What did bicycle riders in the 1890s drink? Turns out, not much. And when
they did drink, they drank weird things. They were afraid of water, actually.
Makes sense, water quality was hit or miss, especially in the places where
they might ride. More below.
DON'TS FOR RIDERS Some Suggestion Dropped by Champion Zimmerman Sun, May 3, 1896 – Page 23 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
United States of America) · Newspapers.com
Don't expect to accomplish everything in a day.
Don't attempt to run down cable or trollev cars.
Don't be afraid to ride a diamond-frame wheel.
Don't go Into a century run without training for it.
Don't forget that the race is won in the last sprint.
Don't begin to ride for at least an hour after meals.
Don't occupy more than your own share of the road.
Don't drink cold fluids when overheated from riding.
Don't lack confidence in yourself when learning to ride.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you were once a novice.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you must pedal straight.
Don't race until you have prepared yourself for the strain.
Don't think of doing any road riding on your racing machine.
Don't pass a wheelman in distress without offering assistance.
Don't ride so long that you return home thoroughly exhausted.
Don't pull all the force of your pedaling in in a downward push.
Don't wait until you become tired before turning about for home.
Don't rush out on the road before you know how to ride properly.
Don't blame the other fellow for every collision you happen to be in.
Don't forget that others have as much right on the road as yourself.
Don't ride more than a mile at a time if a greater distance tires you.
Don't try to do too much at the start, particularly if you are a woman.
Don't allow your leg to get perfectly straight at any time while riding.
Don't have your saddle so far to the rear that your position is not easy.
Don't jump off your wheel and throw yourself down on the damp grass.
Don't forget there are instructors who will make a competent rider of you.
Don't think you are entitled to any more of the road than any other rider.
Don't go out on a long run without being prepared for accidents to the wheel.
Don't think you can get a high-grade wheel for anything but a high-grade price.
Don't forget that in a collision between a wheel and a wagon the wagon never suffers.
Don't drink the common drinking water in the different towns you pass through.
Don't drink cold water. Gargle the throat and rinse the mouth with it when thirsty.
Don't lose sight of the fact that the bicycle is a great developer of physical beauty.
Don't permit a feeling of nervous and aprehension to affect you when learning to ride.
Don't deviate from a regular mode of living. This applies to the track man particularly.
Don't be afraid of the man who pulls out ahead of you at the beginning of the race.
Don't make any sacrifice to secure lightness of the wheel. Lightness means less rigidity.
Don't fail to remember that those ahead cannot hear you coming unless you ring your bell.
Don't imagine you are an expert until you can manage the wheel without putting your hands on the bars.
TIPS FOR WHEEL RIDERS. Wed, Sep 2, 1896 – Page 8 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Alameda, California, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
About the first thing noticed after riding for some time is an intense thirst. The habit of stopping by the wayside and indulging in a drink of iced water, ice-cold beer, lemonade or any one of the numerous other beverages kept in such places, is one of the bad habits common with cyclists. Sit down and get thoroughly cooled off before drinking anything that is cold.
Many cyclists avoid an intense thirst by chewing gum. This habit may be indulged in with perfect safety, provided the pure and old-fashioned spruce gum is used. It is an open question as to which will prove the most injurious to the stomach - the cold drinks or the saliva impregnated with all sorts of powerful flavoring substances contained in some of the modern "chewing gums." - The process of manufacture of most of the so-called "gums" is secret, so that one cannot tell what he is chewing.
Riding uphill is always a dangerous thing, but particularly so in warm weather. It causes the heart to overact at a furious rate, and this overaction when continued for any length of time, must eventually cause an enlargement or dilation of the organ, with such symptoms as shortness of breath, rapid and- feeble heart action and loss of flesh and strength.
The wise bicyclist never rides up hill. He dismounts at the foot of the hill and wheels his machine to the summit, thus avoiding the risks involved were he to ride to the top.
The eye is also apt to be affected as the result of indiscreet riding. There are cases recorded in which the vision was very materially interfered with through the rupture of a minute blood vesseL The trouble in each case was attributed to "scorching" in hot weather.
Long-distance runs should never be indulged in unless the cyclist has had a previous training for them, as they are highly productive of the different troubles mentioned above.
When one compares the number of people who start on a "century run" with the "survivors," it becomes quite apparent that a very important percentage cannot stand the prolonged strain.
Another danger to cyclists - particularly those who go for long rides in the country - is sunstroke. It is always best to ride before noon and after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The danger of sunstroke is always much less during these hours.
When seized with a feeling of exhaustion, fatigue, headache and faintness, the rider should discontinue riding at once and lie down in a cool and shady place. Riders who are subject to attacks of faintness and headache will do well to carry a small quantity of aromatic spirits of ammonia. A teaspoonful of this preparation taken in little cold water will afford almost instant relief.
The "run," however, should be discontinued at once.
Cyclists should remember that riding a wheel after a heavy meal is far worse than not riding one at all.
In the position assumed by most riders the stomach is to a greater or less degree pressed upon by the muscles belonging to it, gastric digestion, in consequence, being interfered with both on account of the pressure from the position, as well as from the withdrawal of blood in proportion as increased activity of other functions demands its presence.
This combination of conditions renders riding of this type dangerous and hurtful exercise, and one which should be avoided by all. Plan your riding so as to have a fairly empty stomach during its continuance, rest for at least a half hour after the ride is finished, then eat slowly, and the result of your cycling will be health and comfort.
Diet Rules for Tourists. Sat, Apr 27, 1895 – 2 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
ZIMMERMAN'S BOOK ON TRAINING. Sun, May 5, 1895 – 25 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
The essence of what the champion has to say about training is this:
"In training strive to build up, not to tear down. Free action is a part of the form of strength which is a necessity to the cyclist who is to become a flyer. The natural build of a man who is to become a great rider is something to be regarded. As to breathing power, the chest of the rider of course is not to be small, although in the cases of some of the best developed cycling athletes the chest appears small in comparison with the almost abnormally developed lower limbs."
Zimmerman believes it is inadvisable to do much riding in the winter time for the reason that one's powers need a rest, particularly if the work has been hard during the summer season. In the springtime he commences training by riding from ten to thirty miles a day on the road. He rides slowly. At the end of three weeks he abandons road work and takes to the track. By that time his muscles are working smoothly and the stiffness consequent upon first work in the season has passed away. He strongly advises against walking or running while training for bicycle racing. Moderate walking of course is not objectionable. Running will improve the lung capacity, but does not necessarily improve the muscles used in riding. Once on the track, he recommends slow work at the outset, and cautions against starting out at a pace that brings on fatigue at the very outset. The pace should be quickened gradually until finally the work is of a stiff sort. During preliminary work there should be no sprinting. Zimmerman considers the process of rubbing with bare hands by a strong person to be one of the most valuable parts of training. After a good speed is gained then comes the critical point of development. In the morning he suggests a ride of from six to eight miles at a lively pace, increasing in speed toward the finish. In the afternoon the same distance or a little longer, putting in a fast quarter at intervals. "Always keep something up your sleeve in place of running yourself clean out, for you can build up on a stock of vitality you already have easier than you can recuperate from a severe working out." These are Zimmerman's words.
