Thursday, August 18, 2011

Bike Log Day Three

In 1992, i rode to work every day for an entire summer. My speed started out at about 6 MPH, and ended at 21 MPH. I had a shower at work, so i could go as fast as i wanted. It was 9 miles each way, and so that first trip was an hour and a half. By the end, it was 27 minutes. Fastest transport across Boston.

Back in Boston, i started biking to work in the Spring. I really hadn't done any biking that season. Six miles per hour is the speed you can go on a bike if you're totally out of shape. Little kids who have just gotten over using training wheels can go this fast.

My first measured day this time around was a bit over ten miles per hour. It took a couple weeks to get to that speed back in '92.

Day three's first timing was 31:43, for an average speed of 11.91 MPH. That's more than 10.35 MPH. That's a 15% increase in speed in just one day. In 1992, a big speedup like this took a week. Things aren't exactly the same. One of the things that changed on this day was that instead of wearing a hooded sweat shirt, i just wore a sweat band over my ears. That means it was easier for my body to get rid of waste heat. Some of the early speed increases are going to be due to improvements in how things are done rather than in changes in physical health.

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