Submitted by roadskater on March 10, 2010 - 3:07pm.
You know, even when we do things for charity, it's easy to get competitive. It's easy to think you shouldn't make an effort if it can't be a big one. It's easy to forget that the desire to help is enough. Do a little, or do a lot, but do it when you are inspired!
Spring is here and I'm talking about calories again! It's way beyond time to try to shed some Winter flab, and as I conveniently forget my approximate daily caloric requirement each year, I run to the online daily calorie expenditure calculators. Inevitably I feel like I'm wasting my time and that nobody really knows how close those numbers are. I conclude that if I'm hungry I'm probably losing weight.
Submitted by skatey-mark on February 21, 2010 - 12:04pm.
Feb 21 2010 - 12:00pm
Feb 21 2010 - 12:59pm
US/Eastern
UPDATE: The workshop is now risk free! Take the workshop, and pay what you think it was worth afterward. Details below...
It's that time of year again! Time to dust off the skates and start the skating season!
Get the season started right with a one-day workshop that will improve your skating technique, allowing you to skate further and/or faster while using less energy!
Submitted by northinsouth on February 18, 2010 - 9:34pm.
We are not as big as the US so I am not expecting a huge medal count, but I think we are holding our own. Finally have one for speedskating! Nesbitt in the 1000m. We will see what happens in hockey. The Canadian Womens team is looking pretty strong!
Strange weather today: Cold and rainy in the morning, clear and sunny in mid-afternoon, and then a dark and mean-looking line of clouds rolled in just after 5 pm as I was walking across campus. I would have thought a thunderstorm was coming in the summer, but didn't know whether to expect rain or snow this time of year and in this particular (and peculiar) year. We got neither of those:
(Cribbed without shame from Wikipedia.)
Graupel. Not to be confused with Hail or Ice pellets.
I just remembered that I've skated on Superbowl Sunday a couple of years in a row, and had made no plans to do it this year. It's nicer outside than it's been most days lately, but that's very faint praise considering what it's been like. Next year, I guess...
So what to do with myself between the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics? Oh look, the America's Cup starts tomorrow!
Submitted by skatey-mark on January 15, 2010 - 12:31pm.
Apr 9 2010 - 6:00pm
Apr 11 2010 - 6:00pm
US/Eastern
Location
Greensboro, NC
United States
36° 4' 21.486" N, 79° 47' 31.11" W
Eddy's coming back to Greensboro for his legendary skating workshop! April 9-11.
Sign up now, before all the spots are taken! The announcement email is below, with all the links you need...
We managed to get Eddy Matzger to add us to his schedule again this year (thanks to Skatey-Mark for the boost). in between trips to China he'll take the 2 and a half hour journey down from Floyd, VA for a roadshow outdoor inline speedskating workshop in Greensboro NC this year!
Mike Barry, father of pro cyclist Michael Barry, and recently retired builder of Mariposa bicycles, has a neat blog post about the bikes ridden by current racers on cobblestone stages and for daily training rides. He has some good specifics about setup and component choices for classic races such as Paris-Roubaix and relates his experience of riding one such bike on European back roads.
Submitted by roadskater on December 20, 2009 - 9:11pm.
Here's a quick video I found regarding what to do with good bulbs gone bad. I had noted that compact fluorescent light bulbs are marked as containing mercury, Hg. I wondered what to do if the glass part of a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) breaks. Apparently you shouldn't use the vaccuum or even sweep to get the materials up. First, open a window and leave the house for fifteen minutes, then use a stiff card and/or sticky tape as shown in the video. Wow. Well I hope I can remember this. CFLs seem to be worthy even with this mercury hazard, as shown in some of the following links...
Here's a link to a video of a British Heart Foundation skride that one of our new English A2A paceline buddies skated two weeks prior. He and David skated much of A2A together.
Submitted by roadskater on December 9, 2009 - 1:34pm.
For cyclotics and skatemaniacs, if you can handle a bit of funny bad language. Someone has read your minds and seen your relationships and conversations.
I relate to the part about driving many miles to roll a few. If life is not funny right now, check these out...holiday choices...
