The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Joe Johnson

“In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn’t cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2:55, when you know you’ve taken all the baths that you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.”

Douglas Adams wrote that quote about a Sunday afternoon but I feel like they could be describing a cyclist during the long cold off season of New England winter. The roads are salt caked wastelands that are not conducive to driving let alone riding a bicycle. They are barren wind swept things that only promise frostbitten fingers and crashes in the slush. Indoor riding is no better at this point in the off season, boredom set in somewhere in late December and hasn’t let up yet. Even training videos like the Sufferest can’t quite motivate me to get back on the bike. Every time there seems like there will be a break in the weather, some type of mid winter’s thaw, another four inches of snow falls and the polar vortex manages to reverse course and plunge us deep into Mother Nature’s freezer.

Against this backdrop I scheduled my first two rides of the season. The Five Boro Tour and a local training ride about a month before the trip to New York City. They both seem like far off commitments, evens that will happen in the spring when the weather goes about the freezing mark and there should be some life in the world. That seems so far away right now as I write this after another morning spent shoveling snow. The rides are approaching though, and I needed to find a way to get ready that didn’t involve another hour plus ride in my bicycle torture chamber of a basement. So I did what truly desperate people do when they want help getting into shape, I joined a gym.

My wife and I took a tour of Big Sky Fitness in Vernon, Connecticut. The gym moved into an out of business fitness center’s old building and has begun remodeling it to bring it into the modern era. Despite my initial misgivings about joining a gym that was still under construction I was happy that a business was rebuilding an unused space instead of developing another piece of land in the town. I also appreciated the fact that none of the staff tried to hide the construction work or make excuses for it. They explained how long it was going to take and what they were trying to accomplish. This wouldn’t be a short term project, but the end result would be worth the wait. Most importantly, my wife loved the tour and really wanted to get started, so she helped make the decision pretty simple.

What really sold us on Big Sky was the fact that they offered a kids play area. Nothing will motivate my wife and I to go to the gym quite like free child care while we are there. I know that it is never easy for parents to carve out time to stay fit and having a gym that offers to watch your children is a huge plus.

We also received two free sessions with a personal trainer to help us get started. My first session went fairly well, in that I learned where used car salesmen get their career development. After spending a few minutes learning how little I knew about fitness and nutrition we proceeded to assess my range of motion and try a few new exercises. My trainer took my riding into account and worked on other parts of my body, including my core. We quickly realized that Big Joe still had a very long way to go. After we spent a little time on the floor we went back up to the lounge area to talk about my program. That apparently meant that we needed to reinforce my lack of knowledge and assess my budget for the training that I so desperately needed. Like any good salesmen, my trainer felt really concerned for me and if I could hit my goals without him. I assured him I would manage to soldier on despite the challenge. Sadly we have another session together before he fulfills his obligation.

I was much more bothered by this interaction at first than I am now. I was intimidated by the trainer and really started to worry about my lack of knowledge and if that would impact me. I also worried that I would be wasting my gym membership by not taking full advantage of the trainers, but then I realized that those feelings are part of the sales pitch. I also decided that I am not going to let the trainer make me feel like I don’t belong in the gym. I am going to accomplish my goals there the same way that I have on the bike. I am going to keep trying no matter how foolish and misguided my attempts are at first because I know I will figure it all out. Eventually.

More importantly, I learned that joining the gym did manage to alleviate my boredom. It gave me a new place to go work out and new ways to push myself. It is going to get me through the long dark teatime of the cycling offseason stronger and ready to tackle the first rides of the season. It has also given me a few new ideas. There are some great treadmills there that will help me get ready for the mud runs that are going to be coming up before I know it and they have a pool. I can’t wait to start swimming laps again. You know, maybe I could start training for a mini triathlon…….

Thankfully something else happened that made the end of January seem like the beginning of spring instead of the deepest part of winter, the World Tour started back up again. The Santos Tour Down Under was broadcast in the USA and I was able to set my DVR to catch it. The scenic Australian summer made our own warmer weather seem like it wasn’t so far away, and a chance to ride the trainer while watching the professionals tackle their first real race of the season. I think it would have really helped except the high temperate last week was 20 degrees Fahrenheit. When does spring start?

Posted in Cycling, fitness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Be Bold

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Joe Johnson

There is a certain necessary schizophrenia to being a working writer that is difficult to embrace. I don’t feel like I am alone in being drawn to the act of writing to tell stories to as many people as I can while hiding behind a computer screen. Writing is, despite what corporate America seems to think, a solitary act. Writers can brainstorm or even write pieces together but the writing happens when the author sits down at their machine. The finished work will only sit in the computer’s memory or printed out on a desk unread unless the other half of the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde split takes over. The writer must go out and promote the work. This is a different type of communication than writing, this is selling. A writer must transform their self from a solitary storyteller into a gregarious carnival barker, calling to passersby to stop and read their work.

I think most writers are drawn to the work because it is solitary. There is very little I like more than sitting down at my computer with a cup of coffee and a good idea. It can be the best part of my weekend, happily typing out a new blog post in the quiet morning before my wife and son wake up and start their day. I can take the time to write and rewrite passages and stare out the window until the right way to articulate an idea pops into my head. The solitude of the work can be one of the best aspects of the whole endeavor. There are weeks when the solitude is what draws out the inspiration for the post. The rest of the week the ideas are lost in the bustle of daily life. It’s not until I am alone and quiet that I can hear myself create the theme of the week.

Then Monday morning comes and I have to switch gears and start promoting the blog post. I have to write multiple tweets and Facebook page updates to try to entice readers to go to my blog and give it a chance. I have to pay attention to make sure that I schedule the updates to reach as many people as possible and to find a witty way to sum up three or four pages in 140 characters or less. I also have to try to stay engaging and have multiple approaches to catch as many people as possible. I have to pay attention to Twitter Communities and Facebook trends. Ultimately I have to push my work on as many people as possible in as public a way as possible for the maximum effect. The effort is always worth the return, but I did have to realize that promotion is as necessary as the writing of the blog. To put it another way, there is little point in writing if no one reads it. The only way I can get people to read my work is if people actually know it exists.

I love going out and having adventures, bringing them home, and sitting in my office and writing about them. Part of the reason I try new rides or new fitness ideas is to be able to share them on Mondays. I love posting the blog to the website and checking back every few hours to see if the page views have increased or if there are any comments. I can’t say that I enjoy the promotion of the blog. I do love my Facebook page and my Twitter followers; I just hate begging everyone to read my blog. I wish there was a way to write and have people search out the new posts without having to beg them, but until I have a following like Neil Gaiman’s, it’s not going to happen. Having to promote heavily has taught me a very important lesson. I need to be bold.

