Among a few things I love to do is bike (not motor) riding. I have always loved to ride a bike since I learned to ride a bike in my teens. Riding a bike uses only human energy, yet seems effortless even when riding for hours continuously and travel almost 100 km! The difference distance you could cover with the same level of work between biking and walking is about an order of magnitude.
What makes bike riding so much more efficient? I don't know fully know the answer, but it seems that walking involves so much muscle movement that really does not carry you forward. Furthermore, cycling allows you to take micro-breaks while not stopping so your body can briefly rest, rejuvenate, and continue the effort. Bike ride involves much smoother leg motion, it is kind on the human body. It seems as if human body is designed for bike ride!
I have a weekly quota of 200 km, and often I exceed that. One reason I try to better the quota I fixed for myself is that I anticipate bad days and weeks when I cannot ride due to weather or lack of time. I try to build up credit for future non-compliance of the quota.
For instance, the following is the statistics of my bike ride for recent weeks. My week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday.
Week ending: km
10/15/11 322
10/22/11 272
10/29/11 291
11/06/11 286
11/13/11 267
11/20/11 310
11/27/11 125
12/04/11 181
I try to ride on the average 5 days a week. I am able ride some weeks six days, some weeks only three.
I have a cheap cyclo-computer on my bike which allows me to measure distance, time, speed, calories burned, etc. While I desire to keep the average speed as high as possible, achieving as many kilometers as I can is my primary goal.
The only way I can meet or exceed my quota is by riding for more than two hours a day. I have been able to achieve the following stats:
Max time of riding on a single day: 3 1/2 hours
Max distance of riding on a single day: 80 km
Max average of riding on a single day: 22.9 km per hour
Max calories burned on a single day of riding: 1200
Max fat calories burned on a single day of riding: 140
I have put on already about 3000 km on my new set of tires. The rear one has a small cut. But they are holding up without flats so far. I think I would pull on for may be one more month before putting a new set of tires.
What makes bike riding so much more efficient? I don't know fully know the answer, but it seems that walking involves so much muscle movement that really does not carry you forward. Furthermore, cycling allows you to take micro-breaks while not stopping so your body can briefly rest, rejuvenate, and continue the effort. Bike ride involves much smoother leg motion, it is kind on the human body. It seems as if human body is designed for bike ride!
I have a weekly quota of 200 km, and often I exceed that. One reason I try to better the quota I fixed for myself is that I anticipate bad days and weeks when I cannot ride due to weather or lack of time. I try to build up credit for future non-compliance of the quota.
For instance, the following is the statistics of my bike ride for recent weeks. My week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday.
Week ending: km
10/15/11 322
10/22/11 272
10/29/11 291
11/06/11 286
11/13/11 267
11/20/11 310
11/27/11 125
12/04/11 181
I try to ride on the average 5 days a week. I am able ride some weeks six days, some weeks only three.
I have a cheap cyclo-computer on my bike which allows me to measure distance, time, speed, calories burned, etc. While I desire to keep the average speed as high as possible, achieving as many kilometers as I can is my primary goal.
The only way I can meet or exceed my quota is by riding for more than two hours a day. I have been able to achieve the following stats:
Max time of riding on a single day: 3 1/2 hours
Max distance of riding on a single day: 80 km
Max average of riding on a single day: 22.9 km per hour
Max calories burned on a single day of riding: 1200
Max fat calories burned on a single day of riding: 140
I have put on already about 3000 km on my new set of tires. The rear one has a small cut. But they are holding up without flats so far. I think I would pull on for may be one more month before putting a new set of tires.
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