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

BY Ed Cheng

CRW has wound down the 2023 riding season with a hugely successful Cranberry Harvest Century, with over 350 registrants and cooperative weather.  Thank you to the organizers, coordinators, and especially the volunteers for running the club's signature event.  It's a ride that we look forward to every year.

I'd like to also congratulate the elected (and re-elected) Member of the Board (Randolph, Norma, Erik, and Megan), who will help lead the club to greater heights in the year to come.  I was delighted that we had excellent candidates, polite discourse, and calm elections. As my the end of my term nears, I look forward to the selection by the Board of a new President and Chair during the upcoming Board Meeting on November 5, 2023.  Members are welcome to join the meeting via zoom and watch the proceedings.  

Last, I urge everyone to squeeze out a last ride or two while you still can.  

By Eli Post

I underwent neck surgery last month, and as part of the process had some pre-surgery tests.

This is not a story about my medical experience. Nor am I bragging about my diagnosis but am telling a story that will be of interest to anyone who engages in strenuous exercise for extended periods. Members of this club would seem to be a good target audience. Another factor is that I am an engineer by education, and not immediately qualified to relate a medical saga. However, Google knows all, and I am adept at copy/paste. Given my qualifications, here is the story.

I took two tests, routine blood tests and an EKG. A few days before surgery, the hospital asked a medical doctor to explain the results. In a matter-of-fact tone, the doctor said, “you have the markings of a twenty-year-old”. I was stunned. At 85, I knew I was in good health (despite the neck) but being compared to a group several decades younger was more than I expected. I realized immediately that my biking experience was behind this. In my time I routinely did 40 and 50-mile rides and climbed many hills.

In summary there are known Benefits of vigorous physical activity.

• reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia and Alzheimer's, cancers, and some pregnancy complications.
• better sleep.
• improvements in cognition.
• less weight gain, lower obesity rates, and less chance of related health conditions.

The Mayo Clinic provided more depth:

Want to feel better, have more energy and even add years to your life? Just exercise.

The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, no matter their age, sex or physical ability.

Need more convincing to get moving? Check out these seven ways that exercise can lead to a happier, healthier you.

1. Exercise controls weight

Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help you keep off lost weight. When you take part in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn.

Regular trips to the gym are great, but don't worry if you can't find a large chunk of time to exercise every day. Any amount of activity is better than none. To gain the benefits of exercise, just get more active throughout your day. For example, take the stairs instead of the elevator or rev up your household chores. Consistency is key.

2. Exercise combats health conditions and diseases

Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent high blood pressure? No matter what your current weight is, being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol, and it decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which lowers your risk of heart and blood vessel, called cardiovascular, diseases.

Regular exercise helps prevent or manage many health problems and concerns, including:

·         Stroke.

·         Metabolic syndrome.

·         High blood pressure.

·         Type 2 diabetes.

·         Depression.

·         Anxiety.

·         Many types of cancer.

·         Arthritis.

·         Falls.

It also can help improve cognitive function and helps lower the risk of death from all causes.

3. Exercise improves mood

Need an emotional lift? Or need to lower stress after a stressful day? A gym session or brisk walk can help. Physical activity stimulates many brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier, more relaxed and less anxious.

You also may feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.

4. Exercise boosts energy

Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance.

Exercise sends oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores.

5. Exercise promotes better sleep

Struggling to snooze? Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster, get better sleep and deepen your sleep. Just don't exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to go to sleep.

6. Exercise puts the spark back into your sex life

Do you feel too tired or too out of shape to enjoy physical intimacy? Regular physical activity can improve energy levels and give you more confidence about your physical appearance, which may boost your sex life.

But there's even more to it than that. Regular physical activity may enhance arousal for women. And men who exercise regularly are less likely to have problems with erectile dysfunction than are men who don't exercise.

7. Exercise can be fun — and social!

Exercise and physical activity can be fun. They give you a chance to unwind, enjoy the outdoors or simply do activities that make you happy. Physical activity also can help you connect with family or friends in a fun social setting.

So take a dance class, hit the hiking trails or join a soccer team. Find a physical activity you enjoy, and just do it. Bored? Try something new, or do something with friends or family.

