Heck, you don’t even have to be doing the WFRT to enjoy the summer of riding we have planned for you. But after putting in all those miles on the bike this summer, wouldn’t you rather cap it off with a celebration on Wrigley Field?

Oh, and in case we hadn’t mentioned it, the Wrigley Field Road Tour benefits World Bike Relief and Cubs Charities, two charities that aim to improve the lives of children and their families, one at the local level and the other at an international level. So all your efforts this summer can go towards raising funds for these two great charities, again making the Wrigley Field Road Tour on August 25th an ideal goal for your summer training.

New for this year, and under the guidance of Coach Craig, we have two training plans. If this is the first time you’ve committed to a ride of this magnitude, the Beginner plan is for you. If you have a couple century (or longer) rides under your belt and have made it your goal for this year to ride faster or otherwise improve your performance, you’ll want to train with the Intermediate plan.

Also new for this year, the WFRT Training Plans are available on Training Peaks, a free training log for running, cycling, triathlon and general fitness. Both of the WFRT plans can be found on Training Peaks by following the links below. Registering for Training Peaks is free and easy.* You can use the training log as much or as little as you like; your involvement is up to you.**

As always, Higher Gear recommends you consult with your physician before beginning a new training program. When riding, always wear your helmet, follow the rules of the road, and please refrain from using headphones.

Important Dates

Higher Gear will mark the beginning of the official 2013 WFRT training season with a WFRT Training Ride on Saturday June 1st at 7:00am from our Wilmette location.

Other important dates:

Sunday, July 28th – Venus de Miles 60-mile women’s ride in Lake Forest
Saturday, August 10th – Last “long” ride before the WFRT

100 Miles to Go!

Beginner Plan for WFRT

You have several options to view and follow the Beginner Plan:

• View the Beginner Plan as a .pdf: Century Training Beginner Plan for 2013 WFRT
• Follow the Beginner Plan in the free training software on Training Peaks.

Intermediate Plan for WFRT

You have several options to view and follow the Intermediate Plan:

• View the Intermediate Plan as a .pdf: Century Training Intermediate Plan for 2013 WFRT
• Follow the Intermediate Plan in the free training software on Training Peaks.

Perceived Effort Chart for Century Training Plans

From Coach Craig of Precision Multisport

Importance scale is 1 = highest, 5 = lowest for your purposes.

* To register for a free Training Peaks account to access either Century Training Plan, choose which plan you want to follow and then click on the link above. If you are new to Training Peaks, fill in the required information to create an account.

** The free account with Training Peaks will allow you access to your Century Training Plan. It also gives you the ability to log exercise and meals, track daily metrics, upload your workouts from your device (Garmin, PowerTap, etc.) and map, upload and record routes. You will also have mobile access to your account, should you choose, and the ability to share workouts and routes over Facebook, Twitter and email. A premium account with Training Peaks allows you enhanced analysis of workouts, meals and metrics and the ability to edit data uploaded from devices. There are several subscription options for a premium account, beginning with a monthly plan for $19.95. A 3-month plan (which would get you through the WFRT ride) is $49. You can opt to upgrade to a premium account at any time should you decide you want more access than the free account offers.

** If you register for a free Training Peaks account, but would prefer not to receive daily email reminders of planned workouts, please follow these instructions:

• Log in to Training Peaks.
• Once there, click on the arrow by your name.
• Click on Settings.
• In the box that opens, the Account Tab and open it.
• Uncheck the box where it says, “Enable daily emails of planned workouts.” No more email. Of course, you can opt to go back in and enable the daily email should you change your mind.

But this century ride is about MORE THAN a good time. Before the celebration to cap off an enjoyable day… Before the thousands of pedal strokes it takes to cover 100 miles… Before the summer of training rides to build up to 100 miles… Before the weight lost in training… Before the friends made over weekend group training rides… Before all that, each participants commits to raising funds to benefit two charities – one global and the other local.

In fact, WFRT was the result of two philanthropic men in an effort to create a better world through the power of bicycles and bicycling. Chicago Cubs Board Member Todd Ricketts and SRAM Executive Vice President, F.K. Day, created the WFRT to benefit the global work of World Bicycle Relief and the local work of Chicago Cubs Charities.

That hundreds of people can enjoy a fantastic outing and that many are motivated to put in hard work over the summer that results in weight loss, lasting friendships and happiness… Well, that’s all part of the WFRT adventure. All because those people committed to raising money for two great charities.