Finally the champion closes by stating races are always won on the last quarter. He admonishes racing men never to enter a race for a distance for which they have not been trained. If men are trained for short races let them keep out of long races, and vice versa.
ROAD RACING IS KILLING Sun, Jul 5, 1896 – 17 · The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
Physician Say It It Is the Worst Form of Physical Exercise.
The recent Waldo park road race will never be forgotten by sensitive persons who stood just north of the tape where they saw the exhausted riders either fall from or dismount their wheels. They saw young men with flat chests and undeveloped bodies, but abnormally developed limbs, almost carried to their tents, their faces of ashen hue and ominous circles below their eyes; their lips blue, and some with blue bodies, too.
Road racing is wrong and should be abolished. The L. A. W. will not recognize it and several of the leading cycle journals have strongly urged that it be done away with entirely. These young men who had to be assisted to their tents lay on cots for ten to thirty minutes so benumbed in mind and body as to be almost unable to talk even to their most intimate friends.
"These long road races tear a man to pieces. Track races are not so bad, but these road races are terrible. A man is under an intense nervous strain and there can be no doubt that it hurts him. Take the strong men, the weight lifters and others; you hear of them for a few years and then they drop out of sight. Why? Because they have broken down the strength which made them prominent. Road races, or any kind of races, for that matter, deplete a man's nervous system and shorten his life. Track racing is not so injurious, for the distances are usually shorter and the average track racer gives more attention to his training. But in these road races the riders are usually inexperienced. They do not diet themselves and they do not seem to understand the ordinary rules of hygiene. In the recent Waldo race some of them rode in a condition that was simply suicidal. When in training they drink soda water and other stuffs which disarrange the normal workings of the stomach; they smoke cigarettes; they eat a hearty meal and ride immediately after; they fasten various concoctions to their necks to suck during the race; they do a dozen things which they should not do. They rub themselves down, but they don't know why. Exercise, you know, is combustion; it is the destruction of tissue. When you have a fire, you have ashes. When you use up muscle, there is left what we call fatigue waste. This is composed chiefly of urea and uric acid, and must be disposed of. After violent exercise a rub-down is necessary to aid the blood vessels to carry off this waste. Always rub yourself toward the heart."
"Why?" put in the reporter.
"Because it is the heart that purifies the blood, and the waste goes off through the blood. If you do not rub down properly you will be stiff after violent exercise, for the carbon dioxide and uric acid will remain in the muscles.
"He should use dumb bells, chest weights or clubs. A gymnasium is the best place for him. If he has dyspepsia, if he is bilious, if he has a flat chest, an irritable or weak heart, if he doesn't understand how to breathe, if he has a weak back or abdominal muscles, then there is danger from strain. 'A chain is no stronger than the weakest link.' He must build up and look after not only the legs, but every other part of the body, and this is particularly true of the internal organisms. He must build himself up from the inside as well as from the outside.
"Now, a boy is under more or less strain from growing. He needs all his vigor to sustain his growth and his muscular system. In racing, the lungs and the heart and the entire nervous system are under great stress, and there is extreme danger if one be not thoroughly trained. The heart may suffer a lesion; that is, one of the valves may be strained until it fails to work properly. Hypertrophy may be induced. By hypertrophy is meant enlargement of the heart. About a year ago an eastern journal published a statement of examinations of some of the leading racing-men of this country. Nearly all of them showed pronounced heart hypertrophy. Ordinarily the apex of the heart is one inch below and to the right of the left nipple, but I have found men in whom the apex of the heart was from half an inch to two inches too low. This may result from overtraining. Another effect of racing or violent exertion in athletics, sometimes, is an increased pulsating area. By this I mean that instead of being able to hear the beat of the heart distinctly from one point only I can hear it equally as well at places an inch or two from where I should hear it. Still, another effect is increased beating of the heart. This is quite common and I have found several instances among the young men of this city who have been riding in cycle races. The normal heart beat is eighty or between ninety-five and 110 after exertion. Wait and I'll get out my records and give you some figures."
Professor Riley brought forth two books and illustrated what he said. "The racing man is apt to suffer first in the heart. He finds that he becomes easily excited, he is nervous. We call this an irritable or nervous heart. In severe cases his hands will get cold and clammy. This indicates that his nervous system is weak. His head becomes congested. Perhaps his heart will skip a beat occasionally. Now, a sufficient amount of judicious exercise will decrease the beat of the heart, but too much will increase it. The man who eats the proper amount of food will get fat; the man who gorges will get thin.
"I have here three examinations of one of your local racing men. He has won several good events in fast time. In October, 1892, I tested his heart and found its beat to be seventy, or good. In October, one year later, his heart beat had increased to ninety-six, while it beat 128 times to the minute, after exertion. In November, 1895, I tested his heart again, and I found that, after the same exertion as in October, 1893, the heart beat 160 times to the minute. Note the indications - an increase of thirty-two beats in two years, and fifty beats above normal. I warned the young man to quit racing. The last examination in November was when he was in training and his fellow riders said he was fine as silk. His heart has been perhaps permanently injured. The test showed that he had been overtrained.
"Now take another example. Here is a young man whom I examined in February, 1890. Then his heart beat was seventy. One year later it was still seventy, with ninety beats per minute after exertion. In February, 1895, his heart beat had increased to eighty-four, with 132 beats per minute after exertion, or twenty-two above what it should be. Two conditions are possible from cycle racing, an increased beat of the heart or a decreased beat. The brother of this young man is an example of decreased heart beat, seventy-two, with 102 after exertion. In February, 1895, his normal heart beat was fifty-six, with only seventy-two after exertion or just what it should have been before.
"These figures are really serious in their indications and they are not to be disputed. The last named young man did not ride during the winter and when I examined him last spring he was not so strong physically as when his heart beat so abnormally slow, but the heart beat had come back to normal, for it registered seventy-two, with eighty-eight after exertion. A man with an irritable heart can bring his heart beat back to normal by judicious exercise. Any man by careful exercise can strengthen his body and any man with a strong body can race without serious harm, provided he does not keep it up too long. The danger is largely in these road races and improper training."
Another physician, a surgeon whose name is known all over the West, refused to talk if his name were mentioned. He rides a wheel and is a firm believer in the benefits to be derived from cycling both for women and men. But the doctor holds no sympathy with racing and particularly road racing. "The strain is infinitely too much for most men," said he. "The heart and lungs are called upon to do an enormous amount of work; too much work. Now a great many person lose sight of another thing and that is the reaction. The heart is trained for enormous effort, yet after the race many go out of training. The heart does more than it is required to do and this is about as bad as doing too little. I think it is true that professional athletes are not long lived."
The doctor was asked if the peculiar pallor and blueness of the faces of the road race riders indicated heart disease and he said: "It may indicate heart disease or it may be caused by something else. In a long race it is often impossible for the rider to breathe fast enough to properly oxygenize his blood and the result is that all of the impurities are not taken out and a bluish tint is given to his skin. Exercise, you know, is combustion and if the waste cannot be taken from the blood discoloration will result. Very severe effort will also cause the muscles to bind and the skin around them will turn blue and sometimes black. Some persons have asserted that this blueness is due partly to the position of bending over the handle bars, but I do not think that is the real cause, although it may have something to do with it. My idea is that it is insufficient expansion of the lungs."
