I knew it!
 

from yesterdays paper,

Cycling generates brainpower

Cycling has enormous physical benefits. In a one-hour ride, you can
work on strength and endurance, aerobic capacity, balance, and,
depending on how many car doors you manage to dodge, agility.

Recent research shows that exercising can increase brainpower by
prompting brain cells to multiply, strengthening their connections,
and boosting their resilience against damage and disease.

Exercise-generated brainpower is good for the soul. Cycling in nature
awakens our city-dulled senses. We become philosophical and ponder the
universal questions: "Is that what fresh air smells like?"� or "I'm
only on two wheels, why am I not in the ditch?" Smells may awaken
long-lost memories that can add fuel to thought. Bird sounds spark the
development of more thought. On a bicycle you can experience every
pothole on the trail and every daisy by the roadside. All you have to
do is pedal.

My most common deep question: "how stupid do you have to be to jog three abreast on a MUP during rush hour?"

My brother reckons he scores way better on Brain Training on the Nintendo DS after a hard ride. (I haven't tried it myself)

Seems logical to me - the brain uses blood to function, and riding gets the blood pumping. It's like fuel injection for the brain.

Seems to be common sense to me too.

It's spring, the puff pieces are coming out.

I prefer the positive puff to the typical, muck-raking pieces. Particularly when the muck-raking pieces are based on false information.

Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health are interrelated, and cycling boosts all of them.

So, is the reverse true? does choosing a mode of transport that involves just sitting there making the least physical effort possible have the opposite effect?

...that's a rhetorical question, of course. ;)


In fact, it was while riding home and going over some calculus stuff in my head that I came up with a nice little way of calculating pi to as many decimal places as you want. Although my wife says that it doesn't mean I'm smart, just a huge geek. :o

"Is that what fresh air smells like?" - Not what i'm asking myself as i bike past the stagnant ponds on my route :p