I Like to Bike!

I like to bike!

Have I ever noted that I like to bike here? I think I have, as of this posting I have logged about 1,000 miles in the 2012 year and yesterday I accomplished a 57 mile ride, a personal long and the ride includes a number of best times (best mile, best 10 miles, best 40 KM, best 50 miles) and I am feeling it.

My Bike Fears and Obstacles

Biking is not all peaches here are the problems I had to overcome:

  1. Traffic
  2. Is this a surprise? I kept my biking to a local trail and it bored me, so I had to overcome my fear of riding with automobile traffic. Ditching the music, wearing brightly colored clothing, route selection, and just being careful are all cures to this.

  3. Saddle Soreness
  4. Once I started to ride a number of consecutive days I stared to get saddle sores (similar to bed sores). To overcome saddle sores required me to research, purchase gear, and to grind through it and develop toughness.

  5. Biker’s Palsy
  6. Once I started to ride 20+ miles on a regular basis I started to develop numbness in my arm. Research indicated the problem was due to pressure on my ulnar nerve in the palms of my wrist, again education and some equipment upgrades and acquisitions helped to overcome that problem.

  7. Routes
  8. Finding good routes is more difficult than one thinks. I look for routes that include infrequent stops, broad shoulders, low to moderate automobile traffic, and a mix of terrain (too few hills is as bad too challenging hills) and scenery. Two other factors I look for are distance (duh) and direction. I want to have routes so that when coming back the wind is at my back. Add all of those conditions and it becomes harder to find good routes.

Why would anyone continue to bike in the face of the above obstacles?

Bike Benefits

Why do I like to bike? After all, there are other activities to choose from?

  1. Knee Friendly
  2. Biking is easy on the knees, running puts stress on the knees especially for those who need to lose weight. If I am going to blow my knees out I wan to do so skiing not running or any other such thing.

  3. Good Leg Workout
  4. Get toe clips (or go clipless) and your legs get a 360° workout. This means both quadriceps and hamstrings get a workout meaning your leg muscles stay in balance, again this is good for your knees.

  5. Calorie Burn
  6. You can burn a bunch of calories by spending time on the bike. Frequently I burn around 2000 calories per ride. Admitted the calories burnt on a stationary bike vs. a real on are about the same, but on a real bike if you are an hour out you have to pedal for another hour to get back, with a stationary bike you simply get off when you are fed up with the ride.

  7. The Scenery
  8. Riding a bike lets you cover a lot of territory and you can see some real neat things. Not only see things, but hear and smell too! Riding by a hay-field in full bloom is a treat and some of my rides give the opportunity to see lots of different wildlife.

So I do not advise you to get off of your butt, instead simply transfer it from the easy chair to the bike saddle!

Good Stuff!

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