Western world’s winner writes weblog

Gary Schmitt, footbike veteran men’s sprint world champion (the first American to attain world-champion status) (.xls results file), has a new ‘blog, succinctly called Kick Racer.

Gary’s “About” page modestly says,

I kick a scooter – an adult scooter called a Footbike. It’s been five years of steady kicking for me, plus about five years of erratic kicking before that. I kick on TeamFootbikeUSA as the captain of the team. This is a great gig and I get exercise without thinking about it. However, I am not quitting [my] day job.

Bookmark this one! Welcome to WordPress, Gary!

Closet kickbiker comes out on twitter

Moses at FootbikeUSA talks to many professional athletes about his machines, but the next time he sees them, they’re mum. Turns out (says Mose) that often they’ve latched on to a training aid they’d rather keep secret.

Now Garmin-Slipstream pro cyclist Tom Danielson (who currently holds the record for the fastest ascent of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, in the Race to the Clouds competition, and the record time for the Mt. Evans Hill Climb in Colorado, which traverses the highest paved road in North America) has put it out on twitter:

I’m taking my offseason training to a new level. Just finished footbiking the peak to peak. www.footbikeusa.com

Fasten your helmet-straps. It may be a wild ride.

Why not eat like a kid, too?

Our favorite transportation is that of children; Paul Rudnick has grown up eating like children would like to. From the New York Times:

Halloween always brings bogeymen to terrify children, but this year the bookstore holds its own terrors for parents. “I Shudder,” the new book by the playwright and humorist Paul Rudnick, reveals a horrible truth no parent wants published: It is possible, it seems, to live on candy.

Mr. Rudnick is the living proof. At 51, 5-foot-10 and an enviably lean 150 pounds, Mr. Rudnick does not square with the inevitable mental image of a man who has barely touched a vegetable other than candy corn in nearly a half-century.

Bicycles can be useful, too

I have identified two situations where bicycles can be more useful than footbikes. This is not including long distances or luggage-carrying, both of which can be tackled with footbikes, just to a slightly lesser degree than bicycles, but situations where bicycles have a clear advantage: in rain and snow.

Scooters don’t hurt people…

From the Denver Post:

A 32-year-old woman suspected of beating another woman with a child’s scooter was arrested last night in Greeley.

Renee Soto is being held on suspicion of third-degree assault, said Sgt. Joe Tymkowych, a Greeley Police Department spokesman.

Let’s hope this doesn’t get lawmakers pushing for federal scooter regulation…

Alternate realities

“… in which neither the chain drive nor the direct drive was ever invented and the best we managed to do* was to refine the ‘dandy horse’” (according to BikeSnobNYC). Search “footbikers”

*We could do worse…

Of course I stood up for the team.

Mark Sisson says training is no guarantee of health

As a sufferer from celiac “disease” (it’s really more of a condition than a disease), I’ve been interested in the so-called Paleolithic diet, which by definition (no agricultural foods) is gluten-free.

I should have known there are those who take the “paleo” concept to the next level – that of exercising. Lately I’ve been noticing those who argue that humans are designed for moving around a lot, like walking, but with only short bursts of intense effort.

Kai Immonen sets 400m track record

Finnish TV reports that Kai Immonen, shown here at the 2009 Sankt Wendel IKSA Eurocup races in Germany (where he won the men’s race), has set a new world record for kicking – and we do mean kicking – 400 meters on the track: 42.1 seconds.

A tip o’ the helmet to Bob Dymond.

Modern man a wimp, says anthropologist

LONDON (Reuters) – Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

I believe I’ll go out for a long kick. Maybe dragging a log.

Wow! Now that’s a testimonial!

Kickit Marketing’s Sarah Cox has come a long way since she unwrapped her first Footbike one year ago – already active, new twins (in addition to two youngsters already) stopped her in her tracks a while. But when she and husband Chris got Footbike Fever, things changed in a big way.

Read her inspiring story at Kickit Marketing »