It was an easy matter for the reporter to get the names of half a dozen riders who have been warned of their heart. Most of them make light of all talk about there being danger, but "pin them down" and they will admit that there is considerable risk and real danger where a man is not in condition. Those who have felt bad effects say that after a hard race they feel weak and a trifle unsteady in the nerves for a week or ten days. Complete recovery is slow.
The suggestion that a physician's certificate should control entries to road races does not meet with favor among the racing men, but there would appear to be reason in it. Cycling has come forward so rapidly that its dangers have not been fully appreciated, but unless something is done hundreds of young riders will hurt themselves every year. Men like Johnson, Bald, Cooper and others ride all season and do not seem to be the worse for it, but such professional men have a skilled trainer to watch their health, their diet, their exercise and their riding. It is part of their business. Further they take general exercise to build up the entire body. Titus and Cabanne, who rode here last year, were fine specimens of physical manhood. Neither seemed to show indications of their calling, but a peep into their rooms in the hotel showed punching bags, dumb bells, boxing gloves, clubs, an entire outfit for a small gymnasium. One room was given over to these "traps." When they begin training early in the season they go at it gradually. But the young "scorcher" is too ambitious. It takes too long for results to show in that way, and the chances are that a week after he has begun training he has tried his speed. One racing man remarked that two weeks' training was all that he required to put him in shape for racing. This man is among those who, Professor Riley's figures show, should not race.
Advice on training from John West Sun, Apr 3, 1898 – 22
· The Boston Globe (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
Speaking of road riding reminds one that there will be a number of road races during the coming season and perhaps a few words in connection with that branch of the sport would not be amiss. At this season of the year many of the youngsters are getting out their machines and putting in some practice while they prepare for the early road races. In regard to the advice for such riders John West. the veteran bicycle trainer, says: "Many of the young men who contemplate entering road races of 98 will perhaps be willing to listen to a few words at advice as to self-care and training for the event. Too many of the entrants are boys, employed in the day, and find it difficult to get time to train. Right here is where many do themselves great harm. They hurry home, eat supper and go right out for a hard ride. This is very injurious. What I should advise is this:
"Rise early in the morning, eat a few oatmeal biscuits. take a ride for three or four miles, return and take a sponge-down with a little cold water with some alcohol in it. If the weather is not fit, a brisk walk to business, if not over two or three miles, is good. Walking will do riders much good at all times.
"A young business man should, after working hours, put on a change of clothing, eat a few crackers, but drink nothing, and go out for a spin before a hearty supper. For the first week do not attempt to go more than a three-minute clip of four miles or so. The second week increase the distance to five or six miles. It would be wise not to go over this. If possible the rider should then be rubbed on a training cot with a dry towel and liniment used. The portion of the body not being rubbed should not be exposed. Take no more exercise for an hour later, eating supper in the meantime.
"I should not advise a rider to begin training before April 1. Those that can train in the daytime should follow the same general directions.
"As to food, drink not more than three pints of liquid food a day. Take as much lean meat as desired. cut fine, mix well with boiled rice and one or two soft-boiled eggs. Some apple sauce or fruit would be good after. Drink nothing while eating, but a half hour after weak tea, boiled milk or boiled water cooled off. Iced drinks certainly retard training.
"A week or two before the race a rider should try the course to familiarize himself with it.
"A word in regard to rubbing. It should be toward the heart at all times. Use no oils in training. A liniment is to clean the pores out. Last of all, no rider should attempt to rub himself, as this will tend to retard progress more than anything else."
John West was born in Edinburgh in 1858. At the present time he is 40 years of age, 5 feet 9 3/4 inches in hight and weighing 175 pounds. He was naturally an athlete and for 24 years followed the Caledonian games. Some of his records are 5 feet 9 3/4 inches in the high jump, professional record. In exhibition he has done 6 feet 2. Pole vault 10 feet 6 inches, standing high jump 4 feet 10 inches, standing broad jump 10 feet; running jump 19 feet, hop-step-and-jump 42 feet. 21-pound shot 34 feet, 100-yard run 10 1/4 seconds. He has run 126 miles in 18 1/2 hours, and has competed in 24-hour running races. He has trained cyclists for the last 10 years, and is today one of the best-known men in the country at the game.
WHAT CYCLISSTS SHOULD DRINK. Sun, May 24, 1896 – Page 8
· The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
"Beer, beer," replied three or four men.
"We want beer and plenty of it. Nothing quenches the thirst like beer," said a round-faced, thirsty-looking man. "Now, I never drink anything else, I don't take such very long trips, because I get so tired after twenty miles that I can't pedal."
"Of course you do if you drink beer," answered a splendidly developed young man in a jaunty suit. "I defy any man to ride a wheel and drink beer. It can't be done. You don't ride, and neither do any of those beer drinkers. You all push and puff and perspire along till you come to a road house, and after drinking a schooner or two of beer you can hardly get to the next road house. That isn't cycling. Beer goes to the knees and cuts off a man's power of pedaling and of endurance. It makes one perspire very freely, which is weakening, and makes one liable to catch cold. It is one of the worst drinks that a cyclist can take. Drinking while wheeling is all a habit any way, and a very bad one. I'm deathly afraid of spring and well water, and, knowing the bad effects of beer, I made up my mind to drink nothing while riding. On the hottest days we had last summer I rode eighty-five miles and didn't take a drink of anything on the trip. Several times I sponged my face off with a wet handkerchief and poured water over my arms. That is an excellent substitute for drinking. My advice is, if you must drink something, to wait until you get where you can have lemonade. Take a few sips of this, not too cold. Ice cream is also good, and is beneficial rather than harmful if a few spoonsfuls are eaten slowly. Roast beef and one glass or ale make the best dinner for a cyclist on a run. The meat is nourishing and satisfying, and ale is refreshing, and never goes to the head. Drink that and nothing else is my advice."
I always drink vichy and milk," said a sallow, thin woman.
"That's the reason you always look bilious, my dear, I guess." put in a stout woman in a sweetly malicious tone. "Milk is one of the worst things to take on the road. It is good for very few people, for unless the stomach is in perfect order it sours and frequently causes nausea."
"I have felt sick after taking it," admitted the thin woman; "but I thought it was the heat." '
"No, it was the milk," answered the other. "I have the advantage of you all I think. Now, I drink nothing but water, and what is impure water to you is pure to me. In the first place I always carry my own drinking cup in my tool bag. Many people do this, you know men carry theirs in their pocket. It is a little folding affair that costs only a 25 cents, and has saved me many times, I'm sure. I'm opposed to drinking from a vessel used by Tom, Dick and Harry."
"But that wouldn't purify the water," objected a man.
"Oh, no," she answered, "but I also take a little filter with me when I go into the country for a ride. It is a very small stone filter, not as big as a half pint cup, and you simply fill it with water and drink it through a rubber tube. Why, I've filtered water from a mud puddle in the road just for fun and it looked so clear that I felt tempted to drink it. No cyclist should be without a filter until something is done about the wells and springs, and even then everybody should be provided with an individual cup."
"Sarsaparilla is the best drink to take this time of the year," spoke up a man. "It quenches the thirst and is good for the blood, and is by long odds one of the most popular drinks with wheelmen and wheelwomen. If it was put to a vote, I believe that sarsaparilla would take the palm."
