Posted on 01/23/2007 1:20:01 PM PST by GeorgiaDawg32
With its flat surface, wide shoulders and lack of parked cars, Columns Drive near Marietta draws dozens of cyclists on a nice day, including many who use the somewhat remote road as their training track, riding lap after lap up and down the 2 1/2 mile street.
But angry residents who live along the road in upwards of million-dollar homes say the cyclists whip along the street three or more abreast, cutting off cars, robbing the roadway and scaring people even as they step out to check their mailbox.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
And they're bothered that they had to momentarily slow to 20mph, added 30 seconds to their travel time. I seem the same attitude in my son, who can't be bothered to stop his routine to go pee.
In every group the person in the rear is responsible for yelling "car back" so everyone up front knows to spread out and go single file (or double if it's a really large group since two abreast is legal in Missouri).
Good for you for recycling cycling! I still have my ancient road bike, I bought it in 1973 so of course it's a heavy steel monster. It was a really good bike THEN, though. My son is really into mountain biking so he helped me rebuild it recently and it's good to go. We go out occasionally for a family jaunt and it's good enough for me!
Now, now... The neighbor's 5 year-old girl doesn't count.
Here in DC, the cyclists have convinced the government to block off Rock Creek Parkway at Certain times, and especially on weekends. Rock Creek Parkway is one fo the major arteries leading out of DC into Maryland, but it is very scenic, and the cyclists want it for themselves.
They come by my shop 3 and 4 abreast and blow right through the stop sign every time.God help you if you get behind a pack of them because there is no chance to pass and no other way around them. Tacks anyone?
In fairness, before you take that bet, I was baiting you. Marathoners, tri-athletes and road cyclists have the lowest resting heart rates of any athletes. Years back, they tested NBA pros, and NFL pros against amatuer cat cyclists. There was no comparison when it came cardiovascular fitness. Some of the cat cyclists were 30% over the best V02 Max of the best of the rest. It wasn't even a contest.
Your description of your coyote induced ride sounded taxing for sure, but it's certainly nowhere near running 26 smiles, doing even a half tri, or biking 100 miles.
LOL! Mrs. BE and I always have a good laugh about that when we see bicyclists around here.
Having a 45 heart rate while flying through the air after bouncing off the hood of a car seems like a way to shorten, not lengthen life.
But most combined training competitors (as opposed to desultory ring riders) are in excellent cardiac shape, you have to be. It's not just sitting on top of the horse (really you are standing, not sitting), and there's a lot of steady muscular effort involved in just holding a horse together, plus the repetitive movement on top of a horse galloping and jumping. It's not as taxing as distance running, but some people seem to think it's "not exercise" because "the horse is doing most of the work". There's still plenty of work left over for me!
One of the things we do see is that the better you get, the less you work. A beginner will be panting and exhausted after cantering for five minutes around the ring, they really get a cardiac workout because they are constantly moving and shifting sideways and back and forth trying to keep their balance and control the horse. An experienced rider is still and balanced while cantering - much less energy expended. But riding in a three-day event (the triathlon of the horse world), or doing heavy-duty galloping and jumping for a long morning (the hounds draw the first cover at daybreak, and sometimes the field doesn't come in until noon or so) is another story.
But of course the hard riders are the elite of the sport. Since you CAN let the horse do all the work, but a bike won't move unless YOU do the work -- I agree that taking an average would put the horses generally way behind.
Same thing in these parts (Oregon). Starting in May, and going through until September, the bicyclists will be riding the local roads here, and it is not at all uncommon to see them riding 3-4 abreast around blind curves, sometimes even on the wrong side of the road.
The roads around here have no shoulders and are narrow, too.
That is why I ride defensively. Not like some of these Cobb cyclists.
Another popular ride is along one of the "ridge roads" -- these are old roads that were established when people were still riding horseback and driving wagons and buggies, so they follow the ridgeline. Mt. Paran Rd is probably the best example here locally. Problem is, it's an old road, narrow, and very curvy because it follows every turn of the ridgeline. Plus, it's an old-fashioned "crowned road" - the center is humped up so that the road looks like a section of the top of a very large barrel. Everybody tends to drift down the crown (including the cars) and the car drivers forget that a left hand turn is going to break loose a LOT faster than a right hand turn. Not a safe place for cycling at all, not even on Sunday morning because there are churches all along the road.
But at least it's better than Woodland Brook, which is not only narrow and curvy, it's got some nasty hills. You'll see the cyclists standing on the pedals and weaving back and forth trying to get up the worst ones.
Also this topic gives me time to complain about parents who take their infants on bike rides, espeically in those enclosed buggies.
Cowgirl..Why don't you ask your boss to pay you a living wage? That way you can be like everyone else and drive a car to work.
I have a household income into the 6 figures and I ride a bike to work. Is that a problem?
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