Exercise to feel better and have fun

Exercise and physical activity are great ways to feel better, boost your health and have fun. For most healthy adults, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines:

·         Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity. Or get at least 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week. You also can get an equal combination of moderate and vigorous activity. Aim to spread out this exercise over a few days or more in a week.

For even more health benefits, the guidelines suggest getting 300 minutes a week or more of moderate aerobic activity. Exercising this much may help with weight loss or keeping off lost weight. But even small amounts of physical activity can be helpful. Being active for short periods of time during the day can add up and have health benefits.

·         Strength training. Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. One set of each exercise is enough for health and fitness benefits. Use a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

Moderate aerobic exercise includes activities such as brisk walking, biking, swimming and mowing the lawn.

Vigorous aerobic exercise includes activities such as running, swimming laps, heavy yardwork and aerobic dancing.

You can do strength training by using weight machines or free weights, your own body weight, heavy bags, or resistance bands. You also can use resistance paddles in the water or do activities such as rock climbing.

If you want to lose weight, keep off lost weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more.

Remember to check with a health care professional before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have any concerns about your fitness or haven't exercised for a long time. Also check with a health care professional if you have chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis.

By Coach John Hughes

Your legs make about 5,000 revolutions each hour you ride! In one study of 518 recreational cyclists an astounding 85% reported at least one non-traumatic injury in a year. The affected joints were:

• 48% neck of which 31% required medical treatment
• 41.7% knee of which 11.5% stopped cycling for an average of 42.8 days
• 30.3% low back of which 2.7% quit cycling.

Prevention

What can you do now to be one of the 15% who doesn’t get injured?

In The Cyclist’s Training Bible Joe Friel writes, “An athlete should do the least amount of properly timed, specific training that brings about continual improvement.” What does this mean in practice?

One Overload at a Time

You get fitter by asking your body to do more than it’s used to doing and giving it time to recover. It responds to this overload by getting stronger. You can overload your body in five ways:

1. Increasing Frequency — Increasing the number of days that you work out
2. Increasing Duration — How long you work out.
3. Adding Volume – How many hours you work out, the result of #1 and #2.
4. Increasing Intensity — Riding harder.
5. Changing Modalities — Changing to riding from strength and cross-training workouts

Each of these adds training stress. To be safe change only one of the five at a time

Ramping

You build fitness slowly and progressively. Three rules of thumb:

• Week to week increase your weekly volume by 5-15%.
• Month to month increase your monthly volume by 10-25%.
• Year to year increase your annual volume by 10-25%.

Change Training Modes

This winter you may have been doing strength training. In the spring as you increase your riding you should also reduce your strength training to one moderate session a week to maintain your strength gains.

Train Correctly

Spring is the time to build your aerobic base, not power and speed. This means riding at a conversational pace. For more see my column on Aerobic Base Training.

Stay in the Small Ring

When I started riding in the 1970s the Italian Olympic Cycling Training Manual said I should ride at least 1,000 km on my fixed gear to build my base before doing any harder riding. If I didn’t have a fixie, then I should ride at least 1,000 km in the small chain ring. Riding a fixie is hard on the knees. It’s still good advice to ride 1,000 km (625 miles) in the small ring before shifting up and riding harder.

Over-recover

Brent Bookwalter, who raced for a decade with BMC, advises that if you have a choice between an extra 20 minutes of riding or spending that time recovering, use it for recovery. (VeloNews, June 2015) Remember that your body gets fitter if you overload it and allow it to recover.

Bike Fit

A poor bike fit can also cause an injury that may cost you time off the bike. Knee problems often result from a saddle that is the wrong height and/or too far in front of or behind your bottom bracket. Neck and low back pain often are caused by bars that are too low and/or too far from the saddle.

Bike fit is dynamic. Your correct fit changes over time with your fitness, especially flexibility, and type(s) of cycling you enjoy. Andy Pruitt is the founder and retired director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He’s fit pro teams as well as average roadies. I’ve taken dozens of clients to get a bike fit — one increased his power by 5% with just a proper fit. Andy Pruitt on Bike Fit on my website describes how he does a bike fit.

