Nordic Walking For ALL Ages and ALL Fitness Levels

Nordic Walking has been proven to help improve aerobic capacity, increase oxygen uptake and maximize calorie burn compared to regular walking.  Nordic Walking Poles also help to eliminate many joint pains and they help to improve upper body mobility as well.

Cross country ski racers have been hill bounding and ski walking for decades as a means to get a jump-start on ski season when deprived of snow. Nordic Walking Poles can help you get a jump-start on ski season as well.

Real Nordic Walking Poles are equipped with removable rubber Nordic Walking Tips/Asphalt Paws – ideal for pavement and other hard surfaces. Nordic Walking can be done on any surface – including indoor/outdoor tracks and even in the mall. Remove the rubber tips and the metal tips provide traction on trails, the beach, snow and ice.

The best Nordic Walking Poles are equipped with special Nordic Walking Straps – kind of like a fingerless glove. SWIX and EXEL Nordic Walking Poles utilize comfortable straps patented by the Salomon Ski Company. The best cross country ski racing poles are also equipped with these proven and tested straps patented by the Salomon Ski Company.

The American Nordic Walking System provides three basic levels of exertion – providing at least one comfortable level of intensity and effectiveness for any age and any fitness level. 

Level 1 – burns up to 20% more calories than regular walking

Level 2 – burns up to 30% more calories than regular walking

Level 3 – burns up to 40% more calories than regular walking

Go to: The American Nordic Walking System for additional info and instructions

REAL Nordic Walking Poles differ from typical hiking and trekking poles in that they can accommodate the rubber tips/paws. Nordic Walking Poles are typically lighter – especially the one-piece poles that prove to be safer, lighter and much more durable than cheap twist-lock and flip-lock poles that often rattle, vibrate, collapse/fail and or freeze up. One-piece poles that are sized correctly prove to be user-friendly and hassle-free.

The Nordic Track is also a great way to get ready for both downhill and cross country skiing. Downhill skiers will benefit from cross country skiing as a means to get ready to hit the slopes too. Snowshoeing with poles (Nordic Snowshoeing) is also another great way to get ready for ski season. No snow? No problem – try Nordic Walking. No snow, no skis required.

We just received a call from a happy customer ordering her 3rd and 4th pair of one-piece Nordic Walking Poles from us – quality one-piece SWIX and EXEL Poles. They had two pairs of expensive twist-lock poles from REI and she referred to them as “garbage” due to the noise (rattle) from the twist-locks and the hassle of the poles locking mechanism. We hear this type of feed back every day about 2 and 3 piece telescopic/collapsible poles – twist-lock and flip-lock. Skiers only use one-piece poles and they prove to be ideal for Nordic Walking when sized correctly by a professional.

I just got off the phone with a lady that just returned some expensive poles from Dick’s Sporting Goods because her husband, who has MS, couldn’t get the poles to stop collapsing. She ordered one-piece poles from us costing half the price. Our one-piece poles will prove to be far superior and stronger. Individuals with balance issues should avoid twist-lock and flip-lock poles.

Last Sunday, on the 22nd of November, Team AttitudeBikes were present at the Yew Tee Flatout Challenge. We were there in full force (almost), not only to participate, but also to provide technical support for the event.

Our bikes.

The riders (from left to right): Alfred, Bryan Eio, Zhi Wei, Jansen, Ben Teo, Ernest, Han, Kal and Phil.

It has been a long time since we last saw Alfred. And he’s still wearing his signature Team SoCal Nicolai jersey! Haha.

Zhi Wei (wei wei bu yao pa).

Bryan Eio.

Kal, the only female competitor!

Kal’s husband, also known as Ernest. Haha (inside joke).

Phil.

Alfred.

Ben Teo.

Jansen Tan.

Han. He got the best result among all of us with a 9th place finish! Congratulations Uncle Han!

Ernest and Kal, post race interview.

The Yew Tee Flatout challenge really set a new benchmark for the Freeride/Downhill scene in Singapore. It has been a while since we had a Downhill competition with such a large turnout of riders, and the course was great fun even with the lack of space and elevation. This is all thanks to Uncle Jeff and his brilliant team! There are plans in the way to have a full series of such events next year and we are definitely looking forward to it!

All action photos (and the one of Uncle Han receiving his medal) are courtesy of Dayna Surayah Ophelia. Thank you Dayna!

Um vídeo para dar uma animada…

Nu är det exakt på minuten ett kvarts sekel sen jag kom till världen.

It’s all downhill from here…

]]> http://jennaruns.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/sweet-16/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:26:22 +0000 jennajournalism http://jennaruns.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/sweet-16/

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My cousin just celebrated his 16th birthday on Thursday, and today I celebrated by running 16 miles. It was the longest run thus far. From BU, I made it to Washington Street in Newton/Wellesley – past Newton-Wellesley Hospital, past the Woodland  T stop on the D Line, and over Route 95. Loved the hill at BC on the way back — the downhill part. I was sore by the end, esp. in my lower back and hips, but I have a great roommate who’s an athletic training major so she stretched me out after. How nice!

