Another Day, Another 24 Kilometers of Bike Riding

After yesterdays painful walk, I awoke this morning with the idea of a bike ride for today. The logic being that a bike ride should technically be a lower imapct workout. I’m not 100 percent sure if that’s true, but it was a good ride nonetheless. The only real downside to riding ober walking, is that I take a lot fewer photos.

I headed out to the usual places (Baker, Bowmont and Bowness parks), aroung 1:30 PM. Although still a little cool, it was a less gloomy today, with a mix of sun and clouds as opposed to the dark, grey day that was yesterday in Calgary.

The route I took today is my usual walking route, and it crosses the Bow river in two places.
The total distance is right around six kilometers, so when I’m walking I usually do two loops for a twelve kilometer walk. Occasionally I will walk the loop third time. Riding a bike is a hell of a lot faster, so I add several extra loops, so I can burn some more calories. Today I did the loop four times for a total of twenty four kilometers. I was contemplating a fifth, making it thirty kilometers, but to be honest, my ass was starting to get sore from sitting on the bike seat. Twenty four would have to do!

 

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Take a Few Days Off – Pay the Price (12 km/7.45 miles)

After taking the weekend off, I got back to walking today with a late afternoon twelve kilometer stroll through Baker, Bowmont and Bowness parks on an absolutely grey day.

I didn’t get going until about one thirty in the afternoon. It was cool out, but I like that when walking (but hate it when lounging), and the skies were completely grey – Boy did it feel like a “first day of school” day from my childhood! I originally toyed with the idea of biking, but I decided that after two days off, perhaps I should stick to walking today. Besides, I had some podcasts to catch up on, and a couple hours walking in the park is a great way to do that.

Well, after twelve kilometers I was hurting. My legs were aching and my back (a constant problem), was giving me grief. Most of the time when I am walking, I try to jog at least part of the route, but not today – my damn legs would have fallen off or something. Still, I needed this walk, as it had been two days since my last one. I think the next time I take two days off, I’m going to make sure I stay just a little more active than I did this time! lol.

Have a fantastic day, folks!!!

A Walk and Then a Bit of a Ride – September 1, 2014 (17.62 km/10.95 miles)

A freakin’ great day to get out, too bad I spent the first part of it dealing with a computer upgrade. Not that the upgrade wasn’t a good thing… It’s just that I could have been outside!

I finally managed to get out about one thirty in the afternoon, to the usual spot. Started out with a walk, completing a loop of the three parks in about an hour. It was nice and sunny, and a bit warm. Quite a few people were out enjoying the day, especially for a Thursday mid afternoon. I took my SLR camera with me, so jogging would have been impractical, but I managed to snap a few nice pictures with it, so it was worth carrying around. As I was cycling for the next part of my workout, taking the camera would just be stupid, so I tried to really take advantage of it. I mean, what’s the point of lugging a heavy camera if you’re not going to take pictures with it?

After the walk at the car, I put the camera away, refilled my water bottle, pulled my bike out of the car, and headed off for two loops through these three beautiful parks. I tried to keep the pace up a bit, but still manage a leisurely ride. I averaged 16 kilometers per hour, over a forty-three minute ride (11.6 km). I was thinking about possibly another loop or two, but I was feeling a little wiped after these two and decided to not over do it today and stopped at the two. I have to say that II really noticed that on this ride that I have to adjust the height of my seat, as I’m not extending my legs enough when riding. I’m pretty sure that will improve my efficiency when riding, as it feels like I’m expending more energy than necessary on these rides.  I’m looking forward to seeing how adjusting that will affect the ride. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Check out some of the photos from today below, or click here to go to the album on Flickr

Riding Through Bowmont, Baker and Bowness Parks – August 30, 2016 (31.17 km/19.36 miles)

Well, the biking thing hasn’t killed me yet…
Decided to head out late this morning with the bike to ride my usual walking route of Baker, Bowmont and Bowness parks. The weather was just amazing, and I was originally thinking that I would ride a loop or two, and then end by walking the route, but instead I just ended up having so much fun riding that I just rode the loop five times. That ended up being a good thirty-one kilometer workout… Sweet!