Strengthen Your Core

Your upper body should be supported by your core ,which should be strong enough so that your hands rest lightly on the bars like you are typing. A strong core is the key to avoiding neck, should and back pain as well as numb fingers.

The surface muscles you use for crunches run up and down your abdomen; similarly the surface muscles you use for arching your back run up and down your back.  Below the surface muscles are the core muscles, the transverse abdominis (located on each side of the naval) and the internal and external obliques (extending diagonally from ribs to pelvis). These muscles form a girdle around your core, hold your back in neutral and provide a stable platform to anchor your leg muscles. You want to activate and train the core muscles that run around the abdomen, not the surface muscles that run up and down. There’s a two-part article on my website on Core Strength for Cycling. Each part has a progressive program of 10 exercises to strengthen your core.

Cover Your Knees

The circulation of blood around your knees is poor and when it’s cool outside circulation is worse, resulting in knee pain and possible injury.  It’s easy to spot the pro racers training around Boulder, Colorado:  they wear knee warmers even when it’s in the 60s.

More Information

My eArticle Spring Training: 10 Weeks to Summer Fitness describes in detail eight key training principles and seven physiological improvements brought about by base training, improvements that don’t happen if you don’t train correctly. I explain the importance of varying your training intensities to get the best results and how to gauge intensity. I include six tips to improve your recovery. I conclude four different 10-week programs. They range from a program for riders who’ve trained for 4 – 6 hours this winter up to riders who’ve trained 10 – 12 hours. The programs are also designed for riders with different goals for 2019. The 26-page Spring Training: 10 Weeks to Summer Fitness is just $4.99.

By Eli Post

I look for a solution
To deal with my confusion
About a winter sport
That does not fall short
To the excitement of biking
And will be to my liking.

This may be wishful thinking
I'm better off drinking
To find a biking replacement
I could look in the basement
Or better yet, keep on riding
Always law-abiding

Look winter in the eye
And to the cold, say good-bye
But not give up biking
Which is to my liking

Winter is coming
I should be humming
A tune of regret
Or break into a cold sweat
But I will continue to ride,
Good sense aside
With snow on my face
The cold I will embrace.

 

 

 

BY Nancy Clark

 

     Staying on top of the latest sports nutrition news can be a full-time job. Between conferences, webinars, and journal articles, I learn a lot of information that I like to translate into practical tips to share with athletes, like you! Enjoy this news you can use! (The research was presented at the  International Sport & Exercise Nutrition Conference in the UK.)

 

• If you try to “stay away” from peanut butter, deeming it to be fattening, think again! Peanut butter—and peanuts in any form—contribute to no more weight gain than the same number of calories from carbohydrate-rich snacks. In a 10-week weight-gain study that included lifting weights three times a week, 28 athletic women and men (average age, 25.) consumed:
— an extra 500 calories of peanuts and peanut butter-based snacks, or

—an extra 500 calories of peanut-free carb-based snack foods (such as pretzels, fruit chews, bagels).

The carb-snackers gained about 6 pounds; the peanut eaters gained only about 3.5 pounds. How could this be?

     One explanation is the fiber and fat in peanut butter is satiating. That means, it keeps you feeling fed for longer than fat-free foods, such as pretzels. Peanut butter can curb your appetite, so you end up eating fewer calories overall for the day.

     This study helps confirm why I vote peanut butter to be one of the best sports foods around (assuming you are not allergic to it)! Peanut butter requires no  refrigeration, is anti-inflammatory, nutrient rich, inexpensive,  and most importantly, yummy. How about enjoying more peanut butter on bananas for your morning and afternoon snacks?

 

• When an athlete goes on a low-carb / low-calorie diet, their bones also go on a diet. In a study with 327 runners (ages 18-35) who trained 8 or more hours a week, those who restricted carbs and/or trained without having first eaten, experienced 1.5 times more bone injuries More research is needed to learn how carbs and calories can influence bone health. In the meantime, enjoy carb-based grains, fruits and veggies at every meal.

 

• With global warming, athletes who exercise in the heat should take steps to prevent problems related to elevated body temperature. One tip is to pre-cool your body prior to exercise. Try drinking ice water or slushies, or suck on ice chips. Doing so might help you have greater endurance.