For 2012, WFRT participants raised approximately $500,000 for charity. These fundraising efforts were led by several individuals, many of whom came up with creative ideas to raise money for charity. We’d like to call them out for their efforts for 2012 and extend a heartfelt Thank You to just some of those top fundraisers:

Garrett Higney

Raised $20,246.25

Donation count = 106

From a young age, Garrett has enjoyed biking. He decided to put his passion for cycling into action through his participation in the Wrigley Field Road Tour for the last two years. Driven by the desire to bring bicycles to students and families in need of reliable transportation in rural Africa, 15-year-old Garrett crushed his initial goal of $13,400 and raised over $20,245 in 2012. His fundraising efforts also helped the Chicago youth by funding physical education programs and other parks and open-spaces in the Chicago Lakeview area. Garrett won the fundraising challenge and was awarded a top-of-the-line Specialized bicycle, that he kindly donated back to World Bicycle Relief in support of future campaigns. Now that’s a true winner!

John Atkinson

Raised $19,417

Donation count = 120

John was a workaholic, overweight and leading an unhealthy lifestyle. Only a few years ago, a spark was ignited inside him and John decided to change his approach to life. In an effort to be healthier so that he continue to enjoy good times with his family and friends, John started cycling. He signed up for the Wrigley Field Road Tour, putting his new-found energy and the support of his network to good use, helping people in Africa and in the Chicago community. Along the way, John discovered that his life was indeed better on a bike.

Tom Renaud

$12,433

Donation count = 142

Tom Renaud is a true bicycle aficionado who picked up cycling only five years ago. After pedaling many thousands of miles and visiting wonderful places along the way, Tom registered for his Wrigley Field Road Tour in 2011. After a very fruitful first event, Tom came back in 2012 and raised more than double the amount he fundraised before, reaching $12,433 in support of two great causes.

Lawrence “Larry” Berlin

$5,650

Donation count = 49

Larry is a busy senior executive who, at age 50, decided to sign up for his first century ride. Larry joined the Wrigley Field Road Tour peloton and after a successful first experience came back last year for his second century ride.

Aimee Trottier
$5,561
Donation count = 94

Fitness is no stranger to Aimee who enjoys exercising on a daily basis. A true Chicago girl and baseball fan, she could not pass on this opportunity to participate in an event that mixes baseball, bicycles and giving back to the community.

Thank you to all the WFRT participants – past and future – and to all others who volunteer their time to make sure the day runs smoothly for WFRT our riders. Your fundraising and volunteer efforts go a long way to making a better world. Thank you.

Join the 2013 WFRT. Join our Saturday morning training rides, meet like-minded cyclists and great people, get fit, have fun and raise money for two great charities along the way.

New this year! Sign up for the 2013 WFRT with friends and fund-raise as part of a team. Team up and start fund-raising today!

Do you have creative fundraising ideas for your 2013 WFRT? Higher Gear would love to hear about them! Send us a message on our Facebook page or by email at ride@highergearchicago.com

Zipp’s proprietary Firecrest rim rewrote the fundamentals of wheel making, resulting in improved aerodynamics, ride quality, wheel strength and stability in even the strongest of crosswinds. As a result, the entire Firecrest family of wheels makes a bigger difference in more ways than ever.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More speed.

Firecrest technology, discovered as we developed our Carbon Clinchers, refocused our thinking to concentrate not only on the front half of the wheel, but also the back half. Previous rim shapes were designed to smooth airflow coming off the tire, and tapered inward from the widest point of a toroidal bulge. But Firecrest rims have a less pronounced bulge and maintain a near-constant width almost all the way to the spoke bed. Without giving up the proven benefits of the toroidal shape, Firecrest is the first aero profile that effectively controls airflow around the back half of the wheel.

The performance benefits are substantial. At 1,375 grams, the 202 Firecrest Carbon Clincher (32mm rim depth) is the lightest in Zipp’s Carbon Clincher lineup and is a plucky all-around performer that floats up mountains and provides superior aerodynamics on the flats and descents. The 303 Firecrest (45mm rim depth) has become the go-to wheel for the Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team at the Spring Classics and the wheel of choice for many of the women on Team Exergy TWENTY12. With Firecrest, the 404 Firecrest Tubular (58mm rim depth) matches the aero performance of the pre-Firecrest 808 (82mm depth). And what of the 808 Firecrest? Australian Pete Jacobs provided Zipp with the answer, blasting the 112 mile cycling leg at Kona a pair of 808 Firecrest wheels to capture the 2012 Ironman World Championship. “The crosswinds were never blowing me across the road. I always felt in control,” Jacobs said. “During the race I was thinking, “Wow, these 808s feel great.”