I think I have always known that you have to be bold in life to get certain things accomplished. My father used to take me out to sell newspaper subscriptions when I was young. I would go door to door asking people to buy the newspaper. If I sold enough subscriptions I would win prizes. I always won the top prizes, normally because I received a lot of help from my dad, but also because I tried. I knocked on a lot of doors and failed to sell newspapers to a lot of people, but the more I tried the more I sold. It became a math problem, if 90% of people said no you would still find the other 10% if you knocked on enough doors. Someone is going to say yes, you just have to ask enough people until you find the one that says yes.

I found the same thing to be true when I started writing the blog. I offered to write for anyone that asked for submissions. Most sites wanted more experienced or well know bloggers, but a few welcomed my submissions and published them. CycleRecycle and IWearSpandex were two of the first and most helpful sites that gave me confidence to start writing regularly. I started submitting posts to magazines as well. I have had mixed results, but I know that I will be published one day as long as I keep writing and asking. Bicycle Times Magazine is holding one of my articles and has offered some great feedback. Being bold and asking has worked in helping get me noticed.

Being bold has helped me in other ways. Julia, the new Facebook page admin volunteered after I asked for help in a blog post. I have begun asking manufacturers to send me products to review. Some have said no but one has said yes. I have been buying other products to review and other companies have noticed and helped promote the blog when I reviewed their products. It almost seems like the more bold questions I ask the more I am surprised by the amount of yes answers. It is a lesson that I am constantly learning, but I need to keep asking the questions. People cannot say yes to questions you don’t ask.

This year I am going to try to remember to be bold. To promote with reckless abandon. To ask ask questions that probably deserve a no answer but might not get them. I am going to boldly say yes to questions that people ask me. I am going to open up and try new things and write about them. I am going to keep asking magazines and websites to publish me until someone says yes. What bold questions are you going to ask this year? I think my first will be an offer to open up the Soapbox to more guest writers. Julia did a great job last week and I hope she guest posts again. Is there anyone else out there that wants to guest post? I would love to have you to have some new voices on the site to talk about cycling, fitness, or whatever else you would like to talk about. Let me know in the comments if you are interested!

Posted in life skills | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fitness Freak: Navigating the Ups and Downs of Attempting a Healthy Living

Posted on January 15, 2014 by julia

Today is the first guest post by Julia from ILoveYouMoreThanIceCream. She is a friend and fellow blogger who is sharing some of her thoughts on her personal journey to and through fitness. She is a remarkable mom and writer who is bringing a unique perspective to the Soapbox today. From my experience of a fat guy on a bike I would have never thought that fitness would be a struggle for my thin as rails friend. She is actually the body type I jealously mutter under my breath about as I struggle through a workout in the gym, wishing to have what appears to be an effortless grasp of fitness. It is heartening for me to hear that she is struggling and succeeding in her quest as it shows that we all have challenges but we can all overcome them as well. Please welcome her and if we are nice maybe we can get her to write some more for the site! – Big Joe

I can’t seem to get enough. Its become an addiction. It feels like a drug. If I skip for even one day, I don’t feel right. Twenty minutes is only ok when I’ve gotten to it late in the afternoon, or time is short because of extra events in the day, but on the stipulation that I go to extremes and follow Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper or Violet Zaki. Half an hour is passable, and I can find peace in that duration…but it just doesn’t feel like a genuine session unless I devote 4o minutes or more. I am becoming a fitness freak. I like this about me.

Me, who was one of the least athletic kids ever. Me, who detested gym class (and still on occasion has nightmares about it). Me, who having always battled depression slumped around more often than not, ate things I wouldn’t even think of now, had no idea of portion control, in a household where my parent was not attempting to become more fit herself so that I could emulate that example earlier on.

That kid grew up into a health-conscious woman who now realizes as an adult that not only was the encouragement missing for me to get active, try a sport, be mindful of what I put into my body, but I never believed in myself enough to picture fitting the description of an active, physically fit teen. But then, I am a Virgo, the most health-conscious Zodiac of all. So, maybe it was predestined that I would eventually make the decision to turn things around.

I wouldn’t say now that I was ever fat — my adolescent self would debate this with you for hours though — but truthfully, my weight did fluctuate dramatically at times, causing me to be a little chunky one year, then a little gaunt in the face the next. This was especially true in my photo I.D. for my senior year of high school. I remember being taken off guard a little by how thin my face appeared when I received it. I can tell you it wasn’t from exercise, or eating right. I don’t remember what it was. It could have been that I had been deep in a summer depression, and that it was the sort that makes you lose interest in food. I hope it was walking, as did do a lot of that when I was younger. And yes, this is a form of exercise, but I never did it for that reason. Instead, it was how I got around. Maybe the rollercoaster was my subconscious attempting to communicate. Maybe I was keeping it a secret from myself that I wanted to be healthier.

It wasn’t until after college and relocating from Pennsylvania to Maryland that at 135 pounds, I allowed myself to fully realize my wish to start working on getting fit. I’m only 5 feet tall, so my tiny stature seemed to truly show all of what I weighed. It was kind of kismet that the apartment complex where my husband and I lived had a small, but efficiently functional exercise room for residents to use. It became my catalyst for living healthier. I even quit smoking somewhere in my 20s. But the exercise room gets no credit for this. That was all me + the realization that I wanted to be a mother eventually, but I didn’t want my child(ren) exposed to carcinogens every day, which then equated to the cold turkey approach.

Fast forward most of a decade. Because my motivation and commitment to exercise increased before my pregnancy, post-birth I was chomping at the bit to get any kind of body back. When my doctor confirmed that I could resume working out, I was off to the races. I want to be fanciful and say that it was like riding a bike. I think that I would be lying to you. Really, it took awhile to get back into a regular, steady schedule. It certainly took another year for me to not feel like a cartoonish hippo, both with stubborn baby fat clinging to my core and a major lack of balance. But I got there in stages, and with each stage my focus ramped up as well as the personal importance of investing the time in myself.

I wish that I could tell you I’m stacked like a super model now. I’m totally not. What I am though is fitter than I ever was previously in life, and always striving toward the next stage. After all, we’ve all got our flaws, temptations and problem areas. Mine are relentless beasts at times. And life presents setbacks, challenges. Like over this past summer…

Since I am the farthest thing from a morning person, I don’t know how I finessed myself into the temporary habit of rising at 6 a.m. via the alarm, but this passed spring and summer I did so most days of the week in order to get my workout in before breakfast, before my daughter woke, before the day got noisy and off-track the way some days manage to become. Forcing myself to do this was a character-building event and it stepped up my game. Even on “off” days where I just slept in because I needed to, I was still laying down consecutive workouts, albeit late afternoon.

