I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.
Because bicycling requires repeated use of the knee joint, many question the sport’s role in knee-related pain and injury. Like any athlete, cyclists are susceptible to overuse injuries. But is their choice of sport increasing their vulnerability and making them more prone to knee damage? [Read more…]
Stretching exercises are important for any type of athlete, but have an even more exaggerated effect for cyclists. Because you’re repeating the same movements over and over, day after day, your muscles become accustomed to a smaller range of motion than they should be.
Cycling without stretching actually causes your muscles to shrink over time. The change in length of your muscle fibers causes slight posture changes in multiple areas, which can add up to a significant alteration of posture over time and lead to injury.
The most common areas of tightening and muscle shortness for cyclists are the hip flexors, hamstrings, and quads. Here are some great stretching exercises that will help cyclists overcome this. [Read more…]
There’s something about making the switch to clipless pedals that seems to signal to the world that you’ve made the jump from casual biker to biking enthusiast. But is the expense worth it? Are clipless pedals really necessary in order to take your cycling experience to the next level? [Read more…]
A number of athletes turn to interval training in order to improve their performance. Interval training involves periods of high-intensity riding that alternate with low-intensity rest periods. The purpose of interval workouts is to improve a cyclist’s speed/power as well as his or her level of endurance. Here is a look at precisely what interval training does and why it works. [Read more…]
It’s great to be enthusiastic about cycling! When you love something you don’t just want to do it often, you want to do it well. It’s common for an athlete to push him or herself, trying to outdo their own record for mileage and/or speed. But it’s possible to push too hard. [Read more…]
If you are looking for something a little different to add to your bike racing calendar, or you just want a fun way to improve your bike handling skills, consider signing up for a criterium race. Criteriums are personally my favorite race to ride in, and everyone I know who has come to watch one has loved the whole event. What’s not to like?
Criterium races (or crits, for short) are short, fast races held on closed loop courses usually between 0.5 and 2 miles in length. Crits differ from standard road races in that there is no fixed race distance. Instead, you race for a predetermined length of time…well, sort of. Here is how a crit works. The race starts off just like a standard road race – after the gun, the field will take off around the loop, jockeying for position, attacking, normal race stuff. The first distinguishing feature of crits are ‘primes’ – these are similar to intermediate sprint points in road races, but there are usually a lot more of them in crits. As the field loops past the start/finish line, a race official will ring a bell signifying the end of the next lap is a ‘prime’. Primes are often cash or merchandise prizes for whomever gets to the line first! Because they usually pop up every 5 minutes or so during the race, they tend to keep the pace fast and exciting.
The end of the race is where crits are really different. In a normal road race, you always know exactly how far you are from the finish. Not so here. The end of a crit race isn’t determined until shortly before the race actually ends. Here is what happens. While all the racing action is happening, race officials are monitoring how long each lap takes. Based on that, they will try to end the race close to the advertised duration of the race. At the appropriate point (usually 5-10 minutes before the end), they will ring a bell and display lap cards that tell the racers exactly how many laps are left until the finish. At this point, with a definite end in sight, the pace really heats up, and the racers typically have 3-5 laps to position themselves and prepare for the mad dash to the finish on the last lap!
There are a lot of great things about criterium races. Perhaps most importantly, they are awesome spectator events! Anyone who has watched a major bike race live knows that waiting a couple hours to see a bunch of multi-colored blurs zoom past you for a few seconds isn’t the most riveting viewing experience. Because crits are held on small, usually urban courses, you can pick a nice spot and see the action every couple of minutes – making it easy to follow what is happening in the race and providing plenty of chances to check out your favorite rider.
It’s not all about creating an awesome experience for those watching the race though – crits have been hands down the funnest races I’ve ever participated in. They go just about full throttle from start to finish, with attacks and counter-attacks happening all the time, and you have to be constantly alert to your position, who is around you, and how you are going to take that next corner. There is no chance of getting bored in a crit race!