Zipp used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) post-processing capabilities to maximize aerodynamics and minimize wind-induced steering torque, resulting in a 202 Firecrest Carbon Clincher (right) that is faster and better handling than a classic box-section road wheel (left). The Firecrest rim shape improves stability by moving the wheel’s center of pressure (represented in red/white) aft and downward to sit almost directly over the steering axis, where wind-induced steering torque has a minimal effect. CFD analysis also demonstrates how Zipp’s proprietary Firecrest rim shape results in significantly less wind drag — 131 grams for the 202 Firecrest, compared with 324 grams for the classic road wheel. Such use of CFD software throughout the development of the Firecrest line helped Zipp create better prototypes to take to the wind tunnel, resulting in the world’s most aerodynamic and stable wheels.

More stability.

During the design process for Firecrest, we realized that the advanced mathematics and massive computing power that helped us create a faster wheel could also help reduce the impact of crosswinds on handling. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, we’ve discovered subtle variations in rim shape that improve stability without increasing aerodynamic drag. By moving the center of pressure – the focal point of side forces on the rim – to its optimal location near the steering axis, Firecrest offers stable, predictable handling at every wind angle. With the 202 Firecrest Carbon Clincher, we’ve achieved a near neutral steering torque. In real-world conditions, Firecrest rims are markedly more stable than other rims of equal or even shallower depth.

More strength.

As we discovered when developing the Zipp 303 to thrive under unforgiving conditions at the Spring Classics, a wider rim increases lateral stiffness for sprinting and cornering yet offers greater vertical compliance for more control, comfort, and durability on rough surfaces. The same holds true for Firecrest rims. The 303 Firecrest is a proven performer on the open road, cobblestones or rough cyclocross courses. In both tubular and Carbon Clincher versions, the wider design places more rubber on the road while cornering without adding rolling resistance. The new 202 Firecrest Carbon Clincher uses a new resin system that builds on Firecrest’s foundation of strength.

Firecrest technology is available in Zipp 303′s and 404′s. Both are available at Higher Gear.

Capo’s Italian craftsmanship is reflected in the technical, super breathable and moisture-wicking properties that keep you comfortable through easy spins and double-centuries.

Features include:

• Drop fabric jersey is ultra-breathable and moisture-wicking, providing excellent comfort and moisture management.
• Silicone gel gripper at waist is comfortable and stays put through you entire ride.
• High gauge Power Lycra shorts provide lightweight yet compressive muscle support. The premium stretch fiber provides incomparable fit, muscle support, breathability and freedom of movement.
• Upgraded Elastic Interface Technology chamois provide maximum comfort and performance, originated and patented in collaboration with Assos.
• Elastic Interface Technology chamois offers best freedom of movement, full support for saddle stress, fast moisture transport and best breathability.

For the summer of 2013, the Higher Gear line includes unisex short-sleeved jerseys and bib shorts as well as men’s and women’s shorts, each with an upgraded chamois.

Men’s shorts have Elastic Interface Technology’s D4 men’s chamois. This high-end pad features four different densities, featuring high density foam inserts in key pressure point areas. The anatomic shape is designed for the way the body meets saddle. This chamois is build to go the distance, offering maximum protection and performance.

Women’s shorts feature Elastic Interface Technology’s Women’s Giro HD Carbon chamois. The Giro HD offers a lighter weight pad, yet superior protection. For support, this insert uses a high-density, open-cell memory foam. This layer has been bonded to an anti-microbial micro-fiber layer with carbon fiber threads woven through. As a result, the chamois efficiently evaporates moisture, leaving you dry and comfortable. In addition to the slim, movement-freeing shape, there are 6mm and 8mm-thick pads built into the anatomic, 3-D shape in order to better support the female anatomy.

Higher Gear is proud to team up with Capo for this year’s cycling kit. Capo has established itself as a premier brand of cycling apparel and accessories. Their products deliver technical performance, progressive design and proven quality, made in Italy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

11 speeds for all!

It was only last fall when Shimano launched its high-end Dura-Ace 9000, complete with 11 speeds and 77 less grams in weight. Now much of the DA9000′s technology has trickled down to the less expensive Ultegra 6800.

For starters, the Ultegra 6800 features an 11-speed cassette. The addition of another gear means a wider range of gear options. (Cyclists may remember the days of 9-speed cassettes, before the 10-speeds became ubiquitous.)

