Bike Pretty...and Ultrarunning

Ever get tired of all that Spandex in glaring colors when you bike?  The site Bike Pretty may give you some good alternatives.

 

Of course, Ultrarunners are immune to fashion and pretense.  We are rooted in the earth and have no place in our lives for infernal machines such as bicycles, much less the associated clothing.

 

Not.

 

Many runner, of course, also bike.  And a few of them also might favor the outfits espoused on Bike Pretty.  But as for me I don't bike much and when I do it's usually in shorts and a tee-shirt, as I own no biking Spandex garments.

 

When I run I also dress simply and in muted colors.  The bride tells me that among her co-workers there is a color they call "Gary Gray'" meaning the color of athletic tee-shirts.  Happens to be my favorite color.

 

This might be a good place to again comment upon my oldest and favorite garment, which I posted about here some 3 years ago.  It still exits, barely.

[image credit Gary]

I use this thin cotton shirt on hot summer days.  Unfortunately, the seams at the shoulders are simply falling apart from age and wear, so I fear that this summer may see the end of this shirt.  I will probably do a ceremonial burning to dispose if it, much like old flags are destroyed.

Then I can go to Bike Pretty to replace it.

 

 

 

Tales From the Perimeter: Bikers...and Ultrarunning

Perimeter meaning the 6 mile patrol road inside the fence of the military installation on which I work, where some half a dozen of us comprise a pool of running “talent” and strive to show up for a noontime run a couple times a week if we can escape our desks. We share a lot and these guys are one of the core pillars of my sanity.


I have a running good-natured battle ongoing with another of my noontime running buddies, KK.  I bust him unmercifully about how biking isn't a real sport, etc.  And he hammers me back about my liberal viewpoints and the like.

Anyway, here's an email that I sent him quaoting our very own UltraList:


KK,

Just ran across the following comment in a posting on my Ultrarunning newsgroup and it really tickled me. You know how I like to make tongue-in-cheek comments to you about biking not being a "real" sport. Plus you are not here to rebut in person.

The ultra guy was talking about doing trail maintenance volunteer work, specifically working on some downhill sections on some joint-usage trails out in California:

"The trails were being trimmed back, water-bars realigned, some downed trees shoved over to the sides, mainly to prevent idiot mountain-bikers from getting the Final Air of their short, brutish existences….

Bicycling...and Ultrarunning

Out of curiosity I happened to pick up a copy of Bicycling magazine, Oct 2011, at the gym, where they have an informal magazine exchange.  There were several items that jumped right out at me a illustrating a distinctively different world view on the part of serious bikers, as opposed to the Ultrarunning community that I am familiar with.

• Page 6, ad for Nair Men Shower Power "If removing body hair was a competition, razors would finish 2nd."  Body hair for Ultrarunners is a feature, not a bug.
• Page 52, article on how to crash properly.  In fairness, if you're gonna crash, this article gives you tips on how to minimize the damage.  But I can't ever recall seeing any how-to equivalent on how to face plant while trail running so as to minimize damage.
• Page 89, ad for a Cycling Accident Attorney.  Why don't we have a corresponding ad in UltraRunner magazine?  After all, backcountry trail running lawsuits are extraordinarily common, aren't they?

But my favorite comes from the Editor's Letter (page 10), where Peter Flax is talking about buying a used Ibis Hakkaluggi bike (doesn't mean anything to me, but I'm not a biker, and it sounds suspiciously like a fake name anyway) from a famous bike racing pro named Bobby Julich. 

The editor makes the point that he was "...buying a bike from a guy who podiumed at the Tour" [de France, presumably]. 

Podiumed?????

An interesting verb-making trick from the word podium, if you ask me.  Seems right in line with my stereotype of serious bike aficionados being largely Type A personalities, where inventing a verb out of a noun is simply a breezy construct to communicate even faster, and then rush off to do, well, other important stuff.

I will post more soon about Type A and Type B individuals in various human-powered sports...and it'll be a goodie!