Thursday, 6 May 2010
Cycling For Improved Fitness
Regular cycling at a healthy level can have a beneficial effect on many of the systems of the body. Like all kinds of exercises that are moderately intense, cycling for three or four times per week can reduce your risk of a heart attack and prevent the risk of developing many types of cancer. Cycling is a fantastic way to improve your aerobic ability and endurance levels and it is also a great way to reduce your stress levels. Cycling is a great way to lose weight, allowing you to burn thousands of calories depending on how far and how fast you go. Cycling has the added benefit of being a low impact form of exercise, so it can be suitable for individuals who may be overweight or suffer from joint related problems.
Helping Your Heart and Improving Your Circulation
Regular cycling can help you to ensure that your heart stays big, strong and well exercised. Cycling can prevent the build up of fatty deposits in your arteries and lower the risk of you suffering from cardiovascular disease. Exercise causes the blood to pump swiftly around your body in order to provide your muscles with oxygen. The speed at which blood is pumped around your body is increased when you exercise. This strengthens your heart and makes if more efficient. Cycling can help your heart and improve your circulation.
Lowering Your Blood Pressure
The development of high blood pressure can be prevented or significantly delayed by undertaking regular aerobic activity. Cycling is an outstanding aerobic activity and can help you to dramatically reduce your high blood pressure, or prevent you from ever developing high blood pressure in the first place.
Improving Your Cholesterol
The ratio of good to bad cholesterol can be improved by aerobic activity. Cycling often can help you to lower your overall cholesterol levels so that you stay fit and healthy.
Good For the Environment
As well as the significant health benefits associated with cycling, leaving your car at home is good for the environment. Lowering carbon emissions into the earth's atmosphere is a goal that we should all share. Cycling allows you to kill two birds with one stone - you can get to where you need to go and get very fit in the process.
Muscles and Joints
Cycling will help you to improve your overall muscle tone and improve your strength, balance and coordination. Regular exercise helps you to develop a strong core that supports your joints and vital organs and helps you to avoid injury and strain. Cycling can help arthritis suffers to experience less joint pain and swelling.
Cycling is a fun, affordable and easy way of exercising that offers a huge range of health benefits. Cycling can improve your fitness, increase your sense of happiness and well-being and help to save the environment. And if you can't cycle outside for whatever reason, there are some great stationary bikes available so that you can still derive all of the benefits of this amazing form of exercise.
Author Mark Woodcock is a Webmaster of a wide variety of online specialty shops including a very popular site on Vibration Plate Machines. Visit http://www.orbus-leisure.com today.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Andrew_Woodcock
Does a Yellow Cycling Shirt Always Make You a Winner?
If you are a fan of road cycle racing you will already know that you need to watch the colors of the riders' cycling shirts very closely to find out who the race leaders are. Even if you just watch cycling on the television occasionally, you will probably know as a matter of general knowledge that in the Tour de France, the rider with the yellow jersey is the one who is in the lead.
However, the one wearing the yellow cycling shirt is not always the person to look out for across all stages of the race. Some stages of the Tour de France involve gruelling mountain ascents, and the leader in these types of race section has a jersey of his own. The mountain stage leader is often referred to as the King of the Mountains, and wears a white jersey with red polka dots. It is possible that the mountain experts are not great at sprint racing and other sections of the overall Tour, so despite being leaders in the tough hillside climbs, they generally will not threaten to overtake the yellow jersey holder.
Many stages of the French Tour - and of other major cycle races - are designed for sprinting, and the first riders to complete these sprints are awarded points, according to their position in that section. Getting points is the goal in personal and team time trials, but these points are also awarded for the first riders past the finishing line in all other stages. The mountain stages award less points, as the climbing specialists often win these. The riders' points are added up, and the rider with the highest tally wears the green jersey.
So it is not as simple as keeping your eyes peeled for the yellow jersey when you watch televised cycling. There are several other colors available in the Tour de France, including the white jersey which is for the young riders - currently for competitors under 26 years old. It is important to remember that these cycling shirt classifications only apply to the Tour de France, and the picture becomes slightly confusing if you start watching a race and do not realise it is one of the other main Tours.
There are three major races, together called The Grand Tours, which include the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia. The Spanish Vuelta awards similar jerseys to the French Tour; the gold jersey for the overall leader and green jersey for the points leader. However, the King of the Mountains in Spain wears red rather than polka dots.
In the Italian Giro, the cycling shirts system is entirely different, with the overall race leader taking the pink jersey, while the points leader wears red and King of the Mountains has the green, confusingly opposite to the awards in the Vuelta!
Does a yellow cycling shirt always make you a winner then? Perhaps. It depends which race you are watching, but hopefully you will now be armed with the secret information you need, to understand whose progress you should be concentrating on next time you sit down to an evening of cycling on TV.
Simon Draylor has been an avid cycling enthusiast since childhood, and writes articles about all aspects of cycling and cycle sport, including product reviews of cycle shirts, cycling shorts and cycle racing skin suits; to cycle road safety; to understanding the finer points of the major road races, such as the systems of colored cycling shirts in common use.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Draylor
Bicycling - How and Where to Chow Down Along the Missouri Katy Trail
Basic outlet types along the Missouri Katy Trail (within 2-miles of the trail).