The Ultegra crank has the same stiff four-arm spider design as Dura-Ace. The four-arm design means that riders can swap gearing without having to swap crank arms.

The Ultegra front derailleur has been redesigned with a larger lever arm like that of Dura-Ace 900. Shimano claims the larger lever requires 35 percent less force input into the shifter. VeloNews announced that it offers “the best mechanical front shifting” that they have tested.

Plus, you don’t need to push the lever as far with the new design. In fact, to initiate a shift, the shifter needs to move about 13 percent less. That and Shimano’s added 10mm of reach adjustment, making the ergonomic shifters adjustable for smaller hands.

All these improvements AND the complete Ultegra 6800 groupo weighs in at 2,309 grams, 35 grams less than the previous generation.

The weight savings, the extra gearing and the technological improvements, all available in the Ultegra package, means that 11-speeds are now available to all. Now, will you go to 11?

To upgrade your groupo to Ultegra 6800, stop on in to Higher Gear. Make the upgrade part of your 2013 tune-up.

If you would like to read more about Ultegra 6800, follow the links to the VeloNews and Bicycling.com articles.

And last week, we learned how cycling can make you smarter. We also learned how it can help with ADHD. In fact, study after study has shown that exercise – and specifically cycling – can help children and adults with concentration and productivity.

For those pressed for time, commuting may offer a more realistic and sustainable way of getting fitness into your weekly routine. Check with your doctor to see if commuting is right for you.

Below is a blog entry originally published at PeopleforBikes.org

Good News:
Studies Show Bike Commuting Is One of the Best Ways to Stay Healthy

By Jay Walljasper for the PeopleforBikes.org blog

It’s always a pleasure when scientific studies confirm your own long-held opinions, especially when what you think flies in the face of all conventional wisdom.

For instance, who knew that chocolate éclairs and triple fudge caramel brownies actually contain fewer calories than a 12-ounce glass of skim milk? Or that every $1000 you spend on lavish vacations before the age of 65 will, over the long run, provide you with more retirement income than if you’d stashed that same $1000 in a savings account?

Well, to be honest, I made up the fact about the éclairs. And the one about vacations too.

But here’s bona fide scholarly research that excites me in the same way: Biking for transportation appears more helpful in losing weight and promoting health than working out at the gym.

This means I can spend less time wearing a grimace as I endure mind-numbing exercise routines at the Y—and more time wearing a smile as I bike to work, shopping and social events. Just what I always thought.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. According to Australian epidemiologist Takemi Sugiyama, lead author of a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Commuting is a relevant health behavior even for those who are sufficiently active in their leisure time.”

Analyzing the research, The Health Behavior News Service notes, “It may be more realistic to accumulate physical activity through active transport than adding exercise to weekly leisure-time routines.”

The four-year study of 822 adults found that found that people commuting to work by car gained more weight on average, even if they engaged in regular exercise, than people who did not commute by car. The authors of the study recommend creating more opportunities for everyone to walk or bike to work.

An earlier study by researchers at the University of Sydney School of Public Health published in Obesity Reviews (the journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity) supports the thesis that leisure-time exercise alone is not enough to prevent obesity. Sixty to 90 minutes of daily physical activity is recommended to curb obesity, which is more time than most people can fit into their busy schedules. That’s why the study’s authors recommend “active transport” like biking and walking for commuting other common trips.

Beyond fighting fat, biking and walking for transportation also boosts overall health. A 2007 paper in the European Journal of Epidemiology concludes “Commuting physical activity, independent of leisure time physical activity, was associated with a healthier level of most of the cardiovascular risk factors.”

The key advantage of traveling by bike over working out at a fitness center is that most people find it easier to do. Instead of vying for scarce free time with many other fun and important things, exercise becomes something we do naturally as part of daily routine. As a study by Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill in the Journal of Public Health Policy shows, 60 percent of Portland cyclists ride for at least 150 minutes per week (the recommended exercise minimum for adults) and that “nearly all the bicycling was for utilitarian purposes, not exercise.”

She adds “a disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards”—confirming the importance of bike infrastructure improvements to public health.

In my opinion, all this research also suggests that if I bike a lot for everyday transportation I can sometimes ditch the skim milk in favor of the brownies, and may save enough on auto expenses to both take a cool vacation and fund my retirement account.

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks and consults frequently about biking and other ways to improve our communities. His website: www.JayWalljasper.com

So, how do you commute by bike and still manage to pull off a polished look at the office?

