Pedalogue

Hah!

Over the course of three large studies, the most recent of which was published last month in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers found almost no correlation at all between wearing the proper running shoes and avoiding injury. Injury rates were high among all the runners, but they were highest among the soldiers who had received shoes designed specifically for their foot types. If anything, wearing the “right” shoes for their particular foot shape had increased trainees’ chances of being hurt.

via Phys Ed: Do Certain Types of Sneakers Prevent Injuries? – Well Blog – NYTimes.com.

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Thank God for the wonderful weather today, we could step out for a late bike ride. There was no sun when we left at 8.30 am and were hoping it stays behind the clouds. It was actually a bit chilly.

What was also special about today was that we stepped out for a long ride after a really, really long time – nearly 4 months. So it was back to good old days, setting routes, cutting our way through residential colonies, and dodging the trucks and autorickshaws on the main roads.

We had decided to go to Bellandur lake and come back via Sarjapur Outer Ring road. So we cut across the Old Airport road, reached Wind Tunnel road and took the army defence area to reach the Bellandur lake. Once past the Wind Tunnel road, we were away from the city traffic. The entire stretch from Wind Tunnel road to the Bellandur lake is also a very good candidate for morning runs. We wish to come here some day for a long run.

We reached our usual spot around the Bellandur lake near a temple, where we usually stop for some clicks and mid-way rest. Here we decided to give a short visit to Manoj and Pooja at the Sun City. That was going to increase our initial planned time by at least half hour and distance by 5-7 km. The weather was good, so we decided to go for it.

We clicked some pictures. The lake is fast disappearing, being consumed by the water hyacinth. Both the sides of the road running along the lake have been barricaded by high-rise nets.

We reached Sun City. It was a good, short, quick meetup/catch up with the friends. And then we headed back, straight on the Sarjapur Outer Ring road, from Sun City to the K.R.Puram railway station. We had to make a stop at Reliance Fresh on the way to pick some cold drink and a sports bar. It had well been over an hour of ride already and it was important to replenish our energy reserves. It was a good thing that we had had some toasts before starting for the ride.

This time we did not push ourselves a lot, took it easy, rode leisurely. So it was not so taxing as some of the other rides in the past, where we just concentrated on speeding up and increasing our average. This time, we also did some stretch exercises after reaching home.

Great weather, great ride, good fun.

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I found this wonderful blog on running – Vanessa Runs, which has really detailed info on various running issues.

This post struck me as especially relevant as it covered an embarrassing aspect of running that most runners avoid talking about, and I am particularly affected by a variation of it – runner’s trots. Or, the need for “taking a dump” in the middle of a run.

Vanessa has some real detailed data on what runners should be aware of. I actually haven’t seen such data anywhere, and therefore feel really lucky to have spotted this info.

A sample info:

Keep in mind that food has a travel time:

• From the moment you swallow to your stomach = 15-20 minutes
• From the moment you feel full to elimination = 4-6 hrs
• From the moment you swallow to elimination = 12-24 hrs

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Pretty inspiring bit from John “The Penguin” Bingham.

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far. It doesn’t matter if today is your first day or if you’ve been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.

( Source )

Another article on the topic by John.

…

I AM A RUNNER because my runs have names. I do tempo runs and threshold runs and fartlek runs. I do long, slow runs and track workouts. My runs are defined, even if my abs are not.

I AM A RUNNER because my shoes are training equipment, not a fashion statement. The best shoe for me is the one that makes me a better runner. I choose the shoe that goes with my running mechanics, not my running outfit.

I AM A RUNNER because …

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One of those initiatives which are really making a difference in the lives of people.

From an article on Bangalore Mirror:

After plastic, paper and clothes, it is the turn of the humble cycle to be recycled in a bid to empower poor and needy children.

Two Bangaloreans have been collecting unused and/or old cycles from across the city and repairing them before donating them to needy children.

The duo — Pradeep V V, a co-founder of Mapunity.in, and Mayank Rungta, a software professional with Juniper Network India Pvt Ltd, set up the Ride A Cycle Foundation after reading of a similar initiative elsewhere. Pradeep says, “Last year, I came across a story about a doctor couple in Mumbai who would go around the city collecting old cycles and repairing them before distributing them among the needy. Their project is called the Bicycle Project.

More info about Pradeep and Mayank’s initiative can be found at Cycle Recycle blog. In December, they provided the first set of recycled cycles to students of two NGOs.

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Went on a 26 km ride on a self-charted route this Sunday. We could not manage to participate in the GGI CM the previous day, so we decided to make up for it.

You can see the complete description of Sunday’s ride to Bellandur Lake on dailymile.com here.

Before Sandip and I started riding cycles this Feb and before we even got our cycles, we had started dreaming and marking out all the roads and areas where we wanted to come on our bikes. Its amazing that within a month, we have covered a lot of those places and many more we hadnt dreamt about! We’ve ridden in the evenings/late nights, gone to have puchkas for an evening snack, burgers @ Bistro for dinner, IVCDS [idli-vada-chutney-dosa-sambhar] breakfast at Madurai Idly shop on 80 ft road .

