exercise

[winterbadger]

I had a really lovely walk yesterday in the rain, all through the bit of the park I usually cycle through. I figure walking (and eventually running), though not as fun, us more 'aggressive' exercise than cycling. I dunno, though--walking up the gentle slopes is a lot easier than riding up them! :-) Though of course coming down is not as fast and easy... If I work up to running, I figure I can do that and cycle alternate days. I need to get to a good routine of working with some free weights and doing stretches too.

As frustrating as I find some things about my location (of which more later) and as tempting as some of the houses I've seen are, it really is terrifically nice to have our little stream and park right nearby; I think I would miss those a good deal if I lived somewhere without such pleasures.

I went up to Glen Burnie on Sunday to try out the Baltimore to Annapolis Trail of which wcg has spoken highly. I had a frustrating time finding it (it isn't nearly as simple to get to as either my guidebook or my bike route map suggested--I find this to be almost universally true of bike trails), but once I got to it, it was quite nice. As always, I started off thinking "My goodness, see, it really is much easier going when something is dead flat!" only to discover on the way back that it *hadn't* been dead flat but a gentle downslope, which wasn't so gentle coming back up. :-) A genial elderly Antipodean along the way advised me to raise my seat (I'd had the saddle and pillar out recently so as to keep the seat from getting repeatedly soaked in the rain, and only put it back in approximately). So he was quite right--I got better power with a fuller extension, which kept me going through the return.

I need to plan these trips better, somehow work out how to spend the better part of a day doing a ride, rather than just going out and puttering around for half an hour or an hour. I'm betting there's an important calculation as to when and where to take longer breaks, so that even if one stretches a lot one doesn't end up being too tired to finish properly after a long rest.

I have more philosophical thoughts, but I'll leave those for another post. I need to finish some stuff up here and get home for the boyz.

Comments

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I was just talking to Kevin tonight about walking. I need to get more exercise and we are going to try to start walking after work now that the weather is warmer. I'd like to get a bike someday, but with my health being so-so I don't want to spend the dosh and then not use it. I want to start with something gentle and build up again.

[winterbadger]

Indeed! That makes sense.

I may have mentioned this before, but the book I got on running a while back (written by a British runner, which I didn't realise until some time well after I bought it) is adamant about people who want to start running *not* starting off by running, but by walking. And spending some time (several weeks) walking before working up to adding some running in at the end of their walks. Because people who try to run right away, if they aren't running-fit, will only injure themselves and start into the whole injury-don't wait long enough to heal-reinjure themselves cycle that some of my friends (you know who you are!) are only too familiar with.

I mentioned this at work and all of the 20-somethings in the office pooh-poohed it instantly. "Walk? You gotta run, not walk!" I asked if they regularly suffered from pain (rather than soreness) after exercise, and they all replied "Of course! If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right!" Well, my author maintains if it *does* hurt you're not doing it right! But of course, he's only a marathon runner, what would he know? ;-)

Not that you were evincing any interest in running, I realise, but it just struck me...