BIKE FOR LIFE How to Ride to 100 — and Beyond
Want to Ride a Century When You Turn a Century ?
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REVIEWS
What they're saying about
the new Bike for Life
I love riding my bike. But I really love riding my bike with Roy Wallack, a pleasure I’ve enjoyed a few times over the years. Sure, we fall into rhythms and enjoy the scenery. But riding with Roy is really about listening to stories, and he has a million of them.
That’s what sets Bike for Life apart from any other bike book. Roy Wallack is the most entertaining writer on two wheels you’ll ever have the pleasure of reading. Enjoy the training tips and the sage advice and the inspir-ation. But also settle back and enjoy the ride. Read about Roy’s honey-moon on a tandem, his ride with a kick-butt, one-armed mountain biker, his ride up the world’s steepest sea-to-summit mountain, his encounters with legendary cyclists—and cyclists who deserve to be legends. Roy fits that latter category. He’s a legend in my mind—the rare writer who can convey tons of practical information along with a deep appreciation for what makes cycling the ultimate pathway to fitness. It’s the same thing that makes Bike for Life a great read: It’s just plain fun.
——Robert Earle Howells
Former Editor-at-Large of National Geographic Adventure & 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel
Journalist of the Year Silver Award
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True, the bike industry is made up of many strange creatures, but of us all, few are as strange as Roy Wallack. At the start of many a group ride, as the rest of us primp and use carpenters levels to ensure a perfectly level saddle, Roy will be over in the corner stretch-ing and breath- ing loudly through his nose.
"That dude is bizarre," we reassure ourselves as we do our best to catch a reflection of our bikes in the mirror-like surfaces of our shaved legs.
But now here's a book with verifiable stories of old dudes riding their bikes well into their late 90s. It talks about the im- portance of how diet, stretch-
ing and cross training regimens will help. Apparently, our steady regimen of leg shaving brings nothing more valuable than group consciousness to our pedaling efforts. Imagine, riding into your 90s — ha, we should all be so lucky….
Maybe Roy is onto something with all that heavy breathing.
——Zapata Espinoza
Editor, Road Bike Action magazine
& Mountain Bike Hall of Famer
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Roy celebrated his 50th birthday on a team with me at the 2006 Primal Quest, a week- long, round-the-clock 300-mile adventure race of mountain biking, white-water kayaking, back packing, rappelling, rope climbing. He was 10 to 20 years older than the rest of us. We all broke down at one time or an- other — except him. Now, a decade later, still hammering hard, he lays out his plan here in Bike for Life to keep living life all-out for another 50 years.
It involves a lot of hard work and enthusiasm, but really comes down to what I call “the Wallack Way:” Don't slow down! Keep pedaling! Keep seeing the world! Keep pushing your limits!
This engaging how-to book, suffused with inspirational adventures and profiles of older riders doing amazing things, can change your life, on the bike and off of it.
—— Stephen Regenold
Syndicated Columnist &
Editor/Founder, GearJunkie.com
Q: Finally .... Who is
BIKE FOR LIFE author
Roy M. Wallack?
A: Leader of (the back of) the pack
Roy says he owes it all to cycling. A 5,500-mile Seattle-to-Maine-to-KeyWest bike trip in 1982 led to his first published article and a career change to journalism. Dozens of bike trips around the world in the 1980s, including Alaska-to-Seattle, the length of the Mississippi River, and from London to Moscow on the first-ever bike tour into the USSR (in 1988), led to his first book, The Traveling Cyclist (1991). His 1994 honeymoon tandem ride from Nice, France, to Rome led to the birth of his son — exactly nine months later. His career as a magazine editor (California Bicyclist, Bicycle Guide, Triathlete, and others), a freelancer for national magazines (such as Outside, Men’s Journal, and Competitor) and as a long-time fitness-gear columnist and feature writer for the Los Angeles Times, has revolved around fitness & cycling.
A former collegiate wrestler at Whittier College ('78) with an MBA in Marketing from UCLA ('81), Roy began focusing his attention on athletic aging after he hit age 40, profiling successful older athletes and seeking out training strategies and studies that can impact healthy longevity. He broke the news on several crucial stories that impact quality of life and athletic aging, including the dangerous link between cycling and osteoporosis; an insidious training phenomenon most of us unwittingly slip into called the “Black Hole” that wrecks peak fitness and compromises health; the connection between human growth hormone (HGH) and strength/interval training; the injury-reduction potential of barefoot-style running, and the benefits of “butt-centric” riding form and strength training for cyclists. That research led to the first edition of Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100, published in 2005. A half-dozen books on fitness and running, often keying on fit aging, followed in the next decade.