"Many find it too sweet to satisfy them." suggested the manager of the school, who has covered thousands and thousands of miles all over the world on wheel. "I don't think any intoxicating beverages quench the thirst. One drink calls for another, and the more we take the more we crave. God made water to quench thirst primarily, and it is the only thing that will do it. Much of the water that we come across is impure, and cyclists should drink as little as possible; but it is almost as easy to make the proverbial horse drink as it is to keep the average cyclist from it. Therefore, it is an excellent plan always to take a small bottle of lime water on a run. Put a teaspoonful in the water that you drink and it helps to purify it. If you drink milk or ginger ale do the same. I never remember going on a trip without a small bottle of lime water or peppermint, which answers the same purpose, and I've never been made sick by water or any other drink. But, as someone said a while ago, drinking is merely a habit, and a very bad one. When you begin to be thirsty don't think of how a glass of cold beer or a cup of milk would taste. Think of something else. Forget your thirst and it will pass off. Cultivate dryness. It is hard in the beginning, but easy in the end, and, besides, you will be enabled to ride much faster and further with less fatigue if you do not stop to drink every time you see anything in liquid form."
WATER IS BEST. Sun, May 2, 1897 – Page 16 · The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States of
America) · Newspapers.com
"Shouldn't one drink any water," said the girl in Pepper and Salt, opening her eyes with astonishment.
"Yes." replied the Learned Doctor. "A little won't hurt you any. I am not decrying water, but I am going to try to demonstrate to you that you shouldn't drink too much water. Now, we'll suppose it is a redhot day in July, and you are riding along the road, perspiring profusely, inhaling particles of dust now and then, becoming very red in the face and somewhat irritable tn disposition, and you see one of those old-fashioned deep country wells by the roadside. What do you do?"
"Get off and take a drink, of course." said the Matter-of Fact girl, very bluntly.
"Yes," said the Learned Doctor, "and you send the bucket down to the deepest part of the well, fill it with the coldest water and then try to drink it dry."
"What an absurd idea." said the Bloomer girl. "As though a human being, a young woman of the present century, could drink a bucket of water."
"Perhaps my figure of speech was a little exaggerated," said the Learned Doctor. "but all of you know well enough the point I was endeavoring to illustrate - that is, that you drink entirely too much water under the conditions I have specified. Now I'll tell you what it does. Every time that you, when heated, drink water thus copiously it simply aids in throwing open the pores of the skin and causes you to perspire even more freely than before. Not that perspiration is not a good thing during summer rides, but there may be such a thing as more than is absolutely necessary. It weakens you. If you drink very cold water the stomach must bear the shock of the first chill and that causes congestion and throws about three times as much work upon that already overworked organ than is necessary. Water in large quantities under such conditions is not a strengthener."
"Then I suppose that we should stop at the wayside Inns and ask for stimulants to aid the stomach and give us strength," suggested the Pepper and Salt Girl.
"Nothing of the kind." replied the Learned Doctor. "That is about the worst thing you can do. You don't need any stimulants, unless you are taken ill. Beer freely quaffed on a hot day has the same effect as too much water - in fact, even a worse effect, for it disturbs the action of the liver as well as weakening the stomach. Wine is too much of an acid. It may be used in small quantities if diluted with water, but mind, I am not prescribing its use. If the rider is very exhausted, I should say that three tablespoonfuls of whisky in ginger ale - a small glass - would be beneficial for the stomach and for the person who drank it. If I were a bicycle rider, however, I should not become exhausted too often for the sake of the whisky and ginger ale."
"How about milk?'' said the Matter-of-Fact Girl.
"Don't - if it is cold, and you are very warm and possessed of a weak stomach in addition. The chances are that it will curdle at once and distress you exceedingly. It may even render you desperately ill, and if you do not overcome the chill that may follow, the action of the heart will become very weak and irregular and something worse than a fainting fit will ensue."
"Well, then. I'd like to know what we should drink?" retorted the Bloomer Girl rather warmly. "You have tabooed water, stimulants, and pretty much everything else. I suppose you expect us to drink ice cream soda and carry a fountain along to have it handy."
"Young lady, you are frivolous, I am afraid." said the Learned Doctor, shaking his head gravely.
"Indeed I'm not," was the reply; "but what is one going to do? I imagine. you don't want us to drink at all."
"That's it, or nearly it.'' interrupted the man of medicine. "I don't want you to go thirsty, and I want you to refresh yourselves, but I don't want you to do it at your own physical expense. Now, let me tell you a little secret. Instead of drinking so much, try my plan and see if it isn't a success. When you are very warm, in fact almost at the point of becoming overheated, instead of flooding your stomach with great draughts of some cold liquid, immerse both hands in water so that the wrists are covered. Hold them there for some time. Then, instead or drinking two glasses of water, we will say, as may have been your custom, just take two or three swallows, enough to cool your mouth and throat, and resist the temptation to take any more. I venture to say that you will feel entirely refreshed, and willing to repeat the same experiment at the next well, instead of returning to the old practice. By doing this you will cool the blood without running into the danger of bringing on a severe and possibly fatal chill. Give my way a trial."
"Well, if that isn't novel." said the Pepper and Salt Girl. "I never knew before that one could drink through one's wrists. I hope that there will be a warm day soon so that I can try it." - New York Journal
DON'TS FOR RIDERS Some Suggestion Dropped by Champion Zimmerman Sun, May 3, 1896 – Page 23 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
United States of America) · Newspapers.comDON'TS FOR RIDERS
Some Suggestions Dropped by Champion Zimmerman.
Arthur Zimmerman, in his capacity as a cycling editor, has framed the following "Don't," some of which may be found interesting:Don't expect to accomplish everything in a day.
Don't attempt to run down cable or trollev cars.
Don't be afraid to ride a diamond-frame wheel.
Don't go Into a century run without training for it.
Don't forget that the race is won in the last sprint.
Don't begin to ride for at least an hour after meals.
Don't occupy more than your own share of the road.
Don't drink cold fluids when overheated from riding.
Don't lack confidence in yourself when learning to ride.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you were once a novice.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you must pedal straight.
Don't race until you have prepared yourself for the strain.
Don't think of doing any road riding on your racing machine.
Don't pass a wheelman in distress without offering assistance.
Don't ride so long that you return home thoroughly exhausted.
Don't pull all the force of your pedaling in in a downward push.
Don't wait until you become tired before turning about for home.
Don't rush out on the road before you know how to ride properly.
Don't blame the other fellow for every collision you happen to be in.
Don't forget that others have as much right on the road as yourself.
Don't ride more than a mile at a time if a greater distance tires you.
Don't try to do too much at the start, particularly if you are a woman.
Don't allow your leg to get perfectly straight at any time while riding.
Don't have your saddle so far to the rear that your position is not easy.
Don't jump off your wheel and throw yourself down on the damp grass.
Don't forget there are instructors who will make a competent rider of you.
Don't think you are entitled to any more of the road than any other rider.
Don't go out on a long run without being prepared for accidents to the wheel.
Don't think you can get a high-grade wheel for anything but a high-grade price.
Don't forget that in a collision between a wheel and a wagon the wagon never suffers.
Don't drink the common drinking water in the different towns you pass through.
