjoy the fun.

There are two vidios here and one unfortunately comes with commercials which you will have to bear. As you watch, imagine yourself in that bike seat, and think of the skill required to manage the conveluted route: the narrow lanes, the dizzering heights, and the overall complexity of travel.

By Coach John Hughes

Winter is here in the mountains of Colorado. This is the view out of my living room window. Last week I was zipping around on my bike.  Now it’s time to wax my cross-country skis, pump up the tires on the trainer, and get out the dumbbells.

What should you do during the off-season? Avoid these mistakes:

#1. Lack of consistency.

When I was in my 20s I’d stop riding around Halloween. On Super Bowl Sunday I’d start training for the Davis Double Century, which was timed back then. Three months off the bike didn’t affect me much. Starting in about our 30s we lose fitness faster and consistency becomes more important. As a rule of thumb exercising three to four days a week is enough.  If you’ve worn out many pair of cycling shorts then three days are sufficient. If you’re relatively new to the sport then four days are better.

#2. Not losing fitness.

Losing some fitness in the winter is fine. Even the pros take a short break. They don’t just lie on the beach. They stay active but don’t train specifically. After the break they start riding but with less volume than in the spring. You need to be consistent but don’t try to ride as much as you did earlier in the year.  A week off the bike now and another week off the bike a couple of months later are good.  You can read more here:

• The Week Off the Bike

#3. Doing too much.

Each year Ray, Sam, Gary and I rode the Davis Double trying to go faster. Our goal was to finish in the top 100 so we’d be seeded at the front of the field the following May and could jump into a fast paceline. We followed Eddy Merckx’ advice: in order to improve, ride more. So we started training more. I lived at the base of the Santa Cruz mountains in California. Climbing in the rain wasn’t too bad but descending wasn’t. So I figured out a relatively flat century route and started riding centuries the first of the year. You guessed it. I was very fast for the Primavera century in April and burned out by the Davis DC a month later.  

If you get out of bed, groan and keep delaying your training you’re doing too much.

#4 Not enough recovery.

If you’re an experienced roadie you need at least two recovery days a week and three are better. Active recovery on those days is fine. If you’re new to the sport then take three recovery days. For new roadies full recovery days are better than active recovery days.

#5 Mindless trainer workouts.

Properly designed trainer workouts can improve your cycling, but mindless ones sap your motivation with minimal benefit.  A good trainer workout has a specific purpose. You can read more in this column:

• 13 Trainer Workouts With Maximum Benefit

#6. Too much intensity.

Intensity is like prescription medicine. The wrong kind, or the wrong dose, or the wrong frequency doesn’t make you better and may make you worse.  Intensity workouts a couple of times a week are fine as long as you have at least two days recovery between each ride.  You can read more in these columns:

• Should You Do Intensity Training This Winter? (Part 1)
• Should You Do Intensity Training This Winter? (Part 2)

#7. Wrong intensities.

Spinning classes and smart trainer workouts are good for motivation but often have you riding too hard. Effective intensity training is a pyramid. You should start with longish sweet spot efforts. After about a month you can step up the intensity with shorter efforts. You can read more in these columns:

• Sweet Spot Training for Every Rider, pt. 1
• Sweet Spot Training for Every Rider, pt. 2

#8. Counting miles.

Your cycling computer or smart trainer may tell you that you’ve ridden X miles. But you know from experience that a so-called 25-mile ride on the trainer is much harder physically and mentally than 25 miles on a summer day. Instead of counting miles, which doesn’t mean much, keep track of the number of days and how many hours you ride a week.

#9. No variety.

Riding for hours on sunny days is fun. Riding for hours outside in the wintery weather and indoors on the trainer isn’t fun.  Here are 10 ways you can cross-train for aerobic fitness:

• Cross Training for Cyclists

Weight bearing activity is important for strong bones.  Eight of the ways of cross-training help your skeleton.

#10. No strength / resistance training.

Including strength training will improve your cycling come spring. Fortunately, you don’t have to join a gym or buy a set of dumbbells.

• 4 Essential Year-Round Home Resistance Exercises
• How to Do Strength Training Correctly

#11. Wrong weekly program / not enough recovery.

Above I explained you should only do intensity twice a week with at least two recovery days in between. You decide to add a couple of days of cross-training. Your cycling club has winter rides that include either a coffee break or lunch stop so you join them on Saturdays. Five days of aerobic exercise are enough and you know the importance of strength training so you include resistance training on your two recovery days. But then they aren’t recovery days. Do some of your strength training on days you cross-train or do moderate (not intensity) rides. This column explains the benefits of combining both cardio and strength and how to combine them into an exercise program.

• Combining Cardio and Strength

#12. Neglecting non-cycling activities.

Flexibility and balance become more important as we age.  These activities are good for your recovery days:

• Core Strength in 1 Hour a Week
• Why Practicing Balance is Important
• Flexibility in 30 Minutes a Week

Motivation to exercise is easy when it’s warm and sunny; not so easy when it’s gloomy.  Here are a couple of columns to help:

• How to Get and Stay Motivated
• Four Tips for the Winter Blues and Lost Mojo

Resources

My eBook Productive Off-Season Training for Health and Recreational Riders explains in detail what you can do to become a better rider this winter. The book includes:

• A 12-week off-season exercise program to keep you healthy during the winter months.
• A 12-week, more intensive off-season program for recreational riders to build your endurance, power and speed, preparing for base training.