I had five more pounds that I wanted to shed, but when I hit a plateau and the scale seemed to stare me down at a dead stop, I realized that I was at a not so bad spot, and that I was ok with the numbers it listed. Just like life though, when I stopped thinking about it, and kept up exercising those very five pounds disappeared, and I dropped a pant size. Impressive as that may sound, I was bordering between two sizes anyhow.

The downside to dropping a size though, is that some of the stuff that fit normally before suddenly fit too loose. I know. Poor me, needing a belt with all my bottoms. Please present your smallest violins. Here’s the thing though: I knew that I put in the work required to get to that point, so I also knew I deserved those kind of results. Once you reach a goal that you thought you couldn’t, you fear losing what you attained.

I bought some new clothing. Some cute boyfriend trousers Old Navy was promoting for spring. Four pairs in four different colors. I thought I looked as slender as Keri Russell in them. (The Americans had recently had a season finale, hence that actress being at the forefront of my comparisons then.) Of course, temperatures rose and any type of pants were ditched for two months, give or take, while shorts took the stage.

Because of my love for food, I did not want to get cocky and start thinking that I suddenly had a physique that could take in whatever the heck I please — ice cream for example — but then still hold at a decent fitness level without further work. Afterall, one of the fitness experts I follow, Chris Freytag, reminds people that a poor diet can not be out-trained.

Lo! Somewhere in those fast, warm weeks, I must have done exactly that, gotten cocky — 6 pounds were back, loud and proud. My boyfriend trousers were suddenly snug. I felt like a sausage trying to be a person.

Even though I kept reminding myself that my self worth does not hinge upon a number, I worried. Worried that no matter how much or well I continued to exercise, no matter how much I turned things around, that I wouldn’t be able to get off what I gained back. Worse, worried that the digits would increase before I could make necessary changes in attitude and diet.

I’ve been told that I worry too much. It’s probably true. As pregnancy did for my workouts, so did this challenge — made me try harder and remember why I even exercise so frequently to begin with. To hopefully be on track for a healthy old age. To set a solid example for my daughter. For lasting brain cognition. To fit into my own clothing, as well as anything new that I fancy to try on in stores. To eliminate stress. To regulate depression. And yes, to be as much of a hot mama as I can…but getting skinny is nothing without all of the above.

Posted in fitness, life skills, Uncategorized, Weight Loss | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

39

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Joe Johnson

Today is my birthday! At first I was going to ignore my birthday falling on a Monday and post about something else. Anything else really. The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted to acknowledge it in some way. It is going to be many years until my birthday falls on a day that a live post will go up somewhere so it seems like a good idea to take advantage of the timing. I’m turning 39 and I am struggling with it, but it is much better than the alternative.

I turn 39 today. I don’t like ages that end in -nine so this is not going to be a great birthday for me today. -Nine birthdays are the end of an era; they are the last birthday you have before you start a new personal decade. The other birthdays in a decade don’t lend themselves to introspection and self-realization quite as much as a nine will. A -nine birthday naturally lends itself to the idea that it is time to look back over the last ten years to see what you have done, or didn’t do, with your personal decade.

Your teen years are brutal, but full of life. This is the decade that starts off with middle school and ends for most in college or the beginning of your career. It is a decade full of firsts and milestones. Your first time driving, voting, and working a real job were probably all in this decade. Graduations, leaving your parents home, falling in love, and other comings of age were all probably in here as well. It is a decade packed full adventure as you first start to learn your way in the world. There are hardships as well, and every little issue seems like the end of the world. My teen years were full of middle school, high school, and a lot of odd jobs. This is when I learned what happens on third shift in big box stores and how hard working in a factory could be. I fell in love and had heartache. I learned that social interaction would always be a struggle for me and what being a nerd meant. It was the decade where I first lost friends and had to process death. While I no longer felt immortal, I still felt as if my life stretched out in front of me forever. Even when I failed at something it never felt final, I knew I would go back to college one day and find a career but I was also in no real hurry to do either.

Your twenties are when you first truly step out into the world on your own and find out who you really are. Your formative years are over and you start to live life completely as an adult. It’s the first time you are legally allowed to drink. For many people that is also the first time there is a clear and instant link between cause and effect, thus creating the life lesson that too much of a good thing is never a good idea. I finally graduated college, twice, and tried to enter my chosen field, just long enough to realize I chose the wrong one. My twenties were a decade for second and third chances. I fell in love and married my wife. We bought houses and I fell into my current career. I finally seemed to find the path towards the life I wanted. I wasn’t there yet, but I still felt like I had all the time in the world. Turning 29 was still rough because I realized that I had gone from being one of the youngest people at work to get a promotion or complete a big project to just being a person. The young modifier was gone. My adventures in my early twenties had cost me some youth, but I was happy with the tradeoff.

The thirties are different. To be fair, it seems like the first half of your thirties are just an extension of your twenties, without the fun age milestones. You continue to be a young adult with life seeming to have just started. Great things continue to happen. Great parties continue to happen, sure Thursdays are now a night for television and not the bar, but you can still go out on weekends. You finally learn that every little issue or problem is not the end of the world. You can navigate life easier as you gain a certain sense of perspective. Your family starts to grow. My son was born and changed my life. That alone will make my thirties a success, but at the same time I realized that I was getting older. One look around the Lamaze class confirmed that I was an older father. There were soon to be dads in the class that could have barely ordered a legal drink, and they outnumbered me. I was asked more than once if this was my second or third child.

When do you start to feel old? I can’t remember when it happened to me, but all of a sudden I am middle age. You go to sleep at 25 feeling young and full of potential, next thing you know you are checking a new box on your age range on forms. Time passed, sure, but it didn’t feel like much. Then someone calls you sir. You look at them and wonder why they are being so formal. You aren’t old enough to be a sir. You’re practically their age! Then you don’t get asked for ID at a bar. For weeks. And weeks. When someone finally does ask, you know it’s because they want a bigger tip not because they doubt your age. Then suddenly you look at the person driving the car that cut you off and wonder if they are old enough to drive. One day you look in the mirror and wonder if your forehead was always that big. Then you’re truly in your thirties. You don’t get old, but you are no longer young. You start to realize that young is other people. You are no longer the target audience for pop culture or trend setters. You are now the target for political junk mail and pharmaceutical commercials. Aches and pains that you used to laugh off are now the cause of doctor’s appointments. You start to wonder if you really should consult a doctor before starting a new diet or exercise, but you are also afraid of what they will say if you do ask.

