Experts air out runners’ barefoot issues
For runners pondering the minimalist approach, the Science of Sport posted an excellent piece this week from a round-table discussion on the benefits and risks of barefoot running.
The participants could be considered the kings of biomechanics.
Stock up opportunity Sunday at the 4th annual Bike Fed bike swap
The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin hosts its 4th annual Milwaukee Area Bike Swap on Sunday in the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee student union.
It's a great pre-Christmas get and give opportunity.
New York City posts "share the road" in Haiku
New York City has gone wildly poetic in promoting safety along its 200-plus miles of bike lanes.
More than 200 signs will include the curbside haikus, a dozen of which were crafted by artist John Morse.
Friends group raises $29,200 to make snow at Lapham Peak
The latest fund drive by the Friends of Lapham Peak generated $29,280 for improvements to the snow-making operation at the recreation area off Highway C, in the Town of Delafield.
The generosity of local skiers proved to be more of a sure thing than the forecast for snow this past week.
When the Friends group launched the Blizzard Challenge in June, their goal was to match the $10,500 put up by the Blizzard donors. Donations in September and October pumped the total well past the initial goal.Girls on the Run show giggles last to the finish line
Back in May, the Girls on the Run showed me it’s better to giggle than grimace during a training run.
Sunday morning, they taught me the same rule applies to racing.
Ski addicts search the skies for their winter fix
Snow is a powerful narcotic.
Most of us spend all summer complaining about precipitation and unseasonably low temperatures, and then winter begins to tease.
It’s as though the wrapping on a gift sitting under the Christmas tree has torn just a bit to reveal that the present juuuussstttt miiiight just be....
Team 7-Eleven book signing rescheduled for Dec. 15
Two of the founders of the pioneering 7-Eleven Cycling Team will appear at the Wheel & Sprocket store in Brookfield on Dec. 15 to sign the book detailing the team’s formation and success.
Jim Ochowicz, the Milwaukee native and current leader of the BMC Racing Team, will sign books with Tom Schuler, one of the riders recruited for the first 7-Eleven team in 1981. Schuler now lives in Wauwatosa and runs a sports management company, Team Sports Inc.
Bill to open Wisconsin and its parks for hunting moves to Senate hearing
Upon his election, Gov. Scott Walker declared “Wisconsin is open for business.”
A bill set for a public hearing Wednesday morning would add a variation, “Wisconsin is open for hunting.”
"You ran 15 miles on purpose?"
Runners will appreciate this Youtube video recreating a familiar exchange: the frustrating attempt to explain one's passion to a non-runner.
Snow-making starts at Lapham Peak
The crew at the Lapham Peak recreation area fired up a half-dozen snow guns Wednesday night and started stockpiling the supply needed to cover a 1.5-kilometer loop for cross-country skiing.
Through nearly 12 hours of snow-making, the team piled six mounds, each roughly three feet high and 30 feet long. That snow will be distributed over the ski loop.
Birkebeiner plans start line shift, south of Cable
Organizers of the American Birkebeiner ski races plan to move the start line for the massive numbers of skiers from the Cable Union Airport to land south of Cable, and east of Hwy. 63, according to a report in the Sawyer County Record.
Cowbells will ring for first cyclocross Midwest Regional Championships
Based on early registration, more than 400 racers are expected to compete this weekend in the first Midwest Regional Cyclocross Championships at Badger Prairie Park in Verona.
Wisconsin's Molly Seidel wins the Foot Locker National Championship
Molly Seidel, the best girls’ high-school cross-country runner in Wisconsin, is also the best in the nation.
The four-time state champion from University Lake School won the 2011 Foot Locker Cross-Country National Championship in San Diego, on Saturday, a year after a hip injury kept her from the prestigious meet.
Silent Sports list keeps Christmas shopping simple
I often feel inundated this time of year by pitches for products to add to the endurance athlete's Christmas list.
The collection of gadgets is overwhelming to me and possibly paralyzing to any non-runner or biker (that's you Mom) looking for help in making a gift selection.
Schneider sweeps Badger Cross Midwest Regional Championships
Samantha Schneider swept the Badger Cross double-header in Verona over the weekend and extended her run of regional success on the cyclocross circuit.