As he pushed 50 and beyond, Roy pushed it harder than ever on the bike, wracking up more epic bike trips— including New Zealand by tandem with his wife, circumnavigating Iceland’s Ring Road, and tandeming from Portland to Yellowstone National Park with his teenage son. He also competed in some of the world’s toughest endurance cycling, running, and adventure events: The 1,200-kilometer Paris-Brest-Paris randonnée, the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo World Championship, the week-long Eco-Challenge and Primal Quest expedition races, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon and Himalayan 100 ultra-running races, and his true love, mountain bike stage races. He's proudly finished in the back of pack at the three-day La Ruta de los Conquistadores ride across Costa Rica (7 times), and the week-long TransAlp Challenge, Trans-Rockies Challenge, BC Bike Race, and Breck Epic races. In 2004, at age 48, he finished second in the obscure World Fitness Championship (a long story, but only three people competed, and one couldn’t swim), and was inducted into the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Hall of Fame in 2008.
Roy’s goals, he says, are simple: Keep writing about how we can all stay fit and healthy, stay fit enough to do any crazy athletic challenge that comes along, and keep seeing the world in the best way he knows how: by bike. He lives next to a bike path and a vast trail network in Irvine, CA.
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wo-aV2ilv4
I
Bike For Life editions, clockwise from top left: 2015, 2005, Spanish, Chinese.
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BFL VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wo-aV2jIv4
Roy's induction into the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo Hall of Fame: Give him a microphone, as Adrenalin
founder Stuart Dorland did, and all hell breaks loose. click on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcQZ8nTu6Eo
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What will you learn in BFL ?
·How to achieve your best-ever fitness at any age.
·Custom yoga routine for cyclists
·How to reverse biking's osteoporosis & impotence risk
·How to restore youthful bulges & power to age-withered muscles
·Why crosstraining is necessary -— and why tennis is the best !
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· How to avoid the insidious "Black Hole" that wrecks training
·How to climb hills faster in 3 weeks.
·How to get a perfect bike fit
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·Failsafe, time-saving Century training plans
· How to fix a cycling-impacted relationship
· Handling tips that'll instantly make you faster!
· Fun & motivating worldwide bike adventures and events
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GOODBYE MY FRIEND:
BILL KATOVSKY,
BFL co-author and visionary
It's hard to type these words. My my brother-from-another-mother Bill Katovsky, the co-author of the first edition of Bike for Life, the creator of Triathlete magazine,the funniest, smartest, clever-est, kookiest character many people in the triathlon/cycling/running worlds have ever met, passed away a few days ago, just before Halloween, at a way-too-young 58. Writer of many books about his two passions, fitness & politics, Bill was an
Bill (l) and Roy in 1994 in Kona at the Hawaii Ironman. Nine years later, his idea led to Bike for Life.
occasional Huffington Post and San Francisco Chronical editorial writer, founding editor of Inside Triathlon, author of the book “Return to Fitness,” co-author with Tim Carlson of the acclaimed book “Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq” (first-person stories of the reporters in the 2nd Iraq war), founder and editor of the great running website NaturalRunningCenter.com ..... the list goes on and on.
Bill was a serial inventor, an idea machine, spitting out TV scripts and newspaper articles and book proposals and ideas for new magazines, you name it. He called me one day in 2003 and said, "You know all those stories you're always telling me about meeting Hollywood celebrities while riding your bike? They'd make a good book. We'll call it Bicycle Sex. I have an agent." That turned into Bike for Life.
Witty and weird and conversational and charming, with a Robin Williams-ish ability to slip in so many pop-culture references, puns, and literary references during the conversation that you had to fight to ignore them just to stay on track, Bill knew how to get through to important people and make things happen; he admired innovators like himself who were pushing he envelope. Example: Bill and I flew to Costa Rica in 1997 as the first journalists to do La Ruta de los Conquistadores, the now-world-famous mountain bike race from Pacific to Atlantic, because Bill met the founder, Roman Urbina, at Interbike two months earlier and promised him I'd write a bunch of stories if he flew us down. I've since been to La Ruta 6 more times and been all over the world doing crazy mountain-bike stage races-- all because of Bill.