The GGI initiative helped us venture out to M.G.Road and Cubbon Park. That was our first longest trip, totalling ~25 km. We had not been to Cubbon Park in the last 4 years we have been in Bangalore but were glad we finally went there biking. The most recent dream-come-true was our ride to Bellandur – could not imagine it would happen so soon.

Our next big leap should be to BOTS @Jayanagar, from where we got our bikes.

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(What is Critical Mass?)

Official Announcement for the February event on 27th.

It’s time again to celebrate the joy of cycling. This month we are taking some history lessons with cycling.

Let’s ride towards one of the less famous towers of Kempegowda in Gavipuram Guttahalli. The tower is on a small hillock overlooking the Kembambudhi lake. If on time, we can view a beautiful sunset and move on the the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Cave temple.

Both the tower and the temple were built by Kempe Gowda referred to as the founding father of Bangalore.

We will be ending the ride at the VV Puram – Food Street and indulge in some carb loading.

Really want to attend this. Have to get the final route map though, to make sure we don’t kill ourselves riding all over Bangalore in the middle of the afternoon. Google maps seems to suggest this car route. Distance from Cubbon park seems to be about 6-7 km.

View Larger Map

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10 ways runners cheat themselves nutritionally.

Now I am quite sure I fall into at least one or more of these categories:

The Nighttime Feeder

You eat very few calories all day long, then you gorge at dinner and late into the night.

“Eating little throughout the day and loading up at night is similar to filling up your gas tank after you’ve arrived at your destination,” says Dolins. Yet it’s a common pattern for a good number of runners. For many, it’s an oversight; the absence of an eating plan throughout the day leaves them starving by late afternoon, resulting in an evening binge.

That is me alright.

The Junk-Food Fiend

You eat whatever you want because you believe running will keep you fit and trim.

Sure, there are runners who live blissfully ignorant of their nutritional blunders, but then there is the Junk-Food Fiend. Painfully aware of his poor food choices, but unable or unwilling to change, he has convinced himself that he can get away with eating anything and everything.

Hmm. That also seems to be me alright.

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Just discovered this article on Sheldon Brown’s website. It explains a lot about why experienced cyclists pedal a lot differently (not just faster) from newbie cyclists (or normal urban cyclists).

High or Low?

“Higher” gears put more resistance on the pedals. If you select a gear that is too high for the conditions, it will force you into a slower cadence. Pedaling slower than your ideal cadence is wasteful of energy. You also run a higher risk of muscle strains and joint damage, particularly to the knees and hips.

“Lower” gears make the pedals easy to turn, so it becomes easier to spin to a fast cadence. Pedaling faster than your ideal cadence can allow you to generate an extra burst of speed, but you will tire yourself out too soon if you try to maintain an excessively fast cadence.

The Perfect Bicycle

If you had a perfect bicycle, with an infinite number of gears, you would always be pedaling at the same cadence, with the same amount of resistance to the pedals. Of course, the bike would go slower uphill, and faster downhill, but your legs would not know the difference.

Inexperienced cyclists often pedal at a cadence that is too slow, (too high a gear.) They sometimes think that this is better exercise, because they have to push harder on the pedals. This is an illusion.

Read the rest of the article for a complete explanation. So it seems the idea is not to shift gears till you find the right resistance that you are comfortable with. This is the mistake I keep doing. The idea is to move the gears so that I can put in the safe effort to keep the pedals moving at the same speed – a faster speed than what I am doing currently.

Time to fix that broken cadence kit on my bike.

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From this post on BBC:

The Bangalore Cycling Club (a cycle team run by Venkatesh of Wheelsports) will be pedaling to Mumbai from Bangalore starting tomorrow morning (Feb 16, 2010). They will be covering a distance of 1010kms in 4 days as per the following itenary.

• Feb 16 – Bengaluru to Davanagere 265km
• Feb 17 – Davanagere to Belgaum 246km
• Feb 18 – Belgaum to Pune 336km
• Feb 19 – Pune to Mumbai 163km
• Feb 20 – Rest at Mumbai
• Feb 21 – Participate in the Mumbai Cyclothon and the Mumbai Car Free Day

The team is comprised of: Sridhar Savanur, Arun Rajput, Sangappa Kurni, Vittal Nayak, Mahadev Kurni, Jaggu Karkol, Suresh Mali, Ramesh Rathod, Sangamesh Talwar and Assif Attar.

Venkatesh and two others will accompany them in a support car during this grueling ride which will surely be a test of endurance and human spirit. The ride will be flagged off by Sri. Bhaskar Rao, IPS, Transport Comissioner, Govt. of Karnataka from Vidhana Soudha Entrance tomorrow morning at 0630 hrs. The ride is supported by the Transport Department, Govt. Of Karnataka, Godrej Foundation, Mumbai, KBS Foundation, Mumbai and Methods Automotive Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.

Update (16th Feb): TOI news clip about the ride.

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