 |  |
A Message From the President
Good to see so many people out on the road these hot days!
We had a very favorable number of Gold Coast participants. The weather for that weekend was very cooperative and was conducive to doing the long rides. I encourage everybody to keep patronizing our Gold Coast sponsors as they ride through the rest of the season.
We have added some new informational items to our Website that all members can take advantage of:
- The new Forum called Road Conditions. All you have to do is option to get email alerts, and you'll hear about the current conditions of roads we regularly use. Ride leaders should be linked to this tool.
- The HBC Facebook page is now alerting you (with plenty of pictures, of course) to the events page and the rides and activities that you can sign up for. Again, option Facebook for email alerts if you choose.
- This month has many events occurring: a first ever Women's invitational ride sponsored by the Massapequa Park Bike Club on August 15; the Covered Bridge Tour in Lancaster, PA is also August 15; The 5 Boro Bike Tour is August 22; and looking toward September, the Bloomin' Metric in Connecticut is September 19.
So, funny story, but truly a reality check here. I haven't had a flat in quite a while, and just got new tires in May. So, I haven't checked my spare tube or pump recently. Sure enough, I got a flat on Saturday and after prying the tire off, because it had never been changed since I got it, I discovered along with my cycling companions, that it had a Schrader valve. (yes, I got it on sale, and yes, I didn't really pay attention to that part of the box!) So, after Scott figured out how to reverse his pump to access the Schrader input, and the tube inflated, it was discovered that the hole in the wheel was too small to accept a Schrader valve.
Lesson learned here, check your equipment often! (see article below)
Only (lol) an hour wasted on that, thanks gentlemen! John, I owe you a CO2 cartridge and Scott a tube! (p.s.-I have a number of 700 x 25 tubes to sell with Schrader valves!)
Our next meeting will be at the Harborfields Library on Tuesday, September 7th at 7 PM.
Tom from the Trek store will be our guest speaker.
Hopefully we will not have an attendance limit and we can have refreshments.
I will keep you posted.
Have a great month cycling!
Karen
| The Benefits of Outdoor Exercise on Your Brain,
According to New Research
HERE’S ANOTHER REASON TO GO FOR A RIDE IN THE FRESH AIR WHEN YOU CAN.
BY SELENE YEAGER
Jul 23, 2021
- Brain structure improves with time spent outdoors, regardless of sun exposure, activity, or other factors, new research suggests.
- The researchers believe fresh air could be behind the brain-building benefits, which is another reason to sneak in a weekday ride and to take your rides outside when you can.
-
As cyclists, we all enjoy the sun on our face and wind in our hair (albeit through our vents). Now, according to recent research published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, we can add an increase in grey matter to the benefits of a ride outside, because a spin in the fresh air literally remodels your brain.
That’s right, being outside actually increases the grey matter volume in the right dorsolateral–prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is a part of the brain associated with executive functions like working memory, planning, and selective attention.
To examine the impact of time outdoors on the brain, the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin recruited six healthy employees, ages 24 to 32, and tracked their time spent outdoors, amount of free time, physical activity, fluid intake, and caffeine intake over a six- to eight-month period while also performing MRI brain scans on them about twice a week. To factor in the effect of seasonal changes, the researchers also took the duration of sunshine into account.
The study was very small, but because they were all employees of the facility, they had a lot of brain scans—more than 280 MRIs over the study period.
The researchers found that, regardless of all the other factors, time outdoors—even small amounts—was linked to greater grey matter volume in the DLPFC part of the brain. The more time outdoors, the higher the grey matter. When all factors were taken into consideration, the level of brain structure change attributed to time outside was 3 percent, which is in line with structural improvements associated with known brain-building activities like physical exercise and cognitive training.
“Our results show that our brain structure and mood improve when we spend time outdoors. This most likely also affects concentration, working memory, and the psyche as a whole,” Simone Kühn, Ph.D., head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and lead author of the study, said in a press release.
What’s behind the brain-building impact of the outdoors is still unknown, but the researchers suspect that fresh air might be one of the key factors.
“We do not know yet what the mechanism could be,” Kühn told Bicycling. “A potential candidate is air quality. Air quality can be surprisingly bad indoors compared to outdoors, even in busy cities. There is also evidence that terpenes—the essential oil of trees—can have beneficial effects on the human immune system,” Kühn said.
Indeed, according to research on “forest bathing,” or spending time amidst trees, these terpenes are not only anti-inflammatory, but also neuroprotective, meaning they protect your brain from injury and promote regeneration.
Whatever the underlying cause, every time you ride to work, run an errand by bike, or take a spin in the fresh air, you’re doing something good for your fitness and wellbeing as well as your brain.
|  | | 2021 Gold Coast Chair,
Steve and HBC President, Karen |  | Watch out Captain Kirk,
here are the Trekkies! | | |
MASSAPEQUA PARK BICYCLE CLUB (MPBC) is proud to announce our first ever Mixed Pace Women's Ride. Two of our top ride leaders, Cathy and Leah will co-lead this ride which is open to all levels (novice to advanced) of female cyclists. All MPBC prospects are welcome and encouraged to join.