Don't drink cold water. Gargle the throat and rinse the mouth with it when thirsty.
Don't lose sight of the fact that the bicycle is a great developer of physical beauty.
Don't permit a feeling of nervous and aprehension to affect you when learning to ride.
Don't deviate from a regular mode of living. This applies to the track man particularly.
Don't be afraid of the man who pulls out ahead of you at the beginning of the race.
Don't make any sacrifice to secure lightness of the wheel. Lightness means less rigidity.
Don't fail to remember that those ahead cannot hear you coming unless you ring your bell.
Don't imagine you are an expert until you can manage the wheel without putting your hands on the bars.
TIPS FOR WHEEL RIDERS. Wed, Sep 2, 1896 – Page 8 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Alameda, California, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comTIPS FOR WHEEL RIDERS.
Medical Advice on the Way to Maintain Healthful Conditions.
Iced Drinks Should Be Avoided and Over-Exercise Quelled.
There are many people who have a chronic objection to cycling (especially women) and have tried to substantiate their views with arguments that doctors pronounce it harmful. We have consulted many leading medical experts upon the matter, and the weight of their testimony generally is in favor of the wheel. They all agree that cycling, to be really beneficial, should be taken in moderation. Spurts and that amount of exercise that borders on fatigue should be avoided. When the body becomes tired, exertion, instead of being a tonic to the body, becomes a positive depressant and results in evil not only to the muscular, but to the nervous system as well. With care. Judicious riding and avoiding the numerous indiscretions to which so many are addicted, the average person can find cycling healthful to the fullest extent. The following advice has been gathered from the most valuable sources and should be carefully followed:About the first thing noticed after riding for some time is an intense thirst. The habit of stopping by the wayside and indulging in a drink of iced water, ice-cold beer, lemonade or any one of the numerous other beverages kept in such places, is one of the bad habits common with cyclists. Sit down and get thoroughly cooled off before drinking anything that is cold.
Many cyclists avoid an intense thirst by chewing gum. This habit may be indulged in with perfect safety, provided the pure and old-fashioned spruce gum is used. It is an open question as to which will prove the most injurious to the stomach - the cold drinks or the saliva impregnated with all sorts of powerful flavoring substances contained in some of the modern "chewing gums." - The process of manufacture of most of the so-called "gums" is secret, so that one cannot tell what he is chewing.
Riding uphill is always a dangerous thing, but particularly so in warm weather. It causes the heart to overact at a furious rate, and this overaction when continued for any length of time, must eventually cause an enlargement or dilation of the organ, with such symptoms as shortness of breath, rapid and- feeble heart action and loss of flesh and strength.
The wise bicyclist never rides up hill. He dismounts at the foot of the hill and wheels his machine to the summit, thus avoiding the risks involved were he to ride to the top.
The eye is also apt to be affected as the result of indiscreet riding. There are cases recorded in which the vision was very materially interfered with through the rupture of a minute blood vesseL The trouble in each case was attributed to "scorching" in hot weather.
Long-distance runs should never be indulged in unless the cyclist has had a previous training for them, as they are highly productive of the different troubles mentioned above.
When one compares the number of people who start on a "century run" with the "survivors," it becomes quite apparent that a very important percentage cannot stand the prolonged strain.
Another danger to cyclists - particularly those who go for long rides in the country - is sunstroke. It is always best to ride before noon and after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The danger of sunstroke is always much less during these hours.
When seized with a feeling of exhaustion, fatigue, headache and faintness, the rider should discontinue riding at once and lie down in a cool and shady place. Riders who are subject to attacks of faintness and headache will do well to carry a small quantity of aromatic spirits of ammonia. A teaspoonful of this preparation taken in little cold water will afford almost instant relief.
The "run," however, should be discontinued at once.
Cyclists should remember that riding a wheel after a heavy meal is far worse than not riding one at all.
In the position assumed by most riders the stomach is to a greater or less degree pressed upon by the muscles belonging to it, gastric digestion, in consequence, being interfered with both on account of the pressure from the position, as well as from the withdrawal of blood in proportion as increased activity of other functions demands its presence.
This combination of conditions renders riding of this type dangerous and hurtful exercise, and one which should be avoided by all. Plan your riding so as to have a fairly empty stomach during its continuance, rest for at least a half hour after the ride is finished, then eat slowly, and the result of your cycling will be health and comfort.
Diet Rules for Tourists. Sat, Apr 27, 1895 – 2 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comDiet Rules for Tourists.
To those who contemplate touring or taking long rides, the following, printed
in this week's L. A. W. Bulletin, will be read with interest. It will profit
them to cut it out and paste it in their touring caps:
Wheelmen who intend taking a long excursion should eat a hearty dinner the
night before, go to bed early and start on the road at 7 o'clock the next
morning: do not start before breakfast, eat sparingly, but do not be satisfied
with a cup of coffee.
Drink as little as possible on the road, especially no wine or beer, but
drink cold tea if it can be had. If not, the best drink is a glass of vichy. It may not be agreeable to some
but it quenches the thirst without weighting the stomach. Anisette or
peppermint with water or warm milk are very much recommended by cycling
physicians. Eat only light food at noon, eggs, fish and meat, few vegetables,
no salad, no spices, no lobster, no shrimps. no onion, no mackerel and no
pastry of any kind. During the meal drink cold tea or if one must, red wine
diluted with water, or mineral water, but no seltzer.
ZIMMERMAN'S BOOK ON TRAINING. Sun, May 5, 1895 – 25 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States of America) · Newspapers.comZIMMERMAN'S BOOK ON TRAINING.
Says the Rider Should Never Reach the Limit of His Powers of Endurance.
Zimmerman never was awarded a prize for composition in school, and perhaps this accounts for the collaboration of J. M. Erwin with the champion in the writing of a book on the subject of training. A few biographical facts concerning Zimmerman appear in the opening pages of this new work.The essence of what the champion has to say about training is this:
"In training strive to build up, not to tear down. Free action is a part of the form of strength which is a necessity to the cyclist who is to become a flyer. The natural build of a man who is to become a great rider is something to be regarded. As to breathing power, the chest of the rider of course is not to be small, although in the cases of some of the best developed cycling athletes the chest appears small in comparison with the almost abnormally developed lower limbs."
Zimmerman believes it is inadvisable to do much riding in the winter time for the reason that one's powers need a rest, particularly if the work has been hard during the summer season. In the springtime he commences training by riding from ten to thirty miles a day on the road. He rides slowly. At the end of three weeks he abandons road work and takes to the track. By that time his muscles are working smoothly and the stiffness consequent upon first work in the season has passed away. He strongly advises against walking or running while training for bicycle racing. Moderate walking of course is not objectionable. Running will improve the lung capacity, but does not necessarily improve the muscles used in riding. Once on the track, he recommends slow work at the outset, and cautions against starting out at a pace that brings on fatigue at the very outset. The pace should be quickened gradually until finally the work is of a stiff sort. During preliminary work there should be no sprinting. Zimmerman considers the process of rubbing with bare hands by a strong person to be one of the most valuable parts of training. After a good speed is gained then comes the critical point of development. In the morning he suggests a ride of from six to eight miles at a lively pace, increasing in speed toward the finish. In the afternoon the same distance or a little longer, putting in a fast quarter at intervals. "Always keep something up your sleeve in place of running yourself clean out, for you can build up on a stock of vitality you already have easier than you can recuperate from a severe working out." These are Zimmerman's words.