Submitted by roadskater on December 6, 2009 - 1:38am.
There's a new ghost bike locked to a sign post at the scene where a hit and run driver killed Summerfield NC cyclist David Sherman. It was dark by the time we could get up there to take photos. The bike uses different sizes of the "Share the Road In Memory of David Sherman" graphic. The top tube says, "David Sherman Oct 24 2009." The seat tube says, "Still Riding...Not Hiding...." The down tube says "'And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.' Please Drive and Ride with Love."
Here's some info about a surgical procedure performed by an Italian doctor to halt MS. The procedure unblocks restricted bloodflow from the brain in MS patients. 2 years later, 73% of those who had the procedure (65 people) showed no symptoms of MS!!
Submitted by Cat Brother on December 1, 2009 - 11:53am.
As previously noted, at A2A I was totally unprepared for the scathing speeds most experienced racers attain. I'll do A2A again if I think i can do it sub-6 hours...But I need to know what that speed feels like, and how to work to generated it.
I recently found (duh....) that there are indeed inline speedometers, some of which combine with heartrate monitors. Any recommendations as far as good deals, reliability, and durability go?
Submitted by roadskater on November 20, 2009 - 11:47pm.
I'm still not ready to write about the Carolina Century in all its glory, but I have published almost a thousand more photos from both the 2009 Carolina Century and the Today We Ride for Dave 2009 David Sherman Memorial Ride, so I wanted to share those links.
I can promise better weather for the 3rd annual Carolina Century! It was epic. The Carolina Century photos are a good way to see part of the route, with trees, barns, horses, llamas, a few people and lots of mist inside and outside the lens.
Submitted by roadskater on November 13, 2009 - 3:50pm.
A new study finds interesting information on the time of life that obesity may affect a woman's chance of developing Multiple Sclerosis. In studying data from 200,000 women over 40 years, researchers found that obesity in late adolescence and early adulthood (18 to 20 years old) doubled the chance of developing muliple sclerosis later in life.
...a surprising finding was that the results showed a significant link to
increased MS risk only from obesity during adolescence, but not during
childhood or adulthood.
Submitted by roadskater on November 13, 2009 - 4:23am.
I have been out of touch for a few weeks after some long distance skating and the prep and skating and wrap (still ongoing) of our Roadskater.net team charity efforts. Last night was the awards dinner for the Tour to Tanglewood, and it was a transitional day for several reasons, all good. Then I came home wanting to get some computer work done and maybe watch some tele, mostly something meaningless and useless.
According to the front page at http://www.colbertnation.com/home, Olympic ice speedskater Joey Cheek is scheduled to be a guest on The Colbert Report this evening on the Comedy Central network.
Submitted by Cat Brother on October 22, 2009 - 9:41pm.
"I got another plan, one that requires me to stand.
On the stage or in the street, don't need no microphone or beat. And
when you hear this song, if you ain't dead then sing along. Bang and
strum to these here drums til you get where you belong..."
That's a great workout song. I plan on listening to it alot before the next A2A.
So, obviously I need to improve my speed technique. What are y'all's thoughts on this here series of tutorials?
Which do you think works best as the single publicized name for the alliance website? The North Carolina Active Transportation Alliance website is in the planning stages. This page lets you vote on domain names and comment on features you might like on the site in advance. Results are tallied by Borda Count, sometimes called "a consensus-based electoral system" where each choice gets a point for every choice ranked below it. Thus, with 9 choices, a 1st place vote gets 8 points. Please click the title for more info and to rank....
Note that if you only vote on the names you really like and leave the rest unranked, you boost those names you prefer, as with no rank at all a name gets no points. The idea is to find the name most wish to promote, and let the rest fall away. Thus, this is a reasonable practice, especially if all are aware of the technique noted here.
You may cancel and revote.
Please vote only once. Although it is possible to game the system by voting anonymously from various IP addresses, we hope you'll vote just once. The way to ensure one vote per person is to require login, but that would also ensure a lower vote participation and one biased toward people willing to sign up for a website in general, and specifically a webiste about skating and cycling for charity.