Bill was teaching and getting his Masters in Political Science at UC Berkeley in early 1982 when he turned on his TV and saw Julie Moss crawling to the finish line at the Hawaii Ironman. He immediately took a six-month leave of absence from school and began training for the next Ironman, having to learn how to swim. His late-night, 14-hour finish in Kona changed his life, as he quit school to found Tri-Athlete magazine. He went on to found Frisco, a San Francisco City magazine before returning to the sports world. I met him in 1994 on his second round at Triathlete, and we hit it off immediately, running the Los Liones Trail in Pacific Palisades and the Hi-Tec off-road race series. He was fast then, faster than me; he’d run every day at his home in Marin County near Mt. Tam with his beloved dog Rockee.
The photo is of me and Bill in Kona at the Ironman in October 1994. Behind his back, I cropped his head out of that photo to put on the rear cover of the first Bike for Life in 2005; he was always mad about that, saying it made him a fraud because “I don’t look like that anymore,” since he’d lost his hair over the years. Also, he didn’t want people to think of him, for the rest of time, in a pink shirt.
Bill was the real deal, a true mensch, with every project a passion, whether it be an Al Gore quotation book; “1001 Pearls of Runner's Wisdom;" his excellent running book “Tread Lightly;” his important dissenters’ interview book, “Patriots Act;” or his uncompleted Quotations of Donald Trump, which was to be a Christmas point-of-purchase item. (I don’t know what happened, but he was very weak from a recent spinal operation and under an extreme 24-7 deadline for the Trump book.) He often tried to include me and his other writer friends in whatever big deals he was working on, which often involved a paycheck, and sought out our opinions on his ideas and writing.
Bill Katovsky was one of those rare individuals who left an impression wherever he went, made a true impact in this world, and created work that entertained, educated and helped people. We’re all one-of-a-kind, but Bill for me was almost a celebrity, a guy who, in a different life, would come back as a Charlie Rose-meets-Seth Meyers talk show host . He was an intellectual, a ha-ha funny man, an idea maniac, a thoroughly quirky character. I owe him a lot. Those of us who knew him will have stories to tell about him for the rest of our lives.
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Note: Ironman champion Scott Tinley, who met Bill 12 years before I did, wrote a touching, insightful, funny story that really captured him. Go here: http://www.trihistory.com/t-3/death-voice#/0
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THE 7 KEYS TO
BIKING FOR LIFE:
1. Push it hard and short.
Don't go too easy and too long too much; it ultimately wears muscles and joints down and provides limited fitness. Hard, short workouts, like sprints, hard hillclimbs, and heavy weights, unleash waves of hor-mones that upgrade cardio, strength, all-round fitness.
2. Always follow a hard day
with an easy day.
A hard day breaks you down & sends signals to get stronger. The easy "recovery" day lets rebuilding occur. This "hard-easy" paradigm is key to all training and to BFL.
3. Get some goals.
A bike doesn't pedal itself. Short-term, long-term, and in-between goals motivate you to get off the couch, push hard, and ultimately become self- fulfilling prophesies. See Chapters 11 & 14 for adventures and organized rides you can do.
4. Do a lot more than ride — lift, stretch, play other sports.
Cycling, like all sports, isn't perfect. Hit the weight room to re-build the age-battered bones and muscles cycling does not save and can help wither. Play tennis, basketball, skate & do stretch-band "crab walks" to get the impact that builds bone and the side-to-side movement that keeps the glutes tuned-up, which stabilizes and turbocharges the pedal stroke. If all you do is ride, you'll mess up your posture, accelerate osteoporosis, even risk wrecking sexual function. Crosstrain with running, hiking, weights, & yoga.
5. Eat a natural food diet that avoids sugar and processed carbs. Sugary foods cause gastrointestinal issues during rides and long-term inflammation and fat storage that can lead to disease, Natural foods build a fat-burning engine that lets you go longer and stronger.
6. A universal truth: What's good for your health is also good for performance.
Sprints and weights are hard, but save time, speed you up, and improve all daily functional movement. It's a fact: All of us improve with better training and diet, on and off the bike.
7. Don't forget: Make it fun — it's what keeps you riding.
People in their 40s, 50s and 60s are choosing cycling as their sport because it does so much at once: gets them active, is more doable than, say, running or paddling, and combines adventure, challenge, achievement and pure fun like nothing else. So go out of your way to use your bike to push yourself, hang with your friends and family, and see the world.
Your bike is a time machine. It takes you back to childhood with every ride, and forward into super-fitness at any age. It is this unique quality that led to the central theme of Bike for Life: That cycling — remarkably fun, easy on the joints, & full of endless challenge, adventure, super aerobic fitness, and social interaction — is quite simply THE BEST SPORT FOR FIT, FUNCTIONAL LONGEVITY.
