The Drop Bag is stocked with Active Pursuit reading to enjoy at the finish line of your day, or a coffee break serving as the equivalent of an endurance event aid station.
Rage against cyclists: The psychology behind motorists’ anger toward bicyclists would be fertile ground for a doctoral dissertation, or this in-depth feature by Tom Stafford, writing for the BBC Future. His theory: “Deep within the human psyche, fostered there because it helps us co-ordinate with strangers and so build the global society that is a hallmark of our species, is an anger at people who break the rules, who take the benefits without contributing to the cost. And cyclists trigger this anger when they use the roads but don’t follow the same rules as cars.”
Roll out trigger points: I’ve spent time working on sore muscles with a foam roller, never knowing that I was experiencing a self-myofascial release. Jeff Kuhland offers a thorough explanation of the benefits in this post from Breaking Muscle. “Deep compression helps to break up or relax tight muscles and adhesions formed between muscle layers and their surroundings. Imagine you are tenderizing your own muscles. They should be soft and supple like a baby’s muscles. The compression allows normal blood flow to return and restoration of healthy tissue.”
A Birkie fix:Mark Parman ponders the Birkebeiner past and future in this piece from Silent Sports Magazine. “The Birkie will continue to grow and evolve, perhaps in ways we don’t yet even comprehend. Five years ago who would have thought the Birkie would be promoting a fat bike race just a few weeks after the main attraction? Even though the Birkie has developed into a complex organization with a seven-figure annual budget, in many ways it still resembles that first race in 1973. The wonder of it all – skiing 50K through the Northwoods on a crisp February day – that will never change.”