Finally the champion closes by stating races are always won on the last quarter. He admonishes racing men never to enter a race for a distance for which they have not been trained. If men are trained for short races let them keep out of long races, and vice versa.
ROAD RACING IS KILLING Sun, Jul 5, 1896 – 17 · The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comROAD RACING IS KILLING
Physician Say It It Is the Worst Form of Physical Exercise.
A STRONG
WARNING AGAINST IT
Track Racing Bad In Many Cases, But Road Racing Worst of All on Account of the Inexperience of the Riders.
Violent athletic sports, and among them racing, are, perhaps, all right when properly conducted and when participated in by men who have the physique and the training to stand the enormous strain, but cycle racing as it is today is a menace to the health and the longevity of scores of young men. This is especially true of road racing. Almost any road event presents in terrible reality the suffering, and in many cases, the agony, that young riders undergo in an effort to win a small prize.The recent Waldo park road race will never be forgotten by sensitive persons who stood just north of the tape where they saw the exhausted riders either fall from or dismount their wheels. They saw young men with flat chests and undeveloped bodies, but abnormally developed limbs, almost carried to their tents, their faces of ashen hue and ominous circles below their eyes; their lips blue, and some with blue bodies, too.
Road racing is wrong and should be abolished. The L. A. W. will not recognize it and several of the leading cycle journals have strongly urged that it be done away with entirely. These young men who had to be assisted to their tents lay on cots for ten to thirty minutes so benumbed in mind and body as to be almost unable to talk even to their most intimate friends.
DR. FRANK RILEY'S OPINION.
Frank L. Riley, physical director for the Y. M. C. A., a graduate in medicine and a cyclist, was seen by a reporter for the Kansas City Star. Dr. Riley has examined hundreds of men and boys and probably 1.000 In Kansas City alone. Among his measurements are those of a number of local cycling racing men. In answer to a, question he said:"These long road races tear a man to pieces. Track races are not so bad, but these road races are terrible. A man is under an intense nervous strain and there can be no doubt that it hurts him. Take the strong men, the weight lifters and others; you hear of them for a few years and then they drop out of sight. Why? Because they have broken down the strength which made them prominent. Road races, or any kind of races, for that matter, deplete a man's nervous system and shorten his life. Track racing is not so injurious, for the distances are usually shorter and the average track racer gives more attention to his training. But in these road races the riders are usually inexperienced. They do not diet themselves and they do not seem to understand the ordinary rules of hygiene. In the recent Waldo race some of them rode in a condition that was simply suicidal. When in training they drink soda water and other stuffs which disarrange the normal workings of the stomach; they smoke cigarettes; they eat a hearty meal and ride immediately after; they fasten various concoctions to their necks to suck during the race; they do a dozen things which they should not do. They rub themselves down, but they don't know why. Exercise, you know, is combustion; it is the destruction of tissue. When you have a fire, you have ashes. When you use up muscle, there is left what we call fatigue waste. This is composed chiefly of urea and uric acid, and must be disposed of. After violent exercise a rub-down is necessary to aid the blood vessels to carry off this waste. Always rub yourself toward the heart."
"Why?" put in the reporter.
"Because it is the heart that purifies the blood, and the waste goes off through the blood. If you do not rub down properly you will be stiff after violent exercise, for the carbon dioxide and uric acid will remain in the muscles.
"He should use dumb bells, chest weights or clubs. A gymnasium is the best place for him. If he has dyspepsia, if he is bilious, if he has a flat chest, an irritable or weak heart, if he doesn't understand how to breathe, if he has a weak back or abdominal muscles, then there is danger from strain. 'A chain is no stronger than the weakest link.' He must build up and look after not only the legs, but every other part of the body, and this is particularly true of the internal organisms. He must build himself up from the inside as well as from the outside.
"Now, a boy is under more or less strain from growing. He needs all his vigor to sustain his growth and his muscular system. In racing, the lungs and the heart and the entire nervous system are under great stress, and there is extreme danger if one be not thoroughly trained. The heart may suffer a lesion; that is, one of the valves may be strained until it fails to work properly. Hypertrophy may be induced. By hypertrophy is meant enlargement of the heart. About a year ago an eastern journal published a statement of examinations of some of the leading racing-men of this country. Nearly all of them showed pronounced heart hypertrophy. Ordinarily the apex of the heart is one inch below and to the right of the left nipple, but I have found men in whom the apex of the heart was from half an inch to two inches too low. This may result from overtraining. Another effect of racing or violent exertion in athletics, sometimes, is an increased pulsating area. By this I mean that instead of being able to hear the beat of the heart distinctly from one point only I can hear it equally as well at places an inch or two from where I should hear it. Still, another effect is increased beating of the heart. This is quite common and I have found several instances among the young men of this city who have been riding in cycle races. The normal heart beat is eighty or between ninety-five and 110 after exertion. Wait and I'll get out my records and give you some figures."
Professor Riley brought forth two books and illustrated what he said. "The racing man is apt to suffer first in the heart. He finds that he becomes easily excited, he is nervous. We call this an irritable or nervous heart. In severe cases his hands will get cold and clammy. This indicates that his nervous system is weak. His head becomes congested. Perhaps his heart will skip a beat occasionally. Now, a sufficient amount of judicious exercise will decrease the beat of the heart, but too much will increase it. The man who eats the proper amount of food will get fat; the man who gorges will get thin.
"I have here three examinations of one of your local racing men. He has won several good events in fast time. In October, 1892, I tested his heart and found its beat to be seventy, or good. In October, one year later, his heart beat had increased to ninety-six, while it beat 128 times to the minute, after exertion. In November, 1895, I tested his heart again, and I found that, after the same exertion as in October, 1893, the heart beat 160 times to the minute. Note the indications - an increase of thirty-two beats in two years, and fifty beats above normal. I warned the young man to quit racing. The last examination in November was when he was in training and his fellow riders said he was fine as silk. His heart has been perhaps permanently injured. The test showed that he had been overtrained.
"Now take another example. Here is a young man whom I examined in February, 1890. Then his heart beat was seventy. One year later it was still seventy, with ninety beats per minute after exertion. In February, 1895, his heart beat had increased to eighty-four, with 132 beats per minute after exertion, or twenty-two above what it should be. Two conditions are possible from cycle racing, an increased beat of the heart or a decreased beat. The brother of this young man is an example of decreased heart beat, seventy-two, with 102 after exertion. In February, 1895, his normal heart beat was fifty-six, with only seventy-two after exertion or just what it should have been before.
"These figures are really serious in their indications and they are not to be disputed. The last named young man did not ride during the winter and when I examined him last spring he was not so strong physically as when his heart beat so abnormally slow, but the heart beat had come back to normal, for it registered seventy-two, with eighty-eight after exertion. A man with an irritable heart can bring his heart beat back to normal by judicious exercise. Any man by careful exercise can strengthen his body and any man with a strong body can race without serious harm, provided he does not keep it up too long. The danger is largely in these road races and improper training."