Many a bike commuter will tell you that, unless you have a private office with a personal bathroom or unless you work in the bike industry and have access to employee locker rooms, you’re probably going to have to get by without a shower. That said, there are ways to make yourself and keep your clothes presentable.

Baby wipes or similar products make neat work out of wiping away sweat and odor and any dirt kicked up from the road. Dry shampoo can help wick the sweat away from your scalp. A tube of deodorant at the office is a must.

But, what about your clothes? How do you not come across like a rumpled mess? Those who do not commute every day will often bring extra clothes in on their non-cycling days.

During this year’s National Bike Summit, an industrious gentleman explained one way to ensure freshly pressed suits after a bike ride is to send your dry cleaning out from work. Not a bad idea if that’s an option.

For those who transport their clothes on their bike, carefully rolled in waterproof panniers or in a bicycling garment bag, we found this helpful video on how to fold a suit jacket so that it doesn’t wrinkle:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some of our own commuters offered the following advice when it comes to cleaning up for the office:

Be willing to give up showering until you are back home.  ~ Carol Coplan Babbitt

Find a nearby gym or club with a shower and bike room that allows you to leave your bike overnight if necessary. Check with your office building – many provide these amenities free of charge.  ~ Jeff Kopiwoda

Never attempt to ride in clothes you intend to wear at work.  ~ Carol Coplan Babbitt

It’s better to carry stuff on your bike as opposed to on your shoulders in a backpack or in a bicycle messenger bag. Riding for 20 miles with a bunch of extra weight pressing on your shoulders will eventually cause problems.  ~ Chad Smith

Stash clothes at work if possible (especially on non-bike commuting days) to minimize what you have to carry.  ~ Andy Cohen

It is easier to have clothes at your destination as opposed to carrying everything with you.  ~ Chad Smith

Be organized.  Have everything you will need to clean up and dress waiting for you at the office or gym. Forgetting a towel, cuff links or collar stays can bring down a good morning ride.  ~ Jeff Kopiwoda

Carefully pack your clothes. You don’t want to get to work and realize you forgot to pack your work shoes (happened to me) or underwear (also, happened to me).  ~ Danny Grant

Do you have any tricks for looking great at the office after commuting by bike? Let us know on our Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you. Share your Bike to Work Weeks pictures there also. And don’t forget to stop by Higher Gear on your way home from the office.

Getting kids to be active can be beneficial for them in ways beyond physical. For one, children involved in sports tend to have higher self esteem. But did you also know that regular exercise can also make them perform better in school?

There has been some interesting research lately.

(For the record, the benefits of physical activity also hold true for the adult brain. To see why cycling is one of the best exercises for the brain, see our follow up article, ADHD & Cycling.)

Dr. Mercola began an article on the subject with the enticing headline: Proven: Kids Get Smarter Just from Doing This One Simple Thing. That one thing? Being active. Below is an excerpt:

An extensive review of relevant research has demonstrated that the more physically active schoolchildren are, the better they do academically.

Researchers analyzed 14 studies, ranging in size from as few as 50 participants to as many as 12,000.

All of the studies involved children between the ages of 6 and 18.

According to the authors:

“Physical activity and sports are generally promoted for their positive effect on children’s physical health; regular participation in physical activity in childhood is associated with a decreased cardiovascular risk in youth and adulthood.

There is also a growing body of literature suggesting that physical activity has beneficial effects on several mental health outcomes, including health-related quality of life and better mood states.

In addition… there is a strong belief that regular participation in physical activity is linked to enhancement of brain function and cognition, thereby positively influencing academic performance.

There are several hypothesized mechanisms for why exercise is beneficial for cognition, including:

1. Increased blood and oxygen flow to the brain
2. Increased levels of norepinephrine and endorphins resulting in a reduction of stress and an improvement of mood
3. Increased growth factors that help to create new nerve cells and support synaptic plasticity

… The increasing pressures to improve academic scores often lead to additional instructional time for subjects such as mathematics and language at the cost of time for being physically active. Given the suggested relationship and the ongoing discussions on the replacement of physical education lessons by academic subjects, we aimed to review the evidence on the longitudinal relationship between these two variables…

To summarize, the literature provides inconclusive evidence on the positive longitudinal relationship between physical activity and academic performance. However, there is a strong general belief that this relationship is present, and research in this area is ongoing.”

Exercise and Academic Performance

Keeping kids active at school is a superb way to increase learning, focus and even test results. As many of you reading this have likely experienced, if your mind is feeling cluttered or you’re having a mid-afternoon slump, a brisk walk or a quick workout can give you a renewed sense of clarity and focus. This is certainly true for kids too.