I hate to be too negative on the blog, so I will stop now. It’s not an easy day, but it will pass. I think I am starting my mid-life crisis. I don’t really want a new sports car, but I could do with a new carbon fiber bike. That’s sort of the same thing in that I can’t afford either of them. I think I will continue to fall victim to my crisis this year by continuing what I started last year. I will continue to push myself to see what I can accomplish with cycling and obstacle course running and generally trying to be in the best shape of my life. But hey, if I happen to hit the lottery or get a big tax return there is always the local bike shop to help me find my next bike!

Posted in Cycling, life skills | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Doping Problems

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Joe Johnson

I have problems with doping in cycling. Well, I have problems with the topic of doping. My primary problem is that I don’t think I care enough about it, or at least I don’t care about the correct aspects of doping. I tend to only care about doping when it involves a major, current, winning athlete. Or Lance Armstrong. This is not the appropriate attitude for a fan of the sport and a recreational cyclist to have, or to publically admit, but it is true. I do not know every rider or their history after following cycling for the last couple of years so what may be a bigger story to most may be lost on me. I am against doping and consider it to be cheating. I also feel that a certain amount of people in any endeavor will cheat the rules in some way, so I think that I am not surprised when a number of riders test positive each year. Disappointed, but not surprised. My real hope is that the sport makes it through each year without a big name or race winning rider testing positive. That is the type of story that will get picked up by the larger media and do more damage to cycling’s image. Any other cyclist will probably be covered in cycling specific media and be ignored by mainstream sources.

Lance Armstrong is a special case. He ruined cycling’s image in America and set it back decades. He became famous for winning the Tour de France seven times and then managed to use his “confession” to try to enhance his fame. I’ve written about him before so I won’t go into it again here, but I do tend to sit up and take notice when there is a new development in his case. I wish I wouldn’t, but I get drawn it even after so much time has passed.

I have other problems with doping. Two of these problems can be illustrated by two recent stories. The first is Michael Rogers’ explanation of his positive test for clenbuterol following the Tour of Beijing. Rogers claim is that he unknowingly ate meat tainted with the drug, citing the World Doping Agency’s admission that there may be an issue with any local meat in China. While the drug is banned in China there is continued use in agriculture.

This story is interesting to me because of my background in the environmental field. One of the areas I do a large amount of work in is waste characterization and site assessment. You would be amazed at the amount of hazardous materials you come into contact with on a daily basis. If your house was built before the late 1970s you might have lead paint on some of the woodwork and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in your window caulk. You might still have PCBs in your house if you have fluorescent lighting. They can be in the ballasts that regulate the electricity in the light fixtures. You probably have asbestos in your floor tiles as well. There is even more risk of exposure once you leave your house. There is almost no clean soil left anywhere anymore. If you live in the city you probably have your neighborhood built on something called urban fill. It is soil that typically has a high level of metals and other inorganic contaminates polluting it. Things are no better in the suburbs. Most of the soil used to level building sites there came from farms if it didn’t come from urban projects. That means that you might have high levels of herbicides and pesticides in your soil. On top of all of that, if the soil in your yard or around your apartment is near a road you have trace amounts of gasoline, oil, and other run off from the traffic. There is also the matter of lead contamination if you live anywhere near a metal bridge that was painted in the 1970s or earlier. Here in New England even pristine land in the mountains that has seen little human interference still has amazing high levels of naturally occurring arsenic.

I do not know the levels of clenbuterol in Rodgers’ system or if his claim of tainted meat consumption would be plausible based on those results but I can see how it might be. Even Chinese Olympic athletes have claimed that their own government warned them away from pork prior to the games. What I find more interesting is what this might mean moving forward. Cycling has a banned substance policy that takes effect once any amount of a substance is detected. As the testing becomes more and more sensitive will some athletes be caught because of inadvertent ingestion? Clenbuterol cannot be the only chemical that might be consumed in low levels by accident. At some point will the World Anti-Doping Agency have to determine when a chemical is effective? I completely agree with a zero tolerance policy on doping, but should we prosecute athletes that are not gaining a competitive advantage just because they have accidentally ingested a banned substance? I am asking these questions because I truly do not have an answer or the knowledge required to start to form one. A large part of the problem of the conversation on doping is the high level of chemistry and biology knowledge that is required to understand the topic. Most laymen, I among them, just don’t understand the questions enough to formulate answers. Maybe that is the origin of the Zero Tolerance Policy.

The second story that has me caring more about doping is the case of David LeDuc. LeDuc is a 62 year old man that that tested positive after the USA Cycling Master’s Championship. He admitted to using three banned substances though he had medical explanations for two of them. I am fascinated and horrified by the thought of a man old enough to be a grandfather doping to win bicycle races. Yes, he was competing for a national championship, but he is still 62 years old. What drives him to dope? The article points to older racers trying to remain relevant, but I am not sure that is the only reason.

The cycling culture has developed a strange double standard regarding doping. We castigate athletes that are caught using a banned substance. We clamor for their proverbial head and want them stripped of their wins. Long in depth articles are written about them in Bicycling Magazine, asking questions of an athlete’s motivation and moral compass. But printed right next to the article is an advertisement for a nutritional supplement that mirrors blood doping results. Competitive cyclists seem to gravitate toward anything that can help their performance, including supplements. Most cycling magazines are full of tips to elevate your personal best achievements, and for many, supplements are part of their program. Cyclists will spend a lot of time trying different supplements and seeing how they affect their performance and recovery. There is a belief that you are not competing if you aren’t focusing on every aspect of your cycling program. Training, nutrition, form, equipment, and supplements all share a role in the complete cyclist’s toolkit. There seems to be a thin line between what is allowed and encouraged versus what is a banned substance. Part of the line is if something is a drug or if it is all natural, but what would happen if some supplement was as effective as EPO? Would it be added to the banned substance lists? Part of my problem with doping is not really understanding why something is banned. Some substances are easy to understand. Amphetamines? Yes, banned. Blood transfusions? Fairly obvious as well. But danger to the athlete is not the sole reason for banning a substance, the substance must increase performance. Should a very effective supplement be banned as well? When is a supplement too effective?

Bicycling Magazine January February 2013, Pages 42-43

Bicycling Magazine January February 2013, Pages 42-43


I think the biggest problem I have with doping is that it is so much more complicated that it appears to be on the surface. The motivation of a professional cyclist to dope and a banned substance list is just the surface. It is easy to say that you are against doping, but harder to make calls when there may be an accidental positive like the Rodgers case. It is also easy to say that doping cyclists know they are cheating and there is something wrong with their moral compass. It is a little harder to have a blanket statement if you say that over your own supplement cocktail that isn’t a banned substance. Yet. I am not writing this as an excuse for doping, just the opposite. I really would like to see more of these issues talked about. If we can start a conversation maybe we can start to change some gray areas to black or white.

