zoltani

Not sure if this is the right forum, but it relates to commuting in ways.

I ride my bike everywhere, usually prefer it to the bus or walking. Doing this leads me to believe that i am in shape, and generally healthy. On friday i went for a hike, and i noticed that after just 3 or 4 miles my knees were hurting, legs tired, and just sore. Yes, it was an intense hike, high elevation, steep slopes, but i think that i should not be so sore from such a hike.

This made me realize that i only really walk around my office and my apartment, and ride my bike everywhere else. I have decided that some days i need to leave the bike home and just walk. Hopefully this will help me stay in better shape all around. Biking can lead to a false sense of being in shape!

What do you do besides biking to help stay in shape and keep your body in overall top condition?

DataJunkie

Walking \ running uses your legs differently than cycling. Plus, having a super charged aerobic engine and legs that are not used to that exercise leads to interesting (painful) results.

I pretty much ride. In winter I weight train a bit.
From time to time I hike and jog. Daily I run through about 120 situps. My wrist is annoyed so push ups are out of the question lately. I hear swimming is good as well.

zoltani

Yeah, i like swimming because it is one sport where you do not sweat, and it really trains you to control your breathing, which helps me when i am trying to pace myself while climbing some long steep hills. Now i just need to get into the habit of actually going to the pool...

Podolak

Besides riding, 3x a week I do weights exercising legs, abs, arms and chest.

Brian Ratliff

Take it from a former competative swimmer: you really do sweat. Your body has no idea that it is in water. If your core temperature starts rising, it'll do what it always does, which is to activate your sweat glands. If you swim hard for a length of time, bring some water with you.

Brian Ratliff

I found that on a hike a few weeks ago, my ankles were extremely sore by the end (12 mile hike, about 1000 foot elevation gain) and I could barely walk the next day. I've thought about doing some urban hiking around my work during lunch on the off season to pound my ankles back into shape. I don't do running though. As far as I'm concerned, humans weren't made for running, so I avoid it if at all possible.

I will probably do some swimming to develop my upper body a bit too. It seems ridiculous to me to have massive legs and no strength in my upper body.

noisebeam

That's right. Pools are 10% sweat and 5% other excretions.

I too was a competetive swimmer many years ago. I tried swimming again about a year ago after being in excellent cyling shape and found it very difficult. I thought my cardio would help, but it just couldn't support my atrophied arms and I quickly became out of breath after 50yrds.

Al

SonataInFSharp

I can completely relate. The only exercise I do is biking and I know I need to start doing additional types of exercises: I can bike 45 miles without a problem but if I walk quickly/hop up two flights of stairs at work I am out of breath for 15 minutes...

noisebeam

I have no problem hiking up steep hills and can comfortably power up them for extended periods.

It is the downhill that kills me now.

I like to think the cycling muscles do help with the uphill leg motion, but do nothing for the downhill.

Al

Psydotek

w3rd y0. And people wonder why the poolwater at the YMCA tastes effin' salty at the end of summer...

1ply

80% water and 5% chlorine.

Hmm not all that expensive to fill one - just fill it mostly full and invite lots of people.

awanabug

12 miles to work & 12 back in the afternoon averaging about 3 times a week, more if less than 30% chance of rain or no errands to run. About 75 pushups with 15 pounds hanging on my neck a few nights a week. No situps for the past few years because of back problems, but I used to do 2 minutes of situps (about 120) along with pushups.

Cycling rocks for keeping you in shape if you hammer when you ride. I can go out and run about 3 times a week for two weeks prior to a 5k and still turn in sub 22 minutes to often win the 60+ age bracket. In AZ back the end of July, at Lost Dutchman State Park, I hiked up Siphon Draw trail to Flatiron and had no problems, despite having had a back spasm 2 days earlier. I think it is an elevation rise of something like 2500 feet in 2.5 miles.

Bike commuting is great because it combines what I need to do anyway with exercise, and it still gets me there in only a little less than twice the time it takes to drive, saves ga$, reduces pollution and I feel more alert once I am there.

lil brown bat

Unless you're in a lab, "in shape" is always defined in terms of function -- that is, what you want to be "in shape" to do. Bicycling provides you with a base level of aerobic fitness, if you do it right; it can provide you with some anaerobic fitness, if you train that way; but as far as functional training, it conditions you to do one thing, and that's ride a bike. Anything else will create other demands on your body, so it's to be expected that you'd experience new challenges.