 

• A study of professional female soccer players reports they burned about 2,900 calories per day. Of that, about 1,400 calories supported their resting metabolic rate (calories needed to be alive) and about 1,200 calories were burned during exercise, the rest supported general daily activities. This equates to about three 700 to 800 calorie meals per day plus two 200 to 300 calorie snacks.  That’s a lot of food! For athletes who may wonder, Why do I feel hungry all the time?, the answer might be because your body is hungry!

 

•. When female athletes undereat, they commonly stop having regular menstrual periods. When male athletes undereat, they experience hormonal changes that can lead to loss of sex drive. In a study with 10 healthy, active males (25 years.) who strictly dieted for five days—they ate less food and exercised more—the calorie deficit caused significant physiological changes. The men lost about 6 pounds (losing more muscle than fat, as happens with quick weight loss). Their thyroid hormones dropped, as did their testosterone levels.

     Restrictive dieting not only reduces calorie intake, but also intake of protein, calcium, iron, zinc, and many other valuable nutrients needed to maintain optimal health and performance. Don’t consciously restrict your eating and stop eating at meals just because you think you should. Listen to your body; stop eating because you feel content, not just because the food is gone.

 

•  Athletes in endurance sports (such as runners, triathletes) and jumping sports (such as basketball and volleyball players) prefer to be light to enhance their performance.  The problem is long-term restrictive eating can contribute to health issues. In a study comparing weight-conscious male athletes (age 24.) to a group of fitness exercisers, the athletes were leaner, but they had lower levels of thyroid hormone (a sign they were conserving energy). They also had weaker bones. If you skimp on food to be lean, your best bet is to seek guidance from a registered dietitian (RD) who specializes in sports dietetics (CSSD). This professional can help you healthfully achieve your weight goals. Use the referral network at eatright.org to find your local sports dietitian.

 

• Personal trainers commonly believe they should have a “perfect” physique to achieve success in their careers. This can put them at high risk for developing eating disorders and disordered eating. Among personal trainers who responded to recruitment messages on Twitter and Instagram, 15% reported high levels of disordered eating behaviors (binge-eating, restrictive dieting, over-exercising). Sadly, these trainers are seen as role models. We need authentic fitness leaders who represent a variety of sizes and shapes the average exerciser can attain and maintain. Don’t be fooled; a “perfect body” generally comes with a high cost.

 

• Some women gain “belly fat” at the time of menopause. This might be related to midlife lifestyle changes and aging, as well as to hormonal shifts. Peri-menopausal women who had big dinners and snacked frequently at the end of the day tended to have more belly fat than those who front-loaded their calories. One suggested weight management solution (for both women and men) is to eat less at night. A satiating high-protein breakfast can help reduce the urge to overeat at the end of the day. Peanut butter on a bagel with a side of Greek yogurt, anyone?

 

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

 

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

More than 40 percent of North American adults are seriously overweight, which puts them at high risk for heart attacks, diabetes, certain cancers and premature death (Population Studies, Feb 9, 2023;77(1)). Researchers at Boston University have explained how being obese is a major cause of heart attacks and death from heart attacks by preventing the bad LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) cholesterol from performing its beneficial functions such as helping to form cell membranes (J Lipid Res, Sep 28, 2023;100451). Obesity prevents cholesterol from being deposited where you need it and sends it into arteries where it can form plaques that eventually may break off to cause heart attacks. Obesity can also overstimulate your immune system to cause a host of diseases.

How Obesity Raises LDL Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fat that is insoluble in the bloodstream, so the only way that the fatty cholesterol can be carried in the bloodstream is inside balls called lipoproteins. The lipoprotein ball called LDL cholesterol has major beneficial functions to supply cholesterol to:
• all the cells in your body, because cholesterol is necessary to make cell membranes
• your liver to make bile

• your glands to make many different hormones including your sex hormones, parathyroid hormones and other hormones
• kidneys to control urine production
• skin to make vitamin D

• immune system to make cells and cytokines to kill invading germs

Your liver can make all the cholesterol you need, but most people get about 20 percent or more of their cholesterol from their food. Eating foods with saturated fat and added sugars can raise blood cholesterol levels so high that you are at increased risk for suffering heart attacks, strokes and some types of cancers. Most adults should restrict saturated fats (meat, milk, egg yolks, cheese, butter), foods and drinks with added sugars, and many other packaged processed foods and fast foods that will raise LDL cholesterol.