What do you think about doping? Supplements? Accidental positives?

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wrap Up and Coming Attractions

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Joe Johnson

It’s been a great year. A really great year actually. Most people look back at a year and say it’s been a good one, or a great one, but I think what they really mean is that the year is over. There were some good and bad parts that they remember, but for the most part I think that most of the year fades into the background. All in all, I would say that counts as a successful year. Nothing too bad happens, a few good things happen, and it all balances out. But my year was great. It was so great that I wanted to share what happened with you, and because it’s a New Year’s post I wanted to share my goals for the next year as well. Think of it like a year-end wrap up and a coming attractions post all in one.

I committed to writing this blog every week, and to my surprise I succeeded. This is update 52 out of 52 for those that are counting, at least according to my archive files. It wasn’t a huge undertaking when I started the year unemployed. It gave me a break from the job search and the writing lent a little light to a grim time. The challenge came after I started my new job in late March. My job requires a lot of after-hours work, including emergency call out duty, which made finishing the blog on time a challenge some weeks. Add that to my responsibilities as a husband and dad and it meant a few weeks of late night writing that reminded me of long ago college papers. The balance to all the hard work is that writing the blog has been extremely rewarding. I started writing weekly updates in January and almost no one read a word I wrote. I did get a few views, but not many that weren’t friends or family; to whom I am very thankful for because they all encouraged me to keep going. By the end of the year I get a pretty big (for me) bump in views each Monday and then a nice little stream of activity for the rest of the week. I can’t thank all of you who read enough. Knowing that there is anyone there to read helps me keep focus when I need to finish a post on time. Actually, knowing that there is anyone there makes writing a post worthwhile. Somewhere along the line I also fell into what is becoming my own voice. I knew when I started writing that I had to find my unique voice, a style that sounded like me instead of a sampling of authors that I read, but the only way to do that is to keep writing. I don’t know if I have completely found it yet, but I will keep writing and keep refining it until I get there. I have also had the opportunity to interact with other writers and become close with some of them. There is a great community of authors out there and their support has helped me over the year.

My writing goals for the next year are to keep writing my weekly blog posts as well as tackle a new challenge. I had an interesting idea for a long short story, or maybe a novella. Who knows, maybe a novel. I won’t know until I start writing and see how it all shakes out. I do know that I am going to have to carve some time out of my schedule to write it, but I will find the time. It also might lead to a few blog posts focusing on the writing experience. The best part about all of this is that I won’t know until I start writing and find out for myself. I also want to keep growing the blog community, so I am going to focus a little more on social media. I have a Facebook page for the blog, as well as my personal Twitter account that I use to promote the blog and interact with readers. I am going to focus on adding content to these sites as well as the blog to promote the community as well as get new readers to the blog itself. One day I would like to find someone to help out and share admin duties on the Facebook page but no one seems to want to work for free so that goal will be a little further out than the next year.

It’s been a great year on the bike as well. I rode 2379 miles this year. That beats last year’s total of 1313 miles by a little bit. It all started with the 30 Days of Biking challenge in April. Then I rode the 5 Boro Tour in New York City. After that there were many local charity rides and training rides to keep me moving through the summer. My riding season wrapped up in October with Cycle Martha’s Vineyard. I couldn’t have asked for a better season. The rides were amazing, both the settings and the people I rode with. On each ride I only knew one or two people before we started but ended each ride with new friends. I also switched from only riding trails on a hybrid bike to road cycling on my new Trek. That change opened up a whole new world of cycling. It took a little bit of courage to ride closer to traffic on a regular basis, but the new routes and rides that were opened to me made it worth the change. I could add mileage by taking a new way home instead of having to ride and re-ride the same trails.

My riding goals are to add miles and try new rides. I don’t know if I can double my grand total for yearly miles again this year, but I would like to try for 4000. That seems like a nice round number. I also want to look for new organized rides this year. I tried a couple of new ones this year and really enjoyed the challenge. I also want to try my first century ride this year. I have been building up to one for two years now so it’s time to finally do it. I have picked out the Seagull Century ride based on Brian’s review at his site www.iwearspandex.com. I want to make sure that I go back to the 5 Boro Tour as well, you can check out the www.bikenewyork.org website for details. The added bonus to attending new rides and adding miles is that each ride fuels the blog by inspiring new posts and allowing me to hit my goals as a writer.

This is also the year I lost 90 pounds, so that helps make it a great year too. I did gain back 15 of those pounds recently, but that is okay, I can lose them again. I went from 365 to 275 and back to 290. I lost a little focus around the holidays and a busy stretch at work and lost some of my progress, but the nice thing about losing the weight the second time is I know I can do it. I lost it the first time. My fitness goals are closely aligned with my cycling goals. If I ride 4000 miles this year, I will lose weight. If I am riding 4000 miles this year I will be able to run more mud races. If I run more mud races I will lose weight. I want to find a healthy weight that allows me to ride and run mud races. II don’t know what that weight is, but if I can lose another 50 pounds this year that would be very close. I haven’t weighed less than 250 pounds since, well, longer than I can remember. Hand in hand with the weight loss goal, and another fitness goal, is to keep running. Well jogging. Well, really, more just moving slightly faster than a walk. I don’t enjoy running, but I did enjoy my first mud run. I can’t wait to do another one. I have a little group that I run with and we hope to team up with www.wickedmuddy.com for at least a couple of races this year.

Speaking of teaming up, I would like to do a meet up this year at the 5 Boro Tour. I am hoping that a couple of friends make the trip down to New York City with me and I hope that I can meet a few more. I am going to try to set something up to meet the night before the ride, possibly at a restaurant or bar where we can all have dinner and talk. I would also like to start selling Big Joe’s Soapbox shirts as a way to fund the site. I like to do some cycling product review from time to time as well as ride reports. It would be nice to bring a little money into the blog to offset what I spend on hosting, riding, and buying products to review. Drop me a line or comment if you would be interested in either a meet up or the shirt idea so I can get an idea if it would be worth pursuing either.

Finally it wouldn’t be a look back through the year if I didn’t mention that my family lost a close friend as well as a family member. I wrote about both, but the passing of Ed Cunningham hit me again as I made a reservation for New Year’s Eve. Last year he joined my friends and family at the party and making the reservation brought back those good memories. This year it will be a little bittersweet as we remember our friend that isn’t there.

It’s been a great year. Thank you for sharing some of your time with me, from the bottom of my heart.

Posted in 30 Days of Biking, challenge, Cycling, fitness, Weight Loss | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My Phil of Problems

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Does it need to be said?

Does it need to be said by me?

Does it need to be said by me right now?