Two years ago, ABC News reported on a special program being implemented at Naperville Central High School, where students could take part in a dynamic gym class at the beginning of the day, and had access to exercise bikes and balls throughout the day in their classrooms. The results were astounding. Those who participated nearly doubled their reading scores, and math scores increased 20-fold!

Research has shown that after 30 minutes on the treadmill, students solve problems up to 10 percent more effectively.

Although it’s becoming more widely known that physical activity has a direct result on brain function, many schools in the US are removing rather than improving their phys ed programs… This means it’s up to you to encourage your child to stay active after school and on weekends in order to reap the wonderful brain-boosting benefits that exercise has to offer.

How Exercise Boosts Brain Function

Exercise encourages your brain to work at optimum capacity by causing nerve cells to multiply, strengthening their interconnections and protecting them from damage. Animal tests have also illustrated that during exercise their nerve cells release proteins known as neurotrophic factors. One in particular, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health, and has a direct benefit on brain functions, including learning. Further, exercise provides protective effects to your brain through:

•  The production of nerve-protecting compounds
• Greater blood flow to your brain
• Improved development and survival of neurons

Decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases

A 2010 study on primates published in Neuroscience also revealed that regular exercise not only improved blood flow to the brain, but also helped the monkeys learn new tasks twice as quickly as non-exercising monkeys; a benefit the researchers believe would hold true for people as well.

Other Health Benefits of Regular Exercise

There’s absolutely no doubt that kids need exercise, and that most kids aren’t getting enough. Less than one-third of kids aged 6 to 17 get at least 20 minutes of daily exercise in one form or another. This is tragic, considering the multitude of short- and long-term health benefits your child can gain from a regular exercise regimen, including:

• Reduced risk of diabetes and pre-diabetes
• Improved immune system function
• Improved sleep
• Improved mood
• Stronger bones
• Weight loss
• Increased energy levels
• Reduced restlessness or hyperactivity; helps decrease symptoms of ADHD

Speaking of ADHD, see our story from a Bicycling.com article called Riding is My Ritalin, where a boy diagnosed with ADHD and his parents set out to find an alternative to the frequently diagnosed medication for the disorder.

Friday, May 10th is National Bike to School Day. Make sure your child’s bike is ready to ride with a tune-up from Higher Gear.

Most of the advice pointed in one direction: a prescription for amphetamines such as Ritalin. The powerful stimulants (the Food and Drug Administration labels them as Schedule II drugs, the same category as morphine and methamphetamine) have a paradoxical calming effect on the minds of ADHD patients. They’re convenient, effective and popular—90 percent of ADHD patients who take them see improvement. Pop a pill; problem solved. Many parents swore by them. Teachers praised them for bringing calm to unruly classrooms.

With side effects like heart palpitations, sleeplessness, dizziness, irritability, headaches and nausea, the Leibovitzes were reluctant to have their son, Adam, on such medication. Instead, they made sure Adam got plenty of exercise.

That plan worked for three years. “Adam became a high-energy kid who was also very bright.” But when Adam reached middle school, the demands of schoolwork became too much.

His parents worried that he wouldn’t keep up. “As he grew older, every year he’d be expected to concentrate a little harder and sit a little longer in his seat,” his mother says. “When it came time to do his homework, he’d be rolling around under the table or running into the next room. He’d shout out the answers to us. He always knew the answers. He just couldn’t sit still to write them down.” When Adam turned 10, his parents decided to try the medication. On Adam’s first day on Ritalin, he came home from school and declared it a success. “I felt clearer,” he told his parents. “I could sit in class and pay attention.”

During this time, his father attached a trailer bike to his own and tempted Adam to join his Saturday morning training rides with the promise of donuts. That simple weekend ritual would eventually change the boy’s life.

For the past 30 years, athletes, coaches, sports psychologists and medical researchers have probed and debated one of the most complex mysteries of the human body: How does exercise affect the brain? Common sense and our own experience tell us it does something. Every parent knows the best way to settle down a hopped-up kid is to take him out to the playground and run the bug juice out of him. A generation ago, teachers and coaches frequently used this approach as well.

This seemed a homespun, intuitive remedy, but in fact there was a scientific basis for it. In 1978, two years before the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recognized ADHD as a condition, W. Mark Shipman, MD, conducted a simple test. Shipman was medical director of the San Diego Center for Children, an institute for psychologically troubled children. Back then, kids at the center were among the few in the United States taking psychostimulants such as Ritalin to calm what was then called hyperactivity. Kids can be naturally impulsive, inattentive and overactive, but those with ADHD are more so, all the time. (ADHD is an umbrella term that also includes ADD, attention deficit disorder.)

