The Bicycle Transport Alliance of WA (BTA) has announced on their BTA Ebulletin a bicycling education course for women, to be held from late February to the end of March, 2009.

According to the BTA the course is aimed at absolute beginners and aims to establish networks of cycling women who will spread the joy in their communities. They are hoping to provide bikes for those participants who don’t have access to one.  However, if you have a roadworthy bike that you would like to donate or loan, BTA would be very grateful.  If you are prepared to loan a bike, they will be stored securely at City of Stirling for the duration of the course.

If you know anyone who would like to give cycling a go, please encourage them to contact the BTA at bta@multiline.com.au.

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Tags: Education,Safety for Cyclists,Training
Categories: Bicycling, Commuting and Recreational
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One of my reasons for getting involved in riding was to loose weight, my Garfield. Bicycling can be good for this, along with developing a good level of fitness. The purpose of this posting is to draw together the resources out on the web that provide good advice on weight loss and riding and developing good bike fitness. Hopefully it will be useful to you as it has been to me. If you have suggested links please post a comment.

Bike Fit

• The Cyclefitcentre.com has some interesting articles on bike fit via the menu item, "Further Reading." The articles do change, so it is worth keeping an eye on the page.
• Palm Beach Bike Tours (blog) has an interesting recount of a bike fit. It gives a good idea of what one should expect.

Nutrition and your Ride

• Added – February 3, 2010 - 13 tips to make you a faster rider – BikeRadar.com
• Boost your immune system – BikeRadar.com 
• Improved endurance capacity following chocolate milk consumption compared with two commercially available sport drinks – An article published in the Canadian journal, Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism which examines the effects of 3 recovery drinks on endurance performance following glycogen-depleting exercise.
• Thoughts on snack bars – what to look for.  BikeRadar.com has a good article on what levels of sugars and fats to watch for in energy and food bars.
• Protein and Post-Ride Recovery – BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on the important aspect of post-ride recovery, muscle recover that is.
• Natural energy boosters – Fuel you body with premium – BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on the importance of boosting our energy levels.
• Sugar Rush – Importance of carbohydrates – BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on the importance of carbohydrates whilst riding.
• Seven Health Eating Resolutions for the New Year – MapMyFitnes.com has some good old basic tips on healthy eating.
  
• Fluids – No guts, no glory – BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on training your stomach, yep that is right your stomach.
• Supermarket Superfoods – BikeRadar.com have an interesting article on good food sources for bicycling and endurance. Foods that can be easily carried and obtained at the supermarket.

Training

• Get Some Air is an interesting article from BikeRadar.com on the importance of breathing for cyclists.
• Comeback for good – Advice on getting back into cycling and training from BikeRadar.com.
• Home brew fitness testing – BikeRadar.com has an article on how to benchmark one’s fitness. Then one can go and compare times in the future to get an indication of improvement.
• Added January 5, 2010 – Why power measurement is important. There’s a reason all pros measure, analyse and moderate their training with power meters, and not just the heart rate monitors that we can all easily afford – they are the undisputed, most objective measure of real rider output according to Nik Cook at BikeRadar.com.

Weight Loss

• Measuring calories expended whilst cycling or running. I have started using the Triathlon Training Blog’s calorie calculator for two reasons: First and foremost it attempts to measure energy expended either via VO2 max or heart rate. Second it recognises my time riding rather than my distance. Riding time along with energy expended gives, in my view, a better measure of one’s efforts. Previously I used BikeJournal.com calculator but comparing the two, I feel the Triathlon Training Blog’s calculator is returning numbers which in my view reflect better my exercise experience.
• How to Burn Fat Better – BikeRadar.com – An interesting article on maximising burn up of our own fat stores whilst riding. It makes suggestions about the timing of meals in respect to when we ride.
• Discussion in the Australian Cycling Forums on commuting, weight loss and diet. One comment from WombatK in this discussion worth noting in my view is this:

Dietician in my house reckons 500 cal (approx 2000 kJ) deficit per week will strip about 1 kg per week, and is a long-term sustainable target; mainly cause it’s really hard to get most people to go that far.

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Tags: Carbohydrates,Nutrition,Protein,Training,Weight Loss
Categories: Bicycling
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