The 28-page Productive Off-Season is just $4.99.

If you’re in your 50s, 60s, 70s (like me) and beyond my eBook Off-Season Conditioning Past 50 includes recommendations for outdoor and indoor cycling, cross-training, circuit strength training, flexibility and core strength. I include a sample 12-week program incorporating all of these. I explain how to tailor the program to your own interests: health and recreation rider, club rider or endurance rider. You can also tailor the program if you have limited time to train or are a beginning cyclist. The 26-page Off-Season Conditioning Past 50 is just $4.99.

My 3-article Off-Season bundle includes:

• Productive Off-Season Training with:
  1. A 12-week off-season exercise program to keep you healthy during the winter months.
  2. A 12-week, more intensive off-season program for recreational riders to build your endurance, power and speed, preparing for base training.
• Gaining a Mental Edge: Using Sports Psychology to Improve Your CyclingMost cyclists can get greater improvement from investing some time each week in practicing mental skills than they could investing the same amount of time in training! I show you how.
• Year-Round Cycling: How to Extend Your Cycling SeasonI give you six factors to successfully ride year-round, with in-depth information on all: 1) Goal-Setting and Planning; 2) Training; 3) Clothing and Equipment; 4) Nutrition; 5) Technique; 6) Motivation.

The 60-page Off-Season bundle is $13.50, a savings of $3.50 off the full price of purchasing all 3 articles individually.

By Harriet Fell

I want to thank the board of the CRW for honoring me with a life membership.

As a CRW member since 1976, the club has been important in my life in several ways and I’ll describe a few of those here.

I did not really enjoy CRW rides during my first few years as a member.  I had ridden for 2 years with a club in France and we usually rode in a double paceline, taking turns with the pull, and we always chatted as we rode.  We also always made a stop at a café along the route for an expresso.  The rides were a pleasant social experience.  The CRW style seemed to be “ride as fast as you can and then stand around and brag.”  I was pretty fast back then but it just wasn’t the same kind of social experience as in my French club. 

The first club century after I joined left from the Duck Feeding Area along the Charles river.  I cycled to the start in a slight rain and the only person there was someone in a car who told me it had been canceled because of rain.  I’d done my first 200k in freezing rain so I was surprised to see this century cancelled.

We didn’t communicate online back then and the CRW sent out a printed monthly newsletter listing the club rides and other cycling events.  The first newsletter I received had a clip about a weekend rally in Newport, RI to be run by the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen.  I packed up my bike and cycled from home in Newton Highlands to the hotel in Newport that was the base for the rally.  Cycling with the NBW was more like my experience in France.  We often rode double or in pelotons 3 or 4 abreast. There were more roads in Rhode Island where this felt safe than there are in eastern Massachusetts.

I didn’t have a car at the time so I couldn’t get to most of the NBW rides but I did go on a few that left from Diamond Hill Park, about 35 miles from home so cycling to and from a ride in addition to doing the ride made for a nice century.  I met and rode a lot with Carl Drummond that weekend.  He had been a pro board track racer in his youth and was still a very strong rider in his 60s.  When he found out that I was interested in doing long rides, he got the club to run a couple of double centuries that I went on. 

So, I want to thank the CRW for introducing me to the NBW.

In 1979, I met Harold Lewis.  We met each other on the road as we both lived in Newton and used to go out on early morning rides.  I got to know him and his family.  One day he told me he was going to lead a CRW ride the next weekend and that I should go on the ride.  As ride leader, he swept the ride as was common in the days before cell phones.  So, I rode sweep with him.  We were moving much slower than necessary riding pretty far behind the last participants.  A few late arrivals passed us and I tried to get Harold to move faster and stay with them but he just wouldn’t pick up the pace.  About an hour into the ride, the last of the late starters went zapping by and yelled a cheery “Hi” to Harold as he passed.  I told Harold to get on my wheel because I intended to catch that one. I caught up to him and my first words to him were “You’re riding fixed gear aren’t you.”  The rider was Sheldon Brown and we got married in December of that year.  We went on a lot of CRW rides together and led many ourselves.

So, I want to thank the CRW for introducing me to my husband, Sheldon Brown.

After Sheldon died in 2008, I stayed a club member but rarely rode with the club.  My cycling was mostly commuting with an occasional weekend ride or overnight trip.  In my head, I was still riding long distances and had managed a century about once every decade since my return to the US in 1976. I retired in 2015, the month I turned 71 and I was determined to get back to cycling.  I also started doing volunteer work for the CRW.  I felt cycling had been an important part of my life and it was time for some payback.  I have really enjoyed doing this work.  It’s been a great chance to meet other cyclists chatting while we work.  I, like most cyclists I’ve met, like to talk about cycling and hear about other people’s times on the road.  I’ve gotten back to getting in over 5000 miles most years as well as a few centuries and 200k rides each year.  I do these on my own and then I don’t feel left out when I help run club centuries instead of riding them.

So, I want to thank the CRW for letting me work as a volunteer and for letting me serve on the board. 

Now that I have moved to Oakland, California I hope to hook up with cyclists out here but if/when I get a bicycle set up on a trainer in my apartment, I hope to put my life membership to use by joining some of the club’s Zwift rides. 

Thanks for everything.

-- Harriet Fell