But like all sports, cycling's not perfect; it saves your knees but can waste all-body muscle mass, bone density and posture. So, to maximize the sport's good and minimize its' bad, the Bike for Life plan includes a natural-food diet, interval training, stretching, cross-training and a one-of-a-kind strength protocol. This way, anchoring a balanced fitness plan that strengthens your entire body, cycling gives us the potential to do what once was thought impossible:
Ride a Century When you Turn a Century
That promise, made in 2005 in the original Bike for Life, has helped tens of thousands live longer and stronger —and was even translated into Chinese and Spanish. A decade later, the new edition adds many groundbreaking training and diet discoveries, a huge menu of rousing worldwide adventures that you can do, and profiles of riders aged 50 to 90 doing amazing things. Because if an unathletic man can take up cycling at 70 and do 38 double- centuries by 80, and a 71-year-old woman can finish the legendary Leadville 100, what's your excuse?
But Bike for Life isn't just for people over 40. One of its key messages, backed by research, is that you can get faster and fitter at any age. That's because it turns out that what's good for all-round health is also good for performance. So there's no downside to doing the right thing!
Completely updated, with 50% brand-new content, the new BFL has 200 photos and Rich "The Reverend" White, 56 charts. It also includes:
~Cutting-edge workout strategies for best-ever fitness at any age.
~An anti-aging workout plan to optimize your muscularity, strength,and reaction time.
~Exclusive 10-step Yoga for Cyclists routine.
~Science-based 8- & 16-week century training plans.
~How to avoid the risk of cycling-caused osteoporosis & impotence.
~The rise of women's bike clubs and female-specific products.
~Radical New Maximum Overload method to speed you up on the hills and the straighaways.
~The all-important "hard-easy"training paradigm that locks-in gains and prevents overtraining & illness.
~Non-surgical fix-it strategies for "cyclists knee" &"biker's back."
~The 5-to-1"Relationship Ratio" to reconcile your significant other with your significant cycling. ~Top coaches' skills & bike fit tips for roadies & mtn bikers.
~How to survive mountain lions, poison ivy, headwinds, irate drivers, & other road/trail hazards
~Around-the-corner and around-the-world adventures to keep you motivated.
~"The Roll Models" —amazing riders 50 to 90 pushing hard, like La Ruta legend Heart Akerson, 63 (left).
~PLUS .... Oral-history interviews of legendary veteran riders, including John Howard, Rebecca Rusch, Ned Overend, Tinker Juarez, Marla Streb, Johnny G,, Eddie B, Jim Ochowicz, Gary Fisher, Mike Sinyard, John Sinibaldi, Heart Akerson, Don Wildman, Missy Giove, and Rich "The Reverend" White.
Small Heading
BIKE FOR LIFE NEWS
FEB 26, 2017
DEATH-DEFYING .....
................SNOW BIKING !
Stopping at the supermarket this morning after my mountain bike ride with Krampin' Kennedy, I was surprised to see my story and photo on the cover of the OC Sunday LA Times. Check it out at....
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-snowbiking-20170224-story.html
JAN 30, 2017
THE COOLEST NEW BIKES & GEAR
from the gargantuan Interbike show in Las Vegas last fall are HERE in my recent L.A. Times story:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-bike-trends-20170128-story.html
JAN. 19, 2017
MAXIMUM OVERLOAD is ALMOST READY!
LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN. Bike for Life gave you a taste of it. Now, in June, comes the full-force, detailed, comprehensive look at the most talked-aout new training method in the last 50 years. Improve your speed — and keep it all day long regardless of the distance and hills. Maximum Overload supercharges you with a short, intense gym session that replaces several 4-hour rides and leaves you with enhanced endurance and power. As you have seen in this column, it was used by Denise Mueller to set her amazing 147.7 mph speed record in Bonneville. And now it is going to be available for all of us!
Sept 12, 2016
SHE DID IT: 147 MPH !
As planned, DENISE MUELLER went to Utah’s BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS over the weekend and set a women's speed record now in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS. She is pictured at full speed and with her guru John Howard and her driver Shea Holbrook. Did Maximum Overload play a big role? Definitely! Denise and Howard said she was so strong from the workouts that “147mph wasn’t even a strain — we could have hit 160 no problem if we weren’t rained out.” They’ll be back next year for another try.
