After a long, frustrating day yesterday I managed to motivate myself and get in a decent run in the late afternoon. I’ve spent this last week sleeping well past my normal wake up time, blowing off my usual morning exercise routine and telling myself that I can make up for it in the afternoon. I would say, on average, the current approach works about 25% of the time. For the most part I find myself tired and unmotivated when I leave the office. My initial instinct is to head home, pet the cat and pass out on the couch for a few hours. As soon as I reset myself in to my morning routine I always feel better in the afternoons. More energetic and motivated. But my mind and body often forget this benefit of the early AM wake up call, and I find myself cycling in and out of weeks of getting up early to getting up late. I really haven’t found a good solution for it. Even the cat, my trusty secondary alarm, has taken to matching my morning routines. I’m contemplating one of those solar alarm clock things, so I can rise to the sound of annoying beeping AND blinding simulated sunlight. That should make the girlfriend even more stoked about the variance in my alarm schedules.
The Feed
A really good reason to encourage your girlfriend not to come on the ride with you: There have been a lot of studies about why cycling can result in numbness and (egads!) erectile dysfunction in men. The problem results from putting too much pressure on the nerve bundles and blood vessels that serve the genital area. As male cyclists we are acutely aware of when things are going wrong down below, and make adjustments. Unfortunately, women are not isolated from this problem either. The NY Times Well blog has a post up examining a recent study conducted on a group of women to examine whether cycling creates the same destructive pressure that men experience. Turns out it does. Ladies; make sure you are sitting right on those seats. The romance fizzles quickly when both partners are trying to bump numb uglies.
The nutrient “deficiency” and a reasoned critique: The NY Times Science section (I’m really trying to blow through my free articles as quickly as possible this month) has a little Q&A up about whether eating a balanced diet is actually enough to avoid having to take nutritional supplements. The author of the post poses the question to Dr. Sheldon S. Hendler whose answer seems pretty straightforward: “Even those few who consistently eat well ‘“may have dysfunctions that create special needs for micronutrients.”‘ So why put this up? Because Alex Hutchinson at Sweat Science took issue with it and his response post is a great analytical breakdown of why exactly we shouldn’t always heed the advice of oft cited “experts.” Check out Alex’s post here. Alex’s post is by far the better read, and you can glean anything from the NY Times post from his.
Outside’s Top 10 Hut-to-Hut Mountain Biking Trips: Outside Online has been killing it lately with the “top ten blah blah blah” lists utilizing nice pictures and quick descriptions to outline what bars, apres spots, ski resorts and now hut trips via bike that you should be doing. I have to say, as with a lot about Outside, I really love and hate these things. They are great for generating ideas for trips but the logistical details leave much to be desired. I suppose that in generating as much content as possible some things have to fall to the wayside (says the guy who cribs other posts for his one post per day).
Mountain biking the Arizona Trail: The Arizona Trail is a recently completed trail that runs from the State’s border with Arizona to the Mexico border, and was designed with mountain biking in mind. Which, from what I can gather, means that you will be welcomed in whatever ridiculous mountain biking outfit you decide to wear. Men’s Journal has a short little piece up about the trail with some helpful links (take note Outside!).
The evolution of the Portland restaurant scene: Our friend Ethan sent this over from the Oregonian. It essentially maps out the interconnected nature of the Portland restaurant scene. Which, after looking at this for a while, I now picture as one of the best smelling incestuous networks imaginable. What would be really interesting is the same chart but one that maps networks out of restaurants that never really made it, or were critically reviled. That would be awesome.