Here are some of the interesting things I saw today. Not too many runners out, surprisingly, considering it was a nice temperature of 60 degrees:

• A preschool that accepts kids ages “2.9-5″
• Aggressive elderly drivers
• A state police escort for the North Carolina State football team on its way to BC
• A BU police car dropping off a group of BC football fans. See anything wrong here??

So fast-forward to last year.  I’d continued cycling (now with my own non-pink Masi) and graduated from a sprint triathlon to an Olympic tri, but I was still topping out at about 25 miles a ride.  I was moving to Atlanta to be closer to my fiancée, and I had decided to try my hand at the cycling industry.  Plus, paying to get my bike serviced was getting old.

I walked into a bike shop, told them I wanted a job, and BAM—my foot’s in the door (well, it was a little less instantaneous than “BAM,” but you get my point).  I figure, I’ve been a cyclist for a year or two now, I like reading cycling magazines and getting out on my bike, and I know the different levels of Shimano componentry—I’ve got it made.

Wrong.  I never felt so humbled in my life than that first week at the bike shop. There are still days when my bike knowledge is totally shown up by a customer, but I also found out that cycling was way bigger than just the Tour de France and triathlon world I was familiar with.  Freeriding, pelotons, cyclocross, downhill, velodromes, crit races; the wide world of cycling was turning out to be wide indeed.

Every day I continue to learn something new about cycling.  I regularly conduct “market research,” or at least that’s what I tell my wife as I bring home scores of old cycling magazines.  The best part of working at a bike shop, aside from the discounted schwag, is getting other people excited about cycling.  I don’t care if it’s a soccer mom buying an entry level road bike for her first triathlon; a downtown hipster converting some old, rusty, vintage Schwinn to a fixie; or a full-face helmet, knee-pad wearing high-schooler. I love getting excited with and for other people.

The Yew Tee Flatout Challenge 2009 is a cycling event to promote Freeride Mountain Biking in Singapore. The challenge consists of a timed run down a Downhill/Freeride type of course. This event takes place this Sunday, the 22nd of November and it is organised by none other than Uncle Jeff, the man who takes care of the Gangsa trails! Kudos to him and his team! Do come down to show your support as this event will be the first of its kind in Singapore. Team AttitudeBikes will definitely be there to support the event so we’ll see you there!

Tá aí pessoal!

Ficamos devendo o banner e tá divulgado!

Desafio Morro do Moreno de Downhill e XC
Data: 12 e 13 de Dezembro/2009
Local: Morro do Moreno – Vila Velha/ES
Inscrições no local
Programação:
12/12/2009 (Sábado): 8h às 12h – Treino livre para o Cross Country e das 13h às 17h treino livre para o Downhill
13/12/2009 (Domingo): a partir das 8h – Início do Cross Country e a partir das 13h início do Downhill

Vamos lá!

Equipe Pé no Pedal

Here is the latest catalogue that we received from Loaded! Details of their products are available from the catalogue. Click on the image to view larger.

Check out the direct mount stem!

By the way for those of you who do not know, Loaded is a sister company of Atomlab. So you can definitely be assured of the quality that comes from Loaded products.

Tammy Donahugh is a US freeride/dirtjumper who has been busting out big tricks for years, and we featured a video of her riding back when Martha Hucker first started, called Girls Rock (see it here). She’s just put together a sequel, and we caught up with her to talk about her riding.

Hey Tammy! How long have you been riding, and how did you get into it?
I’m pretty sure I’ve been riding long enough that I could be eligible to receive a lifetime achievement award ! Back when I was a rebel teenager my boyfriend and his buddies started getting into mountain biking and mtb racing, so I wanted to tag along. I got addicted to everything about it, and before I knew it riding bikes was a major part of my life.

Who do you ride with normally, and where do you ride? Any other girls that shred in your area?
I ride with my talented hubby mostly. It’s hard to find girls that want to ride dirt jumps and skate parks, so it ends up just being myself & my music a lot of the time. There are a ton of talented riders in the area, so unless there’s a competition going on, there’s generally a rider or 10 at any given DJ spot. We did have a strong girl posse for a short while here in CO, but a few of them moved out to California for the year round warmth. The OG crew is Lisa Myklak, Emily Johnston, Nadia Steinbrecher, and myself. Hopefully we can all meet up for a much needed reunion soon!

Tammy at Slope Sistair

What motivates you the most to go out and push your riding to the next level?
Anytime I get to ride with my friends and see them learning and pushing their limits gets me pumped to try new things. Progression is always happening out there and it continually amazes me how deep the sea of learning is. I don’t want to end up an old maid either, so that’s some motivation!!