Three questions I ask myself before I write about controversy or anything that is outside the blog’s normal focus of cycling, weight loss, or my current life experiences. I try to project a fairly positive and supporting vibe and I tend to answer at least one of the three questions with a resounding “no” when I ask them about any political, controversial, or pop cultural topic. I think that my regular readers would rather hear about something else, this blog isn’t built on commentary about any of those topics, but this is different.

I’m mad as hell and I really have to say something. I’m mad that Phil Robertson said some blatantly false statements to GQ Magazine. I’m mad that most of the people defending him either need a U.S. Civics lesson or a basic explanation of the New Testament of the Bible. I am mad that Phil Robertson is presenting himself as a huge hypocrite. I’m mad that the whole Robertson clan has let me down.

Before I go too far I would like to offer a type of full disclosure. I am a fan of Duck Dynasty. My son and I watch it together all the time. There are parts that I have to explain, mostly about hunting, but for the most part I am comfortable with him watching the show. Even though some of the situations are cringe-worthy, I like that they end with a life lesson. I am also a Christian. I have read the Bible and I do believe in God. I have also grown up around guns and hunting. I am a straight, conservative, white guy who is married with a kid. I offer all of this so you can see that anything I write is without political agenda or prejudice. Phil Robertson offers me no easy target to attack something I do not like. Quite the contrary, I am saying this as a fan of the show, a person who sits squarely in their target demographic.

I won’t re-quote what Phil Robertson said here. I am sure that you have seen enough about it to know that he basically said that he believed that homosexuality was a sin and that it wasn’t logical. You can read a quote here, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson-gay_n_4465564.html. Phil also seems to have made some disparaging comments about racism, documented here http://www.christianpost.com/news/phil-robertsons-racial-remarks-overlooked-says-reformed-african-american-network-head-111299/.

The reaction to Phil’s statements and his employer A&E placing him on hiatus from promoting the show is frightening and amazing at the same time. The fan base seems to have exploded, creating Facebook pages, posts, and tweets supporting Phil and his right to express his views. Most claim that he is being punished for his religious beliefs, going so far as to claim a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. Very few of his supports seem to couch this support by disagreeing with anything he said or even questioning it. This could be a case of the vocal minority overshadowing the rest of the population, but I am not sure. His Facebook page has almost two million likes and one of the Support Phil Robertson page is closing in on one million likes. Fox News has spent a lot of air time on claiming discrimination and violation of his First Amendment rights.

I am no Constitutional lawyer, but I am fairly certain that none of that is correct. The First Amendment gives us freedom of speech as well as freedom to practice any religion. We are allowed to say anything we want and believe anything we want to believe. We are also free to accept the consequences of that belief. GQ Magazine did not censor Phil when he made the statements. A&E didn’t try to censor him either. No one has put Phil in jail for making any of his statements, past or present. No government agency has attempted to silence him for his beliefs. A&E placed him on hiatus from the show because he violated his contract. This is a contract that he willingly signed. The contract that has a clause in it allowing A&E to do exactly that if there is an issue creating negative publicity for the show or network. A clause that Phil agreed to when he signed the contract. I do not see the First Amendment violation here that many are claiming, but I strongly suggest that we all find our Civics textbooks to check facts before going live on Fox News or taking the time to construct Facebook posts. The bottom line is that Phil wasn’t placed on hiatus for believing in God, but for making statements in an interview that are false and hateful. There is no defense for that. Even if there were the possibility that anything that has happened because Phil gave an interview with an opinion that was hateful (which there isn’t) there is still the matter of hate speech not being protected by the First Amendment.

To be clear, I am disgusted by Phil Robertson’s statements on homosexuality as well as race. I disagree with what he said, but I am more saddened by what he implied. He called being a homosexual a sin against God and illogical. Even in his later apology and the Robertson Family’s response he claimed that he was just being a good Christian and believing what was written in the Bible, thus really claiming that he was sorry that his truth didn’t coincide with mine, not that he regretted his statements. Phil Robertson and other’s use of religion to explain their bias angers me. I am tired of people coopting religion to fit their bigotry. Phil claims that he is Christian and uses quotes from the Bible to make his points about sins. He leaves out most of the New Testament and what Jesus actually taught. Love everyone. Jesus didn’t offer any exceptions. He used his actions as words. He surrounded himself with the lowest of the low, the untouchables, the sick, the dying, the prostitutes and sinners. He didn’t say love everyone but the gays and non-believers. He said love everyone. He taught us not to judge or deny anyone, but to love everyone.

Phil Robertson claims that the Bible is his guiding light. Does that mean that he is a creationist? Does he truly believe that the earth is only a few thousand years old? What does Phil feel about the guidance Jesus gave his followers about giving up all of your worldly possessions to follow him? I feel that if you are going to hide behind the Bible to excuse your bigotry, you really should have to follow all of the guidance to the letter. If you believe that there is no picking and choosing what you believe, then adhere to every part of it, not just what is convenient to your beliefs.

I am mad because his statements show something ugly about the way that some still manage to view gay people. By claiming that being homosexual is illogical, Phil shows that he believes that it is a choice. It is not. This has been scientifically proven. Sexuality is a genetic trait. It is no more a choice than hair color or height. I am mad because Phil Robertson demands to be accepted for who he is. He expects people to deal with him on his terms. I actually like that as a lesson. People should be allowed to be who they are, but now I have to look at Phil and say “You first”. Accept people for who they are born as. It’s easy to complain that people don’t allow you to be who you are when you have the option to change. Phil can shave. He can wear something other than camouflage. He won’t because that is not who he is, but he feels that others are sinning because their genes are different that his.

I am mad that the show that helps me teach my son positive lessons about life is now forcing me to teach him a negative one. I am let down that my faith in humanity was unfounded. My wife wonders why I am surprised. Her view is that he is a Southern man who grew up being taught to think like that. She thinks I should have just assumed that he hates gays and minorities. I looked at the values preached on the show and the inclusion apparent in the extended family and never really thought it would be a problem. Now I know it is. Now I look at some of my son’s Duck Dynasty Christmas gifts and wonder if I should take them back.

So where does this leave me? Well, the first thing I am doing is reaffirming my faith in humanity. I am taking my son shopping to donate food to the local shelter. I can’t think of a better lesson to teach him than our family has enough to give something back to those who are struggling. I want to teach him that part of Jesus’ lesson is to take care of your fellow man. I also will pray for Phil. None of what is coming will be easy for him to deal with. I will hope and pray that Phil can spend some time and open his heart and meet few gay people that will do the same for him. Maybe when he sees that we are all just people he will move past his hate or fear or whatever it is that causes him to speak out against homosexuals. I will hope that he is heartfelt when he says that he isn’t really judging people, but I will also hope that he will have experiences to open his eyes to what he is saying. If you spend time speaking out against something you aren’t loving the people involved. You are judging them. I know that it isn’t my place to judge him, even when I am angry with him, so I hope he learns something from this. We are all fighting some type of battle, and no one has it easy. We all need to give each other a little room and a lot of encouragement. I hope Phil sees this.