HDL cholesterol is a lipoprotein ball that helps shuttle extra cholesterol from your bloodstream into your liver, which breaks down cholesterol and flushes it from your body.

How Obesity Causes Inflammation
The study from Boston University demonstrated that obesity causes an overactive immune system (inflammation) that shifts the beneficial deposition of cholesterol from tissues that need and use it into arterial walls that form plaques and immune cells that cause inflammation. In this study, obese people had bariatric surgery to decrease food absorption and were tested 6 and 12 months later. They were found to have lost a lot of weight, inflammation decreased and blood level of LDL cholesterol dropped significantly (J Lipid Res, Sep 28, 2023;100451).

Losing Fat Can Markedly Lower LDL Cholesterol
LDL cholesterol balls are supposed to deposit their cholesterol into normal LDL receptors in cells to offer lots of health benefits. However, in obese people, the high fat content in their cells prevents LDL cholesterol from delivering cholesterol to normal LDL receptors that cells need to form healthy cells. Instead, the LDL deposited cholesterol into two scavenger receptors that can cause excess and harmful cholesterol to accumulate in arteries to form plaques that can break off to cause heart attacks. As patients continued to lose weight, the LDL lipoprotein ball improved its ability to deposit cholesterol into normal LDL receptors in cells so they could function more normally.

My Recommendations
If you are overweight, you have many ways available to reach a more healthful weight. Check with your doctor to see if you have medical problems that need treatment, and then make the lifestyle changes that will help you lose weight:
• Join an exercise group or set up a home exercise program
• Get advice on a healthful diet
• Participate in groups of people with similar weight loss goals
• Talk to your doctor about weight loss drugs, including the latest ones that are proving successful for some people. Also discuss drugs to lower cholesterol, high blood pressure and clotting. If you are extremely obese, you may want to discuss weight loss surgery

Erik D'Entremont and Mark  Nardone ran the Cranberry Century held on October 14, 2023. This aricle is a report to the CRW Board.

We also include a comment by CRW President Edward Cheng:" Thank you everyone, and congratulations.  This is an important event for CRW and you volunteers are at the heart of it. Special thanks to Erik (and Mark) for taking the lead in organizing it."

By Erik D’Entremont

• Hello CRW Board             

  The Cranberry Ride was a success.

We had 369 Registrations with 270 riders who checked in.

• • We generated $11,245 in fee revenue.

  Our expenses are still be submitted but I expect to be over budget as we had additional permit, DCR and medal expenses for the year.

  The Water stops all went great without issue. Our sponsored stops at Mattapoisett and Tamarack did great! All of our volunteers were Awesome!

   

  

  • John O’Dowd – Ride leader management, parking coordination and Distribution and so much more ! You rock Buddy!
  • Everett Briggs – Sat Distribution, East Over Water Stop Stud and Post Distribution, I could NOT have done Sat/Sun without you! You Rock the Fro Man!
  • Barbara Jacobs- New 28 Mile ride recon and development. Peg Primak and Ted Nyder assisted.
  • Water Stops: Mattapoisett Bonnie and gang: Our riders loved the bike path, Come Back Next Year!
  • • Tamarak – Karen, Tim, Faith, TiM and Jim – You guys did great! Come back Next Year!
    • East Over – Barbara, Girls and Everett – Newbies and Vets getting it done with out a tent, Come back next year!
  • Registration: Stan and Francie- Toughing it out in wind and park cell issues.
  • Ride leaders: Barbara, David, Peg, John O, Jerry S, Hermin, Meagan, Ted- CRW Ambassadors that did a great job, good safety talks!
  • Sudbury Dist and Food- Marlene, John, Bary , Clyde – Every rest stop had enough of everything. The Catholic Charities Food Pantry (Everett!) received a welcomed donation with our extra fruit etc..
  • College After Party: Kermit, Fancie, Tim and many more: We rocked the Pond!

  My apologies if I left anyone out. I appreciate every effort and hope you come back and do it again.  

  There will be a CRW Volunteer EOY Party announcement soon under CRW Events, STAY TUNED.

