C&O- Sore Muscles

My son and I will be biking C&O Towpath trail. One hundred and eighty five miles in 5 days is the plan. Quick division returns 37 miles a day, but, of course, towns are not spaced at exactly this interval, so adjustments were made. The final plan calls for a little over 40 miles each for the first two days, then nearly 30 miles the third day. On the fourth day we ride only 18 miles to allow for some tourist activity at the Civil War’s Antiedam Battlefield. Finally on the last day a 55 mile push into DC.

This last week, on a training ride, I finally rode 20 miles in a day. At the end my legs, back, and butt hurt and I was spent. My goal is to work up to 40 miles a day by the time I head for the East Coast in mid May. And these are not uphill miles. The C&O is a towpath on a canal, making it, on average, nearly level, with only a mild elevation loss at any point along the way. So my training routes in Eugene are on mostly level bike paths around town. Given my condition at the end of 20 miles, can I even hope to get to 40?

Now I just finished hiking 223 miles with a backpack on the Ouachita Trail. I climbed roughly 34,000 feet and descended slightly more. That’s more elevation gain than climbing Everest! So why do I find myself so tired and sore after riding just 20 miles? This prompted me to do a little refresher on anatomy and physiology.

Warning: This is a bit of a deep dive on a confusing topic with a lot of moving parts, literally.

It turns out that although biking and walking, primarily use the same muscles, each activity uses them a little differently. Those main muscles or muscle groups are the Quadriceps (quads), Hamstrings, Gastrocnemius and Soleus (calf), Tibialis Anterior (front of shin), and Gluteus Maximus (butt or glutes).

I know, this graphic is too busy, but let me explain what it shows. I modified the original, which showed at what point and the duration of use of muscles used when biking (solid lines) and I overlaid the same data for walking muscles (dashed lines). So looking at the solid lines in the middle, they show which muscles are used and when as you make one rotation of the pedal. For instance, when the pedal is at 12 o’clock, the glutes (red) start pushing the pedal down until the pedal gets to about the 5 o’clock position at which point the glutes relax. The dotted lines do the same for taking a step forward. The important metric here is the amount of arc or number of degrees in the circle that any muscle is used. More degrees equals longer sustained use. And for all but the Tibialis Anterior, biking uses the muscles longer and often uses more of them at a time.

For biking the glutes provide the power for the pedal stroke and are a bit constrained at the same time because you are sitting on them. Kind of a double whammy of fatigue and binding. The quads are important for straightening the knee, a component of pushing the pedal. Also, your abdominal muscles and back muscles come into play since many bikes have you bent forward, and they are important in balance on a bicycle.

For walking the quads, hamstring, calf, and glutes all coming into play a bit more evenly than when bicycling. In addition, the hip adductors (inner thigh, muscles that hold the legs together) are important for stability in walking. And finally, the Tibialis Anterior muscle (front of shin), that lifts the foot for each step, is vital.

Biking’s range of motion is much more constrained than walking. More power is demanded from the leg muscles when cycling, too, especially the glutes and quads. And a surprising amount of core upper body strength is required for balance and stance when riding. Walking is a more holistic exercise, which is not surprising since we evolved to walk, not ride. It may be harder on your knees, but stresses and strains are distributed over a wider variety of muscles and more time when walking.

Another measure of work done by the muscles is the calories used per unit time. A Harvard study quantified calories used doing various kinds of exercise for 30 minutes. Walking level ground at 3.5 mph (a fairly good pace) used 133 calories in 30 minutes. Whereas cycling on the level at 12-13 mph (also fairly good pace) used 289 calories in 30 minutes. That’s more than twice the calories used biking vs walking. Of course you get almost four times the distance, too.

So for each cycle, biking requires more power for longer from your muscles, uses more calories, employs your back and core muscles in ways walking doesn’t, and confines and binds your leg movement. It’s no wonder that my butt is sore, my quads hurt, and I’m getting cramps in my calves, since I started riding again. I’ve also noticed that my back isn’t always happy after I’ve been cycling. And my appetite has definitely increased. The good news is that all of the aches and pains are actually improving as I continue to train. There may be hope for me yet .

Until next week, Happy Trails…