In addition to the fun factor, crits are a great opportunity to develop fitness and bike-handling skills. Though the first few laps of your debut criterium might feel a bit overwhelming – there is nothing quite like heading into that first tight, 90 degree corner at 30+ mph with 60 or 70 other cyclists inches away from you – you very quickly get accustomed to the situation. You begin to corner with more confidence, you know exactly which lines to take to maintain your speed, and you no longer freak out about the close confines of the peloton. And, of course, you are doing all of this while your heart is threatening to burst out of your chest because you feel like you’ve been sprinting flat out for 10 minutes now – and the race has only just started!
Not everyone is quite as enthusiastic about this style of racing as I am however. Criteriums can be prone to crashes, especially in the lower categories, when people are less experienced and haven’t fully developed the pack-riding skills to stay safe. The tight courses that a lot of criteriums are held on only exacerbates this problem, and a poorly laid out course can be downright dangerous regardless of your bike-handling aptitude. Starting off with lower-key crits is the best way to minimize your crash risk – most major cities will hold a weekly ‘twilight race series’ (no, nothing to do with the book) on weeknights, and these races tend to be smaller, shorter, safer races.
As we all know, crashing not only impacts you, but your bike as well. Humans are very good at repairing themselves – bicycles, unfortunately, haven’t evolved such abilities. I know a lot of people that don’t race crits because they don’t want to destroy their super expensive bike, to which I say ‘get another bike!’ A simple aluminum frame, mid-range bike can be had pretty cheaply and will be practically indestructible – aluminum is much less likely to shatter or crack from impact. In the event you are involved in a crash and break something, your replacement bill will only be a few hundred dollars, rather and a few thousand. And an added bonus – you can use the bike as your rain bike!
You’ve read about the good and bad sides of what is, in my opinion, an awesome style of bike racing – but is it for you? If you like excitement, speed and competition, it is! If you are looking for the next challenge on two wheels, give criterium racing a try. Even if you don’t love it, the benefits you get in fitness and bike skills will make you a much better rider on the road!
The first thing you want to do is wash the wound out as well as you can – unless you managed to fall on hardwood floors (velodrome?), you are going to have a ton of grit and dirt embedded in there. This needs to come out. A lot of people are tempted to use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to ‘disinfect’ the wound. DON’T!!! These substances will damage your exposed tissue, potentially increasing the likelihood of scarring, and delaying recovery. Warm water and a mild soap, and/or a saline solution are all you need. Try to get as much of the dirt out as possible, but don’t scrub too hard and inflame the area. A small squirt bottle can be really handy here.
Now that you have a relatively clean area to work with, it is time to disinfect the wound. Depending on how much things are hurting at this point, I will use a couple different methods. If the pain is really bad, I have a antiseptic spray that contains lidocaine (a numbing agent) that works so well I think it might be some sort of witch magic. After spraying it on and letting it dry off a bit, I will cover the affected area with a triple antibiotic ointment like Neosporin. If you can find the stuff that also has ‘pain relief’ get it – it’s not lidocaine, but it will help. You want to have a thin film of the ointment covering the area – don’t gob the stuff on!
Hopefully by now, things are hurting a little less, and you can think about dressing the wound. This was where I made my biggest mistake on my first crash – I used regular dressings, and didn’t change them soon enough. By the time I got around to switching my bandages a day later, my skin had started growing back into the bandage, and I ended up spending two hours soaking in the bathtub, slowly ripping my own skin off as I peeled the bandages off. So beware!!!
In general, you should always keep the wounds covered – if your raw skin gets too much sun it will scar for sure and letting them scab over will leave you with a couple of weeks (or more) of very stiff, painful, awkward moving about. By keeping the wounds covered, you allow the new skin to form underneath, and when it has completely closed up, you can take the bandages off and be just about good as new! There are a couple of options for dressings. If you are super fancy, you can use what are called semi-occlusive dressings – these allow the wound to breathe while still sealing fluids inside and other contaminants outside. All of the professional racing teams use these – the best brand is probably BIOCLUSIVE. The downside is that they are pretty pricey – depending on what size you need, up to $5 per patch.
