What We're Loving This Week: Floor Pumps, Bike Stands, Kids Playing, and Drink Powder

Published May 23, 2020 10:29AM

Things are getting a little weird around here. Every week, we share the things we’re using in our regular lives—but (just like everyone else) regular life is a little weird right now. And so this week, the things we’re loving might be a little odd too: one of our contributing writers gets existential about how she’s loving watching her kids play, our managing editor gets geeky about the protein powder that’s fueling her. And our photo director and senior editor are all about their bike gear. Here’s what we’re loving this week.

Crank Brothers Klic Floor Pump

I really love my Crank Brothers Klic floor pump with tubeless canister. My bike shed at home is pretty primitive and it doesn’t have electricity to run an air compressor for setting up tubeless tires. This Crank Brothers floor pump has a tubeless canister that you can pressurize with air and then release it all at once into your tires, to seat the bead against the rim for a tubeless tire set-up. No compressor needed.

PRS-22.2 Park Tool Team Issue Repair Stand

As someone who works on lots of the weirdest-shaped bikes basically right when they’re released, I need a bike stand that’s flexible and fits any size or design of bike. This stand folds up super small, sets up in seconds, and is sturdy enough for a full-suspension mountain bike one day and a full-aero non-double-diamond tri bike the next. No seat tube? No problem. As long as the bike has a front fork and a bottom bracket (I’ve yet to work on something that doesn’t have one of those things, but you never know), it’ll fit. Being able to adjust the bike’s height and spin the bike without having to walk around it is a huge plus on my back and my time.

Watching My Kids Play

The silver lining of the shutdown is watching the spawn of my neighborhood, a quarantine tribe aged 4 through 10, professional players, masters of their craft, in the zone for six, seven hours of the day. Lots of running and screaming. Hockey sticks, goal nets, bikes, super soakers, ramps, scooters, RipSticks, jump ropes, boxes, balls are involved. Grown-ups are not involved. They’re deliriously happy.

True Athlete BCAA Powder

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve made the conscious effort to kick quarantine fatigue in the backside and have upped my training volume, particularly my run mileage. As a result, I’ve been feeling great, but also getting that gnawing hunger that comes from logging decent training. By mid-afternoon I’m in “find a snack now” mode, stomping through the kitchen like a T-Rex looking for its prey. Enter stage left, True Athlete BCAA Powder—or in plain English, Branch Chain Amino Acids, the building blocks of protein which not only help support muscle growth and recovery, but totally help satiate crazy athlete hunger. During times of metabolic stress (such as high volume and/or high intensity training), BCAAs help fuel your muscles, aid protein synthesis, and prevent catabolism (muscle breakdown). I used to use this stuff all the time when I was training full-time, especially when I worked with Dr. Stacy Sims—who was our guest on our first Fitter & Faster podcast this week. Granted, this stuff doesn’t taste as good as ice cream, but it sure helps you recover well and bounce back to be full of beans for your next workout.