Riding for team TIBCO to the Top, the 21-year-old from West Allis won the Illinois State Cyclocross Championship on Dec. 4, and has more than a dozen victories in the fall season.
Kenosha police report bicyclist critically injured in weekend crash
A 61-year-old man suffered severe head injuries in Kenosha about 4 p.m. Saturday, after he pedaled into a Dodge Neon at 47th Ave. and Washington Road, police reported earlier Monday.
The cyclist, Chinh Doan of Kenosha, was flown flown by Flight for Life helicopter to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, where he is still in critical condition.
Nordic Ski racing returns to Badger State Games
The revived Badger State Winter Games will hold its cross-country ski races in Wausau on Feb. 4, a day crowded with two new races added to the Nordic calendar.
Minocqua Winter Park will host the inaugural Wolf Tracks Rendezvous and the Ashwaubenon Nordic Ski Team and Lakewood Ski Club have combined to create the Nicolet Nor-Ski on the Lakewood trails in the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest.
Birkebeiner entries go up for auction
The Wisconsin Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will auction 20 entries in the 2012 American Birkebeiner and Kortelopet, starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The MS Society has been a primary charity partner of the Birkie since 2009, when Norwegian skier Bjorn Daehlie served as an MS ambassador and led the drive to raise money for the cause. Daehlie's mother has MS and the Olympian sought treatment counsel from Ian Duncan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and lead researcher studying the use of cell transplants to repair nerve fibers damaged by MS.
Home runs come from the hips: expert explains the science of P90X
Until recently, all I knew about the P90X workout program was that Mike & Mike in the Morning interrupted my morning sports fix to rave about it.
Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention.
Ride on, Dave
The following appears as the Editor's Letter in the January issue of Silent Sports.
I approached the funeral home doors thinking I knew the high school teacher who would be remembered that day. But then I saw the tandem recumbent bicycle parked out front and the two road bikes flanking the casket. The sight immediately made me wish I’d spent time with David Van Natta after he left my alma mater in 1998 at the young age of 43.
A closer look at his prized possessions revealed a custom-made singlespeed bike – a bike he built! – with his Horribly Hilly Hundreds jersey draped over the handlebars.
Friends testified he was a strong and competitive cyclist (one said he witnessed Van Natta, on a recumbent, chase down a much younger road biker) who took on the unforgiving and unglaciated landscape of western Dane County, Wisconsin, where he lived.
I must say I have my doubts he rode the HHH on that singlespeed. But who am I to know? The idea that Mr. Van Natta had a life outside the classroom, let alone had a passion for cycling that exceeded my own, was a revelation.
David Van Natta was the best teacher I never had. To clarify, as the advisor for the student newspaper at Mount Horeb High School, Mr. Van Natta set me on my 22-year path through newsrooms in college, overseas and in five states before leading me here to
Nonetheless, through the prism of adolescent journalism, Mr. Van Natta shared with me his love of language. I’ll always be grateful that at the school paper he allowed me to tackle the controversial subjects that interested me, so long as the stories I wrote were engaging and well sourced.
Many times over the years since, I’ve paused before sending a news story to an editor to ask myself "What would Mr. Van Natta think of this?" I could imagine him liking the story I’d written but gently coaxing me to make it better.
I now imagine him encouraging me to spend more time biking and biking better. He apparently kept riding until a year ago, when the cancer finally put its foot down. I did not see him struggling with the disease, but I heard it said he fought hard and did not complain. His wife, Heather, cared for him until the end. She has now lost her riding partner of 33 years, as the parked tandem sadly conveyed.
Cancer now plagues an elder statesman to this magazine, and serious illness has struck two other founding writers who have led lives enriched by physical exercise and a love of the outdoors. They, too, have mentored me over the past nearly eight years since Greg Marr left his editorship of
As I wish my contributors/role models speedy recoveries, I would direct readers to the profiles of Marty Hall and Eugene Curnow in this issue. They, too, have suffered serious health setbacks. And they have survived, inspiring the rest of us to live fully and without regret.
Embrace the new year, my friends, and every year thereafter.
Each of us would be wise to insert our own names in the epitaph printed above Mr. Van Natta’s casket: "Ride on, Dave."