May 10, 2016
MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL: THE WORLD'S FASTEST MOM
Denise Mueller, 43, mother of three, is training to ride a bicycle 153 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats this coming October. Coached by the great 3-time Olympian John Howard, Denise, a Category 2 amateur rider, destroyed the 30-woman field on Saturday at the prestigious Barrio Logan Grand Prix in San Diego, not only beating Cat 1s and pro riders, but women 10 to 20 years younger! She was one of just a few women in her 40s.
This is amazing! This does not happen!
According to Denise: "It came down to a sprint. I walked away from everyone! I swear the Maximum Overload training in the gym is the real secret to what I saw in my sprint today! Maximum Overload works."
"The pro rider who finished second came up to me and said 'Nice sprint.' That felt good. John (Howard) told me, 'You've leveled up -- your baseline power is now higher.' I definitely feel it. All racers should be doing Maximum Overload."
OK -- there's an ulterior motive here: I am writing a book about Maximum Overload with Devore, its inventor. We needed some high-profile guinea pigs to write about in the book, so I called John Howard, who has stayed remarkably fit into his late 60s by welcoming innovative ideas. As a surprise bonus, he brought Denise along with him -- and the girl really works, religiously following the heavy weight training regimen Jacques set up for her. Actually, she's a monster. She is pushing very heavy weights and proving that weights work for endurance athletes -- a very radical new idea that we say will revolutionize endurance training. Bottom line: It's paying off for her -- and giving me lots to write about.
The photos below show her winning yesterday's race (a 50-minute criterium) and doing Maximum Overload training in Jacques' gym the week before, building her "maximum sustainable power" (i.e.-- it makes your muscles so powerful that you don't poop out in the second half of the race) with explosive exercises like the MVP jumping machine, the deadlift, and walking lunges. The cool thing for us average athletes and people over 45 or 50 is this: We can all build maximum sustainable power and stop muscle- and bone deterioration on our own with do-able exercises like weighted walking lunges and deadlifts done in the Maximum Overload protocol.
Check out Denise's blog at:
www.theprojectspeed.com
Check out Maximum Overload at www.sirensandtitansfitness.com
March 26, 2016
YOU CAN'T RIDE IT SO.....
HIKE THE GRAND CANYON IN A DAY
See my L.A Times story:
http://www.latimes.com/…/la-he-getting-out-grand-canyon-201… For awesome pics: https://www.facebook.com/roy.wallack
March 6, 2016
THE INCREDIBLE COOL-NESS of CICLAVIA
Ban cars for a few hours, open the streets to bikes, and you get CicLAvia -- a 5 mph rolling party/sightseeing tour of LA. Most start in downtown LA, and have gone out to Hollywood, Venice Beach, SouthCentral, and East LA. Yesterday's was different-- a 4-mile stretch of Van Nuys Blvd in Pacioma, in northeast Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley way out where the 5 meets the 118. The out-of-the-way location seemed to limit the crowds, and the suburban route didn't have the big-city excitement of the Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center and 75-story buildings, but it had a distinct South-of-the-Border flavor and some spectacularly great wall-mural artwork from famed local-boy-made-good Levi Ponce. I especially love the Mexican Mona Lisa.
CicLAvia has introduced hundreds of thousands of southern Californians to cycling. A lot of the credit goes to former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who saw similar programs in Bogota, Colombia and Mexico City, and said "we should do that." I interviewed him about it in his office a few years ago. Check it out: http://articles.latimes.com/…/la-he-0126-villaraigosa-biker…
March 5 at 7:24pm · Irvine, CA,
THE INFAMOUS LUGE
O.C.'s legendary 800-foot plunge out of the Santa Ana Mountains comes after you climb 1394 feet of Santiago Canyon Road, Modjeska grade, and the Santiago Truck Trail. It's a 90-minute, 7.7-mile loop. Start at Cook's Corner, as Ed Korb, Krampin' Kennedy and I did this morning, and you pit-stop at Flag Hill, take in the ocean vu, and blitz down the Luge -- 1.5 miles of pure, unadulterated mountain-bike mayhem. Actually, it's not that dangerous — just make sure your brakes work. Celebrate a few minutes later at Cooks with all the REAL bikers (i.e. riding Harleys w tattooed women in the back) w a burger, a beer, and a funny, right-wing sticker for your Trump-lovin friends.....
