Sports Then and Now

As a group, cyclists tend to look at the same thing with a unified fear: hill climbs. The uphill portion of any ride presents a serious challenge, and your ability to handle long rides usually comes down to how well you perform during the climbs. Whether you ride competitively or just for enjoyment, the burning deep in your legs toward the end of a hill climb is a feeling riders know all too well.

While there is nothing that can be done to make hill climbs easy, the tips below may just give you a boost during your next ascent to the top.

Consider Staying Seated

Many riders feel inclined to stand up on the bike as soon as they begin a climb, but you may find more success by staying in the saddle. Hold your position as you begin to go up the hill, and work hard to maintain your cadence. It is okay to stand up from time to time when the road gets extra steep, but dealing with the majority of the climb while in your seat is usually the best bet for a good steady pace.

Think Ahead

Before you head out on any road ride, look over your intended route and identify the hills you plan to climb. With the hills highlighted, create a plan for your ride that will allow you to store up energy in advance of the uphill portions. If you are going flat out right before you arrive at a hill, you won’t have anything left in the tank when you need it most. Read the rest of this entry →

Some people are not fond of cyclists. Whether it’s some latent, xenophobic distaste for anything vaguely European or just motorists’ contempt for anything on the road that doesn’t go five over the speed limit, cyclists engender animosity from a vocal portion of the population.

And even when cyclists aren’t hated, they’re frequently disrespected. When Kenny Powers said, “I play real sports; not trying to be the best at exercising,” a nation of lacrosse stick-wielding, ball-tossing dude-bros laughed — not because they thought him ignorant, but because they thought him wise.

Yet even in the midst of this hostile environment, bike racing is growing in popularity. Perhaps because Lance Armstrong committed the only capital crime besides murder in the United States — lying to Oprah — mountain biking seems to be catching on more than road racing.

I Want to Ride My Mountain Bicycle

As you might expect of a sport that has an enormous geographic feature in its name, mountain biking has been increasing in popularity more rural than urban areas. The club sport is catching on in Idaho, where the Idaho High School Cycling League has created a four-race season. That league was founded by the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, which has made fifteen leagues in fourteen states.

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Cycling is one of the cheapest and best ways to exercise today. It is perfect for people of all ages and abilities because the activity does not place excess strain on any areas of the body. No matter where you live in the country, there will be lots of designated cycling routes in your local area. Also, you might like to consider using a bike to get to work during the summertime if you are committed to lowering your fuel consumption. The health benefits of cycling are listed below.

Using a bike on a regular basis will help to build strength and muscle tone. Indeed, that is why so many boxers and bodybuilders choose to cycle in their spare time. If you want to improve your body image without working too hard, jumping on a two-wheeler could be a wise move.

Cycling is known to improve stamina greatly because the results from this exercise are relatively easy to judge. People tend to download an app to their phone to keep track of their movements these days. So, it is easy to see that you manage to travel slightly further with each ride.

Those who choose to use bikes in their free time encourage their heart to pound in a steady manner. That have been proven to help improve cardiovascular fitness. Studies have shown that people who cycle to work increase their fitness levels by 3-7% depending on the distance traveled.

As you can see, there are many health benefits to cycling that we simply can’t ignore. Now is the time to get started if you want to lose some weight and feel better about yourself before Christmas. The infographic will tell you more…

Infographic By peak1sports.com

There are many levels of competitive cycling.

The cycling world might have been rocked by revelations about Lance Armstrong, but it’s still going strong. Cycling is one of the best sports to get involved with, whether it’s at an amateur or more professional level. Once you start cycling in different events, you won’t be able to stop it becoming your whole life. If you already feel yourself turning into one of those people who always talks about cycling, you probably want to get started and enter a few competitions and events. But if you don’t know where to start, it’s not too hard to begin.

Get the Gear

You won’t get very far without a bike. There’s no need to rush out and buy all the latest equipment right away, from a bike that costs thousands of dollars to a lycra bodysuit. But you need to start somewhere, even if it’s just with a secondhand bicycle. First, decide what sort of riding you want to do. A city bike like these beautiful Shinola bicycles will get you around an urban environment if you want to start cycling to work. A road bike or hybrid is good for longer distances while you’ll need a mountain bike for challenging terrain. You’ll also need some appropriate shoes and clothes and a water bottle as a minimum to get you started.

Join a Cycling Group

If you want to meet other cycling enthusiasts and train with them, find a local cycling group. You’ll find like-minded people who meet up to ride together, talk about cycling and maybe even go on trips. You might find that they enter events together too, in case you’re a bit nervous to attend your first one on your own. Read the rest of this entry →

Just as modern medicine has evolved over the years, so too have performance-enhancing drugs. Although they have only come into the spotlight in recent times, the practice of using drugs to gain an advantage over an opponent is older than Rome. These days, the efforts of professional athletes to cheat has caused irreparable harm to the record books of some major sports, most notably Major League Baseball. So as we debate about whether or not steroid-users should get into the Hall of Fame, or what good the next policy will do regarding illegal substances, we should first look back at how performance-enhancing drugs have come this far.

Ancient Greece and Rome

The beginning of performance-enhancing drugs is almost the same as the beginning of organized sports. In ancient Greece, some of the earliest Olympians used abnormal substances in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage. Their drug of choice would either be plant seeds or extracts of mushrooms. Later in Rome, gladiators were known to have turned to drugs. It’s difficult to blame them, but gladiators would dope for various reasons, from dulling pain to creating a bloodier spectacle for viewers.

The Dangerous History of Performance-Enhancing Drugs

While cheating and gaining an unfair advantage are terrible actions for an athlete to take, the worst aspect of performance-enhancing drugs is that they can cause extreme harm to the user. Read the rest of this entry →