I've been having a nagging soreness in my right knee from running so I have been stepping back from that a little bit. Just until it feels ok again. In the meantime it is springtime here but still a bit cool so I am breaking out the bicycle to hit the trails in the afternoon.
I live in the 3rd most populated city in the United States so finding opens space to do some cycling isn't really that easy to do. Thankfully the city does spend a fair bit of money building and maintaining our extensive bike paths in order to keep the peasants somewhat happy and if you go in the afternoon, most of the city's millions of people are at work or off in the south committing crimes so I have the place to myself.
That highway is almost certainly photoshopped,it is gridlock traffic all day, every day.
Anyway, I didn’t really feel like going too hard or too long because my back light got stolen (as things that are unattended tend to in this city) so I was just going to go until the sun was gone and there is a reasonable loop that ironically goes to the part of the city that is called “the Loop” and then back to where I live North Side. Normally,just like the highways, traffic tends to be flowing in one direction depending on what time of day it is and I feel as though I’ve got this figured out. Provided I get back to my neighborhood before 5 or 5:15 I can normally dodge all the masses of people that also have bicycles.
This takes 30 minutes to 40 minutes normally and it depends quite a great deal on whether or not it is some sort of public holiday that I am unaware of. It becomes evident pretty quickly as to whether or not people have the day off because there will be hundreds of people on a day off but on a regular work day it isn’t uncommon for me to not really encounter anyone at all. One thing I love about my life is that I have variable hours because I mostly work on overseas contracts and therefore don’t really have a 9-5 like a vast majority of people in this city.
I have a lot more energy in me than this but once I get back to the start, I only really have the choice of doing this loop again or piddling around the neighborhood and both of these options tend to be more frustrating than anything else.
I always feel as though I didn't really do enough when I do these rides because thanks to technology, cycling is made as easy as you want it to be. Plus, given the dense population of this area, I can't really open up the speed because if someone is tooling around ahead of me at a corner, I could seriously injure both of us with a collision.
Because of these limitations I am able to get myself into that sweet zone 2 spot that I hear so many fitness gurus talking about these days. I am not sure if I believe any of this crap because things are always changing in the fitness world so I just kind of look at it as being quite easy and if my watch thinks I am burning calories that is just an added bonus I guess
My speed is nothing special but for me anyway, this is comfortable and rather worry free since I have pretty solid brakes and can come to a complete stop pretty fast at this pace. I do wish there was something I could do about the damn squeak sound that it makes when I do brake though. Seriously, how much money to I have to spend to have something simply work the way I want it to.
When I finish this ride I don't feel winded at all but a lot of this might be an illusion. I do feel a tenseness in my thighs and this is a good thing because I don't often feel that way after a run.
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Cycling hits a lot of muscle groups according to various things I have read but as you might expect, you mostly feel it in your thighs. They say it works your glutes and I'll just take their word for that. The only glute engagement that I feel is that my butt feels knumb after 40 minutes because of sitting.
I should probably investigate purchasing some of those padded butt cycling shorts. They exist for a reason I guess.
For me, I don't really consider this to be nearly as taxing as a run and for this reason I tend to kind of doubt the authenticity of the readouts that my Xiaomi gives me at the end. A 40 minute jug is very tiresome to me, but a 40 minute ride feels almost like a relaxing time and my heartrate kind of proves that I am not putting as much into this as I would on a run.
But it doesn't really matter, I just want to get out there and exercise the most important muscle that we have, our hearts. I and no matter what I am doing, getting up and doing something other than sitting down, is going to be beneficial.