I am done with this now, and next week we will return to our normally scheduled cycle-centric programing with a side of a fat guy trying to do better. Until then, Merry Christmas and let’s all try to take care of each other out there, okay?

Posted in life skills | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Backsliding

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Losing weight is hard, but gaining it back can be even harder. Well, that’s not entirely true, gaining it back can be quite easy. All you have to do is start to compromise on eating habit changes, miss a few workouts, have a few “holiday cookie” binges, or just stop watching what you are doing day to day. Truth be told, it’s really less than that because once you start to give yourself a little excuse for one more cookie or a little extra turkey things can quickly get out of hand. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it does start to add up. You have that second helping at Thanksgiving dinner even though you haven’t hit the gym lately. Then you go ahead and have a big desert. Then you have a bigger breakfast. Then you don’t quite get to the gym or ride your bike the next week because work is so hectic. The next thing you know the scale is saying mean and hurtful things to you.

I am writing about backsliding this week because I promised myself that if I were going to talk about my weight loss on the blog I would do so honestly, always including the good and the bad. It’s a great feeling to write about how much weight you have lost, but it’s a little painful to have to write about how much you have gained. I don’t want to pretend that everything is always easy and that I never make mistakes. We all have setbacks and we all have to deal with them. To pretend that they don’t happen doesn’t seem fair to either of us, I don’t want to write a lie and you don’t want to read one. I want this to be a place of honesty and I want us to all feel like we can fail as long as we promise to try again.

I had a great fall season. There was the Hartford Tour, the Hartford Races, and the Cycle Martha’s Vineyard rides. There were idyllic New England fall days to ride the roads and trails for training. Work was slow enough that I was able to leave on time and get some rides in before it got too dark to ride. I was hovering right around the 90 pounds lost mark without struggling. I had stopped taking my diet as seriously because I was maintaining my weight loss with my riding. I also reasoned that I wasn’t training at the intensity level that I had over the summer and that is why I was maintaining my weight loss instead of increasing it. I promised myself that I would start to push again. Things were going well enough that I wasn’t worried, and that was the real problem. When I worried, or concentrated, on my weight loss and fitness every day I was successful. When I stopped feeling that need to concentrate I should have seen that as a warning sign.

Cycle Martha’s Vineyard was the last organized ride of the season and it was my high water mark for distance and pace for the year. It wasn’t super impressive from the outside, but I battled through cramps and hills for a personal best mark at 50 miles on my way to the 65 miles I rode that day. As a reward, I took a break. I didn’t pay attention to how long the break was, I just knew I needed some time off the bike. I kept working at my morning calisthenics, but I really just wanted to get away from the riding for a little while. Work got busier and so did my life as a dad, shuttling my son to activities and planning fun day trips together as a family. Halloween came and went and so did Thanksgiving. I rode sporadically at best. I was burned out, but this was also my next warning sign I should have been paying attention to. I always feel better when I am riding consistently. Even if I have to push myself to get on the bike, I always feel better after the ride and I am much more comfortable in my skin when I am riding on a regular schedule.

I did ride a few times, but I missed my Thanksgiving Day ride because I had to be on call for work. I did ride the trainer that day. I also rode when I had to try out new products to review here and it was the Sufferfest review that showed me I had been away too long. I log all of my rides and training on both Endomondo and Strava. Each service gives separate data sets and I like having my training data on both to take advantage of each. I finally looked at them and realized how little I had been doing for the last two months. It was a stark sign that neither month had double digit ride totals. I am almost always in double digits by the end of the second week of a month.

While I was in the middle of my break from the bike I had been having an argument with the scale. Each morning it pointed out how little I was doing while not modifying my caloric intake to compensate for my sloth. I tried to tell the scale that it was wrong and I had earned that second helping or the burger I ate instead of the salad I should have tried. It just told me numbers. Large numbers. Numbers that kept getting slowly larger. I did what any person who has ever been in this situation does, I ignored the larger number and had a little more to eat and managed to move a little less. I lied to myself. It was muscle weight driven by the extra sit ups and pushups. It was an aborition, I would start losing again soon. I was at a plateau. I could fool myself for a while, but not once I saw the number a couple of Fridays ago, then I had to admit defeat. I have gained 10 pounds. I have managed to give back a hard won gain by inattention and inactivity.

It’s not a good time to start over. We are in the middle of the holiday season. I could even blame the holidays if I wanted to give myself another excuse, but I really don’t want to do that. I want those 10 pounds back. I want more than that. I need to get back to what got me here. To that end, I got back on the bike on December first. I have ridden as much as I could and managed to get 11 in 14 days. It was a great start. I jumped on the scale yesterday to see what my progress was. I have now gained 15 pounds. Depression and anger set in, but only briefly. I had been through that part of the cycle a couple of weeks ago and I was in the process of being honest with myself. I had assessed my lack of activity and made steps to change it. Now I needed to get back to eating better. It had been weeks since I had eaten a salad. Instead I had a cookie. Or ten. I stopped paying attention to what I was eating as well as how much and when. This needs to change.

Finally I needed to change something else. I needed to be honest with everyone else. I looked at my blog topics and it struck me how much I was writing about anything but fitness and weight loss in the last few months. Obviously it wasn’t a topic I wanted to spend much time on, but it is a large part of the blog. We can’t share the journey towards fitness if I never talk about it. I needed to change that this week as part of recovering my focus. I will always talk about cycling and other aspects of my life, but the goal of losing weight and gaining a new lifestyle is what started all of this in the first place. It’s fine that I blackslid for a little while as long as I stop. It’s time to pick myself back up and get back to work. I’m not going to lose all of what I gained back in a couple of weeks, but I do need to start again and it’s time, even if it’s inconvenient around the holidays. I already know that my New Year’s resolution will be to continue on my journey, I would like to hit the ground running and have some positive momentum when the clock strikes midnight.

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Bike as Gift: Eliminate Drama; Preserve Sanity

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Glad I got a little mention in the related articles section!

