That's a silly thing to say. I am aware of that. But the point that I am trying to make here is that the other day we had some unusually warm weather and a friend asked me if I would like to go for a ride along the lake before the masses get to it.
Our ride, outside of some silly outbursts of "mama speed" was just the two of us riding at a slow clip and talking to one another. Outside of the one and only hill, there wasn't really any time that either of us were even breathing heavily. It was just a regular and relaxing ride that was more of a social affair than a fitness-oriented one.
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it will be a crowded madhouse a month from now, so we took advantage of it while we can
I set my Garmin to record the fitness data because I like to always see what various activities effects are on my body and I was pretty happy with the results because neither me nor my friend actually consider this to be exercise. It was just two friends getting together and having a chat while just happening to be on bicycles.
An average speed of 15km/hr isn't fast and if you cycle you already know this. On the one and only hill we got up to nearly 60 km/hr and that was a little bit scary. Doing that would not be possible when this place fills to the brim with people a month from now so it was kind of fun to do that now. Hell, we would probably get in trouble for trying to go that fast in the peak months.
So we were just riding and talking for an hour and never ran out of conversation and both of us found it quite enjoyable. I nearly broke a sweat even though it is still pretty damn cold where I live.
I was pretty surprised after the fact to see that this activity, which wasn't even remotely difficult outside of the one and only hill climb, ended up burning nearly 400 calories. That isn't a lot of a burn for one hour but like I said, this wasn't a race and neither of us actually worked very hard during the hour.
I think that the Garmin watch comes in handy here because if you just look up "how many calories does cycling for an hour burn?" in a websearch it is going to come up with some wildly varying figures. With the smartwatch it takes into account all of your personal stats such as age, weight, and your heart rate during the ride.
I feel like this is important because the watch doesn't know if you have 24 gears or 1 and therefore the heart rate is critical in determining how much of a burn you actually got.
I think that this sort of activity is something that almost anyone can do.. well as long as you have access to a bicycle. Exercise doesn't have to be some sort of grueling affair. We were just taking it easy and burned 3 beers worth of calories. Which is exactly what we did immediately afterwards. No regrets!
As I get older and become more and more prone to injury I think I am going to have to start to incorporate more activities like this one into my repertoire. There is almost no chance of hurting myself when I am just casually pushing down on some pedals and having a moving chat. Try it some day! Your body will thank you for it and you will deserve those 1-3 beers afterwards!