I just read an article in the New York Times about cycling and bone loss. Recent studies on bone density in elite cyclists show that they have weaker bones than normal.

My three-point common sense survey of all the research:
* Cycling is a very low impact activity that does not stress bones
* When bones are stressed they get stronger
* When bones are not stressed (but the rest of your body is stressed) your body can redirect the effort it would take to maintain or increase bone strength and put it somewhere else. (That's my hypothesis based on reading the article.)

Some additional points:
* The studies covered elite cyclists that apparently don't much outside of cycling, but they do it at high intensity for long periods of time
* They are likely to be weight-weenies concerned with keeping their body mass as low as functionally possible
* Triathlon has cross training built in. ;)

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/is-bicycling-bad-for-your-bones...

The 2009 Tour of Payne is this Saturday. I completely forgot about it. I'll go down to Cooper's tomorrow and register. A few months ago I was planning on doing either the century (105 miles) or the metric century (64 miles). But since I haven't been on my bike other than a few commutes to work I'm looking at the 20 mile or possibly the 38 mile route.

I still need to build a new rear wheel for the road bike, so I'll be riding the hybrid. I don't like flat handlebars (wrist pain) so I'd better do the 20 mile. That will be a good trial run for the duathlon in Tulsa in a few weeks.

http://tour-of-payne.info/

I have been complaining about how cloudy the water is in the YMCA pool. At the same time my goggles were leaking a lot, so I got a new set. Wow - the cloudiness was right in front of my eyes! It's still cloudy and I can't see the other side, but I can see the bottom of the deep section and I can clearly see people a few lanes away, where I used to see blobs.

I think this week I'm going to start going to the lap swims at the city pool - it's a 50-meter pool out in the sun so that should be fun. The thirty or forty-five minute lap session is $1.