Another physician, a surgeon whose name is known all over the West, refused to talk if his name were mentioned. He rides a wheel and is a firm believer in the benefits to be derived from cycling both for women and men. But the doctor holds no sympathy with racing and particularly road racing. "The strain is infinitely too much for most men," said he. "The heart and lungs are called upon to do an enormous amount of work; too much work. Now a great many person lose sight of another thing and that is the reaction. The heart is trained for enormous effort, yet after the race many go out of training. The heart does more than it is required to do and this is about as bad as doing too little. I think it is true that professional athletes are not long lived."
The doctor was asked if the peculiar pallor and blueness of the faces of the road race riders indicated heart disease and he said: "It may indicate heart disease or it may be caused by something else. In a long race it is often impossible for the rider to breathe fast enough to properly oxygenize his blood and the result is that all of the impurities are not taken out and a bluish tint is given to his skin. Exercise, you know, is combustion and if the waste cannot be taken from the blood discoloration will result. Very severe effort will also cause the muscles to bind and the skin around them will turn blue and sometimes black. Some persons have asserted that this blueness is due partly to the position of bending over the handle bars, but I do not think that is the real cause, although it may have something to do with it. My idea is that it is insufficient expansion of the lungs."
It was an easy matter for the reporter to get the names of half a dozen riders who have been warned of their heart. Most of them make light of all talk about there being danger, but "pin them down" and they will admit that there is considerable risk and real danger where a man is not in condition. Those who have felt bad effects say that after a hard race they feel weak and a trifle unsteady in the nerves for a week or ten days. Complete recovery is slow.
The suggestion that a physician's certificate should control entries to road races does not meet with favor among the racing men, but there would appear to be reason in it. Cycling has come forward so rapidly that its dangers have not been fully appreciated, but unless something is done hundreds of young riders will hurt themselves every year. Men like Johnson, Bald, Cooper and others ride all season and do not seem to be the worse for it, but such professional men have a skilled trainer to watch their health, their diet, their exercise and their riding. It is part of their business. Further they take general exercise to build up the entire body. Titus and Cabanne, who rode here last year, were fine specimens of physical manhood. Neither seemed to show indications of their calling, but a peep into their rooms in the hotel showed punching bags, dumb bells, boxing gloves, clubs, an entire outfit for a small gymnasium. One room was given over to these "traps." When they begin training early in the season they go at it gradually. But the young "scorcher" is too ambitious. It takes too long for results to show in that way, and the chances are that a week after he has begun training he has tried his speed. One racing man remarked that two weeks' training was all that he required to put him in shape for racing. This man is among those who, Professor Riley's figures show, should not race.
Advice on training from John West Sun, Apr 3, 1898 – 22
· The Boston Globe (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comSpeaking of road riding reminds one that there will be a number of road races during the coming season and perhaps a few words in connection with that branch of the sport would not be amiss. At this season of the year many of the youngsters are getting out their machines and putting in some practice while they prepare for the early road races. In regard to the advice for such riders John West. the veteran bicycle trainer, says: "Many of the young men who contemplate entering road races of 98 will perhaps be willing to listen to a few words at advice as to self-care and training for the event. Too many of the entrants are boys, employed in the day, and find it difficult to get time to train. Right here is where many do themselves great harm. They hurry home, eat supper and go right out for a hard ride. This is very injurious. What I should advise is this:
"Rise early in the morning, eat a few oatmeal biscuits. take a ride for three or four miles, return and take a sponge-down with a little cold water with some alcohol in it. If the weather is not fit, a brisk walk to business, if not over two or three miles, is good. Walking will do riders much good at all times.
"A young business man should, after working hours, put on a change of clothing, eat a few crackers, but drink nothing, and go out for a spin before a hearty supper. For the first week do not attempt to go more than a three-minute clip of four miles or so. The second week increase the distance to five or six miles. It would be wise not to go over this. If possible the rider should then be rubbed on a training cot with a dry towel and liniment used. The portion of the body not being rubbed should not be exposed. Take no more exercise for an hour later, eating supper in the meantime.
"I should not advise a rider to begin training before April 1. Those that can train in the daytime should follow the same general directions.
"As to food, drink not more than three pints of liquid food a day. Take as much lean meat as desired. cut fine, mix well with boiled rice and one or two soft-boiled eggs. Some apple sauce or fruit would be good after. Drink nothing while eating, but a half hour after weak tea, boiled milk or boiled water cooled off. Iced drinks certainly retard training.
"A week or two before the race a rider should try the course to familiarize himself with it.
"A word in regard to rubbing. It should be toward the heart at all times. Use no oils in training. A liniment is to clean the pores out. Last of all, no rider should attempt to rub himself, as this will tend to retard progress more than anything else."
John West was born in Edinburgh in 1858. At the present time he is 40 years of age, 5 feet 9 3/4 inches in hight and weighing 175 pounds. He was naturally an athlete and for 24 years followed the Caledonian games. Some of his records are 5 feet 9 3/4 inches in the high jump, professional record. In exhibition he has done 6 feet 2. Pole vault 10 feet 6 inches, standing high jump 4 feet 10 inches, standing broad jump 10 feet; running jump 19 feet, hop-step-and-jump 42 feet. 21-pound shot 34 feet, 100-yard run 10 1/4 seconds. He has run 126 miles in 18 1/2 hours, and has competed in 24-hour running races. He has trained cyclists for the last 10 years, and is today one of the best-known men in the country at the game.
WHAT CYCLISSTS SHOULD DRINK. Sun, May 24, 1896 – Page 8
· The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comWHAT CYCLISTS SHOULD DRINK.
Beer Goes to the Knees -- A Bottle of Lime Water Is Good.
New York Sun: "What do cyclists drink as a rule and what is the best thing for them?" asked an elderly woman who hasn't ridden enough to acquire a cyclist's thirst."Beer, beer," replied three or four men.
"We want beer and plenty of it. Nothing quenches the thirst like beer," said a round-faced, thirsty-looking man. "Now, I never drink anything else, I don't take such very long trips, because I get so tired after twenty miles that I can't pedal."
"Of course you do if you drink beer," answered a splendidly developed young man in a jaunty suit. "I defy any man to ride a wheel and drink beer. It can't be done. You don't ride, and neither do any of those beer drinkers. You all push and puff and perspire along till you come to a road house, and after drinking a schooner or two of beer you can hardly get to the next road house. That isn't cycling. Beer goes to the knees and cuts off a man's power of pedaling and of endurance. It makes one perspire very freely, which is weakening, and makes one liable to catch cold. It is one of the worst drinks that a cyclist can take. Drinking while wheeling is all a habit any way, and a very bad one. I'm deathly afraid of spring and well water, and, knowing the bad effects of beer, I made up my mind to drink nothing while riding. On the hottest days we had last summer I rode eighty-five miles and didn't take a drink of anything on the trip. Several times I sponged my face off with a wet handkerchief and poured water over my arms. That is an excellent substitute for drinking. My advice is, if you must drink something, to wait until you get where you can have lemonade. Take a few sips of this, not too cold. Ice cream is also good, and is beneficial rather than harmful if a few spoonsfuls are eaten slowly. Roast beef and one glass or ale make the best dinner for a cyclist on a run. The meat is nourishing and satisfying, and ale is refreshing, and never goes to the head. Drink that and nothing else is my advice."