How do you psych yourself up to try new tricks?
I think I need to work on my psyching up methods. Being in my thirties with a career & a mortgage has possibly created some type of wussie cell in my brain.
Although any time someone in the crew nails a new trick I instantly want to try it! Once you get a few that you can throw comfortably it’s like an addiction and you want to get more tricks in your bag. I definitely had a dry spell recently where I was not learning any new specific tricks, but there is SO much more to jumping and riding than throwing a trick.

What’s your worst injury, and what do you when you can’t ride?
Last year I had a pretty bad experience by breaking both my elbows at the same time. One was pretty smashed up as well as the ligaments torn off and needed some hardware to fix it. Obviously not being able to use both of your arms for some time is somewhat traumatic, but an injury I experienced early in my racing days I would count as my worst. I crashed on a DH Nationals course and ended up putting a hole in my face with a rock. It tore off my left nostril and you could see my teeth through my cheek (imagine a pumpkin being impaled). When you cut through the nerves in your face, that area does not work for quite some time. For about 3 months it looked like I had suffered a stroke because one side of my face would not function. I don’t think it could have been fixed & healed much better than it did, but changing the look of your face definitely leaves more of a mental scar.
Somehow I’ve managed to only injure my upper extremities to date, so during my time off the bike I can usually hike, run, spin, etc., to keep me from turning into a professional slack-a-sauras!

Tammy busting out a big X-up at her home jumps for J'ammy Jam

What’s your favorite event of the year, and why?
Aside from the annual Jump Jam we host in our backyard (the raddest most awesome event ehverr! Aka the J’ammy Jam) I wouldn’t say I’ve got one favorite specific event, but definitely a type of event. The slopestyle events that offer pro & amateur classes/courses with a fun festival atmosphere are the ones I will rally to get to. It’s great when they’ve got more than just the main attraction going on too. For example – best trick comps, dual slalom races, clinics, ramps to session, etc. Out of all the events I did in 2009 I would vote the Ranch Jam “most fun”!

Tell us your raddest riding story…
It seems like I could tell a rad story for almost every road trip, race, jump jam, or fun day of DH riding with friends, but I think the raddest story is how riding a bike has made me into the person I am today. I know it sounds cheesy, but bikes have taken me to so many parts of the world I would have never seen, which in turn has created so many experiences. Experiences are what life is all about in my opinion. On top of that, I am pretty sure that I would have never turned into the confident, strong minded person that I’ve become which helps me get through day by day.

Tammy pinning it at Ray's indoor mountain bike park

Anyone you’d like to thank?
I thank Jimmy Donahugh for putting up with me, Terry Seeberg for giving me more than I can put into words, my old school crew from Santa Cruz for teaching me to harden the f*%k up and that boy Jeff Swain who has no idea what he did when he introduced me to bicycles.

Cheers Tammy, and good luck getting that life time achievement award sometime too!

Tammy and ten other rad female freeriders are featuring in a new video project called ‘Awesome Land’. Check out her brief promo for it below, more info at bonesovermetal.com

After a pretty long wait our first shipment of Loaded products arrived last week! Within a day, half of the products was sold! Here is what we have in this shipment.

AmXC handlebars (pictured here), and X-lite carbon handlebars.

From back to front we have the X-lite binder clamps, followed by the X-lite stem and the AMX DH stem.

Not forgetting the AmXC hubs that come with high quality bearings which are extremely smooth!

AmXC rims.

We also have the X-lite seatpost as well as the AmXC skewers in stock!

For those of you who are interested please hurry down to AttitudeBikes as the Loaded products are selling fast!

Here are the dates for the Australian and New Zealand National Series for this summer. The New Zealand dates have been very late in coming out this year, due to the unfortunate cancellation of the Coronet Peak round of the series. NZSki have decided that mountain biking isn’t their priority, so they’ve canceled their summer season. This means no chairlift riding in NZ at all this year, and no Brake Burner SuperD at Coronet. However, Queenstown will still be having plenty of awesome events over summer.

The Oceania Champs will be in New Zealand this year, and are being held in Dunedin. It’s a fantastic track with a bit of everything, but particularly known for its rock gardens. It’s also wet and rooty most of the time – quite different to the track in Canberra!

Australia is first up with a race in just a month’s time. Here are the dates for both in chronological order, more about Australia’s races are here, and BikeNZ’s info is here.