Feb 21, 2016
NEXT STOP: 153 MPH
Denise Mueller, a multi-time national champion being coached by John Howard, is using cutting-edge MAXIMUM OVERLOAD workouts as part of her training for her bicycle land-speed world-record attempt next September on the Bonneville Salt Flats. (The record of 167 mph was set by Dutchman Fred Rompelberg 20 years ago; he beat Howard's record of 152.2 mph, which Denise will try to beat to establish a female record.) Here she is 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb 21, at Sirens & Titans Fitness in West L.A., using one of trainer Jacques DeVore's secret
weapons to ramp up her sustainable power: The little-known but brutally effective VersaPulley.
(Note: Maximum Overload is unique in cycling training in that it uses heavily-weighted leg-centric exercises such as Walking Lunges, Deadlifts, Squats, Thrusters and the VersaPulley to literally "overload" the mover muscles of cycling better than cycling can itself. The results: This overload builds more fatigue-resistant muscles that don't slow down in the second-half of the race. M.O. is used in conjunction with on-the-road training, replacing two training rides a week in the off-season and one in-, and reducing overall training time and speeding up recovery. Denise's increase in overload correlates to her recent increases in power /wattage.)
>>More on Denise's quest: www.theProjectSpeed.com
& Facebook.com/TeamFireCycle
>>Info on Max. Overload,: Visit the Maximimum Overload page on www.BikeforLifebook.com.
>> Look for our book, Rodale Press's "Maximum Overload for Cyclists," in 2017. It will profile Mueller, Howard, Dave Zabriskie and other MO-trained athletes.
Feb 20, 2016
2 hours, 13.3 MILES and 2000 FEET OF Mountain Bike Bliss at the Irvine Open Space Preserve and Laguna Coast Wilderness. That's Saddleback Mtn., 5.800 ft., in the back.
For details & photos: https://www.facebook.com/roy.wallack
Which John Howard would you bet on in a bike race —
or a street fight?
"You don't build a Ferrari on a bent frame," once said famed postural therapist Patrick Mummy. So before John Howard plunges whole-hog into the Maximum Overload strength protocol, which will send his horsepower into overdrive, M.O. inventor Jacques DeVore must literally straighten Howard out. (See before-and-after photo sequence above).
It's not an easy task. Cycling and aging, both of which the 68-year-old three-time Olympian, Ironman world champion, and 152.2 mph land speed record holder has experienced in abundance, degrade the proud human posture into KYPHOSIS a slumped-forward, rounded-shouldered, neck-distended shape. If you sit most of the day at a desk on a computer (like 99% of us) and are over 35, you most likely are kyphotic to some degree -- unless you actively fight it with regular stretching/yoga and strength training. Let it go on too long and your skeleton actually deforms into a corrupted state so embedded that it does not respond well to "normal" flexibility drillsl. So Jacques has Howard spend half his M.O. workout time on special drills/ exercises that draw back his rounded shoulders and spread-out shoulder blades. The result? Chest out, head up, standing tall and proud, he not only looks better and gains over an inch in height by eliminating his slump, but is able to safely lift heavier weight. That's the key to Maximum Overload, which rapidly and safely builds fatigue- proof strength on a body that has good posture.
As Howard's posture improves in the coming weeks, he will be able to lift weight levels similar to that of his protégé Denise Mueller, who he is training to set a woman's land speed record of 150 miles an hour in the late summer or fall. Denise, a multi-time national champion as a junior and an adult in many disciplines of cycling, did not ride a bike for 20 years while she had three kids, and has emerged at age 42 with a strikingly beautiful picture-perfect posture that allows her to lift very heavy weight. That's her in the photo of the woman in the red top doing a lat pulldown, which works the back and pulls the shoulders rear-ward into their proper, natural, non-kyphotic position. (And by the way, after a month of dedicated Maximum Overload workouts, Denise is experiencing rapid gains in power output and speed on the bike. More on this later. She posts at www.teamfirecycle.com)
The bottom line: Posture ain't just pretty. It's also performance.
>>For more info on MAXIMUM OVERLOAD, and the anti-kyphosis drills Howard is doing, go to the Maximum Overload page <<<<<<
Jan 17, 2016
GET READY FOR SUPER ROY!