Shipman sent a group of hyperactive kids running for as much as 45 minutes a day, four days a week. An amazing thing happened: The running kids started acting as if they were getting extra doses of medication. After a while, the doctors who monitored the behavior of each child began lowering drug doses for most of the runners. Very few nonrunning participants had their doses reduced. The doctors who were administering the doses didn’t know which students were running; the changes in behavior were that clear.

Shipman’s study might have led to a boom in physical fitness programs for ADHD-identified kids. It didn’t. Instead, just the opposite occurred: Doctors began writing more prescriptions.

At the time of Shipman’s study, few parents had heard of Ritalin. By 1988, half a million kids were taking the drug. By 1995 that figure had quadrupled. The United States was using five times as much Ritalin as the rest of the planet combined. “An increase of this magnitude in the use of a single medication,” observed pediatrician and Running on Ritalin author Lawrence Diller, MD, “is unprecedented for a drug that is treated as a controlled substance.”

It wasn’t that Shipman’s research was discredited. In fact, at least two other studies conducted in the 1980s confirmed his findings. What happened instead was a societal shift away from time-consuming natural remedies such as exercise and in favor of quick-fix solutionspart of the same cultural sea change that has resulted in the nation’s worsening obesity problem.

Adam stayed on Ritalin through his early teens. Disliking some of the side effects, most notably feeling “emotionally flattened.” 

“I’d take it during the week, go off it on weekends, and then back on again on Monday,” Adam recalls. “On Monday I’d be droned out, kind of a zombie. I had no character, no personality. I hated that.”

So, his sophomore year, Adam asked his parents if he could go off his medication. It wasn’t long before his grades plummeted and Adam was back on medication. Meanwhile, he was riding his bike. A lot.

Jeff Leibovitz’s doughnut lure worked better than he’d imagined. When he was 13, Adam talked his dad into letting him do the TRIRI, a group ride across 300 miles of Indiana countryside, on his own. Around the same time a bike-racing craze swept through the Leibovitzes community, propelled by Guy East, now a professional rider with the Trek-Livestrong team. East, then a teenager, lived nearby, and local kids spotted him whipping past on training rides. Adam and his best friend began entering races.

Adam got really good really fast. He announced himself to the cycling world three years ago, at 15, by finishing third in his first junior national time-trial championship, one place behind 16- year-old phenom Taylor Phinney. Long and lean, Leibovitz had grown into a confident racer with a body that could absorb an uncommon amount of suffering. With his jug ears and big-toothed grin, he could have passed as Michael Phelps’s younger brother.

Adam kept racing and winning: the Quad Cities and Tour of St. Louis crits, time trials at St. Louis, Red River Gorge and the U.S. Junior National Championships. “At a certain point he grew beyond my ability to coach him,” his father says. Jeff’s friend Dean Peterson agreed to work with Adam on a training regimen. Peterson had recently taken over as head coach at Marian University, a small liberal arts school in Indianapolis with one of the nation’s top cycling programs.

Peterson’s workout schedule introduced concepts like rest weeks and peaking into the young athlete’s life. As Adam adapted to the ramped-up program, he began to notice something unusual. He was taking Ritalin on weekdays, but when he trained hard on weekends there seemed to be a carryover effect. On Mondays his mind was calm even before he popped a Ritalin. “I’d experiment with it,” he says. “When I was off the meds and rode a lot, I’d feel great. I could concentrate. When I’d take rest weeks I’d be bouncing off the walls.”

Halfway through his junior year, with his grades back up, Adam sat down with his parents. Again he said: I’ve had it. I want to quit the Ritalin. But this time he had a plan. He’d use cycling to manage his ADHD.

Almost immediately, the drug-free experiment was a remarkable success. Adam cruised through the first half of his senior year. He rode nearly every day. During recovery days he’d find other ways to exercise and soothe his brain. Adam’s progress was so impressiveand his desire to move up to the next level of cycling so greatthat he cut a deal with school administrators to graduate a semester early. When Peterson offered him a place on the Marian University team, he accepted immediately. This past January, Lori and Jeff Leibovitz helped Adam load up the family car and moved him into the teenage glory of a cinderblock dorm room.

He doesn’t know how the cycling clears his head, allows him to focus. All he knows is that it works. “Riding,” he says, “is my Ritalin.”

