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An Editor's Rambling
Tony Picardo:
Its' been awhile since
I have needed to sit down and write something for our STM
newsletter. As many of you are aware, I took a two-week bike trip
down the Oregon and California coast
in September. The coastline has a lot more hills than one might imagine. One of
the guys on the trip had an altimeter. We logged close to thirty
thousand feet of climbing over 650 miles. It was a very
therapeutic trip. I could not remember which day of the week it was
after being on the road for a few days. It was great. Of
course I also miss the mountain hiking as
well and look forward to riding with many of you. I have out-fitted
the bike with some new Kenda Gnarly mud tires (courtesy of the volunteer raffle at
the poker run) and am looking forward to trying them out. As I
have mentioned before, fall is a great time to go riding. What else
can you do in the rain and have such a great time? I would love to hear
from members about recent rides taken you feel are noteworthy. I
am stuck in the rut of Victor Falls and Tiger Mountain. I know
our members would love to hear about
a new Don Swanson trail that needs to be checked out or some really great
new piece of riding gear or clothing. Keep in mind that we would
also like to have a classified section to the newsletter if there are
things anyone has to sell. Just
let me know what you want to sell or buy and I'll post it in the newsletter. Other important notes:
Tiger Mountain is now closed till spring, 2003 in order to prevent
trail erosion. Victor falls will also be closing fairly soon
(November 1) due to the selling of Christmas Trees. Please
respect these closures.
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Dino Rick Russell bio:
The elder statesman of Single Track Mind Cycling Club.
Julia Shozen
Dino Rick Russell AKA 'the Dinosaur' apologizes to
his fellow
mountain
bike riders for being 'OFS' (Old Fat and Slow). He says he is
not slacking or having a bad attitude. He is 71 now
and
feels he has reasons to be slower than he was at 50. Actually in
fact he is more fit than most people in their 40's.
I asked
him about his secret of staying in good shape and still being able to ride mountain bikes after age 70. I'd much rather
imagine
myself enjoying bike rides rather than being unable to even lift a
mountain bike much less ride one after I am 70. Rick
knows
people his age that are just 'basket cases' that cannot even walk
around the block. They won't even try to do some-thing physical
like go for a short walk with him. "They just gave up." Rick says his mother always encouraged his natural
inclination to be physically active when he was growing up. His
mother
believed the best health care one could give oneself was to stay
active. "If you don't keep moving you are going to
rust."
Rick thinks you don't need to be good or the best at something to enjoy doing it. Just doing something physically
active
frequently is the key. "Never give up, always be
active". Some days you feel sick or tired, but just getting out for
an
hour or
going to the gym for an hour is better than giving in. Rick has consistently had an attitude of including various
types of
physically active recreational interests into his lifestyle. He made it a personal policy of doing something at least 52
times a
year. When he was an alpine skier, he would go skiing 3
times a week so he could get in 52 ski trips in during
the ski
season.
Before
moving to the Northwest, he worked in Arizona for 14 years.
Throughout his working career even when he had to
travel
to foreign countries as a consultant he often did some running in
the morning before going to work to keep in shape.
He
thinks some people thought he was crazy to get up early and go
running. While in Arizona he took up sports car racing.
It was
well known among local Arizona racers that the
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