Australia
#1 12-13 December, Glenorchy MTB Park, Tasmania N/A 2/12/2009
Australian National Champs 13 – 17 January, Eagle Park (Adelaide), South Australia
#2 23-24 Shepparton, Victoria C2 13/1/2010
#3 13-14February, Thredbo, New South Wales
#4 13-14 March, Stromlo Forest Park, ACT

New Zealand
#1 Christchurch Jan 8/9
#2 Dunedin Jan 16/17
#3 Nelson Jan 23/24
#4 Rotorua Feb 5/6
#5 Whakatane Feb 12/13
#6 Rotorua Feb 20/21

New Zealand National Champs
RaboPlus National Mountainbike Championships
Wellington, Feb 26 to March 1st

Oceanais
UCI Oceania Mountainbike Championships
Dunedin, March 18 to 21st

Que vídeo sensacional dos caras do “The Atherton Project” patrocinados pela Red Bull.

Assista que vale a pena: http://freecaster.tv/mtb/1010460/the-atherton-project-episode-12#

Boa descida!

Equipe Pé no Pedal

Downtempo? Schreckliche Bilder befallen das innere Auge: Studentencafés, gefühlvoll beschallt mit dieser unsäglichen, belanglosen… “Lounge Music”! Chillout Compilation 15 auf dem Wühltisch. N24-Dokumentation, hinterlegt mit seichtem elektronischen Geplätscher. Kaufhausaufzugsmusik.

Downtempo! Furchtbar gelitten hat diese Bezeichnung für  elektronische Musik unterhalb der als  tanzbar erachteten bpm-Zahl. Aber kein Grund generell wegzuhören, schließlich läuft unter dieser weitläufigen Bezeichnung  auch Musik von Massive Attack, Portishead, Kruder & Dorfmeister… und eben auch folgendes:

Downhill sind Arne Schaffhausen und Wayan Rabe, auch (oder besser) bekannt als Extrawelt, Midimiliz und Spirallianz, gemeinsam mit GravityPlus-Labelkollegen Marcus C. Maichel. Arne und Wayan produzieren seit über zehn Jahren elektronische Musik, die sich im Laufe der Jahre von tighten PsyTrance zu minimalistisch-melodischen Techno gewandelt hat. Marcus Maichel stammt ebenso aus der PsyTrance-Ecke, Gründungsmitglied der Hamburger Combo X-Dream. Gemeinsam haben sie schon als The Delta kollaboriert was auch eher in die deftige Richtung ging.Klingt alles in allem nicht so, als ob die drei Musik für den besinnlichen Sonntag Nachmittag machen würden. Tun sie auch in der Tat nicht, auch bei diesem “Downtempo”-Projekt. Silent City, so der Name des 2003 erschienen,  einzigen DownHill Albums ist ein fein produzierter Soundtrack für die Dystopie deiner Wahl. Knackige Beats, sphärische Flächen und Bässe die den Nachbarn auch noch Freude bereiten. Musik wider den typischen Downbeat-Klischees und für mich ein dringender Begleiter im herbstlichen Wien 2009. Dig it!

I want to say that at this point, right now, 6:43pm on this 9th of November 2009. I’m not liking the look of where things are headed.

Music, movies, TV, the internet, advertising, food, the workplace, the Church and most of the other elements which make up our modern first world existence. It all just seems to be going downhill.

It’s headed far from where I want to be. Drifting further from what I think is right. Turning back on what used to make sense. Running away from what, deep down, we all know is true.

Should I try to stop it, or try to change myself?

Danny Macaskill que é um dos melhores ciclistas de downhill do mundo fez esse comercial para a Volkswagen na cidade de Lisboa, watching and enjoy…

Esse é foda.

Yes there is…but most are pirate, so I will take them to my grave…arrgggh.  But what I will tell you is there are some dang fun fire roads around the area.  Moody Hill, particularly,  is one of the funnest.  You can anticipate high speeds, rocky areas, natural berms and the occasional 4×4 or moto.  Oh yah…it’s also a fun place to ride moto.  You can kind of shuttle it if you have a 4×4 with a little clearance.  Here’s a link that has a bit more.

http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=72

5 de Novembro de 2009.  Se há dias felizes, esse dia foi  hoje! Recebemos a maravilhosa noticia que está tudo a correr sobre rodas…

Às 9h00 da manhã lá estavamos nós com o coração a bater a mil à hora. Algum stress, pois nunca mais ninguém nos chamava. Finalmente alguém nos chama, e continuamos à espera… mas noutra sala!! Lá entrámos, e depois de olhar para aquele monitor e ver os quase 7cm de vida, foi dos momentos mais felizes da minha vida!! Sem saber o sexo, sei apenas que está tudo bem. O coração bate  164  por minuto,  mede quase 7 cm e já saí ao pai… 12 semanas e não para quieto!!!

Sem dúvida que para nós é um dia maravilhoso, que faz de nós uns pais radiantes!!

É também com muito gosto que partilho este Grande Momento da minha vida!!

Abraços e FreeRide Your Life!!

….Enjoy the music!!!