FEATURES
Your Ski, Bike & Triathlon Headquarters...
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Thursday, 23 June 2022 00:09
30 Years of Free Pizza, Store Pets, Immeasureable Riches...
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Friday, 27 May 2022 00:10
Gear West. The Pig. Thirty years ago.
By Jan Guenther
Thirty years ago, Gear West Ski & Bike opened their door into a tiny, rented 500 sq foot building behind the Domino’s Pizza building in Long Lake. We (Brian Knutson and me, Jan Guenther) invested $11,000 to stock basic bicycle repair items. A sprinkling of Bridgestone bikes and a few Fischer xc skis rounded out the offerings. I remember our first sale, a shift cable. Our building had a connecting door to the Domino’s pizza palace and all order mistakes were ours to eat.
Fast forward two years later, one location change and a lot of hard work, we purchased our own building, the old Long Lake State bank. Complete with an up and downstairs airless Safe room, the old bank was retrofitted to house a lot more skis and two additional bike lines. We built an enclosed boat yard to offer Wenonah canoes and to house a small potbellied pig. I had always wanted a tiny pig and this was my grand opportunity. Hoover, the piglet ate a lot and grew into a rather sturdy midsized pig with tusks, which elicited many comments from Long Lake’s residents. ..
The Unhealthy Triathlete...
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Thursday, 12 May 2022 00:10
By Jordan Blanco (active.com)
As a triathlete, your training likely keeps you in good physical shape, right? That's what I had always assumed.
For 10 straight years, I passed on the annual medical check-up offered by my doctor, given that I trained hard and I ate a healthy diet. Over the last few years, I brushed off a decline in my bike power and a slowing in my run times as old age. After all, I am in my 40's! I threw in a few other explanations for the slide in my performances: work stress, less quality training, not enough run miles, mistimed taper, not tough enough, etc. I'm good at that sort of thing....
Start Line Feels...
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Monday, 09 May 2022 00:10
By Shyanne McGregor
Start line feels…
I’ve had races when I’ve been super calm at the start line and races when I’m fighting back anxiety ridden tears.
Part of that is expectation I put on myself, but another part is just the things that happen in my body in those moments.
The fight or flight response to these stressful pre race moments can cause an increased heart and breathing rate, shakiness, butterflies, nausea, dry mouth, the feeling of having to pee even though you just went 10 minutes ago. If we don’t understand why these things are happening, we can interpret them as more of a panic response leading to even more anxiety that something bad may happen to us….
It’s how we perceive what happens to us, not what’s actually happening. If We perceive these things as signs of “impending doom” we could freeze up or panic. ...
Fitness & Healthfulness Are Not the Same Thing...
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Saturday, 07 May 2022 00:10
Photo - We couldn't find a photo that worked with this post, so we inserted this shot Chrissie Wellington's calves.
By Nancy Clark, MS, RD (beginnertriathlete.com)
Nutrition advice for those who run fast, bike far, but can't say no to cookies
As he indulged in a jumbo sugar-covered fried pastry, the runner unabashedly remarked, “I’m skinny; I can eat this.” Well, the truth is even skinny runners die suddenly of heart attacks and strokes. Heart disease is the number-one killer, ahead of cancer, and accounts for one in four deaths. No one can out-run a bad diet. While we’ve all heard let food be thy medicine, the latest dietary advice from the American Heart Association (AHA) focuses less on individual foods and nutrients (such as eggs, meat, fat, sodium) and more on lifestyle and lifelong dietary patterns. Given cardiovascular disease (CVD) starts in the womb, adopting heart-healthy eating patterns early and maintaining them...