The parks were pretty busy for a Tuesday morning/afternoon, but the weather was most likely the main reason for that. Quite a few people were taking advantage of the rays and renting canoes and paddle boats, or riding the train in Bowness Park. Me? I just rode and rode.
I’m pretty sure my ass will be sore tomorrow, as I’m not used to the bike seat, but I know it could be way worse, as I have a pretty comfy seat. That said, maybe tomorrow I will walk!

Bike, Walk and Bike Again! (30.52km/18.96 miles)

Well, I own a bike. Yes, I own a bike.

I told myself 24 years ago that I would never ride or own a bike ever again, yet I now own a bike. Maybe someday I will tell you fine folks the reason why I told myself I would never own a bike again, but not today. It’s enough that I now own a bike.

Since I own the damn thing now, I’ve decided that I should use it. I’m special that way. I guess I’m lucky it’s a bike and not dental equipment… But I digress: my good buddy set me up with this bike, as I am determined to lose this belly, and I know biking is a good exercise. It’s also reasonably easy to do, and I am reasonably lazy, so it’s kind of perfect for me. I took the bike for a short two kilometer ride around the neighbourhood the other day, just to get the feel of it – I mean, it’s been just short of a quarter century since I last rode- and that went well so this morning I decided to ride my bike instead of walking my normal route through Bowmont, Baker and Bowness parks. Well, the plan was to ride one loop through the parks (six kilometers), and then walk the second loop. This way I get a good ride in (well a good ride for a first ride), and a good walk in, burning a good amount of calories and having a good time at the same time.

I had an absolute freakin’ blast on my lazy ride through the park. The six kilometers zipped by in no time, and it felt great. Getting back to the car, I loaded up the bike into it, refilled my water and headed out to repeat the circuit, but walking this time. It was a great walk, and I got to enjoy some good tunes, but when I finished my loop I had one thought in my head: I should do one more loop on the bike. So I unloaded the bike, hopped on and took off for another loop.

Or Three.

In the end I did thee more circuits of the park on my bike, for a total of four, or twenty four kilometers, as well as a six kilometer walk for a total of more than thirty kilometers. That’s freakin’ awesome. I am so happy I broke my bike “fast” – Thanks to Manfred for making that happen.

Check out the pics from today below – clicking on them will take you to the album on my Flickr page.

    

12 Kilometers Before Noon – Sunday August 21, 2016

I know this post is out of chronological order, but that’s how things go sometimes…

I managed to get out Sunday, August 21, 2016 for a nice walk on an amazingly beautiful morning. Walking my usual Baker, Bowmont and Bowness parks loop, I was able to keep up a pretty quick pace, despite still suffering shin pains from my running a few days earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut Short By a Crap-Load of Pain: Baker, Bowmont and Bowness – August 18, 2016 (5.7 km/3.54 miles)

I was pretty sure I was going to pay today for the running I did yesterday, and I was right. I woke up pretty sore, but not too badly so. It was raining in the morning, so I decided to get in some sit ups, ad well as some bicep curls (using resistance tubing – I don’t have room for weights). Once I was done all that, I noticed that it had stopped raining, so I decided to go out for my walk. As it was later than I had planned to head out, I just went to my regular place to walk, the Baker, Bowmont and Bowness parks loop. The walk started out fine, despite my legs being a little achy. Fine until I decided that I was going to jog across the span of the Stoney Trail bridge. Normally this would be fine, but apparently today isn’t normal. I made it across the bridge, but when I stopped on the other side, both my shins were just killing me. I immediately came to the conclusion that there would be no more running today. I completed my first loop as usual, if slightly slower, but decided that one loop was enough for today!