As the legendary John Howard, 3-time Olympian, Ironman champion, and former world record bicycle land speed holder (153 mph), undergoes Maximum Overload training, the new book about M.O. I'm writing with creater Jacques deVore (due June '17) will document his metamorphosis from great to greater. Well, since John is a renowned coach
himself, he couldn't help but see MY tremendous potential to become a world-class athlete. I politely suggested that I'd already missed that window by 4 decades, but Howard would have none of it. He knows talent when he sees it, even where no else ever did, and insisted that I come down to his house/cycling museum in Encinitas yesterday and undergo my first computerized SpinScan session and his own patented anatomical analysis. The results:
SpinScan found that my right leg was way underpowered compared to the left. John did not need the sophisticated analysis to see why: My right hip was stiff, compacted and locked-up. However, being a trained Dynamic Motion Therapist and expert bike fitter, John went to work on me. After just a few minutes of his rotational stretches and hands-on bodywork, my hip loosened up, my sacrum leveled off (it had been crooked), and my efficiency went through the roof; compared to a half-mile time-trial test I did 30 minutes earlier, my power jumped by 20 % on a second test. "You have the power," he said, "and now you are learning how to use it."
Howard himself is learning stretches from Jacques to limber-up his kyphotic thoracic spine (rounded-forward upper back, which is common for cyclists, anyone who sits at a desk, and those over 40), which will allow him to safely lift more weight under the Maximum Overload protocol, which will increase his sustainable power.
As for me, with Jacque's Maximum
Overload and Howard's coaching, clearly the sky's the limit for my future cycling greatness. See you on the podium!
(Photo: Howard setting 153 mph record in 1985. Read about Maximum Overload now on pgs 57-60 of BFL).
Jan 3, 2016
BIKERS, BE HIKERS
If all you do is ride & do nothing with a weight-bearing load on your feet, you're at almost cer-tain risk of accelerated bone thinning, if not full-blown osteoporosis. So read BFL's Chapter 9, Achey-Breaky Biker Bones, and go for an occasional run or take a tough hike w/ a heavy pack, as we did today at Joshua Tree Nat'l Park.
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Dec. 14, 2015
THE WORLD'S FASTEST 68-YR-OLD MAN...is about to get ......FASTER !
This is the great JOHN HOWARD, 3-time Olympian, Hawaii Ironman Triathlon winner, and man who set a bicycle speed record of 153 mph behind a rocket car on the Bonneville Salt Flats. He's still a monster, having won the 75-mile race
at the Tour de Tucson last month (in 3:07!). That's 24 mph!
Now he is training to take it to the next level. He's doing MAXIMUM OVERLOAD -- the radical strength-training program developed by coach-to-the-stars Jacques DeVore. Jacques coached time-trail specialist Dave Zabriskie in his last year, with exceptional results.
Here is Howard, working-out out yesterday in Jacques' fancy gym, Sirens & Titans Fitness in West Los Angeles, doing one-legged squats and deadlifts, two exercises that are part of the innovative MAXIMUM OVERLOAD protocol. The woman is Denise Mueller, a former junior national champion who now, at age 42, who is being trained by John to set her own 150mph
Bonneville speed record! Their workout, consisting of about a dozen exercises and warm-up drills, takes about 45 minutes. It is done twice a week in the off-season and once or twice a week in season.
STRENGTH TRAIN, FOR ENDURANCE? BELIEVE IT -- IT'S THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE. HERE'S WHY:
MAXIMUM OVERLOAD builds fatigue-proof sustainable power. Translation: You won't gas-out on the second half of a long ride anymore! You will climb the 6th hill of the day as fast as the first. You'll recover faster. You'll be faster because you won't slow down. You'll finish higher in the pack because everyone else does slow down. And athletes over 35 will not see their muscle mass shriveling anymore.
Weights can give you an "overload" that the hardest riding can't. The more you overload the muscles, the stronger and more powerful they get. Make the exericizes comparable to cycling movements, and you can harden the mover muscles against fatigue like never before!
Find a 6-pg INTERVIEW of HOWARD on pgs 23-28 of BIKE FOR LIFE. Also, find a thumbnail version of MAXIMUM OVERLOAD on pgs 57 to 60.
In addition, I'm proud to announce that Jacques and I just signed with Rodale Press to do "MAXIMUM OVERLOAD FOR CYCLISTS" --- an entire book!!! It'll include profiles of Howard and other fast people...getting faster.
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Dec. 6, 2015
HARA HACHI BU?
CNN medical correspondent and triathlete
Dr. Sanjay Gupta does it—and you should
too, if you want to cut the fat. Read his 12/5 LA Times interview with BFL's Roy Wallack: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-sanjay-gupta-interview-20151205-column.html
Nov. 27, 2015 BIKE for LIFE Rule #8.3:
MAKE CYCLING A FAMILY TRADITION
The Thanksgiving Day Ride 2005 & 2015:
NOV 25, 2015 Triathlon Rule # 1:
START THE SWIM IN THE WATER
See the LATimes story, Tricks of the Transition:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-getting-out-malibu-triathlon-20151121-column.html
Nov 12, 2015
STANDING DESK? NO. DO INTERVALS!
