City Rambles – Our Bodies, Our Engines

Cycling commuterslike us have some great benefits. Some people exercise after work and then go home; I exercise after work, and then I AM home.

And biking burns calories.Not a huge number – my commute probably burns about 10 caloriesper minute.. But it's certainly better than 0 calories that somecar-driving co-workers have. (Wait – they walk to their cars. That must be 10 or 20 calories right there!.)

Biking to and from workalso counts as regular exercise, which is now highly recommended by physicians. My blood pressure is excellent for a man of my“maturity.“ In fact, my overall health is excellent – exceptfor some weight I gained when I broke my collarbone and had to stayoff the bike for two months.

The good news: if I bikean hour a day, then I'm burning 600 calories a day. Do that for 6days a week, and that can be a pound of fat off my body.

The challenge we cyclistsface is on the longer rides. We have to keep fuel coming in, but wedon't want to shovel in so much that we might gain weight. Unlikely, butnot impossible.

David Kessler thinks toomany people shovel it in. His new book, TheEnd of Overeating, looks at how many of us eat way toomuch – and we eat even when we're not hungry. It's similar to adrug addiction; people report themselves eating even when they haveno desire for food. And obesity has jumped across the country, as weeat more and more.

The solution to overeatingis, don't do it! Be aware of what you're eating (instead ofmindlessly emptying a whole package of anything into our mouths). Avoid the processed foods, and the foods made from processed foods(like Batter Fried Ice Cream, fat on sugar on fat). Eat foods asclose as you can to nature, instead of thefoods that are so processed

What else works for yourbody is to train with a heart rate monitor, or a power monitor (ifyou don't mind spending a thousand dollars on the thing). JoeFriel's Cycling Past Fifty helped me to plan a program withthe heart rate monitor to ride at certain heart rates for certainlengths of time. Great training for my heart! Now, I mostly ridesome cardio intervals about once a month. I pedal all out for twominutes or so, then work at half that rate for two minutes. Repeatfour times, take a six minute break, then do another full set of fourreps, and I can be done in an hour. 

If you can no longer becalled young (except young at heart), you should check with yourdoctor before starting these, because they can be dangerous. Thefirst time I tried intervals, I was in my 40's, and had never reallypushed when exercising. I stayed hot for a half-hour or more,red-faced, trying to cool down in a shower. But slowly and surely, the training worked, and I no longer had that kind of response.

So, ladies and gentlemen,start your engines! Happy trails!