- When: Sunday, August 15, 2021 from 8 am – 12:30 pm
- Start: Bethpage Library parking lot – 147 Powell Avenue, Bethpage, NY
- Destination: Kings Park
- Ride Details: 40 miles 1000 feet of elevation
- After: Enjoy free pizza and water courtesy of MPBC
To join the Mixed Women’s Ride, please RSVP 24 hours or more before the ride to Cathy (catc20@aol.com)
|  | | GC Century Riders |  | | GC 55 Roslyn Rest Stop | | |
A Regular Yoga Practice Can Relieve Work-Related Stress
NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS IT BRINGS FAR MORE BENEFITS THAN JUST FLEXIBILITY AND IMPROVED CYCLING PERFORMANCE.
BY ELIZABETH MILLARD
Jul 26, 2021
- · Yoga can benefit your performance on the bike, but it can also help alleviate work-related stress, new research suggests.
- You can start with poses such as down dog, bridge pose, and cat-cow, which can all double as postride muscle recovery as well.
Increasing your range of motion and flexibility can benefit your performance on the bike, and studies suggest a regular yoga practice can help improve both. But a new research review in the Journal of Occupational Health found it may also alleviate work-related stress.
Researchers reviewed 15 studies that involved 688 healthcare workers total. That population is considered particularly vulnerable to stress right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in need of some intervention that can offer more physical and mental respite. Studies assessed the effects of yoga, massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, and stretching.
They found that only massage therapy and yoga were effective, with the latter being the best method. That’s likely because the use of deep breath work in a yoga practice seems to have a major effect on modulation of the autonomic nervous system (which regulates bodily functions such as the heart rate and respiratory rate), the researchers concluded. That brings reductions in heart rate and blood pressure as well as a drop in cortisol, the hormone associated with the stress response.
Another recent study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, suggests yoga can alleviate stress that results from pandemic restrictions as well. In that research, which looked at about 13,000 participants split into a non-yoga control group and one that did yoga regularly, researchers found those in the control group were more likely to eat unhealthy foods, have poor sleep, and use substances for stress relief.
In a significant contrast, the yoga group had lower levels of anxiety and fear, slept better, ate healthier, and reported more physical activity and endurance.
The connection between these habits and stronger immune function should be highlighted, said Jessica Schatz, R.Y.T., a yoga teacher in Los Angeles whose clients include a number of professional athletes.
“These studies, taken together, show the role that a practice like yoga can provide as a way to deal with a pandemic,” she told Bicycling. “It’s all connected—immunity, sleep, exercise, and stress relief affect each other, and employing a practice that improves all of those can be powerful.”
One important note is that to reap these advantages, your yoga practice must be consistent. Similar to boosting cycling performance by having a training schedule, using yoga as a way to sleep better or mitigate feeling overwhelmed at work should be seen as an ongoing practice, Schatz added.
Even just a few sessions per week can be helpful, and with the amount of yoga available for free on YouTube, it’s not difficult to shop around for teachers and sequences that feel like a good fit, she said. |  | | Getting ready to do the 55 |  | Another 55 group,
who's got his back to us? | | |
6 Cycling Mistakes I've Made
So You Don't Have To
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.
BY SELENE YEAGER
I’ve been racing, writing, and dishing out fitness and training advice as Bicycling’s resident “Fit Chick” since 1999.
Over the course of those 22 years, you’d think I’d have my sh*t together and my event-day process dialed in, running smoothly like a freshly waxed chain. For the most part, that’s true. But there are times (too many, if I’m honest) when I—just like some of you—blow off what I know to be the best practices and end up paying the price.
So I thought it might be helpful to share my most common training and event-day blunders, so you don’t feel alone and we all can do better next time. After all, no one’s perfect—not even experts!—but we can help each other find more joy in cycling by avoiding these easy-to-make mistakes.
Skim (Or Worse, Skip) the Event Emails
Where’s registration? Where do we park? Oh, they’re letting people use drop bags? I wish I’d known that. Maybe, just maybe, I would know the answers to all of this and more had I taken five minutes to thoroughly read the event emails. Why don’t I? I don’t know. Because they’re often long and wordy, and I think I’ve done so many events, I’ll just figure it out.
Wrong. Even though I am able to figure it out a lot of the time, when I can’t, I am frittering away valuable time and energy—a problem that could have easily been avoided. After burning too many matches before even getting to the start line, I’ve made a commitment to being better. You should, too. Your race promoters will thank you. (Believe me. I’m married to one, and if you want to see someone’s head explode from space, watch as I text him 45 minutes from the start asking where to get my number…)
Train Everything But My Gut
This is a big one. I have written roughly 6.6 billion times that it’s really important that you fuel during training as you plan to on event day. Your gut adapts to what you put into it, so it can break down the food you’re eating and get it where it needs to go. That’s even more essential during exercise when your gut is compromised. I know this. Yet, I am somehow still surprised that I feel like tossing my chews four hours into an event because I am putting in more carbs than I’m used to during training.