Ed Troha's avatarBicycle Outfitters News

How can you give a bicycle to someone as a gift and be sure it’s the right one? And by ‘right one’, I mean not only type and size, but also style and color (BIG with kids!). Throw in the all-important ‘availability’ and you’ve potentially got a recipe for disappointment on the part of the recipient, as well as regret and wasted time on the part of the gift-giver. So here’s how to significantly lessen and eliminate the anxiety that can accompany giving a bike as a gift:

  1. Bicycles that come with a great price tag that are purchased in great quantity by discount warehouses do NOT come assembled. And the one you pick could have been damaged in transit or mishandled. So you get a stress headache returning a damaged or partially assembled bike. Do you really have that kind of time this holiday? Solution: Buy the bike…

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Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Cycling Gift Guide

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Joe Johnson

It’s the holiday season and I thought it might be helpful to answer the question; what should I give the cyclist on my list? I thought it might be a good time to write up a gift giving guide so you would be armed with some answers if you are stumped like my wife was.

First up is the true answer to the question of what every cyclist wants for the holidays. A new bike! It doesn’t matter if they just bought one or if they have been riding the same bike for years, every cyclist secretly wants a new bike. With all of the technological advancements that occur year after year as well as tons of new models that are introduced at a rapid pace, there are many options that weren’t on the market when the last bike was purchased. Couple that with the fact that all cyclists are, at their heart, gear junkies and I can tell you that your cyclist really wants a new bike. It isn’t even always about wanting a new bike for their primary riding; some cyclists are perfectly happy with their road or trail bike but may want a shiny new cyclocross bike. They may want a new downhill bike to ride when they aren’t on the road or they may want a new trail bike to ride with the family when they aren’t on the club ride, but they want a new bike. There are limitless possibilities for purchasing as well. There is the $15,000 Vis Vires from Factor (www.factorbikes.com) down to a starter bike at a local bike shop. Personally I have my eye on either a new Domane 4 series or a Scott CR1.

While we are spending a lot of money, you could always give your cyclist a riding vacation. You could send them away to a cycle training camp where they can learn to race and train at a higher level. There are also cycling tours of California Wine Country or cycling regions of France and Italy. You can also send your cyclist off to ride actual Tour de France race routes with local guides. Even if you aren’t a cyclist it is the perfect gift to give because most cycling trips tend to be amazing destinations where non-cyclists can find plenty to occupy their time while the cyclist is off riding. Some training camps offer non-cyclist itineraries to make sure that significant others have as much fun as the cyclist. If you send your cyclist off to France or Italy it would be rude of you not to go with them as a traveling companion wouldn’t it? Sometimes the gift can be as simple as planning a vacation for the family around a cycling destination. You can encourage your cyclist to spend a day or two riding guilt free and still have a great family vacation.

A new bike or an exotic cycling vacation is rarely in the budget for most gift givers, especially if your cyclist already stretched the budget when they bought their current cycle. The next gift idea is a great way to make their current cycle feel brand new, new parts and pieces. Most cyclists love to upgrade their current ride almost as much as getting a new one. There are always new parts that live on a wish list in their head. Some of the most common include new carbon fiber bars or forks; which are a fairly easy way to change how the bike feels and performs. Depending on your cyclist’s level of experience they might like to upgrade to clipless pedals. These pedals will require special shoes, so make sure that you budget for them. Another area where cyclists always seem to want to change equipment is their saddle. If your cyclist is always bringing home a new saddle you might want to buy them the next one. It takes a long time and much trial and error to find the perfect perch. Most bikes can use new wear items like brake pads or tires. Even if your cyclist doesn’t need them now, they will sooner or later. A quick trip to your cyclists’ favorite local bike shop should yield some great ideas from the staff. Come armed with the make and model of the bike and a general idea of what your cyclist might be looking for and they can offer suggestions. Another option is to find out where your cyclist likes to buy their gear and purchase a gift certificate for them to be used for a specific item like a new seat or pedals.

Just like most cyclists are gear junkies, so are they data addicted. If you ask most cyclists how their last ride went they will be able to go into mind boggling detail about time, distance, and ranking of how that ride stacked up against their personal best on the same loop. Some will probably even be able to tell you where they ranked on Strava for the ride. All of this knowledge is gleaned from their cycle computer, but this is another category where most would love an upgrade. The simplest computers will tell a rider how far they have traveled and how fast they are going by a magnet fixed to a spoke and a sensor to read how many times it passes. The readout is mounted to the handlebars and looks like a small digital watch. The most advanced use GPS positioning and look more like a car GPS than a digital watch. These units can tell a rider almost anything, from directions to stay on course to the amount of power being applied to the pedals. Most cyclists use computers that fall somewhere in between. A basic computer can sell for as little $20 and the most advanced Garmin unit can top $500. If your cyclist is happy with their computer they might still need accessories to go with it, such as heart rate, cadence, or power sensors which all tend to be sold separately. This is why you should be careful if you are buying a computer that it includes the sensors that you are looking for. Often the computer’s packaging will tell you that it can provide a specific piece of data like cadence, but only with an additional sensor that is not included in the basic package.

Gear and gadgets are great ideas, but it is hard to surprise a cyclist with one of those gifts as you really need to know what they want to change before buying the gift. If you are looking to surprise them a gift of clothing might be the way to go. The options are limitless here and the best thing to do is to raid their closet while they are out. You can find out the sizes they wear as well as get an idea of their style. Some cyclist wear what is known as “team kit” or cycling clothes that mimic professional riders’ uniforms. Some cyclist follow a specific team while others follow a specific rider. If all of their outfits say Radio Shack, sticking with that team’s colors will be a safe bet. While not all riders will want to wear replicas of professional clubs, all riders want their kit to match. Keep that in mind when shopping. Most riders will attempt to get a complete set of kit, jersey and shorts or bibs, at one time and keep them together. Some riders will be loyal to one manufacturer such as Castelli or Pearl Izumi. Other riders like myself go for generic color schemes with unbranded jerseys or shorts so you can mix and match. The final option is to head to your cyclists’ favorite local bike shop. Almost all of them will sell shop kit that is sure to be decent quality at a fair price, although once you know your riders’ size and taste you can go almost anywhere or order online. I tend to shop at REI and Eastern Mountain Sports or head to my local bike shop.

What if you want to spend a little less than these options? You can always hit the internet and head to REI, Eastern Mountain Sports, Dick’s Sporting Goods, or almost any other sports equipment retailer. There are a limitless selection of bags, bottles, baubles, and bolt-ons to fit any budget. Cyclists are always in need of spare CO2 cartridges, tubes, tires and everything else. Gloves wear out and everyone always needs base layer shirts or socks. Finally, and most importantly, if you are really at a loss as to what to buy and need some personal assistance head to your local bike shop for help. These brick and mortar stores are the most knowledgeable about what your cyclist needs as they already have a relationship with them. They are the professionals when it comes to the best fit and have the inside track on what your cyclist really needs. They can offer suggestions from the smallest bag right up to the new bike and the best part is that you are giving back to your local economy by shopping from them.

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment