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HONORING LOCAL ADVOCATE:
St. Petersburg Bike Club Member Bob Griendling

Content originally published by Bike/Walk Tampa Bay; reprinted with permission.

Each year, Bike/Walk Tampa Bay (BWTB) presents the Michael R. Schwaid Bicyclist of the Year award to an extraordinary citizen bicyclist who has demonstrated courage and resilience, and who serves as a role model for other bicyclists. This very special award is named in memory of Michael Schwaid for his passion for bicycling, his bike safety advocacy, and his bravery for returning to bicycling after experiencing a nearly fatal crash when a drunk driver struck him while riding his bike.

Join the SP Bike Club for the 2022 “Ride of Silence.”

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The St. Petersburg Bicycle Club is participating in the worldwide Ride of Silence for 2022. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 18.

Both St. Petersburg Bike Club members and the greater St. Petersburg cycling community are invited to participate in the ride.

This will be a short (7-mile) slow and silent funeral-style processional that we hope will attract cyclists from all corners of our community.

We’ll meet 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday May 18 at NorthShore Pool, 901 North Shore Dr. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Please wear a helmet.

Cycling Around South Florida
by Jim Dodson

For those of us who live and ride regularly in the northern, central, or western parts of the state, South Florida may be a hidden treasure just waiting to be discovered. A recent article I read by freelance writer Kerry Shorr outlined a number of its attractive features: scenic venues for road cycling, mountain biking, and trail riding. From the sweeping vistas of the Atlantic Ocean along Highway A1A to the Allapattah Flats Wildlife Management Area and the Martin Grade Scenic Highway, venturing forth to new areas can be exciting and eye-opening.

If you’re drawn to beaches, there are stretches of excellent pavement for cyclists along Juno Beach, Jupiter Beach near Carlin Park, and Jupiter Island. Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island and the National Wildlife Preserve in Hobe Sound are two spots well worth your time to explore.

Even though Florida is renowned for its flat topography, for mountain bikers there’s Halpatiokee Regional Park, from a Seminole Indian word meaning “alligator water,” Halpatiokee is the largest park in Martin County, with seven-and-a-half miles of biking trails that give a great workout of technical trail-riding skills. That’s because it has a lot of roots and trees and elevations to climb and then ride downhill. 

The Camp Murphy Off-Road Bicycle Trail at beautiful Jonathan Dickinson State Park is one of the most popular mountain biking destinations in the state with nine miles of beginner, intermediate, and experts-only sections and the highest ancient sand dunes south of Lake Okeechobee. It’s located between Hobe Sound and Tequesta and includes the Elsa Kimbell Environmental Education and Research Center and a variety of natural habitats: sand pine scrub, pine flatwoods, mangroves, and river swamps.

For trail riders, the East Coast Greenway is another venue with panoramic vistas and interesting attractions. This greenway actually runs 3000 miles from Calais, Maine to Key West and connects with existing biking and walking paths, including the two-and-a-half mile Jupiter Riverwalk and the Martin County U.S. Highway 1 Sidepath, a two-mile trail that culminates at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound. The greenway was named in 2020 as the nation’s most visited park, with more than 50 million bikers, runners, and walking users.

For a taste of historical Florida, you can head toward the Martin Grade Scenic Highway/CR 714. Located between Stuart and Lake Okeechobee, the twelve-mile, oak-canopied road wanders by swamps, grass flats, woodland, and ranch land recalling Florida’s old cowboy days. Riders can also follow the byway to the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) and Allapattah Flats Wildlife Management Area, a 20,945-acre habitat with a five-mile shell rock trail system with an estuary full of wading birds and occasional alligators. 

For simple nature gazing jaunts, there are dozens of state parks throughout Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. According to Florida State Park Foundation, South Florida has one of the most extensive trail systems in the nation with hundreds of miles of routes featuring stunning scenery and wildlife. So the next time you want to widen your cycling horizons, take a trip south and enjoy the rides.

Anti-Aging: 9 Weight-Bearing Activities for Strong Bones
By Coach John Hughes
Reprinted Courtesy of Road Bike Rider Publications

I was riding uphill with a buddy in his early 70s. His front wheel kissed my rear wheel and he went down. We were only going about six mph and he just fell sideways … and broke his hip! He had been diagnosed with osteoporosis, which is significantly lower than normal bone density. He loved riding his bike, didn’t do much weight-bearing exercise and suffered as a result. Fortunately, he recovered and we’re back riding.

Half the Americans over age 50 have osteopenia.

Use it or lose it applies to all parts of you, including your skeleton. You are constantly renewing your bones by making new bone content as old bone content disappears. Total bone mass peaks around age 35. As you age, older bones constantly break down and your body makes new bone content. There are two progressive conditions:

1. Osteopenia. Bone mass is lost faster than it is created. Osteopenia means your bone density is lower than normal, but not causing any problems yet. Osteopenia begins as you lose bone mass and your bones get weaker. This happens when the inside of your bones becomes brittle from a loss of calcium. It’s very common as you age. People who have osteopenia are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis.
2. Osteoporosis.Osteoporosis is the more serious progression of osteopenia. Your bones lose more density and strength. The light, fragile bones then can place you at a higher risk for fractures and breaks, particularly of the hip and spine, as a result of falls. The best way to diagnose osteopenia versus osteoporosis is with a lab test.

Weight-Bearing Exercise
The principle of overload applies to your bones just like it does to your muscles. If you overload your bones, they at least maintain bone health, reducing the risk of osteoporosis. The greater the load, the stronger the bones get. Recent studies of post-menopausal women indicate that walking does not prevent bone loss because it doesn’t overload the body more than the skeleton is already accustomed to carrying.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends for weight-bearing exercise:

1. Volume: At least 30 to 60 minutes per day three to five days a week.
2. Intensity: High-impact exercise is more effective than low-impact.

Although the ACSM recommendation is at least 30 minutes per day for three days every week, you don’t have to make time for three 30-minute sessions - as long as you accumulate a total of at least 90 minutes of weight-bearing exercise each week. You can do many different activities that include weight-bearing exercise — you don’t have to do specific weight-bearing workouts. Any activity that increases the weight on your skeleton and/or the impact on your feet is good. Here are some suggestions:

1. Hiking with a pack.
2. Take the stairs, not the elevator: Climbing stairs puts all of your weight on one leg and foot at a time. Stepping down stairs increases the impact of your feet.
3. Activities of daily living, for example, park away from the grocery store and carry bags of groceries across the parking lot instead of using a cart.
4. 4Wear a hydration pack or something similar with 5 – 10 lbs of weight in it for several hours while going about your activities of daily living. Gradually increase the weight or the duration of how long you wear it. (Coach Dan Kehlenbach taught me this.)
5. Socialize by taking your significant other dancing one night a week, taking the kids hiking on the weekend or playing a sport with your friends.
6. Play a sport. Tennis, badminton, racquetball, handball, volleyball, basketball and soccer are high-impact and also require balance and coordination.
7. Strength-training using body weight and free weights rather than machines. The strength training should be hard, doing 8 – 12 reps to exhaustion.
8. Balance exercises on one leg — do these waiting in line while shopping.
9. Walking with intermittent jogging for active recovery - instead of going for an easy bike ride.

This column of mine includes a set of illustrated strength-training exercises to help your cycling and strengthen your bones Strength Training for Older Roadies.

Bottom line: Cyclists should find ways to integrate weight-bearing activities into their exercise program and their activities of daily living.

FBA Bicycle Safety Quiz
by the Florida Bicycle Asociation

Florida Bicycle Association now features a free resource, Florida Bicycle Safety Quiz, which can help ensure that Club members are up to speed on bike safety knowledge.

This online quiz covers relevant (and updated) Florida laws, crash avoidance, and other safety techniques.  It’s a 20- to 25-minute quiz-based format, with interactive feedback and additional chances to correct a wrong answer before proceeding.  

When done, users can create a Certificate of Completion that could be valued as a de facto “bike safety license.”

We encourage all SPBC members to complete this quiz. 

If our Club reaches the 50%, 75% or 100% participation level, FBA will acknowledge us in their monthly publication.

FBA Ride Leader/Ride Marshal Program

Whether you’re leading a community ride, a St. Pete Bike Club ride or a major charity bicycling event over multiple days, the Florida Bicycle Association has the cycling education program for you.  Our Ride Leader/Ride Marshal training and certification program is modular in approach, to allow comprehensive focus on what’s most relevant for ride leader/ride marshal development.

This single-day, 5-hour certification session includes:

• Bike safety, Florida Bicycle and Pedestrian laws, and cyclist rights on the road.
• Preparation – from bodies to bikes, helmet fitting, and nutrition.
• Communication – from hand signals to how to give great pre-ride tutorials on ride coaching, as well as how to brand our Club through cycling professionalism.
• Coaching and Mentoring skills to develop stronger, safer cyclists in our Club.
• Trail and multi-use path etiquette.
• Advanced cycling skills for 17+ mph group rides, like paceline etiquette and how to control speed with skill.
• Crash and rider-down tips and preparation.
• Community and family ride leader skills.
• Written test for certification.

SAVE THE DATE!

Our ride Leader/Ride Marshal In-Person certification
is scheduled for the following date:

• Saturday April 2, 2022

To learn more about this program, please visit this FBA website:

https://floridabicycle.org/fba-ride-leader-ride-marshal-program/