1. Cafes/restaurants (individual or in hotels/motels; small or full meals)
2. Bar grills (sandwiches, pizza, burgers, tenderloins, fries, meals)
3. Convenience/general stores (hot dogs/sausages, pre-made sandwiches, pizza, subs, breakfast sandwich, pastries, sodas)
4. Markets/groceries (deli items, hot/cold/frozen snacks, pastries, subs, real food, sodas)
5. Gas stations (snacks, pizza, sodas, depending on size of station)
6. Campgrounds/general stores (varied snacks or fast food, hot or cold)
7. Wineries (soups, sandwiches, cheese/sausage/cold-cut baskets, full lunch/dinner)
8. Bike shops (snacks, sodas, ice cream)
9. Auto repair shops (snacks, sodas)
10. Outside snack-machines (candy bars, chips, pastries, sodas)
11. Local seasonal festivities/celebrations (community fish or chicken fries, Oktoberfest etc)
Most of the food along the Katy trail is typically good, whether common, countrified, pot-luck, or occasional gourmet. Most of the ready-to-eat kind can be found in the cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, gas stations or combinations of the latter two in the small towns or on the secondary highways near the trail. Such places can be looked up on the Internet or the trail's website, which is updated regularly. Not all of them are next to the trail. Riders might have to go a few blocks to find the ones they want.
Still, the amount and quality of the food there is ample. Even the grease-burgers and tenderloins can be large, and served with large fries or rings. Because some riders often feel sweaty and dirty, they prefer the trail-side cafes, bar-grills, convenience stops, or wineries found near the trail or in the smaller towns.
Others do not worry about it, and prefer the nicer restaurants found the larger towns. Still others prefer the hidden not-well-advertised rural general stores/other-outlets located on the trail at varied crossroads, boat ramps, fishing camps, and campgrounds, like, Lucy's Bar & Grill, Katfish Katy's, Cooper's Landing, Thai Kitchen, Riverview Traders Store, Claysville Store, Jims Bar & Grill, and Peers Store. Barbeque, ethnic and country cooking can be found in surprising places
However, some of these places open early in the afternoon or on weekends, only. Several close on Monday or at least one-to-two days a week. Many close during the winter season. A few gas stations remain open 24-hours year-round. Thus, the timing for eating can be important.
Basic food outlets by town/mile marker from Clinton (west-end) to St Charles (east-end).
Clinton* 264.6 (outlets downtown about a mile south of trail head or near the highways)
Calhoun 255.5 (gas station w/convenience store on Route-52)
Windsor* 248 (convenience store next to trail; downtown cafe; other outlets)
Green Ridge 239.2 (convenience store; bar-grill)
Sedalia* 227.1 (varied places in town or on highways near trail)
Clifton City 215.4 (auto-repair garage 2-blocks north of trail)
Pilot Grove 203.3 (convenience store; bar-grill; market; burger/ice-cream shop)
Boonville* 191.8 (casino; cafes downtown north of the trails's Boonslick bridge)
New Franklin 188.2 (convenience store/gasoline a few blocks north of trailhead)
Rocheport 178.3 (trail-side cafe; two cafes (one gourmet) on town strip 3-blocks north of trailhead; gourmet winery 2-miles south of town accessible from the trail further south)
Huntsdale 171.7 (campgrounds/boat ramp/general store)
McBaine 169.5 (bar-grill at crossroads 2-blocks southwest of trailhead)
Easly 162.5 (campgrounds/boat ramp/general store; Thai Kitchen in separate trailer/mobile-home there)
Wilton 157.4 (general trading/convenience store)
Hartsburg 153.6 (cafe; winery outlet; 2 bar-grills)
Claysville 149.8 (fried-chicken cafe, weekends only)
Jefferson City* 143.2 - 1½-miles south of trail (ice cream/burger shops, gourmet cafe, and downtown outlets south of capital building)
Tebbetts 131.2 (day-time convenience store1/3-mile west on Route-94; weekend bar-grill close to trail with Karaoke and local jam sessions)
Mokane 125 (day-time market 1½-blocks north of trail; also bar-grill club when open)
Portland 115.9 (bar-grill just north of trailhead)
Bluffton 110.9 (campgrounds snack bar w/sodas, weekends only in season)
Rhineland 105 (trail-side restaurant in strip next to trail)
Hermann* 100.8 - 2-miles south of trail (wineries; ethnic and varied outlets on the main north-south and west-east streets; quaint cafes near shops; full-meal winery on south side; convenience store not far from trail south at intersection of Routes-19/94)
Treloar 84.4 (bar-grill close to trail)
Peers 81.2 (all-day general store w/hot food)
Marthasville 77.7 (gas station next to trail; outdoor sodas; convenience store/bar-grill ½-mile south on Route-47/94)
Dutzow 74 (deli-restaurant at trailhead; winery nearby)
Augusta 66.3 (winery; downtown restaurant)
Matson 60.6 (wineries nearby)
Defiance 59.1 (2 bar-grills close to trail; also, bike shop w/snacks/ice cream; winery nearby)
St Charles* 39.5 (casino; winery and quaint cafes/outlets in the old town next to trail
*Designates larger town having several options including fast-food outlets.
This list is not all inclusive, but it gives trail bicyclists an idea of what is available near the trail. Towns 4-miles from the trail or further, like, Columbia, Holts Summit, Washington, and St Louis also have numerous eateries. But carry your own small supply of energy food, just in case.
To study the facilities on this trail further, see the following sites.
1. BikeKatyTrail http://www.bikekatytrail.com
2. Missouri State Parks http://www.mostateparks.com/katytrail/index.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Delms
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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