I got super into biking recently, having gotten back on my bike at the beginning of last season, starting out struggling to make it the quarter mile around the block (about half of which is uphill of course) and ended my first season with an 8 mile record. This season I’m already up to 12 miles as my furthest ride without a break (just yesterday I did 10 miles which included climbing over 250 feet of elevation)
Anyways point is, I decided last second to do a 5k on the 4 of July and upon returning home I told my neighbor who was outside about it. And he’s fucking ripped with a 6 pack and he gave an awkward smile and said “I don’t think I could even finish that” and it was really crazy reminder of how much some folks focus on strength and entirely ignore cardio
For 7 years after left my parents place my only form of transportation was a bike. I rode all through college and my first job.
Toward the end I could do 40-50 miles a day and not even think about it. I think my record was 75 miles in a day.
After a 20 year break I pulled my old bike out to ride 2 miles mostly downhill one evening. Holy shit I was sore. I could hardly move the pedals in my old cruising gear.
It’s really incredible how biking works an entirely different set of muscles from walking or running.
Struggling to make it even a quarter of a mile was really disheartening, but now that I’m going 10 miles at a time I’m really starting to get into the fun stuff. There’s a bike ride fundraiser on a few weeks that I’m planning on signing up for. 18 miles over a 5 hour period. I couldn’t consider something like that last season but this season that’s looking extremely doable
Even the kinds of cardio you can do vary considerably. I bike 50 miles a day (in summer, at least) and a few years ago I signed up for a spin class (stationary bikes) at my gym thinking I would have an easy time of it. Nope, that shit kicked my ass. I don’t think I lasted even 10 minutes.
I got super into biking recently, having gotten back on my bike at the beginning of last season, starting out struggling to make it the quarter mile around the block (about half of which is uphill of course) and ended my first season with an 8 mile record. This season I’m already up to 12 miles as my furthest ride without a break (just yesterday I did 10 miles which included climbing over 250 feet of elevation)
Anyways point is, I decided last second to do a 5k on the 4 of July and upon returning home I told my neighbor who was outside about it. And he’s fucking ripped with a 6 pack and he gave an awkward smile and said “I don’t think I could even finish that” and it was really crazy reminder of how much some folks focus on strength and entirely ignore cardio
For 7 years after left my parents place my only form of transportation was a bike. I rode all through college and my first job.
Toward the end I could do 40-50 miles a day and not even think about it. I think my record was 75 miles in a day.
After a 20 year break I pulled my old bike out to ride 2 miles mostly downhill one evening. Holy shit I was sore. I could hardly move the pedals in my old cruising gear.
It’s really incredible how biking works an entirely different set of muscles from walking or running.
Struggling to make it even a quarter of a mile was really disheartening, but now that I’m going 10 miles at a time I’m really starting to get into the fun stuff. There’s a bike ride fundraiser on a few weeks that I’m planning on signing up for. 18 miles over a 5 hour period. I couldn’t consider something like that last season but this season that’s looking extremely doable
Even the kinds of cardio you can do vary considerably. I bike 50 miles a day (in summer, at least) and a few years ago I signed up for a spin class (stationary bikes) at my gym thinking I would have an easy time of it. Nope, that shit kicked my ass. I don’t think I lasted even 10 minutes.