Bikes without Engines

are feckin hard work for an unfit old git like me!

Took company van in for service at 8 am. Chose her bike to ride home on, 18
gears and every one used at some point until forward motion was slower than
walking, a paltry 3.8 miles of varying terrain.
45 mins !
Shaky legs, sweaty back but strangely recovery was quite quick.
Heartrate below Warp Factor 5 after 20 mins

All I need to do now is go back and collect it later......All downhill.

Daft things these motorless machines


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Robbo

Trophy 1200 1998
BotaFOF #19. E.O.S.M 2001/2002/2003/2004.
B.O.S.M 2003, 2004, 2005
FURSWB#1 KotL..YTC449
PM#7
..

 

heh, aren't they just. I cycled 10 miles to school & back everyday for
5 years, & haven't been on a pushbike since. I recently borrowed an MTB
to try & get fit, but haven't worked up the courage to go out on it
yet...

 

Krusty () wrote:

: Robbo wrote:
: > are feckin hard work for an unfit old git like me!
: > Took company van in for service at 8 am. Chose her bike to ride home
: > on, 18 gears and every one used at some point until forward motion
: > was slower than walking, a paltry 3.8 miles of varying terrain.
: > 45 mins !
: > Shaky legs, sweaty back but strangely recovery was quite quick.
: > Heartrate below Warp Factor 5 after 20 mins
: > All I need to do now is go back and collect it later......All
: > downhill.
: > Daft things these motorless machines

: heh, aren't they just. I cycled 10 miles to school & back everyday for
: 5 years, & haven't been on a pushbike since. I recently borrowed an MTB
: to try & get fit, but haven't worked up the courage to go out on it
: yet...

Go for it, you'll soon build up your fitness and mileage. I did my first
100 miles in a day cycle ride in March ... great sense of achievement.

Blair.
'97 CBR600

 

Christ alight - I could run it in that time, no trouble.

Take this as a wake up call - sort it out now, or condemn yourself to
a sickly middle-age.

 

I could just about walk it at that pace.

 

Mebbe - a brisk walk is usually reckoned to be about 4 miles an hour.

 

Champ wrote

<gestures feebly>

 

Surely a bit faster than that?

 

20 minutes? TWENTY MINUTES?

Um.. that's not good. If you're vaguely healthy your heart rate should be
dropping within a minute of you stopping the exercise and should be normal
in under 10...

 

dwb wrote

Nope, bang on the money.

They told me that if I wanted to recover nicely I was to get on a
walking machine for 5 minutes the Jim to find out what 4mph was and then
do 20-30 minutes of it every day out and about in the streets where it
was cheaper and the load varied slightly with the terrain.

 

Hmm, okay - that works out at what 6.4km/h - I'm fairly sure I walk at a
'normal' pace of 5km/h - so 6.4 doesn't seem a lot faster.

 

Go whereever you'd ride your crosser and you'll have a bloody good
time.

 

I'm sure I'd love it if I could take it to a ski resort in summer & use
the chairlifts to get to the top. Trying to cycle through 12" of
Wiltshire mud doesn't sound much like fun though!

 

Points that may make you feel better:

1: How well did the bike fit you? If your thighs were above horizontal
(from hip to knee) at the top of the pedal stroke you were wasting
enormous amounts of energy, which could account for out-of-breathness.

2: How uphill was it? If it's steep enough that you'd notice it walking
up, then that requires a lot more effort than on the flat (if you found
yourself overtaking cars on the way back down, that's usually also a
pointer[1]).

Points that make you feel worse:

1: As dwb said, if it really did take 20 minutes for your heartrate to
come back down, you seriously need to lay off the pies, mate.

2: 3.8 miles is 3% of an average stage in the tour de france. And they
do it for 21 days in a row, over mountains and stuff.

Riding bikes is fun. Dunno where you live, but if you want interesting
terrain without hills, the local canal towpath is usually a good bet.

Tiff
[1] The only time I've been stopped on 2 wheels: 38mph in a 30 - and
cautioned for 'riding furiously' (which is the actual offense)

 

are feckin hard work for an unfit old git like me!

Hmmmm,

I wouldn't even consider running that far as my knees wouldn't last the
distance.

Although I aren't fit, and can happily play 4 games of squash once a week
without undue effort, but I find longer more strenuous exercise more strain
on the old system.

When I said Warp Factor 5 I was inferring that my heart rate was a little
over the top than a normal 45mins of Squash would be and it settled to a
respectable rate after around 10 mins.

Some of the terrain was a 1 in 12 hill and some off roading across Dartford
Heath as a short cut through the woods, so not all on the road and little
wet and muddy
..
Oh, and I did walk up the 1 in 12, as even in 1st and 1st my legs were a
blur without *that* much forward motion.

Time to sort some proper exercise and get my old 12 gear racer back off my
mate and get peddling methinks !


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--
Robbo

Trophy 1200 1998
BotaFOF #19. E.O.S.M 2001/2002/2003/2004.
B.O.S.M 2003, 2004, 2005
FURSWB#1 KotL..YTC449
PM#7
..

 

Shaky legs, sweaty back but strangely recovery was quite quick.

"Geddorf yer bike and drink yer beer"
I are playing Squash later so I'll age around 30 years overnight and need a
Zimmer frame tomorrow!

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--
Robbo

Trophy 1200 1998
BotaFOF #19. E.O.S.M 2001/2002/2003/2004.
B.O.S.M 2003, 2004, 2005
FURSWB#1 KotL..YTC449
PM#7
..

 

ISTR that the British Army reckons a normal marching pace is 4mph.

My experience on a running machine in the gym is 4mph is about as fast
as I want to walk - anything faster than that and I break into a jog.

 

Not that I'd ever do speed walking .. but googled and found out ..

"Speed walkers generally walk at a pace of 3.5 to 5.5 miles per hour.
Race-walkers travel even faster, from 5 to 9 mph, although some competitive
race-walkers can cover a mile in as little as six minutes."

 

**** me. My normal running pace is 8 minutes to the mile.

 

and this:

are mutually contradictory, unless you're playing sqush by standing
still and throwing your racket at the ball.

Aye, I reckon so.

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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
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