What is really going on inside Adam Leibovitz’s brain?

It probably isn’t the endorphins, which mainly affect pain suppression and mood elevation. Researchers now understand that the clearing effect more likely has to do with a different, but similarly mysterious, process centered in the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that plays an important role in movement, coordination, attention and learning. The most accepted theory about ADHD is that it’s largely caused by a deficit of neurotransmitters, which relay signals to and from the basal ganglia. Ritalin works by boosting the concentration of two neurotransmitters in particular: dopamine and norepinephrine. Adam’s rigorous race training most likely caused his body to produce the same effect.

“A bout of exercise is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin,” says John Ratey, MD, a Harvard Medical School professor who has treated and studied ADHD for more than 20 years. His most recent research is chronicled in his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. The Prozac effect comes from endorphins. The Ritalin effect, Ratey says, has to do with boosting the concentration of neurotransmitters in the basal ganglia. “Regular exercise can raise the baseline levels of both norepinephrine and dopamine,” he says, “which are the same neurotransmitters that Ritalin and Adderall go after.”

ADHD drugs don’t suffer from a lack of critics, but Ratey isn’t among them. “I use them for my patients all the time,” he says. “They’re very useful drugs. But in some cases, if a person does enough exercise then Ritalin becomes a little less vital in the treatment of their condition.”

And it’s not just any exercise. Some activities are better brain boosters, and cycling is one of the best. David Conant-Norville, MD, a psychiatrist in Beaverton, Oregon, who specializes in adolescents and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, recently surveyed his colleagues about the best and worst sports for athletes with ADHD. Cycling, swimming and running are tops. At the bottom are soccer, hockey and baseball. The best sports demanded constant physical exertion and a suite of technical movements that engaged brain functions dealing with balance, timing, error correction, decision-making and focus.

“ADHD is imperfectly named,” says Conant-Norville. “People with the condition don’t have a deficit of attention. They have a problem with attention control during boring or mundane tasks. Which is why the intense focus of cycling is great for someone with ADHD. If you’re moving in the pack in a cycling race, you’re highly focused on other riders around you as well as the road ahead. And you’re constantly thinking about strategy, whether to attack or hang back.”

John Ratey agrees. “Challenging the brain and body has a greater positive impact than aerobic exercise alone,” he says. “We’re just starting to see the effects of movement complexity in recent research.”

One study in particular caught Ratey’s eye. Researchers at a German university last year asked 115 teenage students at an elite sports academy to take a baseline test that measured attention and concentration. Then they were split. One group performed 10 minutes of exercise that required complex, highly coordinated movements. The other did simpler movements at the same level of aerobic activity. The kids took another attention and concentration test. Both groups improved their original results, but the students who performed the complex movements significantly outscored the others. The complex coordination, the researchers concluded, “might lead to a preactivation of parts of the brain which are responsible for mediating functions like attention.”

There’s another aspect to it as well. Call it gallows focus. “The prospect of the gallows doth wonderfully concentrate the mind,” Samuel Johnson once famously wrote, and something similar can be said for exercise that involves a touch of risk. Let your attention drift in the peloton, and you might crash into the rider in front of you. Distraction in the dojo is rewarded with a painful body blow. By contrast, a soccer player who loses his concentration is just a guy standing in a field of grass.

Other studies have shown exercise to be beneficial to the brain.

There’s plenty of research to back up the neurotransmitter theory. In 1997, researchers found that treadmill running significantly increased the production of dopaminethat key neurotransmitter, along with norepinephrine, in the brain’s attention centerin rats. In a later study, German scientists found that intense exercise boosted the human body’s production of both dopamine and norepinephrine. In 1999, Michael Wendt, PhD, a researcher at the State University of New York at Buffalo, found marked improvement in ADHD kids who exercised for 40 minutes a day. In 2002, a University of Georgia study reported a promising correlation between exercise and improved focus in children with ADHD.

With physical education programs being cut in school districts across America, it’s no wonder we’ve seen a rise in ADHD diagnoses and a decrease in test scores.

If only we could get more kids on bikes. Now where on earth could one buy a kid’s bike?

Above is an excerpt from Riding is My Ritalin by Bruce Barcott. For the full article, visit Bicycling.com
To learn how and why cycling can help kids perform better in school, see our story Cycling Makes Your Kid Smarter.
For more information on alternative treatments for ADHD, see this article by Dr. Mercola.
For Higher Gear‘s range of non-drug treatments for ADHD – kids bikes by Specialized – come visit us.

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