Originally Posted by
david101
Okay, here's the OP that I replied to
Given that this was a stop-start route, and the higher intensity run averaged 15 mph, what would you estimate to be the fractional increase in energy expenditure due to the increase in air resistance compared to cycling at say 12 mph?
Oh, stop with the post hoc rationalizations already and just admit you posted something wrong.
But to answer your clearly arbitrary question (why 12 mph?), It could actually be quite a lot. If half of the time figured into that mph was actually stops (0 mph), that means that the rest of the time would have to be double the mph figure (30 mph vs. 24 mph). So, yes, 15 minutes of 30 mph is going to require a LOT more energy than 15 minutes of 24 mph. I'm sure you can find a suitable calculator for this.
And no, you made a generalization that was not specifically addressed at that post, you stated that speed doesn't matter.