  Thank you all for making the 2023  CRW Century season a success! WE APPRECAITE YOU!

• A special thank you to our CRW Volunteers Superstars,

 
In Gratitude
 
Erik D’Entremont
Mark Nardone
.

By John Allen

I was with my grandfather Stewart when he bought this beautiful 16-foot wood and canvas canoe at the Canadian Tire store in Huntsville, Ontario in the summer of 1951 or 1952.

He taught me how to paddle and steer at the stern. I have a story from my early years canoeing with him, and you may read it here:

My grandmother Stewart paid for my first bicycle as a present on my 7th birthday. Some 70 years later, I still paddle the same canoe, and I still ride a bicycle – not the same one though. I grew into the canoe and outgrew the bicycle.

I was never interested in ball sports or any good at them, and even in elementary school, I opted out of the ego-driven prestige routine that went with proficiency and participation in them. So, in a way, it is not odd that I became skillful at two favored athletic activities in which most participants achieve a very low skill level. This brings up the issue of safety measures.

When my grandfather and I paddled over open water at night during the little adventure I described in my canoeing article, we may have had floatable kapok-filled cushions in the bottom of the boar, but we were not wearing lifejackets. Nor did we have any lights – but then nobody else was out on the bay in a boat. But also, the only lights that could work in a canoe would have incandescent bulbs that would run a battery down in an hour or two. Really, nobody else was foolish enough to be out on the lake in a canoe after dark, without even a flashlight – but we thought nothing of it, We would have heard them before we saw them, though people in a motorboat would neither have hears nor possibly seen us. It would have been good to have packed a flashlight...

These days, I could easily be cited, even arrested, for boating without the proper safety equipment, and I would never do that.

In the photo of me on my first bicycle, I am not wearing a helmet. Nor did I wear one till 1975, when proper ones had become available. I remember one close call with a car when I was a boy – with screeching of car brakes – my mistake for riding out into the street unaware of the car.

I first wore a helmet in 1975, and in 1978, I had my only collision with a motor vehicle: sideswiped by a drunk driver. In 1984, a stick got caught in my front wheel and I did a face plant. Both times, a helmet saved me from what would have been a serious and perhaps fatal head injury.

Once I briefly took up scuba diving, and on my first ocean dive, both my snorkel and the mouthpiece from my air supply floated up where I could not reach them. My buddy had to retrieve them. I was not a skillful scuba diver, and I quickly chose to give up that activity. On the other hand, I have never felt myself to be in danger in a canoe, or swimming, thanks to an excellent Red Cross water safety course I took at age 12 for a Boy Scout merit badge. I do count myself as skillful at both canoeing and cycling, and competent at elementary swimming and self-rescue, but as this article has, I hope, made clear, I was not always.

So I understand, or hope I understand, the mentality of people in that situation. Many people are in that situation, in both canoeing and bicycling. Why? It is possible for people with a low skill level to make some kind of forward progress over the water in a canoe or along a street on a bicycle, but neither bicycling nor canoeing as an activity is a competitive sport, so there is no pressure for casual participants to improve skills.

You’ll see many bicyclists who do not even know how to mount and dismount gracefully, and casual canoeists at rental locations taking two or three paddle strokes on the left, then two or three on the right as the boat slalmos along. They do not know the J stroke to keep the canoe going in a straight line without switching sides.

At least though, with canoeing, there is no intense downward pressure of badvocacy like with bicycling. I don't know of anyone giving canoeing advice who tells casual participants not to wear a lifejacket, because that might discourage other people from canoeing, and safety in numbers will save you from being run down by a motorboat! Most people who paddle a canoe badly have rented the canoe, and the renters always supply lifejackets. I see them out on the Charles River on any nice summer day.

Quite the opposite with bicycling. Fear and denialism prevail. Advice is common. “look, the Dutch don’t wear helmets, and they have a lower injury rate than we do.” So, what, me worry? What these articles don’t point out is that Dutch motorists drive, as an American reporter once described it “like walking on eggshells,” and the typical Dutch cyclists typically ride around 8 miles per hour...

I did that when I was a kid, and look, I survived! Well, this is now and that was then. You won’t be hearing from the people who didn’t.