The Complete Atlanta 1996 Olympic Film

The official Olympic film of the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games has been uploaded to the  official Olympic YouTube channel.

This official Olympic film features some of the most inspiring and courageous stories from the Atlanta Games including those of Michael Johnson, Josia Thugwane, Naim Süleymanoğlu, Ghada Shouaa and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

October ElliptiGO rides: fast versus scenic

There are two ways to ride an ElliptiGO. Usually, I go for the "all-out" approach and that means riding as hard as I can, being aware of my surroundings, but not really seeing the beauty of where I ride. I did a ride like this on Friday. If I am not riding the Nashua Rail Trail, I usually head out to Pepperell, MA and then back up to Hollis, NH where I ride traces of the roads I used to ride with the Nashua Velo Club 20 years ago on the Tuesday night time trials or Wednesday night club rides. I also cover the Applefest 1/2 Marathon course in Hollis as well as the Fast 5K downhill course.Many good memories fuel my rides through these wonderful and scenic roads.

Friday, I tried out an aerodynamic crouched down position on my EllipitGO. I had always been told to ride standing tall and in good posture on my ElliptiGO, so that even when facing a very strong headwind during the 2014 Seacoast Century, I never even thought of attempting to bend down and go Aerodynamic. That is until I saw a photo of last weeks ElliptiGO World Championships time trial race of winner Rick Bienias going Aero on his ElliptiGO.

Well, that photo intrigued me and I couldn't wait to go against conventional ElliptiGO wisdom and try out this aero position. So the next day I gave it a shot. It is very doable and I did go faster. Your forearms really feel the burn as you stay crouched down. I don't think it will ever be a daily riding position, but when racing, facing a headwind, or just when I want to go fast I will certainly keep working on it (I am quite positive I wasn't as low and as fast looking as Rick either). Here is my Strava ride while aero.

Today was a beautiful New England fall day, so I decided to ride the ElliptiGO the other way: to just enjoy a ride and take in the scenery. Sadly, I usually don't ride this way at all. Last week I hit the 5000 mile mark for ElliptiGO miles in 2014. It is safe to say that far fewer than 100 miles were just to get out there and look around. I also brought my camera and took some photos, but I got far less than 1% of the beauty on the my Pepperell-Hollis course. I basically did the same ride as Friday, except for a couple of extra side trips, and here are a few photos of the scenery in my neck of the woods on a sunny October day.

Here is my Strava activity for the ride, much slower than Friday, but just as rewarding.