Biking

11 Apr, 2006
Posted at 21.19 PDT

Last year my friend Ben began biking to work, which inspired me to haul my own trusty Peugeot out and begin doing so as well. The first day nearly killed me, but I stuck with it, and was pleasantly surprised (as I always am when I start exercising in some fashion), at just how damn fast it got easier.

Now I live on Capitol Hill in Seattle, which tops out at over 400 feet above sea level, and is only a mile from Puget Sound, so you can imagine how steep it actually is. Luckily I only live about 300 feet up the hill, so I didn’t have quite as far to go as I might have. As you might expect, when I started biking to and from work, I ended up pushing the bike up the steepest stretches (and Seattle has some insanely steep hills). But it was most surprising to find myself biking up the Hill without once getting off the bike in less than two weeks, the improvement was that fast. Over the course of the summer I found myself putting more than 600 miles on the bike. I was extremely proud of this.

Fast forward six months. Hardcore cyclists bike throughout Seattle’s long chilly winter.

I am not one of those people. I hate cold ears.

Spring is now in the air though, and the mornings are finally getting warm enough that a light beanie under the helmet keeps the ears nicely warm, so last week I started biking in to work again. I did not have high hopes about my fitness. True, I took up snowboarding this winter (at the age of 36! Go me!), but that activity wasn’t exactly regular, so though I wasn’t completely sedentary through the winter, I might as well have been.

Day one: I bike in to work, and call it quits at the last long hill. Biking home, I do the same thing coming up Capitol Hill when I hit the nasty steep stretch on Belmont Ave—two blocks of sheer vertical hell. This does not suprise me in the least.

Day two: I bike the whole way, both to and from work.

This does surprise me. My response, as I near the top of the hill is a loud “Holy shit!” For some reason this startles the pedestrian on the sidewalk. Part of my surprise was at thinking “I can do this,” as I approached the hill. The other part was being right.

It puzzled me at first that last year it took me nearly two weeks to get fit enough to take that hill, but this year I was up to it in only two days, mainly because you always hear how quickly the human body loses its fitness when sedentary. But then I realized why this was a bit different—or at least I think this may be the reason—and that was that biking strengthens the legs just as much as it strengthens the cardiovascular system. And while I know without a doubt I’ve lost the cardiovascular fitness I’d gained from several months of summer biking, my legs have been getting used every day in my wanderings around Capitol Hill. I’m guessing that the simple act of walking around every day has slowed the loss of the muscle mass and strength gained by last year’s biking. And that’s pretty cool. Basically, I got a free pass over the winter. This year I get to start the biking season with a head start.

After only three trips to and from work, an eight mile round-trip, I am already seeing the improvements. Now I just have to finally ditch the car.

 

 

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