Category: Active Lifestyle
Pro Cycling + design – a first look at 2010 teams, kits & bikes
As a cycling enthusiast I’m always excited to see the pro team introductions each winter. Even more exciting is seeing what each team kit will look like, and what bikes they’ll be riding. 2010 looks to be a big year with quite a few new teams as well as big players changing squads—most notably Lance Armstrong moving to the new Radio Shack Cycling Team. But while Lance is undeniably the big story in American cycling there are many other names and teams making news. Here are a few teams that I’ve been watching as a sportsman and a designer:
Team Sky
This brand new British cycling team has snapped-up real contenders, including Brad Wiggins (4th in the 2009 Tour de France) and – along with help from sponsors Adidas and Pinarello – are looking like poster children for classic minimalist design.
(Photo by Scott Sunderland/via)
Astana
Led by reigning Tour winner Alberto Contador and completely made-over since 2009, Astana will be looking to repeat the success it’s had over the last couple years. They’ve moved away from the navy blue in their kits… a little too pastel for me, now.
BMC
Swiss team BMC looks to be a real force in 2010. This fall the team signed current US Pro, George Hincapie, Cadel Evans and former World Champion Alessandro Ballan. I’m pulling for Hincapie to finally win Parix Roubaix (the Hell of the North), this April. BMC is from Switzerland… what else do you need to say in terms of design?
Rock Racing
Created by 
Michael Ball of Rock and Republic, Rock Racing is considered a “black sheep” due to their roster including past doping offenders. While these past troubles continue to follow the team, their accolades on the road have begun to stack up— achieving great success from former Grand Tour riders Francisco Mancebo and Oscar Sevilla. As far as design goes, the team has recently launched their own bike line, and, although a fan of their past aesthetic, I’m not completely on board with new new look.
(Photo by Ken Conley/via)
Safety First
Most of the time, I don’t think a whole lot about my safety while I run or bike. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’ve never had a serious problem. But running, and especially biking, is not without risk.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire divx The obvious risk comes in the form of a few tons of steel and glass strapped to 4 wheels – cars, trucks, and traffic in general. America unfortunately, isn’t the most enlightened place when it comes to respecting bikes and pedestrians. For the most part it’s fine, but there’s always the random inattentive driver or even worse, the driver thats upset you’d have the audacity to run or bike on an actual road.
The not-so-obvious risk are numerous as well. What would happen if I fainted from heat exhaustion like this guy
? What if had a heart attack or stroke? What if I took a spill in a remote place on my bike and was left unconscious?
I’m generally not a panic-inclined fellow, and I realize that most of the scenarios above are statistically improbable. However, when you solo run 12, 15 or 20 miles in all sorts of severe weather over the course of several hours, it makes you think about things like this. What if something happened to me? I’m 8 miles from the nearest phone! Thankfully, there’s a simple answer and it’s called Road I.D.
I picked one of these I.D. bracelets up a few weeks back and couldn’t be more impressed with the product. The concept is simple. It’s a lightweight bracelet that holds an engraved plaque with you vital info on it. My name. Emergency phone numbers. Blood type. Allergies. You get the idea.
I’ve been wearing it on all of my rides and runs and I can think of more instances where it would come in handy as well, such as extended backpacking trips or traveling abroad. If a bracelet isn’t your style, they have a bunch of other options as well. Check out Road I.D. It’s a simple thing that may end up saving your life
sometime.
And before you ask, this isn’t a paid posting for Road I.D. I just think that it’s a great product from a company that decided to do one thing and do it very well.
Get Your Motor Running?
I’m involved in our ongoing research, Active Insights
, which is a study of the mindsets of those who live an active lifestyle. Recently we were discussing how motorized sports fit into our research. After reading a recent Sierra Magazine article about ATV riding, I was intrigued to learn about the growth of this activity in the US. According to this article, “Off-road recreation in this country has grown enormously in the past three decades, jumping from 5 million users in 1972 to 51 million in 2004.” With that sort of growth, it might be an activity that deserves more attention from us as we focus on active lifestyles.
Blood Work ipod 633 Squadron release buy Self Control
The Black Dahlia ipod download They Call Me Bruce? movie download Mission: Impossible II movie
But why the huge growth trend? Sierra asserts, “While backpacking numbers are going down, the refinement of off-road engineering has yielded a wide array of vehicles at a multitude of price points, making off-roading, for many, the default way to interact with nature.” That may be one reason for the growth of these activities, but given the tenfold increase in the past 30 years of off-roading, I wonder if there’s even more to it. Could the psychographics of off-roaders give us a better insight into the other active people we’re studying?
Quarantine Aliens of the Deep ipod
Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild hd The Poker House video
The Golden Compass film Shoot to Kill full movie
Maybe it’s time for us to include motorized sports enthusiasts in our research. Depending on how we define “active”, they may or may not belong there alongside the paddlers and cyclists. Let’s start that debate here. I’ll go out on a limb and say “yes!” we should include motor sports. Why not? It would be interesting to see how they compare psychologically with our other survey respondents. What do you think?
Are the benefits of exercise all in your head?
Last week, Morning Edition
Godzillas Revenge dvdrip on NPR included a fascinating story about “whether our perception of how much exercise we are getting has any effect on how our bodies actually look.”
To do this, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer studied hotel maids, 67% of whom felt they didn’t exercise, despite walking all day and lugging heavy equipment around.
When told they exceeded the surgeon general’s guidelines for fitness, they started losing weight.
Read or listen to the story here:
Kaw move
NPR | MORNING EDITION | Hotel Maids Challenge the Placebo Effect by Alix Spiegel