Fit Bit o'the Month, by Doug Rennie, Portland Velo's own "Health & Fitness Guru"
So, when we're talking tire pressure, just how low CAN you go without any performance drop-off?
Well, pretty damn low.
Read on for a purely anecdotal, non-scientific take for what turned out to be a normal ride on what turned out to be a Mr. Softy rear tire. 
Sat Sig Ride. August 29. Buffalo Ranch Route. Flat tire, me. Rear, of course. Maybe 4 miles into the ride. So I sent my 19 group off with Dave Kelley and KRhea, stayed behind to fix it on my own. Made the switch, but ran out of biceps with my cigar-sized (but cool-looking) Bianchi mini-pump. Knew the tire was NOWHERE NEAR full inflation. But hard enough to ride on. So off I went in pursuit of my flock, an ad hoc TT of 6+ miles until I caught up thanks to DK taking a wrong turn and having to double back. Anyway. I rode most of the catchup in the 22-23 mph range, a pretty hard tempo for me in non-wheel-sucking mode.
Now here's where it gets weird.
My perceived effort, i.e. how I "felt", during my Solo Six felt pretty much the same as it usually does at that speed. In other words, it didn't seem any harder to crank out 22+ mph miles on my semi-squishy rear Vittoria Rubino Pro than it does when I'm running 95-100 psi. This, even though I EXPECTED it to be much harder to ride that fast and was therefore anticipating some early leg meltdown, especially because it was the rear tire. Just didn't happen.
I intended to borrow a more manly pump at the Maggie's stop, but decided What the Hell: I'd gone this far, so let's see how this all plays out over the full 48. The answer: About like any other ride with the 19s. Felt my usual self during, and after.
When I got back to Longbottom, I took a pressure reading: 63 psi. Yes: SIXTY-THREE freaking pounds!
Now am I pimping for running 60 pounds in your rear tire? Nope. I ran my usual 95-100 psi for the Sunday ride and will continue to do so. Because there HAS to be some advantage to the harder tires, right? I mean, sure there does.
Of course.
Gotta be.
Oh God, I am SO CONFUSED!
Okay, enough of these maddening road rubber ruminations. What's next?
How about this: Are you getting enough?
During my peak years as a marathon runner, I attended a high-octane training seminar in Palo Alto. One of the speakers was Olympic marathon champ Frank Shorter. An early question was: "Frank, what do you think is THE single most important element in your training?" In an answer so fast (I mean ZERO pause) it sounded like an extension of the question, Shorter shot back "Sleep!"
Shorter then elaborated on how he retired at about the same time each night (which, as I recall, was pretty early), and that he (almost) never cheated on himself. Lotsa sleep. Every night. And afternoon naps, too, he said. Similarly salubrious.
Though rarely considered a "training" element, sleep is right up there with full-time hydration, diet, recovery time, etc. And if Shorter is to be believed, perhaps even more vital than the others.
The good news is that as athletes, all of you are well-positioned to score significant snooze time. Research at Stanford University showed that subjects who exercised regularly, even at moderate intensity levels, were able to sleep about 45 minutes longer each night and fall asleep 15 minutes earlier than their couch-crushing counterparts. Just don’t exercise too late in the day or you could upset your body’s circadian rhythms. Most research suggests you need at least a five-hour gap between exercise and bedtime.
Finally, here are a trifecta of recovery tips. If they work for a geriatric decrepit like me, and they do, they ought to work for most, if not all, of you. 
When you get home from your ride, lie down on the floor in some quiet place and rest your heels high up on a wall. Then relax for 15-20 minutes. That's it. All you need to do is just lie there. When we were on a David Russell bike trip in Provence in 2004, I suggested High Heeling to our group, this on day where we stayed in a great hotel in Moustier that had a huge pool. So you had 20 or more people under an awning in the shade with their heels up on a fence, others in reverse position on chaise lounges with their feet where their heads would normally be and vice versa. The most common comment during the ride the next day was "Hey, I think that works! My legs feel good."
If you want to go one additional, active step, put a light coat of baby oil on your quads and, using the heel of your hand, push down hard from the top of your quad down to the knee a few dozen times, mixing this up with some vigorous kneading of these same muscles. Promotes even faster and more complete recovery. For more info on quadricep massage, check out this site.
Ritual #3 is to mix up a 24-ounce bottle (that's the larger bike bottle, the ones most of you use) of your favorite recovery drink (for me it's CytoMax or Accelerade), add half of one of the drink scoops worth of whey protein powder, fill it with 2/3 water, 1/3 ice, shake it up and then drink it SLOWLY, as in sips, over the space of about 30-40 minutes. You can actually start this when you put your heels on the wall: Just lie there relaxing and sipping, downing only about half the bottle during your 15-20 High Heels minutes.
Even better is to bring a bottle with you to the ride with all the powdered ingredients already in there. Then all you need add is water and you can start drinking. That 30-45 minute window that BEGINS at the END of your ride is the most efficient time to quaff your recovery potion as the body is in full-crave, maximum absorption mode during that time.
Try to do at least one of these 3 recovery rituals after every ride. Two is better.
That's it for this month, brothers and sisters. Next month we'll take a close look at Quercetin: The Legal EPO?