Right now a lot of my non-biking exercise time is taken up with practicing aikido, which I don't do to "stay in shape" but because it's fun...well, sometimes it's fun...well, occasionally it's fun, at least when you're not getting your face blended into the floor...anyway. A lot of that. It's aerobic at times and definitely works your core, and if vigorous practice is the rule at your school, you tend to either develop some core strength and some balance and coordination or you go to the doctor. In the winter I do a lot of alpine skiing, which is neither a get-in-shape nor a stay-in-shape sport, but again, you do want to be in shape to do it, or you tend to get hurt. Tennis, cuz it's fun. Whitewater kayaking, cuz it's fun. Hiking, cuz it's fun. As much of all of the above as I can possibly pack in a day, basically,

jamesdenver

45 minutes in the gym 2-3 times a week. I have a small gym so can bounce from one machine to another doing lots of upper body work, with free weights too.

I don't do a lot of leg work as it me too sore for biking, but if there's a bad weather spell and I don't bike I'll do some quads/leg presses. Other than that I keep my back/shoulders/chest looking as sculpted as I can

noisebeam

One time my wife and I were hiking up at the bottom third at a good pace and this woman, I mean machine, passed us running up. She came back down, then as we were near the top (the steepest part) she hesitated passing us again and in the brief chat we had she said she does it 'doubles' every day. Yikes.

Al

Flimflam

Nothing other than walking/running around with my daughter right now.

Would like to get more upper body strength and more general fitness, I like the idea of swimming and perhaps I'll get some weights at home again (I don't really like the gym thing).

I twice yearly do the CN Tower stairclimb, which I do minimal training for outside of biking - climbing stairs can be boring - but that's a pretty intense workout. I'm hoping to beat my PB this fall

mtnwalker

I hit the weights about 3 times a week before riding home from work. I only spend 30 minutes though otherwise I'm too tired on the bike. I also do crunches every morning after riding in to work along with some dead-lifts or lunges to strengthen the core muscles.

mikepoole

Some form of "impact" exercise (walking, running- something other than swimming or pedaling) is vital to bone health. Obviously, not to an extreme- chuteless skydiving is not recommended.

I find trail running to be easier on my knees than street running- I think it has to do with the randomness of the surface- more muscle pairs get used...

zoltani

Swimming is something that i would like to do more regularly, but as was stated, swimming is still a non-impact sport. Still, it will be good upper body exercise and all good for breathing training.

The idea of paying money to go to the gym is not too attractive to me, i have some dumbbells at home that i try to use for strength training. I think i will incorporate the bike path which has the training stations into my rides and stop for pull-ups, sit-ups, etc.

jer2wcs

Swim. Bike. Run.

Then, train like you are going to race in each discipline one right after the other. Tri it out.

zoltani

There is nothing i hate more than running, so i will have to skip that step and just walk a lot. Actually i may be able to do trail running because it is easier on the knees and at least you have nice landscape to admire while torturing your body.

Brian Ratliff

+1 million

There are, perhaps, things I hate worse than running, but running is up there in the top 10. And tri's... I dunno. Seems like you combine the three most boring aspects of the three sports and do them one after another as sort of a torture orgy . I'll stick to bike racing and commuting.

Brian Ratliff

I found the same thing. I'm weak now in my upper body after building it up over 7-8 years of swimming competitively from age 10 through high school (and letting it atrophy over the next 10 years). I can barely go 200 yards now without my stroke falling to pieces. It's something I want to work on over this winter, if only for the pride of having the ability.

noisebeam

It didn't help that the first time I tried swimming again was with a few ASU and California college water polo players. I knew some from back in my swimming days and they invited me for some training laps. Talk about humiliation. They made me do all their same drills and wouldn't let me 'cheat'
Al

kill.cactus

I bike as well as run cross country.

If I stop running for two weeks but keep biking, when I start running again I'm never out of breath, but my muscles ache like crazy.

If I stop cycling for two weeks but keep running, my legs are always fresh on the bike, but I can't breath fast enough.

Biking = cardio and endurance
Running/Walking = muscle work (with less cardio than cycling)

A combination works well unless you're a pro cyclist, in which case just sticking to biking will make you better.