News

  • Aliens, Spaceships and Indian Motorcycles - revisit

    This post is a revisit of a blog I did for the Active Network website. Today on the  group ride, we went to visit the spaceship and sadly it is gone. I was then motivated to go dig up the following post from 2007.  ________________________________________________________________ I must admit that I planned to see aliens and spaceships on the group ride today. My first encounter with the spaceship was in 2000 or 2001 and I’m a believer. Yes, a spaceship landing pad exists just outside my hometown of Loveland, Colorado. Hard to believe, I know. Steve Douglas, one of my riding...

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  • The Para-Shirt: It’s for Real

      Ah yes, the Para-Shirt, it’s a classic. In the quest for more speed athletes often look to make workouts harder with more drag. In this 1987 product review column, the Para-Shirt is reviewed and priced nicely at $26.95.   What are you using right now, for training and racing, that people will laugh at in 20 years?

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  • Top 8 Insights from a Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Device

    I’ve been curious about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices for a few years. People normally associate these devices with diabetics, but awhile back there were indications that they would become available for non-diabetics. It did occur, CGM devices are now available to non-diabetics. A great question is why should you care about monitoring your glucose if you’re not diabetic? There are several reasons you might be interested in monitoring glucose: Continuously high glucose is associated with several diseases. Understanding which foods or combination of foods drives your glucose high can help you adjust your eating habits. To gain insight into...

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  • When Should I Begin Exercise and Racing after COVID?

    With the recent spike in COVID infections, I’ve had several people reach out and ask my opinion on when it is safe to return to exercise after having a COVID infection. I will include some guidelines in the blog, but first I need to include two disclaimers: I am not a doctor or medical professional, and you need to seek the advice of your personal medical team. The guidelines presented in the blog are gathered from helping my personally coached athletes, friends, medical professional opinions (from those I know), online research, my family and me (I recently recovered from COVID-19.)...

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  • Chronic Fatigue in Athletes

      A few years back I wrote a two-part column on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Athletes. Part I is here and Part II is here. The links to more information about each individual athlete are no longer working at the Active Network, so I am reposting all stories here. Cyclist H.A. The similarities between H.A. and R.C. include going to college in a tough study program and also being a very gifted cyclist. She was producing top-shelf results and was invited to be a resident at the Olympic Training Center (OTC). While at the OTC, she got pneumonia. Unfortunately, she was misdiagnosed and continued...

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  • Does my high cholesterol mean I need to take a statin?

      My recent routine visit to the doctor’s office raised the question, again, “Does my high cholesterol mean I need to take a statin?” ** My first disclaimer is that my research relates to me. I will provide you with an incomplete list of my  research links and background information. You may find other links more helpful and that’s great. ** Just a few weeks ago I was able to get in to see a Physician’s Assistant (PA) in my doctor’s office for a routine visit. I took the opportunity to do that rather than wait for the doctor. The...

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  • USA Cycling Mountain Bike Nationals - Altitude Questions

    Q. Hello. We are going to the USA Cycling MTB Nationals in Winter Park this year and will be racing various events over a week (between prerides, short track, qualifiers, XCO, etc). In preparation for the altitude, I read your article about altitude and the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race and have more questions. For Winter Park, we thought about getting up there a week in advance, but also considered spending two off days down in Golden, CO (about an hour a way, and at 5000 feet instead of 10,000). There could be downsides to this as well. 1) Should we...

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  • 6 Balance Exercises for Life and Sport

    I was listening to a podcast on healthy aging and the presenter noted that as we age, stability (balance) is one of the first skills we lose. It is critical to keep this skill for life function and sport. Yoga is a great way to keep your balance. If you don’t happen to do yoga, I can give you a few sample exercises you can easily do at home. Exercise 1: Looking forward, stand on one foot and count 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005. The non-weight-bearing foot can be anywhere, but it's easier to begin with it close to the ground....

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  • Injured ribs and back – Part III minimizing fitness loss and back to 100% from hurting, timid and fearful

    Hurting, timid and fearful Litmus tests Breakthrough days Minimizing fitness loss Patience, persistence, progression This is the final post in a three-part series. In the last post I outlined some of the principles I followed for the healing process. In the first post of this series I wrote some about the mental and physical process of healing. For Part III I want revisit those two aspects and how they work together to get back to pain-free, confident and fearless. Hurting, timid and fearful Anyone suffering an injury expects pain in the area of injury. What we don’t expect is pain...

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  • Injured ribs and back – Part II the healing process and two modalities that had positive impact

    In my last post I explained how I managed to smash myself into the frame of the closet door. In this post I will explain what I did to manage my healing process through four weeks out from the injury. To ice or not ice? Some experts recommend icing the affected area the first 48 to 72 after the injury. Others say ice doesn’t help healing and may hinder it. You can do your own digging or listen to your trusted medical expert. That written, I chose to ice for about 20 minutes three times per day for the first...

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