I always drink vichy and milk," said a sallow, thin woman.
"That's the reason you always look bilious, my dear, I guess." put in a stout woman in a sweetly malicious tone. "Milk is one of the worst things to take on the road. It is good for very few people, for unless the stomach is in perfect order it sours and frequently causes nausea."
"I have felt sick after taking it," admitted the thin woman; "but I thought it was the heat." '
"No, it was the milk," answered the other. "I have the advantage of you all I think. Now, I drink nothing but water, and what is impure water to you is pure to me. In the first place I always carry my own drinking cup in my tool bag. Many people do this, you know men carry theirs in their pocket. It is a little folding affair that costs only a 25 cents, and has saved me many times, I'm sure. I'm opposed to drinking from a vessel used by Tom, Dick and Harry."
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| Antique 1897 Bicyclist Telescoping Collapsible Drinking Cup Bicycle Accessory, from eBay |
"But that wouldn't purify the water," objected a man.
"Oh, no," she answered, "but I also take a little filter with me when I go into the country for a ride. It is a very small stone filter, not as big as a half pint cup, and you simply fill it with water and drink it through a rubber tube. Why, I've filtered water from a mud puddle in the road just for fun and it looked so clear that I felt tempted to drink it. No cyclist should be without a filter until something is done about the wells and springs, and even then everybody should be provided with an individual cup."
"Sarsaparilla is the best drink to take this time of the year," spoke up a man. "It quenches the thirst and is good for the blood, and is by long odds one of the most popular drinks with wheelmen and wheelwomen. If it was put to a vote, I believe that sarsaparilla would take the palm."
"Many find it too sweet to satisfy them." suggested the manager of the school, who has covered thousands and thousands of miles all over the world on wheel. "I don't think any intoxicating beverages quench the thirst. One drink calls for another, and the more we take the more we crave. God made water to quench thirst primarily, and it is the only thing that will do it. Much of the water that we come across is impure, and cyclists should drink as little as possible; but it is almost as easy to make the proverbial horse drink as it is to keep the average cyclist from it. Therefore, it is an excellent plan always to take a small bottle of lime water on a run. Put a teaspoonful in the water that you drink and it helps to purify it. If you drink milk or ginger ale do the same. I never remember going on a trip without a small bottle of lime water or peppermint, which answers the same purpose, and I've never been made sick by water or any other drink. But, as someone said a while ago, drinking is merely a habit, and a very bad one. When you begin to be thirsty don't think of how a glass of cold beer or a cup of milk would taste. Think of something else. Forget your thirst and it will pass off. Cultivate dryness. It is hard in the beginning, but easy in the end, and, besides, you will be enabled to ride much faster and further with less fatigue if you do not stop to drink every time you see anything in liquid form."
WATER IS BEST. Sun, May 2, 1897 – Page 16 · The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States of
America) · Newspapers.comWATER IS BEST.
Even It Should Be Partaken of Cautiously by Thirsty Riders.
"The first thing that I want you to remember," said the Learned Doctor, as he summoned his class of bicycle pupils before him, "Is not to drink recklessly and freely when you are riding on a hot day. Water, you know, is a good thing in its way: in fact, I don't see how we could get along without it, but too much water simply distresses you without accomplishing any benefit.""Shouldn't one drink any water," said the girl in Pepper and Salt, opening her eyes with astonishment.
"Yes." replied the Learned Doctor. "A little won't hurt you any. I am not decrying water, but I am going to try to demonstrate to you that you shouldn't drink too much water. Now, we'll suppose it is a redhot day in July, and you are riding along the road, perspiring profusely, inhaling particles of dust now and then, becoming very red in the face and somewhat irritable tn disposition, and you see one of those old-fashioned deep country wells by the roadside. What do you do?"
"Get off and take a drink, of course." said the Matter-of Fact girl, very bluntly.
"Yes," said the Learned Doctor, "and you send the bucket down to the deepest part of the well, fill it with the coldest water and then try to drink it dry."
"What an absurd idea." said the Bloomer girl. "As though a human being, a young woman of the present century, could drink a bucket of water."
"Perhaps my figure of speech was a little exaggerated," said the Learned Doctor. "but all of you know well enough the point I was endeavoring to illustrate - that is, that you drink entirely too much water under the conditions I have specified. Now I'll tell you what it does. Every time that you, when heated, drink water thus copiously it simply aids in throwing open the pores of the skin and causes you to perspire even more freely than before. Not that perspiration is not a good thing during summer rides, but there may be such a thing as more than is absolutely necessary. It weakens you. If you drink very cold water the stomach must bear the shock of the first chill and that causes congestion and throws about three times as much work upon that already overworked organ than is necessary. Water in large quantities under such conditions is not a strengthener."
"Then I suppose that we should stop at the wayside Inns and ask for stimulants to aid the stomach and give us strength," suggested the Pepper and Salt Girl.
"Nothing of the kind." replied the Learned Doctor. "That is about the worst thing you can do. You don't need any stimulants, unless you are taken ill. Beer freely quaffed on a hot day has the same effect as too much water - in fact, even a worse effect, for it disturbs the action of the liver as well as weakening the stomach. Wine is too much of an acid. It may be used in small quantities if diluted with water, but mind, I am not prescribing its use. If the rider is very exhausted, I should say that three tablespoonfuls of whisky in ginger ale - a small glass - would be beneficial for the stomach and for the person who drank it. If I were a bicycle rider, however, I should not become exhausted too often for the sake of the whisky and ginger ale."
"How about milk?'' said the Matter-of-Fact Girl.
"Don't - if it is cold, and you are very warm and possessed of a weak stomach in addition. The chances are that it will curdle at once and distress you exceedingly. It may even render you desperately ill, and if you do not overcome the chill that may follow, the action of the heart will become very weak and irregular and something worse than a fainting fit will ensue."
"Well, then. I'd like to know what we should drink?" retorted the Bloomer Girl rather warmly. "You have tabooed water, stimulants, and pretty much everything else. I suppose you expect us to drink ice cream soda and carry a fountain along to have it handy."
"Young lady, you are frivolous, I am afraid." said the Learned Doctor, shaking his head gravely.
"Indeed I'm not," was the reply; "but what is one going to do? I imagine. you don't want us to drink at all."
"That's it, or nearly it.'' interrupted the man of medicine. "I don't want you to go thirsty, and I want you to refresh yourselves, but I don't want you to do it at your own physical expense. Now, let me tell you a little secret. Instead of drinking so much, try my plan and see if it isn't a success. When you are very warm, in fact almost at the point of becoming overheated, instead of flooding your stomach with great draughts of some cold liquid, immerse both hands in water so that the wrists are covered. Hold them there for some time. Then, instead or drinking two glasses of water, we will say, as may have been your custom, just take two or three swallows, enough to cool your mouth and throat, and resist the temptation to take any more. I venture to say that you will feel entirely refreshed, and willing to repeat the same experiment at the next well, instead of returning to the old practice. By doing this you will cool the blood without running into the danger of bringing on a severe and possibly fatal chill. Give my way a trial."
"Well, if that isn't novel." said the Pepper and Salt Girl. "I never knew before that one could drink through one's wrists. I hope that there will be a warm day soon so that I can try it." - New York Journal
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