Yes, standing all day at work will burn lots of calories and keep you more alert. But for pure fitness, says Dr. Gabe Mirkin, sit all you want to save your energy for 20 minutes of all-out intervals.You want to do intervals when you're rested so that you can really push it to maximize the effect.
Bike for Life is big on intervals; it advocates the easy, super-effective Sprint 8 program of coach Phil Campbell. Do 'em on the bike/spinner, the elliptical, on the run and swim, the rower —any aerobic activity.
Read Dr. M's story: https://www.roadbikerider.com/…/1738-sitting-will-not-harm-…
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BIKE FOR LIFE SHOW at REI WOODLAND HILLS Nov 4
What: BIKE FOR LIFE: How to Ride to 100
Date: WED 11/4, 7pm
Address: 6220 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91367 (818) 703-5300
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BIKE FOR LIFE in THE ROCK--
Whittier College's alumni magazine came through to help get the word out about BFL. Thanks to Patricia Zurita, Associate Director of Communications, for the great reporting.
Check it out:
http://therock.whittier.edu/2015-fall/alumni/traveling-miles-to-get-to-the-right-destination
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Bike for Life "How to Ride to 100"
show in Irvine twice in September:
>>Sept 2 (Wed.) 6:30 pm --
BCI Bicycle Club of irvine
>>Sept 3 (Thurs.) 6:30pm --
OCW Orange County Wheelmen
Where: OC Water District
15600 Sand Canyon Ave, Irvine, CA
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AGE 100, 5 WORLD RECORDS
Can you actually ride to 100? This guy's running at 100— and setting world records. Read his story at: http://nyti.ms/1V6coIA
BIKE FOR LIFE on FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bike-for-Life-How-to-Ride-to-100/934254446585980
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BUY BFL on AMAZON.com
For AUTOGRAPHED COPIES, send an
email to roywallack@aol.com
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Other books by BFL's Roy M. Wallack:
Barefoot Running Step by Step —
The world's leading minimalist-running book,
co-written with Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton, the internationally famous barefoot guru
Run for Life: How to Run to 100
Fire Your Gym: High-Intensity Workouts You Can do at Home —
with Andy Petranek, founder of CrossFit LA
Healthy Running Step by Step —
with Robert Forster, Los Angeles PT to the Stars
Be a Better Runner —
with Sally Edwards and Dr. Carl Foster
The Traveling Cyclist: 20 Worldwide Tours of Discovery.
To order any book, go to Contact/Buy page on the menu bar
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For Roy's L.A. Times interview with Greg LeMond, go here:
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-greg-lemond-20150221-column.html
To see more L.A. Times gear columns and stories, go here:
http://www.latimes.com/lanews-roy-wallack-20130507-staff.html
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Q: WHY ARE THESE TWO SMILING?
A: They're fixing-up what cycling wrecks
Venice Beach legend Harry Perry and BFL's Roy Wallack are using crosstraining devices (a Trikke and rollerskates) to help repair some of the negatives of cycling: bone loss, corroded posture, and deteriorating glutes. Cycling is one of the best sports for fit, functional longevity, but NOT if it's the only thing you do. Cycling is not weight-bearing, so bones get no signals to stay strong; the hunched-over position wrecks your posture; cycling lacks side-to-side motion that keeps the glutes strong enough to pedal harder, maintain a piston-like stroke and stand with an erect form and posture. Skating and trikking provide weight bearing & lateral motion. And they're a fun break from the saddle. For details, go:
https://www.facebook.com/BikeForLifeBook?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
March 30: BFL # 1 on Amazon.com
Amazon listed BFL as #1 on its "Hot List" of new cycling books: http://www.amazon.com/Bike-Life-100-Beyond-revised/dp/0738217557/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
March 29: BIKE FOR LIFE AT REI !
See you here at 7 p.m.:
TUES 6/30 REI TUSTIN, 2962 El Camino Real, 92782
WED 7/1 REI RANCHO CUCAMONGA
12218 Foothill Blvd,
THUR 7/2 REI ARCADIA, 214 N. Santa Anita Ave, 91006
TUES 7/7 REI HUNTINGTON BEACH 7777 EdingerAve# 138
WED 7/8 REI MANHATTAN BEACH 1800 Rosecrans Ave
THUR 7/9 REI SANTA MONICA, 402 SM Blvd.,
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