My low-tech alternative to these was a combination of the non-stick gauze pads you can find at any drug store and vaseline. I found that the non-stick pads alone weren’t quite non-sticky enough, but with a thin layer of vaseline on them, they worked perfectly! I used mesh wrap to hold them on. You will have to change these a bit more frequently than the Bioclusive dressings (once a day, versus once every few days) but if you can’t find the fancy stuff, these are a great second option.
Now you should be well on your way to a successful recovery! Change your dressings frequently, and don’t try to do too much too soon, and you will be back riding in no time. After the aforementioned crash and skin peeling incident, I was back racing (still slightly bandaged up, albeit) in two weeks.
There are many benefits to both cycling and running and they can often be used together when you train. However, if you’re going to pick between running and biking there are several reasons why biking is the better choice. Here’s a couple of facts why cycling is better than running. [Read more…]
Many cyclists are into the sport for different reasons but there are some cycling moments that everyone experiences at least once in their cycling lives. Here’s the top 10 best cycling moments that everyone experiences. [Read more…]
Early season riding conditions can be very challenging. During the winter, a ton of grit and salt gets dumped on roads to keep them grippy and snow-free, and, come spring time, all of that stuff ends up in one place – the shoulder where you want to ride. Spring is also pothole season, as water seeps into cracks in the road and freezes overnight, opening up holes the size of the Grand Canyon on your favorite roads. There are a few simple bike handling tips to keep your skin off the road and your bike in one piece.
SLOW DOWN!!!
This seems obvious, but it is easy to forget in the middle of one of your favorite descents. Slower speeds mean more time to react to what is in front of you. Slow down well in advance of corners so you aren’t braking hard while turning – doing so increases the chance of losing traction.
Take your lane.
Most of the road grit accumulates on the shoulder of the road, and you can avoid this by moving out into the travel lanes. Be VERY careful when doing this – think ahead, and don’t try to move out in front of a line of cars just before your corner. Wait for a large gap in traffic, and move out well into the lane, so cars aren’t tempted to try and squeeze by you. On long, switchbacking descents, I will usually just stay in the travel lanes to avoid having to move back and forth.
Relax.
Hitting a small patch of gravel or wet spot won’t necessarily cause you to crash. Overcorrecting for a small skid of your back tire will. Staying relaxed and confident will help you ride through small skids instead of tensing up and turning the small skid into a huge wipe-out. You can build this confidence through other types of cycling – mountain and cyclocross riding will both give you the experience of feeling your bike sliding through turns, which will help you become a more confident road rider.
Obstacle avoidance.
Be it potholes, glass, or ice, there is a lot of stuff on the roads that you and your bike would rather avoid. Your first key to avoiding this nasty stuff is to look ahead – the earlier you see something, the easier it will be to avoid. When you know what you want to avoid, doing so requires a bit of practice. Anyone who has managed to hit the only pothole on a clear stretch of road knows what I am talking about – your bike will tend to go where you are looking. If you are looking at that one pothole, there is a good chance you are going to hit it. Instead, work on keeping your eyes focused on the clear path you want to take, and your bike will follow.
Bunny-hops.
Sometimes, despite your proactive road reading and all of your best obstacle avoidance techniques, you just can’t ride around something. Often this has something to do with the 2 ton hunks of metal passing by on your left. This is when the bunny-hop comes in handy. Bunny-hopping is like jumping on your bike – both wheels lift off the ground for a split second. If you have never done this before, practice at slow speeds first. Clipless pedals make it much much easier and safer as well. When you do encounter something you can’t ride around, don’t try to jump too high – for potholes, your wheels barely need to leave the ground.
Keep these tips in mind when you head out on your next ride, and you will be well equipped to deal with whatever the spring roads will throw at you!