Walking and Biking Don't Like Each Other

[dreamshark]

I biked to work on Tuesday, and I'm planning to do it again tomorrow. So all I did for exercise today was an easy walk to the Rose Gardens and back, a 2-mile walk I have taken literally hundreds of times. It was really hard. My legs felt shaky and my hips hurt right at the point where the leg-bone's connected to the hip-bone. The same thing happened a month or so ago when I went for a leisurely Friday evening walk with a couple of game party escapees.

It's not muscle weakness, exactly. The muscles in my thighs are rock hard (under the layer of fat). I suppose this is what happens when you overdevelop one specific set of muscles - other nearby muscles start to feel weak by comparison. Or out of balance. That's exactly how I felt when I was walking - awkward and out of balance, and stiff in funny places.

I need to remember to walk a couple of times a week to balance out the biking.

Comments

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

While walking and bicycling both exercise the legs, it's been my observation that they exercise *very* different muscles in the leg.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Overlapping sets of different muscles, anyway. It's not entirely surprising that biking doesn't improve my stamina at walking. It just seems weird that biking actually INTERFERES with walking.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I think you have the right idea: balancing the biking with some regular walking.

I'm striving to alternate yoga days with walking days. Yoga is good for general flexibility, balance and limberness, but I need the more aerobic work of walking, too.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Do you have clipless pedals? That may help with the balance thing, too.

If you already do, well, that shows how much I know. :)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't have clipless pedals, nor do I want them. I ride in the city, which means stopping and starting constantly. The last thing I want is to have my feet stuck to the pedals when I'm stopping for a light. I can't see how pedal clips would make the side of my hip any more limber anyway.