When I’ve been disciplined, eating on long training rides as I plan to—taking in about 200 calories an hour, as opposed to doing four hour rides on a couple of bottles and a cookie—my gut is far more cooperative when it’s go time.
Believe the Weather Report
Why, oh why is it still so difficult to predict the weather in the 21st century? And why, oh, why do I still believe said forecasts? (And I have four weather apps that I check obsessively before any given event.)
This has led to some fairly terrible outcomes that have nearly resulted in DNFs (and really should have resulted in a couple of DNFs were I not so stubborn). The worst of these was an arduous gravel century in northern Pennsylvania called Lu Lacka Wyco Hundo. The forecast was for showers in the morning giving way to partly sunny skies and highs in the 50s. Perfect, right?
Yeah, right. The showers turned to steady rain and lingered for nearly seven hours and the temps barely kissed 40 degrees. I was not layered for 38 degrees, heavy overcast and rainy weather. Neither were my riding mates. If not for a diner that didn’t mind four of us soaking their tables, seats, and floors as we sipped coffee, slurped soup, and shivered our way back into the world of the living, we would have never made it to the finish.
Now, unless it’s a relatively short day and zero chance of adverse conditions, I always pack a waterproof Gore layer…just in case.
Underestimate the Course
Gravel events are exponentially harder than road events of the same distance and course profile. I know this from more than a decade of riding and racing gravel.
Yet, somewhere in my lizard brain, I’ll still look at 30 miles between aid stations in a gravel ride and think, “Eh, two water bottles ought to do…” only to find myself unscrewing my bottles and shaking out ever last droplet with 12 miles of B-road to go before I can get a refill.
An equally dumb move I’ve pulled more than once is blowing off the last aid station, because “it’s not that far from the finish.” If there’s an aid station that seems oddly close to the finish, it’s likely gonna take you longer finish than you think. I’d like to say that I’ve learned my lesson on this one, but I literally just did it three weeks ago at a gravel event in central PA. 😑
Eat Fun New Foods!
Who doesn’t want to try spicy Thai basil squid with chilies the night before a hilly hundo? I mean what could go wrong? You’re in a fun, new-to-you town, you want to try some fun new-to-you food, right? Don’t. Do. This. Just don’t.
Leave the Pump at Home
CO2s have their place. And that place—without also having a backup pump—is not in anything longer than a cross-country race. I’ve been lucky and have rarely flatted in big events. But when I do, I generally don’t have one flat, but six. If I carry two CO2s, I now have four flats to fix by hoping for the kindness of other, more properly prepared riders. Mini pumps are not heavy. They take up very little real estate. I’m still not perfect on this one, but I hereby resolve to find a place to stash it and always have it handy.
|  | | Laurel Hollow on a very hot day |  | | There's always a line at the p.o.p | | |
|
Minutes from the Meeting of the
Huntington Bicycle Club
7/6/21
Call to order: 7:25 PM
June 8th minutes, approved
Our first meeting in person since March 20,2020
Welcome back!
17 people present in addition to the Board and Officers
President: Karen
· Met with Legislature and Steve Bellone to endorse creating a bike lane across Robert Moses parkway.
Karen, John G and John S were present.
· Three foot law got passed for Suffolk County, and now will hopefully will get passed for the state.
· Food for meetings will start when the library gives the ok.
VP: John
· Ride calendar: regular rides - Tuesday and Thursday out of Breezy Park
· Rides now have a maximum of 12 and 3 on the wait list - please cancel to give others a chance to ride!
· Strong sweeps are needed
· John had a small lesion removed from his face. Please wear Sunscreen!
· No party due to austerity budget as a result of Covid restrictions.
Secretary: Pat
· No news is good news
Treasurer: Gregg
· Financial snapshot: May to June
· In good financial condition for next year.
Membership: Sal
· 362 Members.
· This is much higher due to people joining just to do the Gold Coast. 40 new members this month. (unusual)
Gold Coast Chair: Steve
· Austerity Gold Coast: No real costs outlayed.
· NO rest stops
· GPS routes contain points of interest (POI) to support our sponsors.
· Must join the club in order to ride the Gold Coast for insurance purposes.
· All rides are out of Gates street
· Please support our donors all year round!
· Cue sheets and sponsors lists will be available at the rides.
Webmaster: Malachy
· Questions: Event calendar can be gotten to by clicking on the hamburger when on your phone.
· Can change calendar settings to future only.
· New Forum- Road Conditions: Jeff Erlich will update
· After Gold Coast, please send in pictures.
Safety: Arne
· Potholes must be reported in order to get them fixed.
· Must take a picture and exact location in order to get it fixed.
· Will be putting a web page together to do this.
· Please ride single file and be careful of passing cars (slow down).
· Arne is now the Assistant Web Master
50/50 - $12 - Bruce Feinberg
Adjourned: 8:25 PM
Shimano road cleats - Joe
Respectfully,
Pat Kalvar, Secretary
Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 7th, 7 PM at the Harborfields Library
Guest will be Tom from the new Trek Shop in Plainview
He will have EBikes to try
| View this Newsletter on our website at Club/Newsletters
| |